Be A Secret Angel

September 30, 2013

Its been a while since I sat down and took the time to write up any sort of real update about what is going on behind the scenes here at DFH.  I guess there is no time like the present.

I am so humbled by the growth DFH has seen over the past five years.  I know I have said it before, but  it bears saying again,  when I first opened up my little online shop five years ago, I had no intention to make it into a full time thing.  My intent was to quietly make one doll at a time and put it up for sale.  If it sold or not did not even matter.  

Well, we all know how things have gone since then.  

What started as a one woman crafty endeavor with no real aim at being anything has blossomed into a full grown business with employees and a studio space.  Looking back, I honestly do not know exactly how we got here.  It clearly has taken on a life of its own and its growing at its own pace.  Its all so very exciting. 

All of this growth has made it necessary for Robert and I to stop thinking of DFH as a side crafty thing and start realizing that it is indeed a full grown business complete with real world obligations as well as amazing future potential.  DFH has grown up.  Our tiny little Etsy shop has taken on a life of it's own, growing into something that can and will indeed be around for many, many years to come.  

Of course with everything there is a not so fun side.  The legal side where you have to incorporate, insure and trademark.  The financial side where you calculate cost and productivity and sustainability.   The logistical side where you have to admit that things are way beyond the capability of one person doing it all any more. We also have the very real, employer side of things where you realize you have an entire team of folks who depend on DFH to help support themselves and their families...and you, as their employer,  are obligated to make sure they can count on your business to help them to continue to do this.

It's a little overwhelming when you stop to take it all in.

Our DFH team has grown.  We now have 19 folks, with a few more in training, all working together to make each and every doll each week.  Some of these folks work in the studio and others work from home.  Its amazing to see it all come together each week like magic.  These ladies are not just employees, they are like family.  Many of them have been a part of our lives since way before DFH ever existed.  Our children have grown up together and are, to this day, close friends with each other.  We wouldn't have it any other way.

Robert and I have spent quite a bit of time over the past several weeks discussing all of this.  We have a great friend who is helping us out with navigating all the legal aspects of owning and organizing this business of ours, as well as plotting out the future of DFH.  We are coming to terms with where we are, and laying the groundwork for where we want to be.  Sometimes it has been amazing and like a dream and other times it has been so stressful I have wanted to sit down, give up and cry.  

I guess you could say raising DFH to what it is so far has been very much like raising children.

We have been working towards smoothing out the rough edges, making things run more smoothly and efficiently.  Its all to make things better for us here at DFH and better for you.  

One of the first things you will notice is that from time to time, there will be a new voice on the FB page.  Many of you already know Shelley,  she worked with you on your recent customs.  She will be taking on a bit more of the page interactions...answering questions and such.  She is stepping in to help us out to give me precious time to be with my family as well as the space to create and design new things.  I will still be online quite a bit...most of you will never even know a difference.  All the same, I am extremely thankful for her help.  

We also have some exciting projects in the works...you all will know more about them as we get closer to their launch.  I promise that they will blow your socks off.  Your gonna love it.  I can't really say any more than that, I don't want to ruin the surprise of it all.  Suffice to say,  some awesome things are coming, so be sure to stick around.

In the meantime,  we will continue to make awesome doll after awesome doll for you each week.  We are committed to maintaining quality as well as keeping our pricing at a reasonable level where most folks can afford them.  We are aware that prices of handmade Waldorf inspired dolls has skyrocketed over the past year.  We do not intend to follow this trend.  We plan on following our own path.  As one of my favorite quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson goes...  

"Do not go where they path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail".

We will be following our own path going forward...heading into uncharted territory.  We are all so happy you are with us on this journey.  

It's been an amazing five years,  here's to another amazing five years!  We would not have been able to get to this point without all of you, we cannot thank you all enough for all the support you have given us over the past five years.  Without you, we would not be who we are today. 

So...

Thank You!

 from the bottom of our hearts.

Peace and Love,

Nancy and Team DFH

September 3, 2013

Good morning everyone!

We hope you had a wonderful and relaxing long weekend...and were able to enjoy some down time with your family.

Its a whole new week with lots of awesome things gong on here at DFH!

This week is kind of special for us all, we are celebrating our 5 year anniversary all week this week.  Five years ago, on September 2, 2008, I opened up an online shop on Etsy...the rest is history.

