Our Story

It all started in 1994…

When Cindy, filled with the energy of a 30 year old eager to set the world on fire, started her college teaching career, had her first child, and launched a “side gig” selling rustic birdhouses at craft shows – all in the same year. Her entrepreneurial spirit awakened, she grew the business as her family grew, and in 2002 with Patrick (‘Boo’) and Sarah both into grade school, she made SaraBoo Creek her full time focus with the opening of our 1 st brick & mortar location in Crest Hill, IL. We moved our workshop out of Cindy’s basement and adapted a charming old cape cod house into our studio and store, as we continued to participate in dozens of art & craft shows throughout the country. We opened our 2nd store in 2007 when we could not pass up a cute little spot in downtown Naperville, IL. Accustomed to artfully packing her SaraBoo treasures into tiny show booths, Cindy saw nothing but potential in this perfectly situated petite storefront. While it can get pretty “cozy” during the bustling holiday season, our littlest store thrives right along with the vibrant downtown its set in. After many years keeping an eye out for a great location in the nearby town Cindy raised Sarah and Boo in, we opened our most recent SaraBoo Creek addition in Plainfield, IL in 2018. We love being a part of Plainfield’s historic downtown area as it begins to come into its own, with a growing array of fantastic restaurants and independent shops to visit.

SaraBoo Creek is…

a small (but mighty!) creative business, manned by a talented production team and dedicated store staff with an enthusiasm for helping customers find or design just the right piece to treasure or gift. We specialize in handcrafted, customizable wood products made in our studio, and want SaraBoo to be anything but a passive shopping experience for you! Our hands-on customizable line is available only in our SaraBoo Creek stores and the few select holiday markets we continue to participate in.  Each piece is designed, cut and handcrafted from raw materials right in our Crest Hill studio, and customers are encouraged to design signs, frames, ornaments and the like exactly how they love and will leave our stores with the perfect completed product ready to display or give. The SaraBoo “experience” is fun and creative and the possibilities are truly endless with the wide variety of finished shapes, letters and bases available to inspire you! While we are most know for our SaraBoo Creek wood line, our stores are also always filled with abundant displays of great gifts, décor, jewelry and fun accessories curated for “our customer” that we think you will love.

A New Start….ready, set, PIVOT…

2020 was a life changing year for the ‘Boo, as it was for many around the world, and definitely those in small business. With the closing of in store shopping for an unknowable duration in March - we had no choice but to rework our whole process and take a leap of faith into online shopping. In the past we have dabbled a time or two with online sales, but we felt that being a small business with our unique products, in person was where we shined best. While this is still mostly true for the ‘Boo, we tried our best to adapt and launched our e-commerce website within a week! We also developed a “Custom Cuts” line of our products more amenable to an online design process for customers, and we adapted our Crest Hill store area into a production and fulfillment space to help make it work. We were hopeful that these online sales would help a small business like us stay afloat, but we had no idea the amount of support we were about to see and how much growth would come from this experience. Amazingly, SaraBoo has been welcomed into the lives and homes of people in all 50 states in a few short months. WOW!! We are stunned, hugely appreciative, and yes, a little bit exhausted by all that was 2020. Our entrepreneurial spirit is renewed once again by possibilities that apparently are truly endless for SaraBoo Creek. We hope you will continue to take this ride with us, as we promise to always pivot and learn and grow and be ever-better for our SaraBoo family of customers, community, and our SaraBoo crew.

Online Sales in 2020

See you soon!