Mom helps other parents capture memories with Sweet Petite Me

Like so many new moms, when Kelsey Sunshine Swanson's maternity leave was coming to an end, she realized that even going back to work part-time wasn't for her.

And so, after some deliberations, she and her husband, who live in Clayton, decided she'd be a stay at home mom. Still, Swanson wondered if there was something that she could do from home to help boost the family's income.

"We can survive on one income, but it's tight," she tells me.

She started looking online to see what her options were when she found a website that sold impressions of babies' feet and hands. Her first reaction was that she wanted one for her own infant son. But then she started researching the business as a possibility for herself, talking to mom friends and other mom business owners she's met.

Swanson said the business relationship has been a great one. She's able to learn and share ideas with other Sweet Petite Me owners, who all operate independently.

Swanson's creations include raised relief impressions of a baby's feet and hands, 3D casting, silver jewelry with a child's fingerprint, ornaments and more. Customers typically come to her home studio to make the casts.

While Swanson is new to business ownership, she is not new to creating things with her hands. She's always making something - lately small, detailed figures of dragons - on her own.

Swanson said Sweet Petite Me allows her to share two passions with her customers - to create and to capture those fleeting moments of childhood.

"I help capture those little moments because they go by so quickly," she tells me.

"I feel like I finally have that groove that everyone wants to get," she said. "It feels really good to share happiness with other people."