OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Many dog parents love their dogs as if they are their children. One Papillion dog mom who loved to dress up her animals turned her hobby into a side business.
The love Velvet Stonebraker has for her grandmother shines through her work. The name for her small business is inspired by her grandma.
"Growing up, my grandma always had dogs around and she is the one who taught me how to sew. Combining those two things has been really fun. Her dogs love it, they get all sorts of outfits," said Stonebraker.
Stonebraker started to work from home during the pandemic. So with a little extra free time on her hands, she started making bandanas for her fur-babies. Then her friends and family suggested she start her own online business and soon Blume Goods was born — but opening a business during a pandemic came with a new set of struggles.
"When I was planning out my first product line, it was around the same time that everybody was starting to make their own masks at home. So when I went to the fabric store, there was not a lot of options and what was out there was really expensive. So I got creative and found some local family-owned fabric shops in town, and also some unique fabric stores online and I feel like that really helped me in the long run because I was using a lot of materials that a lot of shops didn't really have," said Stonebraker.
Stonebraker appreciates when people shop locally, so she does the same thing.
"Almost everything I use for my business is sourced from Nebraska, even my accountant is from Nebraska, and so is my photographer too," said Stonebraker.
Blume Goods has seasonal lines and will be dropping their fall line very soon. You can find Blume Goods at farmers markets and online.
"I’m really excited to grow more online, the community I found online has been so supportive and amazing. Especially the Omaha small business people were so welcoming...it's awesome."
This busy dog mom’s whole world revolves around dogs as she still works full time in dog nutrition. Even though she has very little free time, she loves this job.
"It's really easy to feel like everybody else is already doing it, and they are doing it better than you, but if you have that idea, you are going to do it your own way and that will really shine through, and people will gravitate towards you because they like how you do it. I wish that I would have just trusted my gut, and started sooner because I’m so happy that I did... it has changed my life," said Stonebraker.
This weekend, Blume goods hosted a charity event where a portion of the proceeds went to a nonprofit for shelter dogs in Nebraska.
To see more of what Stonebraker’s business has to offer, head to Blume Goods’ website.
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