Starting Teddy’s Room during the lockdown in 2020, with no guarantee or certainty of what the future may hold, we pulled through with great determination.
I rented a room in my aunt's house to get started, I needed to store the furniture somewhere and have a place to do the woodwork. The room was NOT big enough, it took up her whole house. 🤣 Bless her, she put up with a big mess and a constant game of Tetris just to feel comfortable in her own space. Teddy and I were still living in Gardens in a clutter-free environment, the lease was almost up so there was not much point in moving everything all at once, just in case the shop itself would become a reality sooner.
Eventually, we moved Teddy's room closer to town to be more accessible for collections and save A LOT of money on fuel. Observatory was home for two years.
It has been a WILD ride but an incredibly nurturing journey.
Several times we were given the advice to look for other work or “maybe it’s time to give up”. No sirree! That was not an option.
The vision of opening a store was always there, it was just a matter of when and a little bit of how.
We took risks with dry savings, but here we are, persevering.
Teddy’s Room is expanding, and the mother-daughter dreams our mum had for us, are slowly but surely falling into place. We are not even close to done puzzling all our ideas together. Stay tuned. 😃
The anniversary of the business is on the same day as my birthday (Jess), one less date to remember and, a date we are not likely to forget.
Celebrating a birthday was tough after 2016 when my mum passed away.
Friends and family always insisted on throwing me surprise parties because my reactions were priceless, or because I hated it. They were always the best, I secretly loved it. 🤣
I should have caught on at some stage that something was brewing.
My mum insisted on doing something for my birthday, as ill as she was, she got the family involved to have a little surprise Birthday party for me in the waiting room of the hospital. It was also my last birthday with her, struggling for air, she managed to sing to me. She left us 13 days later.
The 4th of August has been heavy and sad ever since.
Teddy’s Room has given us a reason to look forward to having a birthday, and honestly creating some hype with a sale makes it even easier.
We don't coin it (actually we run more of a loss, which for a small business and a one-woman show, is a big deal) but we get to clean the slate for a "new year". That is an exciting thought and treasure hunting is part of the fun.
We love what we do, and we love sharing the love.
♥️