Win a Pair of Shoes from Monkey Toes!

(This giveaway is now closed.)

Here's how to enter . . .

1. Visit http://www.monkey-toes.com/.
2. Come back here and leave a comment telling us your favorite item.
3. Be sure to leave your e-mail if you don't have a blogger ID.  Bloggers- you must have a public profile and listed e-mail for me to find you.

Who wants extra entries?!
(Please leave a separate comment for each entry.  Current subscribers, you can use these extra entries too, since we’re so happy to have you here!)
4. Sign up for our Mommy's Idea feed or e-mail feed. (Over to the right.)
5. Become a follower of Mommy's Idea.
6. Blog about and link to this giveaway. Please leave your blog url in your comment.
7. Stumble this post or www.mommysidea.com.
8. Add our Mommy’s Idea button and/or Ellie Bags button to your site.
9. Tweet about this giveaway.

Open to US residents.
Contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on Wednesday, December 10, 2008.

Meet Jenny Ford of Monkey Toes

Tell us a little about you . . .

My name is Jenny Ford, I’m a mom of 2 girls, wife to an amazing man who is a firefighter in Denver. I am a constant thinker, I don’t think my mind shuts off – EVER. I love business, how it works, the way it makes me feel, the fact that there is always something to do, creating something people really love, I could go on and on.

What is your business and where can we find it?

Monkey-Toes are hand painted children’s shoes. Our shoes are painted to look like children’s favorite characters like, Ladybugs, Bees, Frogs, Pigs, Cows, Monkeys, Spiders, Cat & Dog and some fictional characters too – Boogie Monsters, LUV bugs, and Flutterflies. You can even see an exclusive design of ours at www.poshtots.com – the Garden Damselfly.

All of our products can be found online at www.monkey-toes.com and all over the world at select brick and mortar boutiques and online e-tailers.

Is it mom-owned, invented, created . . .?

Yes, I am a mom, I began the biz when my daughters were at the wee age of 2 and 6 months old. It was a crazy busy time, as you can imagine. I then became a single mom and had the toughest/hardest experience of my life.

A little about your entrepreneur journey so far?

I began the concept of Monkey-Toes over 8 years ago, though at the time I had no idea I was starting it. I pursued, with my best friend, a dream of being a stay at home mom and enjoying afternoon tea and hand painting things around the house while our children play quietly (don’t we all dream of that???), then we woke up from that dream! And we took a painting class. I was actually good at it and flew right through projects. It was easy to me. I had seen an idea for painting on shoes, but didn’t like the designs. I made up my own. 2 years and 2 kids later, I was searching everywhere for sources to purchase supplies and painting tons of shoes on my own, then finding ways to sell them. Now 6 years later, it’s grown into an amazing business. I work with some incredibly talented female painters in the Denver area, who without them, I don’t know what I would do.

It’s been an amazing journey. I have had great success in the media – Suri Cruise/Oprah - the high! And I have had crazy lows in the financial arena – went through a divorce and single mom-hood - the low - but amazingly enough, I am thrilled that I have learned as much as I have during this experience, and I am a much better business person because of it.

Where else can people find you? (blog, facebook, twitter, etc.)

All of the above – I welcome friends!

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=744899381&ref=profile

Twitter – www.twitter.com/monkeytoesshoes

Blog - http://www.monkey-toes-monkey.blogspot.com/ (I am working to change the concept of this blog, making it a more entrepreneurial site, where people starting businesses can ask questions and I can share the information with everyone who reads along – kind of an open forum, as if I were actually sitting down and having coffee with them).

Anything else you’d like to share?

Buy Monkey-Toes! Support a great business…J Ok, I am totally partial!