Many of you have noticed the super-awesome handmade aprons we sell in the bakery. These are the products of the genius and creativity of Maggie Hendren, entrepreneur, crafter, and sewing maven. Her business is called Love for Sale, named for the Cole Porter song, and she makes all kinds of fabulous items. She makes the aprons exclusively for Muddy’s, but she also makes baby onesies, handbags, iPod cases, stuffed animals, diaper bags, tee shirts, prints, and more. (Photo is Maggie, far left, with her siblings)
She has graciously agreed to participate in one of my little “vendor surveys”, of which there will be more on the blog as we are constantly adding more great stuff from indie crafters to our selection of goodies!
1. Your name: Maggie Hendren
2. Your business /hobby: Love For Sale – sewing till I can’t feel my fingers! (Portraits also)
3. What do you like best about your business/hobby? Truthfully? The way people react to it. When little kids see any of our fun stuffed creatures and tug at their mom’s to look at what they’ve found…man, that’s so great. Or when I run out to the grocery store or I’m at dinner with a friend, and someone walks by carrying one of my purses or wearing a shirt I printed, without even knowing who I am personally, THAT’S so freaking cool!!! To be creative is such a gift, but to have people appreciate it is an even bigger gift, to me.
4. How and when did you start in your business/hobby? I started LFS 3 years ago (Jan. 2006), after getting in a really bad car accident and being handicapped temporarily. My friends would encourage me to spend the time I couldn’t be at work, doing anything artistic. I’m a HUGE Martha Stewart fanatic and her talkshow started right around the time I found myself tied to the couch because of that accident. On one particular episode she was showing how to make these really simple monogrammed tote bags. I’d been looking for something inexpensive to make for Christmas and felt that this was just the thing. I got, what was perhaps, the most rinky dink sewing machine ever made, and stitched these little bags together. They turned out so well and my friends and family loved them and suddenly, it all just clicked! So that January I started stitching together little felt wallets and pillows and got a much better sewing machine and taught myself how to sew – or sew better anyway. I haven’t stopped since.
5. Whom do you most admire and why? Again, I have to ask, truthfully? Kat Gordon. She’s not much older than me and when she approached me a year and a half ago about sewing aprons for her bakery, I couldn’t believe someone so young and so like me, was going to start this business. But I instantly believed in it! When we met for the first time and discovered we had similar stories about finding motivation from traumatic car accidents, I knew that Kat was the kind of person I should aspire to be like, in the business sense at least. Anyone that knows me personally has heard me say, like a broken record, “Look at Kat! She did it! She’s so successful! I can do it too!” I think most people are inspired by that “Don’t dream it – Be it” kind of attitude. And when it comes from a woman, there’s a little more power behind that influence.
(I should say, however, in a much broader sense, my mother is the root of all my admiration, both professionally and personally. She taught me the true meaning of work ethic and taught me the importance of being not only a good person, but a strong woman. I LOVE my mother.)
6. Your favorite dessert? Lemon Meringue Pie. Gracious.
7. Three things that make you happy: Hannah, Rachel, John (my 3 siblings – my favorite things on the planet)
8. Any other details about you or your business/hobby that you feel like sharing: I love what I do. I’m proud of what I do. But more importantly, I’m proud to be part of a community of independent thinkers. A group of people who see the food we eat and the items we purchase not just as necessity, but as something really special; something that’s meant to be savored and enjoyed and shared. My business is my passion.
Thanks Maggie! (I’m kind of blushing from your praise on question 5, but thanks!!!)
Keep up the sewing!!!
Megan, Janine, Robyn, Karen, Leah, and Meghan… we LOVE you!!!
Amanda Wolfe is the creator and entrepreneur behind Twee Cards, those wry and funny greeting cards that have been selling like hotcakes in the bakery. Here’ s a little inside look to her world!
with people who really need a smile. (And part of the proceeds will benefit ovarian cancer research.)
