I asked her mother if I could give her a beanie baby from my stash of beanies I rescued from a bag my daughter was taking to the Salvation Army. The mom said yes, and that her daughter really likes bears, and cats. I looked through the basket and found a leopard beanie, and went to hand it to the little girl. Well she let out a holler and started backing up and shaking her head no, no. She was clearly terrified.

Bradford Mercantile now has 1803 Candles, a wonderful soy line made from American grown soy beans in the heartland of America. They are clean burning, biodegradable, environmentally safe and made from a renewable resource that also supports American farmers. They are so wonderfully scented I find myself sniffing them throughout the day!

When you look at the gallery photos, if you see a random picture of a rose from time to time there is an explanation for that. Ever since my 49th birthday in December I have received a rose of some kind every day from my husband. It started with a few fresh roses that I thought were multiplying in the vase, and then one day it was a magazine photo of a rose put under the windshield wiper, or a card with a rose on it slid under the door at the store. I never know how or when a rose will appear in my day.

The moral of this story is if you want to open your own little shop be sure you have very understanding and supportive people behind you. Add many months to whatever timing you think it will take, hey, if you get open on schedule great, but be prepared for multiple pitfalls and delays along the way. If it is really your dream hang in there, and try not to take up drinking, because you would have plenty of reason to have one or two, which might turn into three or four.

I had a lot of behind the scenes help getting this shop up and running. My son designed the cash register counter and display unit to be reminiscent of something you would see at an old fashioned general store. What took him a short time on the computer to design (he is just shy of finishing his architecture degree) took my husband weeks and weeks to build. Fortunately the landlord let us build it on site, we sure didn’t have room at home to build it! We couldn’t have got one more thing in or out of that garage.

In the fall of 2005 when I decided to bite the big bullet and open my own shop I had a plan I will refer to as Plan A. Plan A was a spot in Bristol that was being renovated and would be many months before it was ready. No problem I thought because I am many months from being ready to open. I have to come up with a name, get a tax permit, go the gift shows, shop the antique places for display pieces, etc…