Lu & Ed

Hi! I'm Cody, a single mom making monster toy storage solutions & monster toys from upcycled fabric! This reduces landfill waste, energy consumption & pollution.

I have been making Mon-stors and monster toys since October, 2009. What started out as simply dreaming up the design of a monster that "ate" toys as a storage solution for my son when we were in a cramped living situation has grown into an bustling business with hundreds of monsters being made each year! Feel monstrously awesome about purchases from Lu & Ed

Lu & Ed products are totally eco-friend

ly, handmade in Asheville, NC with textile discards. Each Mon-stor is made from up-cycled fabrics either purchased from thrift stores or salvaged from donated clothing and fabrics. Scraps from large Mon-stors are used to make smaller Mon-stors, and scraps from those are used to make stuffed monsters, Gadget Mon-stors and totes. And the itty bitty scraps left over from those is diced up and blended with poly-fil - meaning there is absolutely no landfill waste from the production of Lu & Ed products. Thinking outside the box

Instead of purchasing packaging supplies that are created in a high energy factory that produces air pollution and tons of waste, I collect and recycle food boxes by flipping them inside out and using them for shipping. Orders from Lu & Ed are also sealed with bio-degradable tape, and hand addressed to reduce paper waste and energy used to produce address labels. http://luanded.com

06/19/2025

This event is this Saturday! Free food, clothing, hot meals, menstrual products, NARCAN, diapers, wipes, formula, and more. ALL FREE. This is a community based free market, come take anything you need.

Bring friends, bring bags, and take as much as you can carry.

Can’t come but wanna help? Donate at HaywoodPantries.com - every listing is a donation, and every donation helps fund events like this plus HPO daily operations, like stocking our free outdoor pantries, helping pay past due bills for neighbors, free fashion events, storage for supplies, and more.

05/14/2025

Yesterday was a tiring but wonderful day - we had the privilege of spending this amazing day helping Haywood Pantries and Feeding the Multitude pass out food boxes, produce and detergent to the community. 🫶🏻 So grateful for the opportunity to help! Even my daughter and her bestie helped today. 🥰

Support this work! ko-fi.com/kodeekins

05/13/2025

Things are transitioning in my life, but I’m still plugging along volunteering with regularly. Honored to work alongside the people I do daily and privileged to be in a position to help in such a capacity. I love doing this work so much.

A few people have asked how they can support me now that I’m not making monsters anymore - so I made a little Ko-fi page where people can follow along and support my journey! 🫶🏻 Things have definitely been tight since I stopped making monsters full time. There isn’t much money in doing good work for the right reasons. If you want to sponsor the work I do, the thousands of pounds of food I am honoored to help move every month to feed southern Appalachians affected by the flood and generational poverty, the hundreds of pounds of clothing and linens we process, sort and distribute so no one is without clean clothes, the rebuilding supplies we distribute so people can begin anew, it would be so appreciated! This is the most soul satisfying work I’ve ever done, and I appreciate everyone who has followed along so far and helped by donating supplies, money, resources or just kind words. We’re changing the world, y’all. One hot meal, one clean outfit, one burst of hope at a time.

Ko-fi.com/kodeekins

04/23/2025

Hi, monster lovers! It’s been a long 7 months since Helene ravaged my beautiful homeland. I have worked tirelessly the last several months - not making monsters, but caring for my community. I’ve volunteered countless hours with delivering hot meals, filling free outdoor pantries, unloading trucks full of donations, processing those donations, coordinating fashion events so folks can restock their wardrobes, and more alongside an amazing group of humans who are fighting to restore, replenish and rebuild our region.

During that time away from the sewing machine, I was able to reflect on my own life in these beautiful mountains. I’ve made monsters for 15 years, and I have loved the ability to run my own sustainable, ethical business. But with those 15 years of full time sewing (sometimes as much as 60-80 hours a week) I have developed fused vertebrae in my neck and irreversible nerve damage from repetitive motion.

Since I quit sewing after the flood, my debilitating migraines I used to have 2-5 times every week became almost non-existent, my overall health improved, and my episodes of neuropathy in my hands, legs, feet and face lessened significantly. My mental health is significantly better than it’s been in a long time. My life feels like it’s falling into place and so many new doors are opening.

