A Handmade Journey {Love By Hand}

Welcome! I'm so excited to be sharing my new creative journey with you, as it marks a new chapter in my story. In 2009 I started Love Elaine, a handmade shop on Etsy featuring aprons, totes, baby quilts and Christmas stockings and tree skirts in bright modern fabrics.

Over the past 4 years I've greatly enjoyed creating and selling my products and most importantly, sharing in some of the most important times of people's lives - a child's first Christmas, a first Christmas Tree, the joining of two lives through marriage, a new baby, numerous birthdays and holidays by providing those people with handmade items that last year over year. Just this past Christmas, Santa filled over 500 Love Elaine Christmas Stockings and placed presents under 150 trees with a Love Elaine tree skirt. You can't imagine how surreal that is to me, especially considering Love Elaine doesn't have a huge production facility or a staff.

This past year was a year of change for me professionally and personally. I've taken a lot of time to think about Love Elaine as a business, and I had time to give the business a real shot. And, after all the time, I've realized that I enjoy the creative process of turning fabric into something new, something useful much more than I enjoy sitting at my machine, doing production-line sewing for my Etsy shop.

So, what does that mean? Well, its actually good news for all of you. This year, I'm going to start a new endeavor on this blog to share my love for handmade - all aspects of handmade from DIY sewing tutorials, no-sew projects (because sometimes I don't want to sew either!), and unique ideas for giving a handmade gift. Because, in all the time I've spent with Love Elaine and in my own life, handmade gifts are the most meaningful to the giver and the receiver. I want to share that, plus, share with you the handmade community that I've become a part of - so many talented artists and makers are out there with unique items just waiting for you to give to someone special.

That is where Love By Hand begins. Showing the ones you love, those someone specials out there that you care by giving a handmade gift - whether you made it, or someone else. I hope you'll come back and visit and share in your love for handmade with me. I'm really excited and couldn't be happier to be starting on this new journey. I hope you'll join me!