Tuesday, November 20, 2007 12:10 AM CST
MRO Designs does a little of just about everything
By ROB STROUD, Staff Writer
rstroud@jg-tc.com
CASEY — A family could buy boutique clothing and local school apparel at MRO Designs, get a stylized print portrait in this wear, and have Christmas cards created from the print.
This is the wide range of services available at the store that owner Monica Richards opened Sept. 29 at 6 W. Main St., in downtown Casey. She had operated a shop since June 2006 out of a house in Casey.
“In not even a year we grew so fast we had to move uptown,” Richards said.
Richards started her business about four years ago by taking her stylized prints on the road to arts and crafts shows. She uses whimsical stick-like figures with colorful clothing and backdrops to depict various scenes. Examples include children in their rooms, sports-related scenes, family portraits, and weddings.
From there, the entrepreneur branched out to graphic arts and screen printing.
“It’s developed because people have asked me if I could do something and I would just say ‘yes,’” Richards said with a laugh.
Richards has created greeting cards and stationary as well as invitations to baby showers, weddings and other special events. She also handles small and large orders for business cards, flyers, menus and other items for businesses.
“We like to say we are small business for small businesses,” Richards said.
In regard to screen printing, Richards has specialized in creating apparel bearing logos of local schools and their athletic teams. The back room of her sales floor is stocked with a whole new line of Casey-Westfield wear that she created last year. The room is decorated with a row of lockers.
Plans call for MRO Designs to offer newly designed school apparel for Cumberland and Martinsville early next year.
“My customers from that direction are the ones who asked me to do that,” Richards said.
The front of MRO Designs features a “girly chic boutique” stocked with clothing, scarves, purses, bead jewelry and more. The store carries local items such as Double Blessings candles, which raise money for infertility research, and Cards by Darcie, which raise funds for Relay for Life.
MRO Designs is located downtown in the same block as the Petals & Perks gift shop.
“We are really trying to rebuild our downtown area and bring back businesses downtown so people have places to shop locally,” Richards said. “I truly appreciate how people are supporting us. It has been wonderful.”
Richards and office manager Terri Orrell staff MRO Designs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Friday, and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. To contact the store, call 932-2305.
Contact Rob Stroud at rstroud@jg-tc.com or 348-5734.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
