Greetings to you 🙋‍♀ Craft-thusiasts of the Info-nets 🖌❤🖥
The occasion has risen has risen once again!
A moment for Granting Awareness, regarding the nature of Entrepreneurial Creatives!
AKA, time for another… 🖌💡🎨 Artist Spotlight 🖌💡🎨
Today, we’ll be highlighting…

✨💎✨ CELESTE M. MUMFORD of J LEXI ✨💎✨

Celeste’s journey into crafting began with a 💣BANG💣 in 2011.
That was when she took her first Soap-Making Course 👩‍🎓
Miss Mumford had always to loved to create, starting out as a baker 🍞
However, she found the need to stick to the recipe too restricting 🤐😫
She was immediately drawn to the freedom to customize that Soap offers 🖌🎨
She started her business a year later, in October of 2012.

Since founding her business, she’s expanded well beyond soap.
J Lexi now offers a wide variety of crafts,
Including Salves, Perfumes, Facial Toners, and a line of CBD products 🌿
Celeste classifies her brand as “Holistic,” or “Whole Person” 🧘‍♀
Designed to support Physical 💪 Mental 🧠 and Spiritual health ☯
“I see myself more as a cosmetic, than a bath and body company” says Celeste,
“When you feel good, you look better” ✨😊✨

Her work is about spreading self-love 💕 and demonstrating the beauty of variety 🎨
“My brand is serious. It has a mission, to make people love the skin that they are in,”

“I want people to celebrate what makes them unique, no matter what they look like. We can all create our own standard of beauty.”

This desire to help individuals refine their personal beauty is reflected in her work,

Where the ultimate goal is Discovery 🔍

Celeste loves to experiment with unconventional ingredients 🌷🌿🍂

Seeing the exciting new possibilities they bring!

“When I focus on an ingredient, no matter what that ingredient is, I try to bring out its fullest potential, but without expectation. I give the ingredient the freedom to do whatever it’s going to do to the recipe.“ ~ Celeste M. Mumford

When you have a crafter who takes so much pride in her work like Miss Mumford 😎

They will naturally want to stick to only the finest ingredients 🍒🥝🍑

Celeste takes this a step further, creating her own ingredients whenever possible!

“If I’m going to use dehydrated sweet potato powder, I buy fresh sweet potatoes, and I dehydrate them myself” 🥔

Her passion, creativity, and enginuity are the Driving Force behind J Lexi .

We at the ECB are looking forward to working with Celeste in the years to come!

If you’d like to explore Celeste’s products first-hand, you can find them at The Eclectic Chic Boutique on 547 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, NJ. 

Greetings, Eclectic Enthusiasts! 😎😃😺👽🦄 It’s time once again for a Signature ECB…

🖌🔦🎨 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT 🖌🔦🎨

Today, we’ll be focusing on Rose Kardashian, of Loosey Goosey Couture 👗

Loosey Goosey Couture provides Tops and Tunics for Women 👚
Rose was kind enough to clarify the difference;
Tunics are longer, typically ending mid way between the knee and the hip
Mrs. Kardashian sews all of them herself 📍
Her products are designed to be Fashionable 👗 Functional 🔨 and Colorful 🎨

Before her tenure as an entrepreneurial crafter 🖌🧐
Rose worked 30 years as a Rehabilitation Counselor 👩‍⚕
Helping families and individuals with Special Needs 👦❤
She retired from counseling in 2012, and set up her business soon after.
As Mrs. Kardashian puts it, “It was my fun retirement business” 💕

The idea for her business 💡 was born from a series of poor shopping experiences 🔥🛍🔥
Rose found that in most store she went to 🏬
The Brightly Colored Clothing she sought out was consistently poorly made 🤢
And that the fabrics being used were of lesser quality 🧦
Mrs. Kardashian saw a niche that she could fill;
A need for High-Quality women’s clothing, that wasn’t afraid of Bold Colors 🎆🎨🎇
“It has never made sense to me to buy poor quality fabric, and spend a large amount of time sewing and designing them.” ~ Rose 🌹 Kardashian

Rose is an avid traveler ✈ to the NY Fashion District 🗽 and Beyond 🗺
Wherever she goes, she’s always hunting down fun and exotic fabrics ⛩🏯🏰
Thus ensuring each design is Exciting and Unique ✨👚✨