We will be doing lots of fun things to celebrate this week, so be sure to pop by and visit...you never know what will be going on.

We have a pretty wonderful group of dolls this week for you...once again, I think you all will be very pleased with what we have whipped up.

Time to get to work,  have a great morning...we will see you all really soon!

Update, August 2013

It's been quite some time since I have been able to sit down and take the time to write and let everyone know what's been going on behind the scenes here at DFH.  Well, I finally have that time, so let's get to it...shall we?

We are heading towards our 5 year anniversary...yep, on September 2, DFH will be exactly 5 years old.  Where did the time go?  So many things have changed since that day way back when...it's really hard to wrap my brain around it all.

Looking back, things were so intimate in those days.  I was able to spend countless hours chatting with mamas about dolls and orders.  I was able to create a bond with so many wonderful women.  Many of you are still here today so you know what I am talking about...it was a different time.  As we all know time moves forward and things change...its just the natural order of things.

I think of DFH as a child of mine.  As with all children there naturally comes a time when the child grows beyond the parents and starts living a life of its own.  I can see this happening with DFH.

Today we have an actual brick and mortar studio space.  We also have a whole team of ladies working away every day.  Its pretty scary and pretty wonderful at the same time.  These ladies depend on DFH to help them support and feed their families.  They love that they are working, making an item whose sole purpose of existence is to make people happy.  We love that we are able to give these folks jobs that pay a decent wage for their work.  This is not a common thing these days.  They work from home with nurslings and in the shop.  These ladies are pretty dedicated.

I guess this brings me to a point I wanted to make...change and growth is natural and good.  Our team of ladies (and guys)  are all dedicated to doing the best job we can.  We all want you to be happy with your dolls and critters.  This is our number one goal.

Everyone is working hard all the time.

Jess has worked assembling doll bodies on multiple occasions while she was at the hospital with her toddler who had bout after bout of life threatening allergies for his entire first year.  She spent many overnights quietly stitching away.

Lindsay has literally scalded her hands many times dying wefts trying to get the most perfect shade of color she can so she could help make a custom as close to perfect as she possibly could.  She has come in on weekends and worked instead of spending time with her family.

Shelley, works pretty much all the time...she has a nursling and other children at home.  She keeps your conversations straight and she even compiles the details in such a way so that I can see them and easily understand what we need to do.  This is no small feat.  She remembers minute details and reminds me of them when I forget one or two.  She has sat and crocheted wigs, both custom and RTG, while her sweet baby snuggled up in a wrap on her.  She and I have spent countless hours texting back and forth about details of customs...every day of the week...yes, including weekends.  Just ask our families.

Robert works a full time job in IT for a major International bank.  He sometimes works straight thru the night on projects, communicating with people all over the world.  On top of this, he spends countless hours organizing the shop.  It is his organizational skills that helps keep things flowing.  He makes sure the right doll gets to the right place with the right details.

You might be asking...so then Nancy what exactly is it that you are doing since all these other folks are working so hard.  I work every weekend for several hours each day sewing faces and finishing up customs and special dolls.  I can tell you that it is indeed me and me alone who sews every face on a DFH doll.  That has still not changed...and when it does, we will let you know....promise.  On top of sewing and designing, my week is filled with trying to schedule, organize and coordinate everything and everyone.  If one of the ladies is unable to finish something they are working on...I am the one who steps in and finishes that job. Anyone can tell you that standing and trying to talk to me usually involves my phone going off every few minutes...sometimes in rapid fire one after another.  It is not unusual for me to be holding 4-5 conversations at one time.  This is exactly why you do NOT want me being the one who organizes your custom details.  All of this leaves precious little time for my own family...who we do still homeschool.

Each one of us does a particular job that is necessary...jobs that I simply cannot do on my own anymore.  

I have said it before but it bears saying again...we are all dedicated...we only want to do a great job for you...we only want you to be happy.

That said, no one is perfect...there will always be times where something goes wrong or doesn't quite end up being exactly how someone envisioned it.  No one can be perfect every time...we, after all are only human.  It happened when it was only myself making dolls...it will happen with a team too.  

Issues will pop up from time to time...that we all know.

