New business, managers working in Cathlamet

Tis The Season

Main Street’s newest business, ‘Tis the Season, opened Tuesday morning. Sisters Ashley Jones and Auburn Seal, their mother Vicky Keys, and their grandmother Fran Vandegrift are the owners.

The boutique, which carries seasonal merchandise, candles, and scrapbooking supplies, will observe the Halloween season with its first organized scrapbooking event this Saturday, the day before Halloween.

The Eagle spoke with Auburn Seal on Tuesday about her family’s hopes and dreams for their business.

Why did you decide to open a business in Wahkiakum County?

Seal: It was my husband’s (local dentist Dr. Jared Seal) idea, originally. He said we should open a business because we hated seeing all the empty storefronts. So we were brainstorming . . . We were sitting and talking to each other and we came up with the idea of opening a seasonal store. And that was one month ago. And so in 30 days we went from there to here. It’s been crazy.

Are you all scrapbookers?

Seal: My mother (Vicky) and grandmother (Fran) aren’t so much but my sister and I are. She loves to make cards and I love to do scrapbooking and I’m our family history buff.

What are your goals and plans for the store?

Seal: Well, we would love to stay open (chuckles).

Our plans are to have new merchandise as often as possible and to go with the season. That’s the point of our name. We will probably always have a Christmas section, I imagine, because it’s such a fun thing to go to little touristy towns and there’s that one Christmas store that’s open year round. So we’ll have seasonal items and a little bit of Christmas stuff and our classes. We really want to grow our classes.

Our first class is this Saturday from 7 p.m. to midnight, and we’re calling it our October Midnight Madness Scrapfest. It’s just basically a scrapbook party. People can bring their own materials and work on a craft of their own, or they can come and purchase materials we carry if something sparks an idea. People can come in costume but don’t have to. We’ll give out prizes for costumes. It’s $10 and we’ll have refreshments and music. It’s meant to be a time to hang out and have fun.

Starting in November we’ll have weekly scrapbook classes and family history classes and craft classes. We’ll post a schedule soon.

We’ll have a class where you can make your own 2011 calendar. We have a Cricut machine (pronounced “cricket”) that is a computerized die cutting machine. You can buy cartridges to do different shapes and fonts and select different sizes to cut from paper, vinyl, or cardstock. So you can cut out your calendar template and then shapes to decorate the months.

Also in November Ashley will teach a vintage Thanksgiving card class and later in the month a vintage Christmas card class.

I’ll do a genealogy class for kids that are interested or maybe need to do a family tree for a scouting badge. For adults, I’ll do genealogy boot camp and more in depth classes such as how to use federal census records or probate records for your research or where to find them. I love genealogy. I’ve been doing it for 19 years.

Had you operated a business before?

Seal: Yes and no. Ashley did the majority of decorating. She has retail experience. She worked in a stationery store, so she does the custom invitations and cards. I have a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and sold Mary Kay cosmetics. And Fran was a cashier for 28 years. She’s our money girl. She handles all our money.