Have you ever gone to a party or a work meeting and worn one of those "Hello my name is..." badges? You see the person's name, but you don't really get to know them. Well, I thought it would be fun to "meet" the people behind the business curtain of Heartfelt Doll Patterns. We are real people who love kids (we had 8 of our own!) and we make doll patterns with kids in mind. We also make simple (super simple yet beautiful) patterns for Mommas and Grandmammas and Aunts and anyone to make for their beloved Littles. So here is a bit about us and our story.
SO...."Hello my name is" Chris and I am the designer of our line of 24 plus animal doll patterns! It has been one of the happiest times of my life creating these adorable dolls and doll patterns! I really have loved every minute of it! I LOVE making dolls. I hope you will catch the doll making bug too!
So, a bit about my sweet husband Karl and myself. We have been married for 34 years and yep it is true we have 8 children. Nope we are not a combined marriage of his and mine, we are just us. Karl and I have been entrepreneurs our entire marriage even though Karl always also worked a full-time job. Karl taught school (Theater, English and Art) for many years but on the side, we also built 2 live stage dinner theaters, owned and operate a personal care home for adults with disabilities for 22 years, built many apartments, and ran three bakeries. These different businesses were sometimes wildly successful and sometimes we lost our shirts financially. All the while these experiences enriched our lives and allowed for our children to learn the joy of hard work. Our kids have sheet rocked many apartments, cleaned a ton of apartments and mowed more apartment lawns than they would care to talk about. They have rolled literally thousands of dinner rolls, learned to serve customers, ran cash registers, learned to be kind to adults who can't care for themselves, acted in dozens of plays, built theater sets, painted theater sets, wore hot theater costumes, and memorized hundreds of lines in plays. These many fun and hard experiences allowed our family to work together and have fun and complain a bit too. Our children are adults now, and some of them are having their own children. While it may seem funny that these various companies we've run and sold would play such a powerful role in this doll making business it is true that they do. I have drawn on my experiences in the bakery as I create play felt food patterns for my dolls. Of course, our theater costumes and costume making comes in super handy as I design clothing for each of these beautiful dolls! The back-end business of just working on paperwork, taxes, setting up businesses etc. all culminate into this dream job I have been able to now create. Doll making and especially pattern making is what I want to do here on out. I have found my niche and I LOVE it so much!
I have told you about our insanely ambitious business adventures. We also personally love to read, walk on our canals here in Idaho, watch true crime, listen to incredible podcasts, attend church, sew, draw, go on dates out to dinner, watch all kinds of movies, go see our kids and grandchildren, and spend time together. Karl is hilarious and he makes me laugh all the time. We are the best of friends and I hope that you will enjoy our new business. I mean who wouldn't enjoy making an animal doll for a wonderful little child!
Please tell your friends about us as we want to get the word out there to as many people as we can. I am always designing something for these dolls. They are a reflection of my love of animals, of children's imagination, and my love of color and fabric. I am always thinking about how a child would hold a doll, how they would take off and on a certain item on the doll and on and on. In other words....I am sort of obsessed with making dolls and doll patterns!
Welcome, welcome, welcome to our world of all dolls! Our company motto is "From our Heart into Your Arms." I hope that you will feel our commitment to creating beautiful patterns for you and your loved ones!