Retailer Spotlight - Poppy Arts in Columbia, Missouri

Poppy Arts in Columbia, MO started in a living room in 1981 as a way for the owner to discover and buy beautiful handmade goods. Home wares, jewelry and cards come from all over with a focus on handcrafted pieces. This shop has become a gift-buying destination over the years (even for the owner!). Liz Tucker, owner of Poppy Arts took some time to answer questions about her history with the shop.

Tell me how you got started with Poppy:
I started working at Poppy very part-time in January 2004.  I had grown up shopping at Poppy and still have the first piece of jewelry I bought there when I was in 5th grade (a pair of fimo clay heart earrings---it was the early 90s!) I continued to work more and more at the shop until I became full time and started to accompany Barb {Editor’s note - Barb was the original owner of the shop} on buying trips.  Turns out we could walk into a booth and choose almost the exact same pieces.  I learned so much from watching her work and interact with artists.  In 2011 Barb retired and moved out to Northern California and that's when I took over.  It has been an amazing almost four years.  

Is there something that you are coveting for yourself at Poppy but haven’t pulled the trigger on yet?
Oh gosh, that's a tough one.  I try to invest in at least one piece of jewelry from each artist that we represent, partly as a token of thanks and partly as a little historical documentation of the shop and the style at the time.  My problem right now is that I'm drawn to the warmth of gold and rose gold, so naturally my favorite pieces are more expensive.  

What is your favorite place for lunch in the neighborhood?
My favorite place for lunch is a little vegetarian restaurant called Main Squeeze.  The owner, Leigh, is hustling healthy food day in and day out.  I feel like a better human being after eating there.

Tell me a little about the people who work at Poppy:
My right hand gal and partner in crime is Lili Johnstone.  Lili has a degree in theatre set design and applies that knowledge so beautifully to a retail space.  She can literally make a display out of anything, kind of like a visual merchandising MacGyver.  I have endless amounts of admiration for her talent (oh, and did I mention she's hilarious?  Keeps me in stitches.)

What is your favorite time of year at Poppy?
I love the ebb and flow of busy that takes place in a college town.  It's always nice in the summer when things slow down a bit, but I always look so forward to the return of the students in the fall.  It tends to cool down too so we have the shop doors open and can hear all of the action out on the street.  Students breathe so much life into our town.

Poppy Arts
920 East Broadway
Columbia, MO 65201

Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Sunday 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Instagram @poppymadebyhand

Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/shoppoppy/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Poppy/28723092495

Balancing Work and Life When Working From Home

It seems that more than ever people are talking about work/life balance. It’s a continual struggle, and that balance only seems more and more elusive as our lives get busier and busier. Taking a break from work is important for maintaining mental health, for viewing problems with a fresh perspective, and of course, for maintaining relationships with the people in your life.  It’s also a particular challenge for those of us who work from home.

There are so many advantages to working from home. The commute is A-MAY-ZING. I never have to pack a lunch. I can run loads of laundry while I’m logging wholesale orders. I never forget anything at work. That said, there are plenty of downsides as well. When your office is your house, your work and your life are always vying for your attention: that laundry is calling when you’re trying to create your new line sheets, and that new collection is pulling you toward the studio when you want to read a book with your kids. So how do you prevent your home life from becoming all about work? I can’t pretend that I have the answers, but I have come up with some strategies for myself to keep from going completely insane.

1. Get out of the house.

This is probably the very most important thing for me to do every day. It doesn’t need to be a hike, or even a long walk. I just need to get out of my house for 20 minutes and do something completely unrelated to work. For me, it works best if I get out first thing in the morning.  It pushes me to get dressed and when I return (coffee in hand, of course) it feels as if I’m entering the work part of my day.

2. Set firm boundaries for yourself.

With work within reach at all times, I find it really hard to resist the pull to complete just. One. Last. Thing. If I’m not careful, I can be sucked into the vortex of my workspace and never get the break I know I need. I’ve found that I need to set some rules for myself about when I need to step away from the bench and end my workday. During the week, I don’t work after 9pm, and on the weekends I designate one day when I don’t touch work at all. OK, OK, sometimes when I’m facing a crazy deadline I break these rules, but I really do try to abide by them for my own mental health and the mental health of those in my family.

3. Make time for transitions.

When you’re commuting from work to home, that commute time can serve as an opportunity to unpack and process your day and set your goals and intentions for the next day. I like to think of it as transitioning from “work brain” to “home brain” and vice versa.  When your commute consists of walking from one room to the next, there’s no built-in transition time, so I find that I need to carve it out for myself. In the morning, my coffee run is my time to think about what I need and want to accomplish in the day ahead, but in the evening I have to be more creative about finding time. Some days I find a quiet thinking space when I’m driving to pick my kids up from school, on other days it might be when I’m cooking dinner for my family.

4. Find coworkers.

The lack of coworkers can be one of the most positive and most negative aspects of working at home. On the one hand, you are not forced to share a cubicle wall with someone who has no volume control during phone conversations. On the other hand, you have no one with whom to gather around the water cooler to discuss the latest episode of OITNB. Because of this, working from home can be isolating. Furthermore, I find that since there aren’t coworkers to meet with, I feel pressure to work continuously throughout the day- no excuses because no distractions, right? Wrong. Interaction with others, especially those who understand your business and its challenges, is an integral part of preventing work from usurping more power than it deserves. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to find yourself some coworkers. For example, there are coworking spaces popping up all over, such as Makeshift Society in San Francisco (and now Brooklyn as well). Another way to find coworkers is to join a business group. For me, the Creative Business League has been a great way to celebrate and commiserate with other makers hustling to build their businesses.   

Overall, balancing work and life needs to be a more intentional process when home is your workplace. Natural limits that exist when you work outside the home are just not going to be there, so you have to be diligent about creating them for yourself. For me, striving for this balance is an iterative process- as my work and home lives shift and change, I need to step back and tinker with the systems that I’ve put in place. I’d love to hear- how do you strike a balance when you’re working from home? Share your ideas and strategies in the comments.