How, when, and why did you start your business?

We opened our doors two months ago, but it was a shop years in the making. We always knew we'd have a shop someday after visiting dozens of similar shops while traveling abroad, but never felt it was the right time. Then the last few years happened and reminded us life will never offer the perfect time to take a risk and do something new. On a three hour car ride home from visiting friends, we decided to go for it and opened about a month later.

What makes your business unique?

We love shops that offer something unique or something you may not have seen before. Through years of research, travel, and a little trial and error, we've made some amazing contacts around the world and carefully source amazing objects that are sustainable, high quality, unique, and often one of a kind. Where else locally can you buy Scottish wool blankets, an early 1900's original French Impressionist painting, 100% beeswax candles, organic/chemical free beauty products, and Japanese hand-hammered brassware in the same store? We love that we have something new and fresh to add to your home or when buying that perfect gift.

What product/service is your most popular, or what you are known for?

As a homewares store, we offer high quality items for the home. We aim to offer sustainable products designed to add beauty and functionality to your space.

Why did you locate your business in the Wausau River District?

We believe the heart of any city is right downtown, and with so many exciting new things in the works in the River District, the choice to open a shop here was easy. We love being right in the center of our town's amazing festivals, concerts, and locally-owned shops.

What motivates you?

Good interior design and the understanding of how a beautiful and comfortable space can offer much needed respite after a stressful day. Add that to a desire for sourcing sustainable items that benefit the growers, makers, and collectors around the world. Lastly, we're proud to show our daughter that it's okay to take a risk and pursue life's interests and passions.

How do you measure/define success?

The question we ask ourselves almost daily is are we offering something that will benefit others, and we feel our shop does so by helping those we source our items from, and those we sell our items to. We're passionate about offering our knowledge and hope people start to think differently about fast fashion/mass produced homewares.

How do you generate new ideas?

There are so many things that inspire us and ultimately help us determine the course for our shop. Our love of travel, art, humanity, antiques, and culture all play a key role in giving us endless inspiration for new offerings for the shop.

Talk about your staff.

Currently, we're a husband and wife team which allows us to remain home with our daughter while she's young.  We're exploring offering our wares online, which will likely lead to hiring a staff person or two. But for now, we're really enjoying being the face of our shop and getting to meet all our customers first hand.

What excites you most about the future of the district?

The potential for something even more amazing. Our location in the middle of the state, along with our current offerings of art, theater, outdoor recreation, festivals, etc all work in our favor and should be a big pull for tourism. With an expanded base of unique retail shopping, restaurants, family activities, and more opportunities for downtown living, downtown Wausau can be right up there with the best of destination cities/locations.