I made the decision to stop making monsters months ago, but couldn’t find the words to say farewell to Lu & Ed. Couldn’t decide if I should keep this account/page and share my mutual aid work, or if I should say goodbye and start a new account. I hadn’t felt ready to announce the finality of it until recently, and I ruminated for weeks on how to do it - and decided to just be honest. Our health is so much more important than any job, even one built from the ground up and that is loved so dearly.

My final event will be this Saturday at ! Come shop the remaining monsters. 50% of proceeds will be donated to Haywood Pantries, where I will continue to work as a volunteer. I may set up a Ko-fi channel where you can follow my adventures in community aid and contribute to rebuilding… we’ll see!

Mucho smoocho, monster lovers!

01/05/2025

Hiii! Just a quick update to say I’m still alive. Things have been really chaotic in my life and I’m not back to monster making.

I’m still volunteering with Haywood’s Outdoor Pantries - they have been instrumental in the recovery process after Helene and are still serving hundreds of people daily with food, supplies, clothing and other necessary items as well as keeping outdoor pantries stocked with food and hygiene items in Haywood County from their depot in Canton.

If you’d like to contribute to this work, you can donate via CashApp, PayPal or Venmo to Bbanks6884 - proceeds go directly to aid the community and keep the depot at 505 Main Street Canton open, stocked and functioning.

Thank you to everyone who supports sustainable, long term disaster relief in our community. 🫶🏻 It hurts seeing my home so devastated.

12/10/2024

My online store is barren this holiday season, as I am still entrenched in mutual aid work that serves our community impacted by the disastrous hurricane that ravaged our area. I'm accepting donations via Venmo: to sustain my family until I'm back to monster making, but if you are wanting to snag a monster and want to support another business deeply impacted by the flood, The Funky Fern Emporium has some available in their pop up at 828 Market in Waynesville, NC and you can shop them online as well!
https://funkyfern.square.site/s/search?q=toys

Another place that has monsters in stock is Green Utopia in Kansas City!

12/01/2024

I was cutting out Tooth Monsters for a wholesale order and sat down to sew them, but decided to stretch my creativity with the scraps a bit first, as a way to ease back into work after my long break. I haven’t sewn full time since the floods hit over two months ago.

Before I made monsters, my first medium was quilting. I whipped up this cute lil patch in about five minutes for a battle jacket I’m making Z for Giftmas. I got the jean jacket for free at our mutual aid depot. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

11/09/2024

I added all in stock available monsters to luanded.com! Help me clear out inventory, generate funds to finish car repairs & free up some space in my studio! 😘

11/07/2024

What it looks like when someone orders 20 of your Charity Mystery Sticker Packs so they’ll get 60 stickers. 👁️👄👁️

Thanks, Julian. 🫶🏻 I appreciate your support so much!!!! I appreciate everyone’s patience while I work through my backlog of orders. I’m doing my best. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

11/02/2024

It turns out I’m too wordy for an Instagram caption, so here’s an update.

This is not THE END of Lu & Ed - this is a pause, a moment to focus on my local community, when my mental and physical health cannot meet production deadlines for my shop to be run at the capacity it was.

Thank you to everyone for your support & understanding. I’m so sorry about the delayed orders and am trying to get them out the door asap. 🫶🏻

10/30/2024

Hey guys! I’m still doing direct disaster relief here in Western NC following hurricane Helene and the disastrous flooding that ravaged our entire region. I’m shifting usage of funds from my Mystery Sticker Pack to fund much needed car repairs - in the last month, I’ve put over 3,000 hard miles on my car delivering hot meals, supplies and stocking free food pantries in our county. I’m delivering over 100 hot meals a day to affected areas, and has several other drivers dedicating just as much time and energy to keep victims of the flood fed and supplied with essentials.

My car currently needs new front brakes, an oil change and a sensor replaced. So proceeds from the Mystery Sticker Packs will go into those repairs & my gas tank so I can continue to do mutual aid work in the coming weeks!!

