Seasonal boutique offers handmade products

People looking for an unusual Christmas gift probably can find something at the All Thumbs Holiday Boutique.

Need some doll diapers, baked potato bags or a quilt that turns into a pillow? No problem. Just don’t spill any champagne jelly on them.

And don’t expect anything that isn’t handmade.

Monte Miller said he and his wife, Kathy, opened the seasonal gift shop at 7816 E. Broadway Ave. last month to support more than a dozen fellow “crafters,” some of whom are struggling financially.

“We’re a bunch of friends, a close-knit group,” Miller said. “We’re a clique, my wife says.”

They often attend the same craft shows and try to support one another. But it’s difficult to cash in on last-minute Christmas shopping because there aren’t many shows after the first week in December.

“We kind of ride the wave of the economy,” said Miller, who does wood scrollwork. “We’re after the fun money that people have left after they pay their bills, but we have a quality product at a great price.”

Given the economic recession, “this is definitely the year for money to stay in town,” Miller said.

“Most of our crafters are seniors,” he said. “Some are on fixed incomes.”

Others, like concrete artist Arturo Morando, have suffered from cutbacks in their regular jobs, Miller said. Seasonal work that ordinarily carries him into the fall ended last summer.

Similarly, another contributor’s husband has been laid off for eight months this year, Miller said.

He considers himself fortunate to be a fisheries biologist for the Colville Confederated Tribes, and his wife is an insurance agent. So, when a 2,200-square-foot house became available – Kathy Miller’s boss bought it as a future office – the Millers decided to open the All Thumbs boutique.

“This is kind of a way we can give something back, and I’m just hoping it works,” Monte Miller said.

The Millers run the shop so their friends don’t have to sit at vendor booths throughout the four three-day weekends the boutique is open.

The boutique will be open for two more weekends, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays. Its last day will be Dec. 21.

With a “shoestring” advertising budget, the boutique hasn’t attracted a lot of customers yet. Miller said there were only about 15 customers last weekend, “but everybody bought something.”

In other words, the selection is still good.

Wares range from the abstract to the concrete.

Morando makes “really beautiful” concrete yard ornaments, Miller said. “His work is true art. It’s very detailed.”

Other merchandise includes Christmas decorations, jewelry, all sorts of clothing, lamps, toys, candles in more than 30 scents and 45 flavors of jams, jelly and marmalade.

Miller said he expects to run out of Laura Poulin’s huckleberry jam, but she offers “all the fruit flavors you could imagine.”

Imagination is the boutique specialty.

“They’re artists, really,” Miller said. “This is kind of an idea show.”

Imagine a quilt that folds into a pillow. Marsha Sundberg calls it a “quillow.”

There are toys for everyone, even pets.

Miller said Vivian Pauley’s old-fashioned stick horses are “the cutest things I’ve seen in years. They’re different colors, and they’re plush.”

The fabric steeds have no vinyl and require no oats.

For those who want something more modern, there are wooden cars.