Janel Anderson received a hooded towel as a gift for her second child, and when her third baby came along, the towel found another little body to dry.
"As she grew, she would specifically ask for the towel with the hood," Anderson says. "Of course, only having one hooded towel, it wasn't always available upon her request."
To accommodate her children's love for the hooded towel, Anderson taught herself to make them and began giving them out herself as baby gifts. But it wasn't until her sister-in-law convinced her to take part in a high school craft fair that Anderson turned a new hood.
"When I told [my sister-in-law] I didn't know what I would [make for the fair], she suggested I make hooded towels," Anderson says. "I wanted mine to be different. I wanted mine to have flair. To be memorable. And then the creative juices started flowing."
Anderson and her daughter went to check out some towels at the store, where they scanned the styles and colors and came up with ideas for what to do with them. One would be a frog, the other a pig, another still a ladybug. Anderson called them her Rub-a-Dub Buddies, and made 32 for the craft fair.
Since then, Rub-a-Dub Buddies has blossomed into a growing business, complete with an Etsy shop and a Facebook page, and customers from Brazil to Norway. The towels sell for $35 each and can be personalized for an additional $5.
"What I love most about what I've started is creating each Buddy and seeing the adorable children's faces that bring them to life," Anderson says. "It's just so rewarding to me."
See something on Etsy that you'd like us to profile in this weekly column? Send an e-mail to editors@peoplepets.com or leave a comment below. Read our last edition of Etsy Fave here.
Your Reaction
