New boutique in Urbana seeks to offer 'an experience' for women
Dec. 25—A new boutique has opened in Urbana with hopes of offering an experience in a local store designed for women.
Stephanie Peterson and her husband Mark opened A Mustard Seed, The Boutique at 20 Monument Square, on Dec. 1 and held a ribbon-cutting event on Dec. 13.
"The response has been overwhelmingly positive and excited, so we're just really happy to be doing something we can call our own and be doing this together," Peterson said.
The boutique offers "an experience and local store" for women to purchase clothing sized small to 3XL on some styles, jewelry and a few purses, as well as coffee mugs, candles, hair accessories, and maybe eventually belts, sunglasses and shoes or boots. The costs range from about $30-60.
The Petersons, who live in Springfield, originally thought about looking for a space to rent in January to open in March, since Peterson said she has previous retail experience and knows it's slower in those months. They started looking around to get an idea of where they'd like to open a store, and they then landed on Urbana since Peterson is from there.
"We learned that there's so much going on and exciting things coming to Urbana that we decided to get a little more serious about our search," Peterson said. "It just feels like home still to me, so I really wanted to be there. But more importantly, I really wanted to be in the downtown area."
The two found the shop by walking around downtown. They saw the space, contacted the owner and arranged a meeting. Peterson said the space wasn't for rent at the time, but presented their ideas, and the owner told them the space was theirs.
The lease for the space was signed at the end of October, and the couple got to work to open in time for the Christmas season.
"What were we getting ourselves into?" Peterson said. "This was insane to me, but we got to it... It's been a whirlwind of the last few weeks pulling this all together, but we have a few family members and really great friends who have pitched in to help and really be my lifesavers somedays."
As for the name of the boutique, Peterson credits her husband.
"This adventure was a huge leap of faith for us as I quit a job I love recently to pursue this, but as Matthew 17:20 says, 'If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, nothing will be impossible for you,.'" Peterson said. "And then there's the fact that mustard is my favorite color, and we have our initials behind our counter, M and S, for Mustard Seed and for Mark and Stephanie."
Peterson works fulltime at the boutique and her husband is a registered nurse at Mercy Health in Springfield. The two have four children between them ranging in ages 12-21.
The store hours are "kind of all over the place with the holidays," Peterson said, but the store was open daily through Dec. 24. After Christmas, they plan to be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
For more information, call 937-772-4015 or visit the business on Facebook.
