Auntie MM's Custom Boutique

03/09/2022

Back in the shop making my scissors ✂️ move quickly! We seem to be having a rush on Sleepy Slippers!

02/12/2022

Makin' new friends! We are here till 3.

02/12/2022

The fleece is out, may the fun begin! If you're local (Lancaster, PA) and have small caged pets that need comfies we are at That Fish Place - That Pet Place for the Love Your Pet Day event!

01/14/2022

Please consider making a donation to an animal organization in honor of Betty.

We've been asked by several of our followers if we are participating in the , although it wasn't in our plans we've been encouraged to do so.
We've turned on the FB Donate for this post and we appreciate any amount you're able to donate. If wildlife isn't your cup of tea, please consider our domestic friends, or maybe you prefer the amphibians; it doesn't matter, Betty loved them all!
Whether you donate $1 or $1,000 do it in the name of Betty and help a well deserving animal organization.

https://www.acornacreswr.com/donate/

(a little side note...many years ago when our President and our Executive Director started dating they would sit and watch The Golden Girls as a date)

01/01/2022

Happy New Year Everybody!
I know it's been forever since we've posted. We've been keeping BUSY! Vending virtually, maintaining our website, keeping our retailers stocked and of course the wildlife rehabilitation. One other project we've been working on is building new relationships with retailers.
It is with great excitement that we announce some of our Fleece Cage Gear is now available at That Fish Place-That Pet Place !
That Fish Place - That Pet Place is carrying our Pocket Hammocks, Honeycomb Hammock 3 level, Sleepy Slipper Small, Cuddle Cube, and Cuddle Cube Jr.
We've opted to NOT package them so you can easily touch and feel the quality of our products.
If you have small caged pets and are local, swing on into That Fish Place That Pet Place and check out our items.
Be safe and be well friends! ❤

10/04/2021

I know it's been super quiet on this page but we are still here! We are coming to the end of our busy baby season and I cannot wait to get back on the machines. The fleece is calling me!! Here is our SCORE Lancaster-Lebanon success story...it even talks about the mask frenzy we had going on!

How SCORE helped.  One of the first things you notice when you walk into SCORE client Betsy Shank's home in Millersville is the low, pervasive skittering sound of 67 orphaned or injured squirrels. Oh – and one celebrity groundhog. Poppy, the groundhog, is a more sedate long-term resident, and she...

05/02/2021

Hey Everyone! Sorry I've been absent. I'm buried in baby squirrels. In my memories today a pic of me in this mask buying bling bling lights for our COVI bathroom remodel popped up. I needed to share this pic of me today...I got a new trashcan for my birthday!! Livin' the Life!❤ LOL
Oh! It's motion activated too! 😎
Hope you are all well.

04/17/2021

Happy Saturday!
I was standing in my kitchen feeding baby squirrels and my phone pings...nothing new, right? Yeah, the darn thing pings at me constantly. But this time with the ping was a pic. A pic of Auntie MM Face Gear on a big mission...a Lynx Release! Okay, I know the Lynx is amazing to look at, but there is a just as amazing rehabilitator holding the Lynx and on her face...Face Gear from Auntie MM's!

04/11/2021

3 beautiful babies in an adorable Sleepy Slipper (small).

03/23/2021

Dreams really do come true...

Betsy Davidheiser-Shank is our Founder, Executive Director, and Rehabilitator. She was enjoying life in the fast lane of corporate America, working on her education in Business Management and reaching for milestones when she stumbled upon a baby squirrel. That was April 16, 2010. Since that day, it has been virtually nothing but wildlife for Betsy. Her fast-paced life came to a screeching halt about a year later when 5 baby squirrels were given to her.

In order to keep an income, she started her own business sewing bedding for small caged animals; with a direct concentration on sturdiness for the “wild” ones. In between projects she was navigating through the process to become a wildlife rehabilitator. She trained under several rehabilitators in many states and learned as much as she possibly could.

It didn’t take too awfully long (only 10 years) before her husband realized this was the new normal and embraced her desire to open her own facility specializing in squirrels, cottontails, and woodchucks. Betsy says, “I feel that I am doing exactly what I was put on this Earth to do, I am most alive while working with my critters.”

Having served on several non-profit boards over the years she wanted to found her own. “My husband’s last name means “little acorn”, of all the trees in our nearly 1-acre yard my favorite is an Oak, and my favorite wild animal is the squirrel. Acorn Acres felt natural, it was the right thing to do.”

She wrote her Pennsylvania state test for wildlife rehabilitator, then tested for and earned the Certified Wildlife Rehabilitator (CWR) designation (a professional designation for individuals in the field of wildlife rehabilitation), while waiting for the IRS to provide the letter of determination for the non-profit. She remembers days of the past fondly and would like to eventually obtain her MBA.

03/22/2021

***Further reflection***
Just a bit ago as I was getting dressed and mentally listing everything I need to accomplish today I took a moment to just sit and reflect. Lockdown was awful, yet it kept things simple, in a way. I swore to my girls, "we are NOT becoming mask makers!" oh boy did I eat my words on that one. LOL The start of the masks was for our veterinarians only, then we added our first responders. Before I knew it my little boutiquey mask-making went full bore and there were days I never got dressed, showers became a luxury, and although I do work in a production style manner (with fleece) the mask-making took it all up a few notches. My boutique page had a little more than 300 followers, we are close to 850 now. I burnt through 3 irons and was ordering fabric from Canada since they weren't in a complete pandemic panic yet. Hubby was home and was my doorman...sticking the porch pickups to the window, removing money from the bag on the door, sanitizing the door handle, and hauling huge piles of envelopes to the post office for shipping. It was oddly, in a scary way, nice...but let's not do that again!

Wow, so this pic came up on my feed as a memory. Not sure how I want to remember last year and honestly, I don't remember most of it as I was in my workshop sewing till my arms simply didn't work anymore. But it was around this day, a year ago, while locked down, a little company that made animal bedding started on what turned out to be one hell of a journey...making face gear (masks).
I do not have an actual count, I wish I did, but a pretty darn good guesstimate is 7,000 masks.
We are still making them, the pace has slowed to a manageable level, and I no longer need to run screaming wildly into the fabric store and frantically grab anything within reach.
The even better part...the pic I'm not sharing...I was wearing the same PJ's on this day a year ago as I am right now! LOL
Have a fantastic day everyone!