Monday, August 26, 2013

This Little Shop of Mine


 It is now the end of August and needless to say, I have been very busy !
The shop has officially been open for almost a month now, and I am in the early stages of my candle busy season.
 Although it was quiet at first,things are really picking up and we are seeing so many new faces come through our doors.
I feel so very blessed, because I have been given an opportunity to do what I truly love and a new way to do it year round.
Honestly, the thought of ever having my own store never really crossed my mind.
I was very content doing things the way I've done them since 1996.

 Doing craft shows,wholesale and selling from other shops seemed to work out just fine, I made my product,sold it and everyone was happy.
I even ventured into the big-bad wholesale market for a bit, it truly was a great experience and I met some wonderful folks along the way that have become great customers ,as well as business mentors.
But I felt the need for a change...my girls are now busy teenagers and my mother-in-law had a need for an outlet to sell her antiques.
She was a dealer in Texas and was part of a huge market down there. You could say that she was a Junk Gypsy before it became trendy.
When they moved back to Ohio 12 years ago , she had LOTS of inventory with nowhere to go.
She had tried a couple shops, but soon found that her Texas flair was a bit too eclectic for the primitive crowd. She also found out that certain folks in the auction circle were,shall we say, crooks !

We decided that with her need to sell and my need to accommodate my growing business, we needed to find a place, and FAST !
 Enter The Arts District... It is a blessing to live in a community that sees the diamond in the rough, and for years our downtown was pretty rough!
Sometime in the 1970's everyone decided to leave the downtown shops,restaurants,businesses and head to the suburbs in sprawling malls and shopping plazas.
Our downtown became a very undesirable place that no one in their right (or wrong) mind would ever visit.

Many years later, our local artists and entrepreneurs decided " Hey we needed work space and look at all these empty buildings, let's do something fabulous with them!"
 It is bustling with activity now, shops, studios, galleries,theaters, restaurants and live bands, something for everyone !

We made arrangements with the Chamber of Commerce to check out a building that was scheduled for rehab. We liked what we saw and soon we were added to their tenant list for the building when completed.
That year seemed to take forever to get here, but it was totally worth the wait !
 I now have ample room to work in without constant distractions ie. cats, kids, hubby that can never find anything in the house, and my MIL is selling her treasures to those folks with a good eye for junk !