Sewing, stitching, crocheting, quilting, knitting.. I’m just trying to remember all the things my mom has done or is still doing! The first time I fell in love with something my mom made, was when I was only about 18 months old and she sewed me a soft and cute hippo plush, including a ballet tutu, dress and pajamas. I named her Nelleke (a very Dutch name), but often pronounced it more like Mel-lik, which is actually where the M from Mippoos originates.
Mip·po [Mip-oh]
noun, plural Mip·poos. Informal.
A cute species of plush hippo,
first discovered in the Netherlands in 1989.
Who would’ve known that Nelleke the hippo, now 24 years old, would turn out to be the first sprout in the Mippoos family and actually be Nelleke the Mippo? I remember playing with Nelleke for hours, dressing her for ballet practice or getting her ready for bed in her cute pajamas whenever it was my time for bed. [I really need to start digging in our family photos boxes to find a picture of little me with Nelleke.. I’ll let you know as soon as I find one!]
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| Nelleke the Mippo is in the left lower corner in the yellow dress and polka dot decoration. You could now consider her the grandma of all the other Mippoos. ;) |
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| This little grey giraffe sold to a lovely lady in New York. |
My mom has actually made a few more Mippoos in the last years, mostly for friends and family. But she also creates pillow covers, quilts, heart ornaments and so much more. So I figured it would be time to help her spread the lovely Mippoos family across the world. I tackle all digital challenges (from photos, listings, SEO to marketing and logo design) and my mom creates baby shower gifts, quilts, nursery decor and many different stuffed animals (hippos, elephants, giraffes, dogs, even a crocodile!) and a lot more will follow soon.
At the 24th of March 2013 we were finally ready. The excited moment of launching our Etsy store Mippoos is still fresh in our minds and a little over a week ago we actually achieved our first sale! The lovely lady gave us some awesome feedback:
“I absolutely LOVE my giraffe!!! …it will go perfect in our little boys room! You were so sweet to deal with, thank you very much!!! :0)”
Isn’t that the sweetest? Now we just need to work hard to spread the Mipoos love!
Next blog post: our quest for toy labels resulted in making them ourselves :)
