For Kim Winter, each piece of jewellery tells a story.

The K.M. Winter Jewellery Studio opened in Peterborough 25 years ago. Since then, Kim has been creating custom jewellery for clients in the local community and across the country.

From engagement rings, customized pendants, family crests and wedding bands, to logos for local businesses, each item Kim has crafted in her studio is unique and holds sentimental value for the wearer.

“Whatever we can dream up, we can make,” says Kim of the designs she’s completed over the years.

Clients bring ideas for entirely new pieces or they may request that existing jewellery be modified or adapted to a new style. Other times, clients bring stones from “Aunt Betty’s” ring that they want to make into a new piece of jewellery.

“One client came to me with her husband’s wedding ring,” says Kim, recalling the piece. “She wanted to create a memorial piece with it. Collaboratively, the design came together. The wedding ring served as the round frame, her diamonds became the stars in the sky, and a vibrant opal became the earth. It is a visually wonderful and heartfelt pendant.”

Kim cherishes the role she plays in immortalizing memories and important milestones for her clients.

“We get to be part of people’s celebrations. We also help people get through difficult times.”

At 18, Kim started working as an apprentice for an Italian master goldsmith in Windsor, Ontario. Over the years, she’s also worked in a jewellery factory on the production line, as the goldsmith at an upscale custom jewellery store, and briefly opened a little repair shop in Quebec when she and her husband lived there.

In addition to the practical and valuable industry experience Kim has gained through the many positions she held prior to coming to Peterborough, she also furthered her knowledge and skills by completing her gemology accreditation at George Brown College in Toronto.

The education never ends because the industry, technology, and client needs are continually evolving.

“My job is to leave my ego aside and give my clients exactly what they are looking for,” says Kim. “It’s not about what I like. Different people have different styles, and my goal is to work with their vision to develop a perfect piece of jewellery.”

With her designs, Kim takes into account the purpose of the jewellery, the colour of the stone, the details of the diamond, the size, durability, and many other factors to create a client-specific piece — something that only custom work can achieve.

As Kim explains, “While it may be easier for a person to go down to the mall and pick out ring, here we can create one-of-a-kind pieces that match the personality of each wearer.”

When she first came to Peterborough, Kim was nervous about starting her own business, but she found the local community to be welcoming. She notes that Peterborough had a very progressive attitude towards working from a home-based studio.

Kim is thankful for her very capable studio manager Erin. Her husband Jim, now in his retirement, has learned how to work on the CAD designs, helps with photography, IT, and many other jobs.

The success of K. M. Winter studio can be attributed to the care and attention the team gives to all their clients.

“We do everything we can,” she says. “We are client-first, as cliché as that may sound. We have clients all across the country. To me, that speaks to our happy clients and their referrals.”

Kim prioritizes her clients and doesn’t find much time to make jewellery for herself. But, her favourite stone?

“I’d have to say opal, and oh yes, blue star sapphire!” she says.

And her favourite story?

“We are starting to make pieces for the grown children of some of our early clients. Seeing these families grow and jewellery continuing to be important in their lives is incredibly rewarding.”

K.M. Winter Jewellery Studio, Inc. is located at 165 Edinburgh Street in Peterborough. For more information, call 705-741-1480, email info@kimwinterjewellery.ca, or visit www.kimwinterjewellery.ca.

Special to kawarthaNOW.com

Cora Whittington describes her coaching style as holistic — intuitive and spirit driven yet practical. As a life and business coach, Cora works with both personal and corporate clients, so they can shift themselves back to living in self-harmony.

Her clients refer to this shift as hitting “ground zero”: a neutral space where there’s no attachment to the past, where they achieve the clarity of mind and spirit to start fresh, to make clear choices, to create new perspectives and possibilities, and to see adversaries in a new light.

Cora learned her coaching style both from her own coaching teachers and by going through her own significant long-term adversity: she endured over a decade of fighting to save her century family farm from being expropriated by the city and county to be the buffer zone around a landfill site.

The adversity kept Cora in a state of perpetual fighting for what was “right” and what was “just”. She lived from the perspective of being a victim and needing to protect her home, their livelihood, and her family’s century of history and memories.

Then, through her training and personal self-development, Cora made her own energetic shift to ground zero. She no longer saw “those people on the other side” as adversaries. Instead, she was able to let go of this stressful and exhaustive mind frame and began to deliberately create her life and future anew.

