NILES — When Theresa Suseland began creating personalized gifts seven years ago, her chocolate lab was always nearby, so much so that her business is named after the dog.

In the year since Reese Walter the dog passed away from cancer, Suseland said her business selling customized items has boomed.

“He would sit in the craft room for hours and hours and hours, and one day when I was playing with Etsy, I just set up a fake shop, and my husband said, ‘you have to put a name on it,’” Suseland said.

And so, Reese Walter Creations was born.

“It started out as a joke, but it just kind of stuck, and I just kind of kept the name,” she said.

With the bustle of the holiday season these last few weeks, Suseland said she has found herself working two full-time jobs — one as a controller at B.C. Mechanical, Inc., and the other through her Reese Walter Creations.

“I do just about anything,” she said. “Custom signs, koozies, T-shirts — anything that can have vinyl lettering applied to it or heat transferred vinyl applied to it.”

A scroll through the Reese Walter Creations Facebook page shows that her inventory is truly diverse. From holiday clothing to coffee cups, Christmas décor to kitchen towels, Suseland makes a wide variety of items customized to each customer’s needs.

Because most of her stock is personalized, she said she does not pre-make many items, other than a small collection she stocks at The Bobbypin Boutique, 525 N. 17th St., Niles. 

“I don’t usually have a to of stock or inventory that someone can shop from,” she said. “It’s usually custom requests.”

When her friend, Melanie Kennedy, decided to host a craft show at her event venue, the Grand LV, this year, Suseland made an exception.

“I’d always said I probably wasn’t going to do something like that because I wasn’t going to be stuck with a ton of inventory,” Suseland said. “But I did that show and thought it would be a good time to try it out.”

It was a resounding success.

Stocked with lots of Christmas décor and items celebrating the state of Michigan, Suseland found that many were excited by her items, and had what she determined to be a great sales day.

Other than the craft show, Suseland said she depends heavily on Facebook and word of mouth to get the word out about her items. The approach has been a solid one for Reese Walter Creations, as Suseland creates anywhere from one personalized water bottle to a handful of bridesmaid robes all the way up to 200 or more can koozies for wedding favors.

“T-shirts are probably the biggest movers — specifically spirit wear for the local schools or colleges,” Susleand said. “A lot of times, women complain that what they can purchase at the school is maybe not girly enough. … They want something more personalized, or their kid’s name on it.”

Suseland said she creates the items, and then customers’ friends see the items at games and other events, and more orders roll in.

As of two days before Christmas, Suseland was still busy filling holiday orders before her Christmas Eve deadline.

“I put in 91 hours between my two jobs this past week and weekend,” she said with a laugh. “It’s not going to be something that I’m going to leave my full-time job for, but it’s a fun hobby, and I would like to see it grow a little bit more.”