My Brother's Etsy Shop!

I started selling on Etsy in February of 2009. At the time I was raving to my family and friends about how much I loved the site. I had been selling on Ebay for quite a few years before finding Etsy, but knew the change was inevitable once I started seeing the benefits of switching.

Around that time, my brother Mark started taking an interest in what I was doing. Keep in mind my brother has always been amazing at decorating his apartment in some of the cutest vintage housewares -- so much so that for a few years now we've called him "Marky Stewart". He started becoming very curious about having an online business for himself because he'd been working for a company that he disliked, and believe me, I ALWAYS got to hear about it. It was around 4 months after one of these conversations that my brother finally decided to start his own lil' Etsy shop with his partner Jeff. The name of their shop came from two adorable new marmalade kittens they had just adopted at the time named Boots and Gus.

BootsnGus now has over 16,000 admirers on Etsy, have been in the Etsy finds more times than I can count, and have also been featured in 2 magazines; Natural Home and Garden and more recently Better Homes & Gardens online. Congrats, my boys! I really love how these two work together as a team on their shop, it's very inspiring to me! Kinda makes me wish I had a business partner at times...

While my brother still maintains the stocking up / interest in the vintage housewares and now vintage books and records (he has so many great ones in his possession not yet listed!) it is JEFF who is responsible for the popular light fixture creations. One thing I greatly admire about Jeff is that he never ever puts a limit on his imagination. He's really made me appreciate the idea of upcycling so much more than I ever have in the past.

Consistenly inspired by their 4 adorable cats, Bootsngus has certainly made a permanent home on Etsy. I'm really proud of these two for taking a risk and starting their own business! As busy as they've been with so much online exposure and many sales, they haven't regretted one day of working for themselves! Cheers, guys!

Find my brother & Jeff's shop here. 

quite possibly the cutest muses I ever did see!!