From the time I could process my thoughts, I've always had a fire inside to turn my main dreams into  realities. I'm a typical Scorpio - a passionate self starter who stops at nothing until my goal is accomplished. If I don't see an opportunity, I try to create it for myself. At the same time, if I see an opportunity and I take it, and realize it's a mistake - I will correct it. Especially when quality of life is getting impacted and it's just simply not worth the trouble. 

After a lot of thought & consideration, I have decided it's best to close up the Montclair store this August and consolidate everything into one big store in Beach Haven.

Fresh off the heels of my first successful season on LBI, I felt like I didn't want to stop the moving train. Why not add more chaos and open a full time store again? It definitely made sense to give it a go. Plus, I let the nosey "how do you make money in the off season?" questions get to me and make me panic. I've grown up enough in the past year to know that the answer to those types of questions is a big fat "None of your business".

I feel if I didn't open the second store, I would have always wondered what it would be like to have two. The opportunity came to me and I took it. As time went on, it just became super obvious that it was a bit of a mistake. It just didn't click. Every month has been a struggle and the negative outweighed the positive. The stresses of doubling the already expensive overhead of a brick & mortar business mixed with many other things just proved to be simply too much. I'm not even 30 years old yet and I have a future I'd like to protect.

I'm super thankful nothing will truly go to waste since there is a spot to move everything to. All of the beautiful items that I spent time collecting and assembling in the Montclair store will have a happy sea side home. This is why I'm closing up there sooner than later so I can still make good use of everything while the LBI season is still in full swing. Time is precious in a situation like this.

A Lovely Universe will remain in the same spot in Beach Haven (412 n bay avenue!) and fully stocked online during the off season. Weekend hours on LBI will be extended past October and I'm planning a re-design this winter to truly maximize the space and make it even better once the third season rolls around. In a few years, I'd love to expand into a larger space on the island but not now.

The thing that remains the same with the Beach Haven location is that it's a happy place.  My family is right down the street, I can bike to work, people are in good moods because they're on vacation and I'm happy to say the business is growing beautifully. Even the hard days, offbeat schedule and traveling back/ forth each week feel completely worth it and daydreaming about it's future is a true joy. Plus, having a few available months during the year can open the doors for the creative freelance projects I've been offered and perhaps travel time (!!!!!!). This is why I'm no longer sad about this decision and I'm looking at it with complete excitement. It took some time to get there though.

Now is time to retreat, pull back, analyze things and s l o w l y figure out what's next.

So yeah, this is one of those "Time for a re-do!" moves in life. This just happens to be a bit public (how fun!) but I can already feel the new calmer possibilities forming and that's the best.


 Many thanks to those who supported the store over the year - please stay in touch!

note: the last official day in upper montclair will be august 7th
a lot of the stock is already either sold or moved down to LBI!