Growing up I always dreamed of starting my own company. I was obsessed with clothes/fashion. I went to college for fashion design and worked my way through school at Saks Fifth Ave. After college I worked at Nordstrom and became a buyer for Men's Furnishing...not exactly what I had in mind. :) A friend asked if I would like to help work at a trade show selling HELLO KITTY...I didn't know much about cat food but I could use the extra money. I quickly found out that HELLO KITTY was not cat food...it was a wonderful product line of the cutest little trinkets. Little did I know that was the beginning of an 18 year career in the toy industry. What happened to my dream of starting my own company??? After having my son I soon realized that I no longer wanted to be on a plane every week and I wanted to get back into some sort of fashion business. Then again...if you asked a 4 year old...she would say I was in fashion. I worked with Barbie, Bratz, Littlest Pet Shop,...

My son had developed a rash and did not want to wear his diaper. I wrapped him in one of his softest blankets and tried to comfort him. His rash quickly began to worsen. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong and why I couldn't comfort him. Finally, I started reading the blanket label..."micro fiber" "Cozychic"....what the heck!!! All his blankets were polyester!!! No wonder he was getting worse. He was overheating in his blanket since it did not breath. So...that is where my mission began. I was going to develop a line of 100% natural blankets. After doing some research I decided to go to India to find wonderful natural fibers and visit a region in Northern India that specializes in handwoven blankets (not mass produced). 8 months later...SHI SHU BABY and SHI SHU HOME product lines were "born"...

Once I got the design to where I wanted it to be...I started hitting the pavement in LA. I went into stores and started talking to the owners. I then would ask them for their opinion on my designs. Next thing I knew the owners were writing me orders on sheets of paper! I didn't have item numbers, inventory, etc. The first day I wrote $5000 in orders!! I still have those sheets of paper. I will have to frame them some day.

Since I am a team of one and racked my brain trying to figure out how I was going to have people start to know about SHI SHU BABY/SHI SHU HOME. I sat at my computer one weekend and started sending emails to every mom blog and online retailer I could find. In four months I was getting 1000 hits a week on my website.

I received an email from Instyle magazine that they had seen my SHI SHU HOME blanket at a person's office in Malibu and wanted to talk to me about doing the Golden Globes gift bags.

Everyone tells me that I couldn't have picked a worse time to start a company. Unfortunately, when I started working on my new mission the economy was not in trouble. I figure if I can do now...I will be really rockin and rollin when things start to get better. Orders keep me going! When I start to get frustrated I hit the road and start to visit retailers. Nothing keeps me going like opening a new account.

Once you feel a SHI SHU BABY/SHI SHU HOME blanket you are hooked. They are amazingly soft and get softer with every wash. This is a gift everyone would love to receive. New colors are arriving next month and a new lightweight stroller blanket is coming out in April. It is both eco-friendly and eco-nomy friendly!!