One of the things I enjoy most about being a shopkeeper in South Berwick, Maine is the people that I meet. More and more I am connecting to ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I never know who might find their way into my little shop around the corner. This week I enjoyed meeting Emily Slama from Durham, New Hampshire.
Emily had reached out to me months ago via our facebook page. We had gone back and forth a few times but had never made concrete plans to connect at the store. Yesterday was an absolute joy to finally meet face to face and view her pieces in person and up close. Emily is an artist, entrepreneur, mother, and adventure spirit. I love that she is carving out a life for herself that not only brings joy but gives space to her family to be and do whatever makes them most happy. There was a bit of commotion happening while she was here with customers, other artists, and deliveries. I love how Emily jumped into the conversations, made way for gift giving, and even did a little shopping of her own while we worked to get her items priced, into the system, and onto our shelves.
The time we spent together making our way through a busy Friday afternoon led way for us both to discover commonalities and listen to each other's stories as working moms, sometimes in the health field, sometimes as entrepreneurs. Getting to know each artist, author, and maker at A Little Something helps me share their stories with our customers and build a picture of the many ripples created when you shop local and support artists that live nearby as well as around the world.
We shared favorite memories of our children, our sons both having spent time adventuring in Colorado and developing a love for fly fishing, our daughters being "go getters" and creating their own stories refusing to let them be written by someone else made perfect sense during our first afternoon getting to know one another. Proudly she shared the creative pieces her daughter makes, promoting her work more than her own. My eyes lit up knowing they would be well received and I invited her to have her daughter join our group of artists for this upcoming summer season and beyond.
It's the stories behind the pieces, the artists, the writers, the gift givers, browsers, and friends who happen into the store each day. Six years has built a wonderful anthology of warmth and richness in a little shop around the corner that is sometimes hard to find. Here's to six years of connecting makers to a community who embraces shopping local and giving gifts with meaning. Here's to a future filled with more conversations and synchronicities rich in serendipity and well meaning.
I invite you to come and discover the little shop around the corner in South Berwick if you haven't already. A Little Something has come a long way in the past six years and I couldn't be more proud of the connections made, gifts given, and artists & authors supported by warm and welcoming Seacoast.