Those past adversaries are today her friends and colleagues. She is respected for the graceful way in which she handled the situation, garnering her great respect in her community.

Through the experience, she created an amazing new career and a new life and home that no one could have convinced her was possible during the long years of stress.

“It’s so easy to be hooked by what we think is real,” Cora recalls. “We were fighting to save a property, but we weren’t that property. I could have continued to do that ‘poor me’ stuff and be angry to the end of my days but then I decided to not be that person. Instead, I re-created a better story — and then there was a better story.”

When Cora stopped struggling and focused on building something new and great — she ended up building an award-winning retreat centre and B&B called Golden Pathways.

Making that shift was one of the catalysts for Cora to become an executive and life coach and organizational development facilitator. She decided there was a better way for others to live and work and to be free of internal suffering no matter the cause.

Cora’s real-life learning still motivates her to help others experience that shift. With more than 2,500 coaching sessions and over 1,500 training sessions under her belt, she enthusiastically guides and supports clients and organizations in their making their own shift and finding their own ground zero and creating futures that surprise and delight them.

“I guide people to becoming clear about what they want, get to neutral, and then take inspired action,” she says. “This is part of the process of shifting, to moving into new possibilities and deliberately creating your future.”

Hitting the reset button is why Cora’s website is filled with testimonials and stories about lives changed and success experienced. Cora is adamant that, even when companies think they won’t have the resources to implement all of the newly discovered intentions, the simple energetic shift that happens when a team gets engaged can inspire everyone to share the work and to make room for more positive progress.

“It’s powerful when we can get people to move from wallowing in the problem to being solution-focused,” she says. “It’s still ideal to go through the whole strategic planning process to really instill the new action plans but, even with a single day of facilitation, you get to hit that organizational reset button.”

Cora explains the same prinicple works with personal coaching.

“I help facilitate the shift to who you want to be,” she says. “All the talking about the problem and how bad it is will not help shift negative energy. Together we can clear the energetic imprint of past experiences and then the shift happens, and you can see opportunities and clear actions in a way you never imagined.”

Cora Whittington, Executive and Life Coach, is located at Golden Pathways Retreat and B&B at 3075 Wallace Point Road in Otonabee. You can contact Cora by phone at 705-745-4006 (office) or 705-875-2784 (cell), or by email at cw@goldenpathways.ca. For more information, visit coachcora.ca. You can also find Coach Cora on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Known locally as a “fierce female founder” and trailblazer, Jeannine Taylor’s vision of a local internet-based media company dates back 22 years.

When she landed on the internet for the first time in late 1995, Jeannine wasn’t sure how it was going to change her own life — but she did know it was going to change everything else.

“I was the managing editor of three local print magazines at the time and the internet was a huge eureka moment for me,” she recalls. “I’d always worked in marketing and promotion and I just knew that the internet was a game changer.”

After a Christmas holiday spent surfing the internet — she laughingly says she was single at the time — she returned to her freelance work, recommending that her print publisher needed to embrace the internet.

When that didn’t happen, she did it alone, developing an “e-zine” with local content that launched on May 1, 1996 — just five months later. Called Quid Novis (a variation of quid novi, Latin for “what’s new?”), the website at quidnovis.com received 10,000 visits in its first week.

“That was a lot of internet traffic back in 1996,” Jeannine says. “It’s funny now to think of the publicity we got at the time. CBC Radio called me to come to Toronto for an interview, and the local daily and television news covered it too.”

There were only a handful of local websites in existence at the time, and businesses began to seek out Jeannine for guidance in web development and internet marketing. Quid Novis soon morphed into Quid Novis Internet Productions.

“We got really busy doing website development,” she says. “It was so busy that we didn’t need to seek our new clients — they came to us.”

The business grew over the next 15 years, with Quid Novis Internet Productions developing and hosting hundreds of websites for the private and public sector and garnering local, provincial, and international awards.

Along the way, Jeannine has garnered her own share of awards and accolades. She was Peterborough’s Business Woman of the Year in 2005, a Premier’s Award nominee in 2003, and received a City of Peterborough Civic Award for chairing the development of Millennium Park.

