Monday, October 31, 2011

What's with the Name?

I figure at least one of you has wondered why the name, Teal Elephant. Well, I would love to explain!

When coming up with a name for the store, I wanted something fun and different. I liked the sound of two words. I also wanted it to eventually be able to just use a picture to say the name of our store.

We strive to be environmentally responsible so I thought that should show in the name. But all of the words to describe that seem so overdone these days. So "green", "eco", and the millions of others like it were out. But I kept thinking of colors. So I looked through all of the colors in the "green" category and saw Teal and knew that I had to have Teal in the name somehow. So, that's how we came to the name Teal. Simple, huh?!

The Elephant part of our name is much more fun and meaningful. I decided an animal name would be cute. I wanted a meaning behind it so I googled "best animal moms". Elephants were in the top ten list. The more I read about them the more amazed I became. Who doesn't think elephants are adoreable!! (Well, I'm sure those who have pachydermophobia don't!!)

First off, the more mother's have a 22 month pregnancy! Can you imagine?! Twenty-two months pregnant with an elephant!! I loved being pregnant but at the end of my 9 months and 1 week I wanted my baby out!! Oh, and their babies average 200lbs!! They win, hands down in the biggest baby contest! Secondly, elephant calves are born dependent on their moms. Some animals are born and can do things by their self but elephant calves are like human babies and they depend on the mom for their lives.

But the biggest reason for choosing an elephant was that elephants live in a matriarchal society. All of the other female elephants in the herd help take care of the new elephant calf. In the event that the mother dies during birth or is killed in some way, the other female elephants step in to raise the elephant. Sadly, in most cases if there is no milk source for the infant elephant, if will not make it. But these other females will do everything they can to help this infant.

Elephants were everything I wanted this store to be!! I was blown away! We as women, mothers to our own children or those around us, should step out and help our fellow mothers. It's not always easy and sometimes we ourselves are at our wits end. But by simply purchasing items from stores like this, we can help out another person- a infant, a child, and a mother.

We purchase items all the time, so why not find a way to make the way we shop make a difference.

At this moment Teal Elephant is only offering a handful of items, mainly cloth diapers. But we plan on growing--to Elephant size!!! And we will offer items that every mom can use with her baby and child and even items women who aren't mothers to young children can use. We are starting small, like a baby, but we will grow and grow and grow, so we can help more and more and more babies and women!!!

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