A few years ago, Kimberly Jacobs Sasser saw a photograph of a cotton wreath and thought it was interesting.

“I studied the picture very closely,” she laughed, “and then I made one.”

There was a cotton field near her parents’ home, so it was easy to find the materials she needed.

“I sold about one that year,” she said.

This year, the young wife and mother was looking for ways to add to her family’s income, and got busy. Yesterday, she sold five at Andalusia Regional Hospital’s annual Christmas Bazaar. Today, she’s showing her cotton wreaths and garland at the Business and Professional Women’s Club’s Christmas Bazaar and Arts & Crafts Show in the Kiwanis Community Center, held in conjunction with the Pilot Club’s Pancake and Sausage Day, from 5:30 a.m. until noon.

She calls the business Cotton Pickin’ Girl, and also takes custom orders.

“Most everybody in the South likes cotton and relates to it,” she said. “I’ve had people come here today who are from other parts of the country who were surprised that it’s so big here.

“But it’s so much a part of our livelihood,” Sasser said. “I think people appreciate it.”

She and her husband, Chris, have one son, Kenneth Cole.