Knit creatures make me happy. Lullabylily is a new little shop full of happiness: white winged horses, pink pigs and slugs — oh my! What do we have here? A brand new Etsy fiber artist after my own 12-year-old girl heart! (Yes, my heart stopped evolving at 12. I still really love ponies and sparkles.)  I asked Lullabylily a few questions and I think I may have stumbled upon a someone who kinda likes Etsy: What do you think?

Here's a little interview we did with this Fresh Shop.

Can you tell us a little about the people behind LullabyLily?
My name is Flora Kennedy. I’ve been an Advertising Copywriter for donkey’s years. Now I’m thrilling to the knitting of donkey’s ears — how’d that happen?!

I guess like many other people, the leap came from having a child. Suddenly you have a whole other way of looking at the world — including a new appreciation of the detail of life and what you love to do.

I’ve always loved to knit, never valued it — well, it was kinda out-of-fashion for a while. But I still made clothes for family and friends' babies. A dear friend of mine told me the other day that the clothes I knitted for her three children ten years ago were used as clothes for teddies and dolls after they grew out of them. I can’t tell you how that makes my heart soar!

It's such a simple thing and it is the same, if not more so, with knitted (or any handmade) toys. I can’t get over how much my daughter loves the donkeys, pigs and even slugs I've knitted for her. She is, of course, the other person behind Lullaby Lily! My glorious assistant!

I believe children can sense the energy of things and people in a purer way than grown-ups, so perhaps their enjoyment of handmade clothes and toys comes from their sense that this toy was made by a real live person, not a machine, and they have an innate appreciation of that — maybe even a deep need. Who knows?

What inspires you as a creative person?
I think inspiration is an attitude that if you allow yourself to be ‘open’ you will find in everything — and often end up a bit deluged! As a writer I was trained in various techniques that help unblock creativity, such as connecting two utterly disparate things, and after a while these techniques become natural in a subconscious way.

While, yes, I am absolutely inspired by a yarn (particularly in my vestments shop), or a leaf or someone’s laugh, I have been shocked by the massive and powerful injection of inspiration I have received as part of the universe that is Etsy. The people I have connected with are just extraordinary.

I see fearlessness and bravery in the people who sell on Etsy and I am hugely inspired by those who make something that is very much a part of themselves, and then put it out there: artists like freedomRainbow, who is just incredible (and has inspired me so much that I opened ‘vestments’ directly because of her). It is no small thing to share something you have made yourself with the whole world, and I for one get a great deal of inspiration from the feeling of liberation I get from Etsy.

I am also inspired by sales! I love that my toys have made their way to Italy, Australia and the U.S., especially since I have lived in several countries myself.

How do you like Etsy so far? What are your favorite features of the site?
OK — if Etsy was a person they would have my undying devotion and love forever. No, really! I am not the only person I know who would like to live on Etsy Street. I LOVE Etsy — I could write a book about all the wonderment that this (Is it really just a website?! It feels like a whole world!) place offers.

And I say this having not even explored Etsy fully! I am stuck on Convoing, getting lost in a labyrinth of favorites, then last week I began an addiction to the thrill that is securing a Treasury page! My darling friend at beautiful Covetables tells me the Forums are brilliant with the warning that if I go there it could take over my life — but hey, Etsy has already done that, and I haven’t even been to the Forums!

Anything else?
I’d like to say thank you to the genius man who created Etsy. What a visionary! To me he’s like an online Oprah; the way he has helped people ‘use their lives’ and at the same time make the planet a better place in so many intricate and amazing ways. What a legend he is already.

WOW! Flora may love Etsy more than I do! "Online Oprah"?! I love it!