Help A Hurricane Sandy Victim & Guest Post from Swanky Janes

With Thanksgiving only days away, we have been thinking a lot about the things we are thankful for this year. For my family, one thing we are very thankful for, is how little damage we encountered during Hurricane Sandy. Our town was hit very bad during Irene, & we prepared for the worst. We lost power but people all around us in New Jersey lost far more: many lost their entire home.

We are very thankful that a blogger reached out to us to help her sponsor a Hurricane Sandy family. You can read all about the family & ways you too can help out over at Irish Italian Blessings. This family lost everything in the storm. Julie & I, along with our children, helped to pick things out to send to their 7 year old daughter. Here is Maggie spending some time looking through her books for one to send.

We are thankful for getting to know the mother daughter team behind Swanky Janes in the process of sponsoring this family. They were one of our Yellow Friday shops. When we were gathering items to send to the family, I reached out to Jill, the shop owner to see if they could help. They jumped at the opportunity to help a seven year old girl who lost all her belongings. They went to work creating a beautiful, hand made doll. Here are some pictures of “Tillie”

As you will learn in their guest post, this is not the first time they have helped a child in need. Also, they are extending their Yellow Friday deal: 15% off with code THECHIRPINGMOMS

Now a little more on this fantastic company!

A Guest Post from Swanky Janes

My most favorite thing about Swanky Janes, is working with my 15 year old daughter, Blythe. Need to “chirp” about her for a sec! Not only does she have a gift in creating and painting beautiful faces and such, but she has a gift in remaining stalwart and positive through her challenges with a debilitating chronic illness. (You’re welcome to get a glimpse into this amazing girl from one of her blog posts:

www.amazinggrace-cfids.com/2012/09/27/hand-painted/)

Blythe and I literally get giddy together as we complete each doll or soft animal.  We get so excited when we send one off to a new home, imagining the recipients’ face when they open it.  Doing Swanky Janes with my daughter is the icing on the cake and a second scoop of ice cream!

The next favorite thing has been those we have met through Swanky Janes, at shows and online,

like these fabulous ladies on “The Chirping Moms” who share their adventures and celebrate being a mom!

Most recently, Swanky Janes was contacted by a wonderful new online market called, “P.S. I Adore You”.  PS  had seen our dolls and whimsical softies at a gift show and wanted to feature them on their site.   About them:

“P.S. I Adore You was started in honor of one of the founders daughters.  Cami was diagnosed with ALL leukemia in July of 2010, she went through 2 ½ years of continuous chemotherapy and was declared cancer free this September. It is our mission to raise awareness for childhood cancer and bring smiles to these families who endure so much. Our marketplace, www.psiadoreyou.com, is a place you can shop for darling items and give back all at the same time! “

PS let us know a portion of our sales will go to these families who have a child with cancer.

My heart skipped a beat as Swanky Janes had been designing a doll with a removable wig for girls with cancer and we were trying to figure out how to best get these dolls to them in a personal manner without being invasive.  Here was our answer!  Through the course of our conversations, we were excited to agree to donate a “Just Like Me” doll  every month to the spotlighted family on P.S. I Adore You’s site.  Blythe and I got to work creating the first ”Just Like Me” doll for an adorable girl named Millie.

It has been such a roller coaster of emotions in creating this doll as we read about Millie, watched videos of her, and designed her doll.  Our lives have been enriched because of it.

We hope we can give back and/ or pass it along.  We want to expand the “Just Like Me” doll line to include girls with disabilities or malformations so they too, can have a doll just like them.

It has ever been Swanky Janes’ mission to design and create quality, one of a kind cloth dolls, softies, and other items to help bring smiles to faces, comfort to hearts, and joy to souls.

Feel free to visit our website :www.swankyjanes.com to learn more or visit our Etsy shop to see our latest creations for sale.