Local Business Feature | Grimsby's Happy Baby Shop
I love doing these local business features! It's so great to get a glimpse into the lives of the people in our community, and of course, I also love buying local!
This month's featured business is The Happy Baby, owned and operated by the lovely Mary Jo Clements. She super pretty, funny, and never seems to run out of energy. If you haven't been to her store yet, you're seriously missing out! It's amazing, and already a favourite of all my clients with little ones.
"We are a specialty boutique for infants, toddlers and their parents, we carry a large selection of local, handmade and natural products. Our shop is located at 2 Main St West in the heart of down town Grimsby, Ontario.
We decided to get into this line of work when our daughter was born. She was the inspiration for the opening of the shop and it's name sake. She’s one Happy Baby.
When I was younger I definitely dreamed of running my own business. Now I gain a lot of inspiration from social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest as well as many of the amazing makers in our little corner of Ontario. Niagara has an excellent and diverse number of talented people."
"Finding balance with home and work is definitely tricky, there is something that always needs to be done. I do my best to not do work “stuff” outside of business hours and when we are all home. Sundays and Mondays are off limits too.
Our family is made up of myself, my husband Joe, our two year old daughter Darwin, Grandpa and Solo the German shepherd.
In our free time, like weekends, we do things together as a family. Trips to the aquarium, zoo, butterfly conservatory and the like. For Darwin’s 2nd birthday, which is upcoming, we are taking her to the Strong Children's Museum in Rochester. Also I recently started horseback riding early mornings twice per week for fun and exercise.
When she was younger, Darwin came to work with me every day. I would wear her in the shop as she napped, breastfeed and work the register and hold dance parties while we closed up. Now that she is an active toddler she attends daycare around the corner. I drop her off on my way into the shop and pick her up at the end of the day, on the longer evenings she helps me close up.
What I love most about what I do at The Happy Baby is seeing how much joy you can bring to someone, be it a person buying a cute pair of booties for their baby or providing a place for other small business owners to showcase themselves."
You'll find Mary Jo's favourite products here on her website: The Happy Baby.
And here are a few favourites from her mama & baby photography session with me.
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
"Karen is an amazingly caring and attentive person, I've done several sessions with her and she has always shown the same attention to detail. She's was fantastic and patient with my baby and captured stunning images. Her studio is gorgeous and you really can't go wrong choosing her." - Mary Jo Clements