When one does, all we ask is that you talk to us.  We only want to make you happy.  Let's not be quick to anger...we are only human.  No one is perfect and no one has ever lived who has never made an error.  Give us the chance to correct any issues before you get angry or irate.   If you send a message and do not get an immediate response...hold on a wee bit and give us a chance to get back to you...sometimes we are busy with our families and sometimes we are busy trying to work things out for another customer...rest assured we will get back with you.  Promise. We do not have a call center in India where folks can answer and respond 24 hours a day...what we have is a tiny team of hard working folks here in the US who occasionally do need to sleep or rest.

Growing is not an easy thing to do...these ladies are here to help me make you the doll you always wanted.  There is a learning curve to communicating with folks.  Give us the time to get that down....and please a little patience and the odd kind word would be extremely welcome.  We are going to continue to grow.  We are all excited to see where this journey leads us.  Each new step will bring it's own unique challenges...we ask you to please be patient.

Know this...everyone here are DFH wants nothing more than to make sure you are happy with the dolls and critters we make.  We take great pride in our work.  Yes there will be glitches...as I have said, that is only part of being human.  Please be patient and if there is an issue, simply communicate openly...then give us a chance to work it out.

We cannot thank you all enough for being along for this wild ride we are on..it will be fun to see where this takes us.

Body Styles

We offer many different body styles.  This post will hopefully break things down a little better for folks.

First up, a comparison of our Amberwing, MTO and Jewelwing body styles...

These body styles range in size from 14-15.5 inches tall.  MTO bodies are more firm and chunkier than Jewelwing or Amberwing bodies.

Jewelwings and Sprites are only available as RTG...they are not an MTO option.

These bodies are made using interlock knit fabric from the Netherlands.

MTO's 

have one piece body construction.  There is a hand stitched seam along the top of the legs.  The arms are sewn to hang down.  This body style is moveable but not floppy.

**This is also the same body style that out 10-11.5 inch tall Littles have**

Jewelwings 

have their legs attached to the torso.  The arms have fabric joints which allow for a full range of movement.  This body style is extremely floppy and moveable.

Amberwings 

are kind of a hybrid of the other two body styles.  Their legs are attached to the body and their arms are sewn to hang down.  This body style is moveable but not floppy.

A close up of the different foot styles.  

Side view.

Close up view of MTO and Amberwing arms

Close up of Jewelwing arms

Jewelwings also have butt cheeks...

**they are the only body style that has them.**

Sprites
are 12-13/5 inches tall.

They are extremely slender and floppy.  

Their body is assembled like the Jewelwing...legs attached to the body and fabric jointed arms.

Wee Babies 

are 7-8.5 inches

Their bodies are one piece with stitching across the top of the legs.  These bodies are firm and not floppy

Finally, we have our Mama Made body style.

This body is made with organic bottom interlock made in the USA.  The body is one piece.  It is a lot chunkier than any of our other body styles.  

That is it in a nutshell.  Feel free to email if you have any other questions.

The bodies used in this post are only being used as an example...they are not necessarily all the same exact sizes and they are not exact for skin color.  They are only being used to illustrate the differences between the body constructions, nothing else.

Congrats to Wendy J.

Congratulations to Wendy J.  Her number was drawn so she is the lucky mama of Amelia Spring!

Amelia Spring

Amelia Spring

Let's have some fun today shall we?

This is Amelia Spring...she is a DFH Jewelwing.

Her skin is mocha, she has pale green eyes and her hair is a mix of light and pale green yarn.

We are going to sell her to one lucky mama or papa for $1.00 USD  yep you read that right.

So how do you enter?  Simple...

- Just comment here under this post.  

One post per entrant...duplicates will be deleted

Make sure we have a way to contact you if your name is chosen

Want to add to your chances of being chosen?   

Here are some extra steps you can take.

- Go back to our FB page and Share our FB post for this sale 

- Pin any one of these photos from this blog post to your Pinterest

Once you have done either of these extra steps,  come back to this blog post and comment to allow yourself the extra credit.

Each post is worth one entry.

Amelia's new mama or papa will be chosen tomorrow (5/22) at 6pm central US time.  

The lucky mama will have 24 hours upon notification to contact us and finalize the purchase...otherwise another mama or papa will be chosen.

Congratulations Colleen R!