But Jeannine never lost sight of her original intent to develop an online media publication. Quidnovis.com had continued to thrive separately as an community events website, with growing traffic every month, but it was a labour of love. She committed staff resources to maintain and update the site, even though it was a cost centre for the company.

By 2006, changes were happening in the web development industry that made it easier for people to develop and host their own websites. At the same time, social media networks like Facebook and Twitter were gaining traction both with individuals and businesses.

“I realized the potential to grow the web development business was limited,” she says, and decided to shift her focus back on the business of online publishing.

Because the Quid Novis brand had become synonymous with web development, Jeannine rebranded quidnovis.com to kawarthaNOW.com in July 2010 and greatly expanded the site’s content to include news, arts, lifestyle, and business content — while still maintaining the community events of its predecessor.

Over the past eight years, kawarthaNOW.com has continued to grow, now reaching more than 220,000 unique readers every month who read 25,000 pages daily. In 2011 and again in 2013, kawarthaNOW.com was recognized with the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce Excellence Awards for Entrepreneurial Spirit.

But the internet has not only changed Jeannine’s business life: it’s also changed her personal life. It’s where she met her life and business partner Bruce Head, who has been by her side every step of the way since 1996 and is currently kawarthaNOW.com’s managing editor.

“I often joke that my only true talent is recruitment,” she says. “I recruited Bruce via Match.com in 1996 and I recruit all of our writers. We have amazing talented writers on our team, and they all understand our focus on high-quality content, which is a key feature of our brand.”

And there’s no slowing down. When it comes to online business, change is constant and fast paced, and there’s a need to be present and active on multiple channels every day and without pause. That includes social media, where kawarthaNOW.com has amassed over 48,000 followers including their weekly VIP enews. With more than 11,000 followers on Instagram — kawarthaNOW is the only local media company to achieve that milestone — by regularly sharing the work of local photographers.

“It can only be described as intense. We have to make the time to plan strategically and be ready to take action when needed,’ Jeannine explains. “We constantly need to re-evaluate our position in the market and watch who’s crossing into our business lane at any time. We used to do a SWOT once a year and it’s something we now talk about all the time.”

While for most people this might seem exhausting, Jeannine says it actually energizes her.

“It forces me to be constantly researching and learning,” she says.

“The real challenge is being able to accurately identify our next moves, where we need to going, and how to get there. With the pace of change on the internet, it’s a daily process to stay tuned in and be vigilant.

“It’s a good thing that, over 22 years later, I still believe the internet is the future of news and communication.”

The head office of kawarthaNOW.com is located in Peterborough. For more information, contact Jeannine Taylor at jt@kawarthanow.com or 705-742-6404. You can follow kawarthaNOW.com on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Susan Dunkley’s office in the Peterborough Humane Society at 385 Lansdowne Street East is a perfect illustration of organized chaos. There are books, binders, pictures, a hockey helmet, and a sign on a shelf that reads, “I dreamed my whole desk was clean.”

But despite the frenetic feel of the space, Susan helps to oversee a veritable army of people who care deeply about unwanted, sick, and injured animals from this cramped space on Lansdowne Street.

Susan is always in motion, jumping from task to task. While making time for an interview, she’s cheering on a summer student who has been asked to roll out a social media campaign — all while keeping a rescued dog safely cuddled on her lap.

There’s a staff celebration happening down the hall that Susan has to jump into, and there is also a steady stream of people in and out who have questions or need assistance from Susan — but through it all, she never misses a beat and never misses a chance to smile and say “thank you.”

Susan is a natural organizer. She’s run businesses and coordinated a ton of projects over the years but since landing at the Peterborough Humane Society, she feels more grounded, connected, and inspired by supportive work environment she and the PHS team have created together. She has praise for all of them, and salutes her E.D., Shawn Morey, for his vision and empowerment.

“Negativity can ruin my day,” Susan says. “My energy is a big part of this team. It works well in this environment.”

This energy has given the Peterborough Humane Society’s social media a boost and it has also helped to increase the number of volunteers that support the organization from 30 people, from when Susan joined the team, to over 180 in a relatively short period of time.

Susan wears many hats within the organization, and she wears them all with pride. She currently is responsible for all fundraising at the shelter, as well as overseeing the volunteer program, the licensing program, and all outreach for the shelter (including working with Curve Lake and Hiawatha Reserve).