Rose was first introduced to the ECB through our founder, Kristen Zachares 🌷
They were both members of the Creative Women’s Collective 👩‍🎨👩‍💻👩‍🔬👩‍🎓👩‍⚕
“I love this whole idea of building a community of talented people” ~ Rose
Mrs. Kardashian has become a cherished member of the ECB Community 👫👬👭
And we look forward to working with her for a long time to come 😊

​Time ⏳⌚⏲ for another Eclectic Chic Boutique...  🎨🖌🔦 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT 🔦🖌🎨
Today’s Spotlight is on: Andy Coyle, founder of Wood-N-Thingz 🌳🔨

Wood-N-Thingz is a company dedicated to providing top quality woodwork 👍👌
Exploring the beauty of exotic woods from across the globe 🌎🌍
Combining them with precision and care for ✨Dazzling✨ results

The name Wood-N-Thingz is multipurpose, base on pronunciation
If pronounced “Wooden Things,” it suggest a woodworking company 🌲
OR
If pronounced “Wood and Things,” it highlight the variation of his crafts 🤩
This creative naming convention reflects Andy’s focus on elegance and functionality 

The products Wood-N-Thingz offer include;

• Pens 🖋
• Bottle Stoppers 🍾
• Platters 🍽
• Cheese Slicers 🧀🔪

With more products being added all the time, based on;
​“Customer suggestions and our own ideas” -Andy Coyle 

Andy first learned woodworking from his father 👨 who worked as a carpenter 🔨
He picked up his design sensibilities from his mother 👩 a Horticulturist 🌹🌻🌷
The lessons they taught followed with him throughout his life, and into his craft.
“When I’m in my workshop, I feel my dad. I’m drawing on my mother and my father” 😢❤ 

The time 🕑 and care 🤱 he puts into his work is evident in all his pieces
Each product is individually designed and crafted, or as Andy puts it;
“We’re not a production shop, we don’t make 50 of the same thing.” 💯
While Mr. Coyle is proud of his designs, he also enjoys creating custom items
“We certainly enjoy doing custom work, if somebody wanted something special” 🎁

​That covers Wood-N-Thingz, but what about Andy himself? 😯
How did the good Mr. Coyle find himself in the Woodworking business? 🤔
Andy’s first foray into business began not with carpentry, but with computers 💻
Grab some popcorn my friend 🍿 as our tale begins…

In 1962, Andy joined the US Air Force straight out of high school 🎓✈🇺🇸
He served his country for 4 years, maintaining the computer systems 🔧
After leaving the service, he got a job with Honeywell International Inc 🍯🤑
He stayed there for 15 years, maintaining computers for large companies 💻

Andy’s next 15 years were a 🌪WHIRLWIND🌪 
While working at Drew Chemicals, he helped create a patented water analyzer 💧🔍
He worked on Wall Street 🧐🏢 as a technical manager
At a Manhattan based company 🗽 he build network infrastructures for law firms

After working for so many companies 💻✈🏢🗽
Andy decided to go into business for himself, founding Armadillo Services
Armadillo dones building wiring, network computers, and phone systems 
AS has done work for some MAJOR NY Companies 🗽
(We can’t give names, but trust us; they’re BIG 😉)
Andy continues to work there to this day

​Quite the busy fellow, isn’t he? 😁
Still, the question remains;
❓❓❓HOW DID HE FOUND WOOD-N-THINGZ❓❓❓

THAT story begins with his lovely wife 🙋‍♀ and fellow ECB Artist 🎨, Maureen
She had decided it was time to leave her job as a paralegal 🖨
And follow her dream of starting her own Skincare company; 
🌹 Heaven Scent Beauty 🌹 (expect an Artist Spotlight down the road)

For those who’ve never started a home crafting business 🏠🎨
Time first step is to hit the pop-up show circuit 
Being a devoted partner, Andy was all too happy to do the heavy lifting 🏋‍♂
“I was the strong back and the weak mind. I still am.” 🤣

While Andy was certainly passionate about helping his wife 👫
He was not quite as passionate about self-care products 😒
To help keep himself engaged at the shows 🎪
He began making cutting boards to take with them to sell

At one such show, the show runner came up to inform him;
“All my other woodworkers have dropped out. You wanna set up?”
Thus he truly began making ⚒ and marketing 📢
Woon-N-Thingz was born! 🎉🎉🎉

Amazing how a small turn of events can shape your life to come…
Makes ya think, don’t it? 😉