Congratulations Colleen R!

You are the winner for Analise...she will be coming home to live with you

Analise

Meet Analise....

She is the very first DFH doll to be made with this new body style.

She is 14" has beige skin, brown eyes and her hair is orange/yellow hand dyed mohair.

We have been working on changes since the release of the Sprites, our 12" new style body.  Its been a lot of trial and error, but we think you all will be very happy.

First off,  the dolls sit fantastically. 

 They have super floppy arms that allow a full range of movement.  They are made as one long piece of fabric sewn for the arms that is stuffed and sewn directly to the muff through the body.  This makes them super sturdy for rough play yet super flexible as well...the best of both worlds.

 

Their feet are like our Sprite feet,  well formed and perfect for wearing all sorts of stylish shoes.

Their bodies are not super slender like our Sprites,  They have a bit more weight to them.  

We also added a little extra detail :)

Over the past several months, we have had many customers ask us about adding butt cheeks to our dolls.  We have decided to go ahead and make this feature a basic feature of the 14" size.

This new body style will only be available as an RTG (Ready to Go) purchase.  It will not be an MTO option.  Our old body style will remain as an MTO style...so those of you who prefer that style,  will still be able to get them.  

We are so excited about these guys.

We decided to launch them in style with a giveaway...

One lucky family will be the very first recipients of this sweet gal.

Analise has beige skin, brown eyes and her hair is hand dyed mohair in hues of orange and yellow

To enter for the giveaway,  just follow the directions on our Rafflecopter app below...they will automatically tally your entries for us.

Good luck everyone! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Visiting Hours

You all have been watching the shop come together slowly.  I am sure you all are as excited as we are about this.

With the new shop coming along and just about ready for a "Grand Opening"  we figured it is time for us to establish some sort of system as far as dropping by the shop goes.

Since most of our work happens in the back of the shop, we are not always able to meet and visit with folks coming in.  We thought it best to set up visiting hours

Our new Visiting hours will be...

Thursday mornings from 9am to 2pm central US time.  

So here is how it will go...

Every Wednesday afternoon we will put up our preview pics of the RTG's ready to go to new homes.  Folks with Dibs will be able to choose who they want and message us...same as it always has been prior to moving into the shop.  

On Thursday, during our visiting hours,  local folks can drop by and pick out any doll they might want from the group that has not been Dibs-ed.  Local folks can also come by during these hours and place an order for an MTO on site.  We will be able to walk you thru your options and show you samples of the options.

We feel as though setting these hours will allow us to actually spend time visiting with folks who come in and have things feel like its just a retail space.

We look forward to meeting more folks in person...

MTO's

Good morning!

Well, we went in and made the changes on the MTO offerings.  Here is a link to the page in our shop  

MTO's

We went thru and first eliminated all the mohair as it is not used a whole lot for these.  Next, we kept every natural color option we had available.  

You will notice we have kept some funky color options.   

Take a look, we think you will be happy.

MTO's will be released Friday morning.

MTO's

Good morning all,  I figured it best to post this info here so you all can read it over.

Many of you know we were seriously sick a couple weeks ago.  It kind of threw our schedule off a bit.

Anyway, a few weeks ago we asked you all for feedback on what colors should stay as MTO options.  We appreciate everyone who jumped in to let us hear your voice.  After looking it all over, it appears as though the natural colors have it.  I have to agree, we do not tend to do a whole lot of natural color dolls for RTG so that is definitely something we need to provide for those of you who want it.

So,  we have decided to keep all the natural colors...blonde, brown etc and eliminate the funky colors from the options.  

I am releasing a whole new group of MTO's today, well, they will be up in the shop by the time this post is shared.  You will notice no changes have been made just yet to the options.  We thought it would be good to let you all know what changes are being made then have one more release with ALL the options so folks who were planning on it can get the funky colors one more time.

That's all the info I have to share for now,  have a great day.  

MTO Listings

Good Morning!

Good morning! I can finally say I am alive! :) 

Its been pretty much a whole week...wow! I am fine and able to get back to work. It is a day of working from home for me...I just get way more done in my quiet corner of my sewing room...and boy, do I need to get some things done.

