years and i have had several businesses in the past not a retail business per se i've worked in retail but i've owned several businesses that have kind of led me down this path to opening up a retail store and it's been an exciting venture as it's just been great to be in belmont and be able to have a store in the place that i live where my kids are growing up and the store has been very well received sorry and when you were the general manager  sure and you go i also have lived here for about fifteen years and i have a fifth and sixth grader at chinnery and it's been a really great having a business in cushing square where the kids can come after school it's really it's  it's been great i have a retail background i worked for fifteen years for the museum of fine arts you know our catalog and stores developing product for the for the catalog so that was great and this is wonderful this is a great transition  storage very unusual it's a it's a it's a totally different concept i've been doing the show now for a few a few years and i know that there's nothing else like at belmont so we've been here i'm trying to find out whether it's a gift shop whether it's a place to go just hang out that we envisioned and old style upscale general store and it has just become that in four weeks time we have people coming in here just enjoy the atmosphere enjoy coming in and seeing all of the collections that a lot of them are from my childhood that are now out of my house but they have a hall and there is a history i have all of these wescott old ads from west cars from the one nine hundred twenty s and i framed them and put them on the wall wescott wrenches from the early one nine hundred s history around the name and then the place has a history just within it you can look around and see all the things that we've collected over time but within that we try to showcase a lot of local and regional artisans with new gifts so when you come in you can buy a gift for your father your mother or your brother there's a candy section we've tried to find find something for everybody and it is a very unique concept but it has just been so well received everybody walks in and says there's nothing like it in the way enjoy that cut those comments very good it's a very colorful show up to we were just looking at a tape that was taken earlier we want to sort of set that up and you might be able to comment on some scenes from our yummy good section we like to call it those are retro their new bags but those are retro bowling they look like oh this is the garden section in the back of the store  promp ter to write a little bit about her life which is a great collection to give to her and then there's also a grandmother i want as well and when it you want to talk about the father's day when we put together yes so we have a special these  the parent to tell stories about your childhood too as a keepsake for your child to write it was wonderful it's a great day it's a great idea we also have a guest book that we sold out of within three weeks which sits at your that's fine and then so what we've tried to do too is incorporate a lot of as i said local and regional like this is this is a vermont based company we have some other companies like this one which makes  a based company that makes it's a farm and they make milk carmel's and they're delicious they're absolutely wonderful i have their box right here big picture farm and they name all of their goats on the outside the box it's a fabulous product and just a small family run farm and we're trying to promote that in the small businesses as well as we are and i have and then yes we have our taffy which is a very popular product that we have we have probably ten different flavors of taffy and it's a triple wept really soft taffy it's very popular it's not the and makes these fabulous pastry stands and she names them all this one has a name of market and i just love her a static she really has a beautiful i and she is taking all of these old dishes which a lot of people don't know what to do with and she's repur sing them into something spectacular as a gift or just a present for yourself so we have a lot of those things as well we big proponents of repurpose saying where are we can so i often times will find things everywhere side of the road to help bring it out and be able to turn it into something or it ends up being something fun in my back garden at the shop which you'll see some interesting pieces there as well the other thing i noticed from from from your website which is w w w a family oriented neighborhood meeting place again and i think with a lot of the big box stores that gets lost and we really are striving to have this community based shop where in addition to h people come in and just tell their story we'll tell them a story is incorporating the other businesses which i think is very important and i just put together an article for the citizen herald where i've taken some items from uncommon finds which is two doors away from us and i brought in a couple of their items paired with some of ours wrapped it up as a mother's day gift and i put that in the article with some photos saying you can come into any of the stores around us and pick up something we'll bring it in pick a couple of things from us will package it up and i think it just makes for a community based community based thinking you know community based business worse we're all small businesses trying to succeed and there's room for all of us and it's fun to be able to bring it all together and just take walks on saturdays with the children or they come in by themselves and they're in the middle of you know the week it's great and we're having some great folks around the side of that area who've lived there for forty fifty years and they have wonderful stories about what used to be in cushing square and how they're so happy to see us because you can just come in there you know they want pushing square to grow and evolve into this vibrant shopping space again sense and you have mentioned when they walk by they said you know what i didn't know you were here but your front looked so inviting you have put these big pots out and we've got our tables and we're inviting you to come in and join us in our you know fun that we're having we're having so much fun and it's really been terrific one of you which were you you open six days week we're going to see with the neighborhood if people want to be open on monday we may do that you know it's been it's been fun there was a woman around the corner we also buy items a woman around the corner sold me her working victrola just last week and it was great put it in the shop we can just give you the loves it absolutely loves it and it up putting it in here and i sent her picture i said vicki has a great home so come in on sundays and listen to her play and she was so excited that something that she thought was just going to go away is around the corner when you buy stuff ye our our store is always changing already even in the four weeks people will buy something right off the wall and over a place that they might buy a table that we had as a display or place it so it's always changing and that's what makes it fun as well you'll come in and we see something differently is there ready to go should like to have it was go to know about stopping by the west cut back and i just hope that people will come in and take in the fun and peruse and maybe purchase something maybe come in and it's just a really fun atmosphere and