Trade As One

We love being part of the warm and creative community here in Santa Cruz! As you’ll have seen from yesterday’s blog post we are opening a retail boutique just one week from today (yikes!) and are busy getting the space all set up and ready. It’s a big airy room at 332 Ingalls Street and we’ve been scouring local salvage yards and garage sales for cool items that deserve a second chance as furniture and props in our boutique. Our savvy friends Anne and Ashley have a great eye for design and had a fun day shopping with Rachel for the store and it’s going to look fabulous. Here’s a photo of all the undeveloped potential! Thanks to the help of another make-things-happen friend, Aleta, the space is getting sorted and is starting to look great. I’m excited and I’ll post new photos soon.

Another really exciting project in the boutique space is a large mural that our friend Celeste is painting on a huge breeze block wall. Celeste is an intern at the nearby Vintage Faith Church and is an artist and a kindergarten teacher. We’ll let you see the progress as the work continues but it’s another cool project and we are SO grateful for the help of talented and generous friends. Here are some mural photos from earlier this week - once again I will be posting updates, so check back in a few days! Thanks so much everyone - it’s all coming together beautifully!