I want to thank everyone for all your patience. I will be focusing over the next few days on getting all caught back up again...yes, I will indeed be taking it easy...not overdoing it. However, since I am the one who sews all the faces on the dollies and I have not worked seriously in a week, we have a HUGE group that need that done so they can ship to their new mamas. One thing this recent bout has illustrated to me is a need to make it so things do not come to a screeching stop if I am unable to work for some reason. The ladies depend on this income to support their families. Ah, nothing like a serious hiccup to illustrate what needs to be changed :)

Again, thanks for being patient with me :) I promise we will get it all back on track...hang in there. You all are awesome.

Have a great day!

Time For a Check In

It's been a while since I gave you all an update on how we are doing,  I figured now would be a good time.

The new year has begun and its already a busy one.  Our team has jumped right back in to the swing of things with a vengeance.  We have new faces helping us out in the shop and we will be bringing in some more as soon as we can find them.  

We are extremely thankful for the new help,  our little shop has grown even during the "slow" season... between Christmas and New Years.  Its amazing and absolutely wonderful that we have been able to touch so many lives by making something whose sole purpose is to bring happiness and comfort into folks lives.  Thinking about it just makes me smile.

Now for the basic news update...

Our MTO's have been a huge hit and we will continue to offer them...we have decided to reduce their numbers a bit and release them once a week.  This is so we can focus on the other things we want to make...it all comes down to time and energy distribution.  Both of those are finite and we need to make room for different things.  As we add more folks to our team, we can readdress what we need to do and maybe increase as we go.

This means that Fridays will officially be our MTO day.  I will both Tweet and post on FB when they are up.

We have found out over the past few days that we will have to eliminate some options.  Apparently the ability to keep adding choices whenever we want is not really an option...who knew?  So over this week, we will be culling out the yarns to what we can have.  What this means is that some RTG's will definitely not be able to be made as an MTO...sorry.

Speaking of RTG's,  we will be bringing their numbers up over the next few weeks.  You will start to notice an increase in the numbers this week actually.  I will be asking from time to time for your input on colors.

You will continue to see the Ponies and Unicorns each week...as many as Christine can make we will put up. 

We have a bunch of other new things we are dying to bring to life for you so you will start to notice them come along bit by bit.  We're pretty excited about this...just in case you couldn't tell.  Keep an eye on the RTG uploads...of course.

Critters...you will start to see some new Critters in the lineup...No better time than spring to introduce new fluffily pals.  Wouldn't you say?  Again as we add more folks to help out,  these numbers will increase.  So they will be small at first but just hang in there...more will be along soon.

Now,  while we are on the subject of new things...we have decided to call our newest body style "Sprites"  

This would be the new body style I created for my girls this year.  These will begin showing up in the RTG uploads soon.  I am beyond excited about these guys.  Seriously, they are pretty awesome.  Some will have weft hair and others will be yarn hair.  They will vary on price depending on the type of hair they have and what accessories they have. I'll have more info on them as soon as we have our first few ready to upload.  

These will not be made available as MTO.

We are starting off 2013 on a very busy note.  We are now making between 35-40 or so dolls each week, plus the Critters.  We would like to increase the Critter numbers to at least the same amount as the dolls and perhaps increase the number of dolls as well.  We also intend to have regular clothing uploads as soon as Carrie is in full swing.

We have some things in the works to reach out locally a lot more.  Can you believe that there is only a tiny handful of folks in the DFW metroplex area who even know we exist?  With a local area population of over 6,600,000 (this is just the DFW metroplex area), I think they need to know about us and what we do.  Don't you?  They will be overjoyed to find out we are here in their own back yard.  

OK, that is all the news I have for today.  Its time for me to get ready to head to the shop and then bring my littles to their art class...ah yes, back to the busy schedule of work and kiddos activities.  

Have a great day all,  Peace

Congratulations Jamie W!

Congratulations to Jamie W!  She is our first winner for 2013!

First giveaway of 2013!

Let's kick this new year off the right way, shall we?

So, what is it going to be this time?  How about a free 10" MTO?

Yep, we are not only giving you a chance to win a totally free 10" Little,  we are also giving you the chance to design it how you want it to be.

The rules are pretty simple...just follow the directions on the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway will go from today 1/2/2013 and end on 1/7/2013 which is the day the winner will be chosen.

That's all for now,  good luck everyone!