Like so many awesome little businesses, SaraBoo Creek was born as a “side gig” in my suburban Illinois home. I’m not sure that term was even used 30 years ago, but it’s a good one! At 30 years old, having finished grad school and started my first college teaching job, I had my first child, Patrick (soon nicknamed Boo) and of course fell madly in love with my little guy. Like so many young families, we needed additional income, but like lots of moms I wanted to find a way to help the family without having to leave home. I was inspired by my own mother, who had started selling antiques (in her 50’s!) to take her lifetime love of Vintage to a new level. I loved helping with her booth at flea markets, and I credit those days with my mom for sparking an entrepreneurial fire I didn’t know I had. I paid attention to what people were buying around us, all the while wondering “What can I do? What can I sell that people would want?”. If you had asked this History teacher what was the one quality I had NONE of, I would have (without hesitation) said creativity. But life is a funny thing, and what I know now is that you never know your potential for ANYTHING, until you tap into it. So…with that little fire burning and armed with the belief that I would “figure it out” along the way, I added another “first” to my 30th year – I started a business. A creative business.
It's funny how things come full circle…at that time all things rustic and “shabby chic” were the rage. Now, we are back to rustic finishes and farmhouse styles. My first products were barn wood birdhouses (birdhouses were HUGE then!). I started out at small craft fairs and flea markets, all the while improving and expanding my items, honing my displays, and learning everything there was to know about that “gypsy” artisan life. When my daughter, Sarah, was born a few years later I gave the business its forever name, SaraBoo Creek. Two little ones in tow, I was teaching 3 nights a week, making product all week long (while sneaking grading and lecture writing into the crevices of my days), and filling 35 weekends a year doing craft shows. Yup! that was a little nutty…but it was also empowering and invigorating to be growing my own “thing” and at the same time, growing myself.
Within a few years, my product line continued to evolve and as I got into bigger shows and needed more product than I could make myself, I hired a few neighbor moms to help me. We were often quite the curiosity at the local parks, lugging along our in-progress wares so the kids could play while we worked. By the time Sarah was entering grade school, SaraBoo was clearly outgrowing “side gig” status and I had a decision to make -- go all in on the business and stop teaching or pull back and continue the straddle. I realized quickly I don’t have much “pull back” in me and bought a cute little cape cod building for our next SaraBoo adventure -- a work space and our 1st retail storefront! Now we could hand craft all of our designs as a team in an actual workshop (bye bye basement!); and at the same time begin finding complementary commercial wares that we loved to sell in our adjacent Crest Hill boutique.
Over the years we have opened 2 more stores in great retail locations, downtown Naperville and downtown Plainfield IL, while continuing to participate in select markets throughout the country. We took our wood line in a new direction, enabling in-person customers to design custom signs, frames, and ornaments using our handcrafted accent shapes and lettering options, which we glue up and finish on the spot! Our “customizing” line is so much fun and allows everyone to tap into their creative potential (whether they know they have it or not!). If you’re ever in the Chicago suburbs, come see us in person and give it a try! We also have an ever-growing line of hand personalized ornaments that we work on year-round.
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.
The last few years have seen a lot of changes – unanticipated, but critical pivots brought on by the chaos of Covid when our stores were forced to close and our holiday show season was abruptly canceled. We had no idea what was ahead (time to pivot!), so we cranked up an e-commerce presence in just a few days with an ETSY shop and a new website, and developed a new “Custom Cuts” line of our products with a more online amenable design process for customers. We adapted our Crest Hill store area into a production and fulfillment space to help make it work and prayed we would one day have a pandemic survival story to tell. We were truly stunned by the amazing support we received and how much growth would come from that experience! Our entrepreneurial spirit is renewed once again and continues to propel our small (but mighty!) business to exciting new places. We hope you will 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 that makes it all possible.
Thank you for visiting our online shop and taking the time to read a bit of our story. We are forever a work in progress, so don’t hesitate to message us with any thoughts or just to say "Hello"! We love doing what we do and infuse all our work with a little bit of that happiness whether we are hand personalizing your ornament, creating a store display to inspire you, or packaging your gift order with care. We look forward to helping you!