If you want to support my shop AND support disaster relief efforts in WNC, consider snagging a sticker pack for you or a friend! 🫶🏻

10/22/2024

Just a quick post to say hiiiii and show off these monsters I loaded into pantries with food and supplies for flood victims! Thanks for donating them, Megan! It’s so appreciated!

If you want to donate monsters to the mutual aid network I work with, use code DONATE at check out!

Monthly monsters will go out by the end of the week 🤞🏻 and I wanted to thank everyone for their patience with me during this time. I will cancel monthly memberships as soon as I ship these out. Things are still pretty bad here in WNC, and while businesses are reopening and some neighborhoods are getting cleaned up, the sheer amount of destruction, piles of debris, and the emotional impact of this hurricane, the flooding, of the amount of unhoused neighbors and destroyed lives is absolutely debilitating. I can’t fathom going back to sewing full time while there’s still so very much disaster relief and community aid work to do.

Keep our region in your thoughts. Many folks are still without homes, power, water. 🫶🏻 Mucho smoocho, monster lovers! I’ll be more present and productive in this space when it makes sense to do so. ❤️🧡💛💚💙

Address

758 Crabtree Rd
Waynesville, NC
28785

Website

http://luanded.com/

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These Toy Storage Solutions Revolutionize Clean-Up Time - and Reduce Landfill Waste!

Since each and every Lu & Ed monster is made from textile discards, they are all one of a kind - each one as unique as the child who adopts them!

As a mama, I know how important toy storage is to your sanity! Clutter from toys, books, and baby clothes can be so overwhelming & mentally exhausting, and teaching kids to pick up can be as much of a chore as picking the mess up yourself. That is why I created Mon-stor Toy Storage Bags!

What are Mon-stors?

Mon-stors are toy storage bags shaped like monsters kids "feed" their toys, laundry or messes to. They make cleaning up fun for children, and help instill a life long habit of keeping their space tidy!

I have been making Mon-stors & monster toys since September, 2009. As a mother, I am passionate about the environment & sustainable toys. That is why each monster toy I make is totally eco-friendly, handmade in Asheville, NC with textile discards (robes, blankets, curtains, sheets, pajamas & other fabrics otherwise headed to landfills). Each Mon-stor is made from textile discards either collected through donations or scavenged from salvage centers. I use a closed loop recycling system, meaning even the tiniest bits of fabric get used so there is absolutely no landfill waste from the production of my monster toys!

Mon-stors come in two sizes, large & small.

Large is perfect for play rooms or bedrooms to tame toy clutter! Large holds almost an entire load of laundry, up to 8 Build a Bear sized stuffed monsters, over a dozen medium Nerf guns and more - anything you need accessible storage for, Mon-stors can eat!

Small are perfect to hang by the bed to hold pajamas & a nightly book for reading, or in the car to hold a change of clothes, diapers & wipes, snacks, umbrella, sunscreen, bug spray and the likes to keep car clutter under control & make road trips a breeze! These are also perfect for overnight bags for sleep overs, too!

To fully recycle textile discards, I use the scraps from the Large Mon-stors to make Small Mon-stors. The scraps from the Small Mon-stors, I use to make a variety of monster goodies - from stuffed monster toys in various sizes, to Monster Tooth Pillows & Tote Bags!

Feel monstrously awesome about purchases from Lu & Ed

The itty bitty scraps left over from those are diced up and blended with poly-fil - meaning there is absolutely no landfill waste from the production of Lu & Ed products. Saving the world, one monster at a time!

Thinking outside the box - another way I try to save the world!

Instead of purchasing packaging supplies that are created in a high energy factory that produces air pollution and tons of waste, I collect and recycle food boxes by flipping them inside out and using them for shipping. This reduces landfill waste, energy consumption & pollution. Orders from Lu & Ed are also sealed with bio-degradable tape, and hand addressed to reduce paper waste and energy used to produce address labels!

Want to learn more?

You can follow me on Facebook or Instagram for behind the scenes sneak peeks, previews of monsters before they go live & snippets of my life as a mama & a maker + discussion all things toy storage, motherhood & more! You can also sign up for my newsletter to be notified of new listings (subscribers find out about new adoptables hours before I post to social media!), receive exclusive discounts & the occasional exclusive subscriber only giveaway!