Now earning $9,800 a month from her Etsy side hustle, the 41-year-old nurse no longer needs a full-time job.

At 2 a.m., Megan Walsh was awakened in her bedroom in Manahawkin, New Jersey, and became anxious as she paced around the room.

In March 2021, Walsh, a part-time endoscopy nurse, was overwhelmed while working full-time at her hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic. She had recently lost her father, a gardener, six months prior.

To relieve stress, Walsh researched ways to be artsy with plants as an homage to her dad, just like how she made crafts and sold them on Etsy in nursing school.

She found aromatherapy calming at home, so she purchased a pound of eucalyptus online for $40 to create wall decor in her living room. This product, along with other wall decor featuring various dried flowers, generated over $121,400 in sales on Etsy last year, as per CNBC Make It's review of documents.

Through September, MegansMenagerie, Walsh's shop, is projected to achieve a similar sales performance this year, with approximately 9.800 in monthly sales.

DON'T MISS: The ultimate guide to earning passive income online

Walsh, who sells wall decor, scaled back her nursing schedule a couple months ago. She now works 24 to 32 hours per week at the hospital and spends 12 to 24 hours per week on her Etsy side hustle. So far this year, her Etsy shop has earned her nearly as much money as she will make as a nurse, she estimates, with a personal profit of about $60,000.

"Etsy has allowed Walsh, 41, to save money, purchase items for his family, and host birthday parties without needing a full-time job. He was able to buy his daughter a car when she started driving."

Walsh's Etsy store was built by her, and she found success in her side hustle after more than a decade on the platform.

Navigating the momentum of an online side hustle

In 2009, while studying for an associate's degree in nursing at Ocean County College, Walsh began MegansMenagerie at the suggestion of a family friend. Her first sale was a $40 crocheted Cowell-neck scarf.

She crocheted outside of class, using her sales to pay her bills and her oldest daughter's birthday parties. She noticed that chevron, a zigzag "Charlie Brown" pattern, was becoming popular among retail and Etsy sellers. She bought bulk orders from knit fabric vendors and made chevron scarves on her mother's old Singer sewing machine.

Walsh sewed early in the morning and late into the night to keep up with the demand while continuing school, and the scarves were a hit.

"At the time, I resided in an apartment and was fortunate that my downstairs neighbors were understanding about my early morning sewing sessions, which often started at 5 a.m.," Walsh recalls. "To minimize the noise from the sewing machine, I had to lay down rugs on the floor, as it sounded like a metal thumping for hours."

It took Walsh four hours to crochet one Cowell scarf, while each scarf took only 30 minutes to make. That year, she used her increased Etsy earnings to purchase a new 2013 Dodge Journey, which had a starting MSRP of $19,990, according to Kelly Blue Book.

For two years, the demand remained high, and the shop generated between $40,000 and $50,000 annually, according to Walsh. However, the shop's momentum slowed down in late 2014, coinciding with Walsh's completion of her bachelor's degree at Thomas Edison University and the birth of her second child.

Growing and running a popular Etsy shop

During the pandemic, Walsh's need to create intensified, leading her to continue crafting as a hobby and add macrame wall decor and jewelry to her portfolio while keeping her Etsy store open as she began her nursing career.

In March 2021, she received her first shipment of eucalyptus and preserved its scent and color by soaking the plants in glycerin. She then strung the pieces together and hung them from a wooden pole with a nail on a wall.

In 2022, her Etsy shop's annual revenue increased to $108,300.

MegansMenagerie has spent over $20,000 on various expenses, including a car, family vacations, student loan payments, and a 20-year vow renewal ceremony. Now, her husband, a former restaurant manager, can be a stay-at-home dad to their three children and assist Walsh with her business' shipping logistics.

Walsh adjusts her work hours to accommodate her children's schedules, and when she feels overwhelmed, she reduces her workload. She has an endoscopy role at her hospital and also worked as a sexual assault nurse examiner for a while, but she stopped this job when her Etsy shop gained popularity again.

In the last two months of 2023, during the peak of the holiday season, Walsh removed MegansMenagerie from the online platform to mentally recharge, according to her.

"Walsh explains that he didn't want to deal with the struggle of shipping deadlines and customers needed something they ordered immediately. He adds, "I'm not Amazon. You are legit getting a handmade product I made in my living room.""

To earn extra money online, sign up for CNBC's course on passive income streams, starting tips, and real-life success stories.

Sign up for CNBC Make It's newsletter to receive expert advice on work, money, and life.