Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Feature Shop: Peace, Baby! Batiks

Good morning! Continuing our "meet your leaders" series of shop features, I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks; I bring you the feature shop each week and am leader of the SAHM of Etsy Facebook Team. I've really enjoyed learning more about everyone in their feature each week!

What is your name?
Cori

Where are you located?
Waldorf, MD

Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a SAHM to my son, who will be four in December. Currently, he’s obsessed with all things space, so we spend a lot of time playing, building, reading about, watching, and Googling the Space Shuttle, Mars rovers, and various rockets. My husband and I have been married eight years. My professional background is in online journalism, and before my son was born, I worked as a web producer for a nonprofit media watchdog organization in Washington, DC.

Toddler T-Shirt: Blue with Batik Peace Sign,
Long Sleeves (18 months)
What type of merchandise will shoppers find in your shop?
Batik T-shirts and dresses for babies and toddlers. By popular demand, I have expanded to include a few shirts for youth and adults.

How/why did you get started?
I got the idea after my mother-in-law gave me a beautiful batik wrap-around skirt many years ago. Originally, I was going to make and sell wrap-around skirts, but I can’t sew very well, so that idea fizzled after a couple of prototypes. After my son was born, I picked up my wax and dyes again to do a couple of onesies for him, and thought I might be on to something … and here I am!

Baby Girls Dress: Pink with Batik Hearts,
Long Sleeves (12 months)
How long have you been crafting?
I’ve been doing various crafty things all my life. My mom and I are constantly introducing each other to new hobbies. Some stick, others don’t.

What is your favorite thing to make?
I love making boy onesies and shirts. Maybe I’m biased, but I love my truck, train, plane, and helicopter stencils. I also really enjoy working on custom orders. It's fun to do something I know someone will love.

What inspires you to create?
The colors around me, my kid, my friends and family, my husband. They’re always giving me design and color suggestions, or, in my son’s case, placing orders. I just finished a Mars rover T-shirt for him to go with his Halloween costume. He's tickled.

Toddler T-Shirt: Red with Batik Fire Engine,
Long Sleeves (2T)
What is one thing you need to have with you while you craft?
Some kind of background noise like music or the television.

How do you balance mothering and running a small business?
Until recently, I really tried hard to work only when my son was asleep or occupied by someone else. Lately he's been boycotting naps -- and not sleeping in -- so it's become a little more challenging. I still try to do the hot wax part of the shirts early in the morning while he's asleep and limit computer time the rest of the day, only checking in for a couple of minutes here and there. My motto since the nap boycott began is to say "yes" more often than "no" when he asks me to play. The shirts will wait; he'll only be this age for a short time.

What is your favorite thing to browse Etsy for?
Jewelry, no doubt about it. I have favorited so many jewelry shops and items it’s not even funny. It’s going to put me in the poorhouse.

Toddler T-Shirt: Purple with Batik Flowers,
Long Sleeves (3T)
When you're not crafting, what are you doing?
Playing with my son, watching movies or “Glee” with my husband, watching Washington Nationals baseball, scrapbooking, cooking, reading, or wasting time on Facebook.

Where can we find you?
Etsy: http://peacebabybatiks.etsy.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/peacebabybatiks
Twitter: http://twitter.com/peacebabybatiks
Blog: http://peacebabybatiks.com/blog/
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/peacebaby/
Stores: Just Between Kids, Route 5, Mechanicsville, MD; Stoopher & Boots, Amsterdam Avenue, NYC.

What is your favorite shop (not yours) on Etsy currently?
For jewelry, I really love Jewelry by Aimee, Ear Wigs by Liz, Pink Paisley Boutique, and Countrified Pride.

Toddler T-Shirt: Orange with Batik Dinosaur,
Long Sleeves (3T)

4 comments:

  1. So nice to learn a little about you, Cori! I am also a total Gleek!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's so nice to get to know you a little better! I LOVE your stuff! Seriously...you are very talented at what you do. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice story, Cori! Remember back, it was hard for me too when my girls stopped taking their naps. Hang in there!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you, Cori, for all that you do. ~ Rebecca A Mother's Art & Olive Smiles

    ReplyDelete