Such a good question! One we received countless times from customers, vendors, collaborators, and other local business owners who came by to shop and say goodbye this weekend. Well, it wasn't for a lack of love, passion, or even money for that matter. It wasn't because of rent hikes or the extraordinary changes the neighborhood has seen in recent months and years. Closing the Shoppe was a decision that we made for countless personal and professional reasons that are neither simple to explain, nor all that interesting to hear about. And that's why it's been so easy to just say, "It was time."
When we opened the Shoppe 6+ years ago we made an ambitious list of goals we hoped to accomplish. Thanks to all of our fantastic customers and collaborators we were able to do every single one of them (and quite a few we never dreamed of). We've met amazing people, sold beautiful objects, supported talented artists, written books and articles, gotten lovely mentions in our favorite magazines, we even designed a line for Target (!!).
During that same time we also had a baby, co-founded Pop-Up Magazine, took on other jobs, and it reminded us that there are so many other things we're interested in, and so many new and exciting opportunities to explore. And that in order to have enough time and space in our lives to start saying "YES!" to new things, we needed to say "Goodbye" to some old things.
So thanks for 6 great years! We'll continue posting on Smarts&Crafts every now and then- please check back to see what we're up to next.
xoxo
Derek & Lauren