“I can’t micromanage,” Susan admits. “I find out what people want to do, and what they can do. I’m particular about how work is done but I’m also enthusiastic.”

Volunteers help with everything from walking dogs to pulling weeds at the site of the Society’s future home, on Technology Drive — another project that Susan is helping with.

She’s been tasked with helping to oversee the fundraising for the new build — a huge job but one that is necessary to move the Society out of the 70-year-old building that was constructed as a pound. Susan says the new space is going to make a huge difference for all the animals that end up in care as well as for the community as a whole.

The new space will allow for a rehab centre, a low cost spay/neuter clinic, and more comfortable shelter space. While the drive is on to get in to their new building, Susan thinks it will take two to three years to get the new space built and open “it will be worth the wait”, she states emphatically.

“It’s not the best space right now,” Susan says, glancing at the tiny rescued poodle, resting on the lap of her summer student. “But no animal gets more love than they do from this team.”

Susan cares deeply about the animals who end up in the care of the Peterborough Humane Society. She’s working on a partnership with our local library to organize a volunteer reading program that will see kids reading to cats in their cages and she’s investigating what it will take to get a sensory garden built for the dogs.

And none of these projects really phase Susan. She knows she’s got the contacts, the friends and the colleagues in the community that she can call on to help. She is a connector of people and resources and her brain is always working on a plan.

This constant brain work and planning is likely why Susan loves walking. She and her dog Zoey try to get in a few kilometers every day, and all the dogs they meet know to sit when they see Susan.

“They all know I have treats in my right pocket,” Susan laughs.

Music also helps Susan to manage stress and feel at peace under the constant weight of having to find money and people and time to support the sick, injured and unwanted pets in the region.

Singing in two choirs, Susan says music is her faith. Bach’s Mass in B Minor is her favourite piece of music, hands down, but there is nothing quite as much fun for her as singing some great gospel music with her dear friend Barbara Monahan and the Peterborough Pop Ensemble.

VIDEO: Meet Susan Dunkley of the Peterborough Humane Society

This love of music is what landed Susan in the Anglican Church in Peterborough. Raised a Catholic, she watched her family go through a political battle with the Church that left her questioning her faith. So, when she ended up in Peterborough as an adult, she shopped around for a new church and says it was the music that won her over.

“The music is the best in the Anglican Church,” Susan explains, with just a hint of marketing flair. “They use the old, traditional hymns, and in my opinion there is nothing better. They’re complex to sing and they’re so much fun.”

Coming from a musical family, Susan can’t imagine not having music in her life, or people, or animals and that’s likely why her work with the Peterborough Humane Society is so rewarding. It really does provide an environment where she can draw on all of her skills and her passion to make a difference in her local community, which is something she really wants to keep doing.

“They call me the hurricane,” Susan says of her team at the Society.

It seems like a perfect nickname for the woman who fills the cramped office with so much energy.

“I know I come on strong,” Susan says, reflectively. “I don’t think I always make a great first impression but if I get to a second impression — it’s lasting and it’s positive.”

Positive is an understatement when it comes to the view that Susan takes of her work with the Society and in her community. There’s a sign on her door, one of many, but this one stands out. It’s held on with tape and it says “We say yes.” A simple mantra, but one that Susan, and those she works with, are fully committed to.

And sneaking one last look at the tiny dog, falling asleep on the lap of her summer student, it’s easy to understand why.

Susan Dunkley is Manager of Development and Outreach at the Peterborough Humane Society (385 Lansdowne St. E., Peterborough). You can call her at 705-745-4722 ext. 206 (office), 705-768-7894 (cell), or by email at s.dunkley@ptbohs.com. For more information on the Peterborough Humane Society, visit peterboroughhumanesociety.ca or follow the Society on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

For anyone who has been dissuaded from chasing a dream, Emily Martin’s story is for you.

A self-described music nerd who played piano and the double bass, Emily dreamed of a career in music as a teenager. That was until a high school guidance counsellor suggested Emily pursue a career in a field with more opportunities.

“I wanted to study music so desperately,” she recalls. “I was a member of the band and the orchestra. I had a guidance counsellor tell me there were no jobs in music and that I’d never make a living in it.”

Years later, Emily can speak to an impressive resume which includes several positions in the arts management industry — experience which has led her to her current role as General Manager of Showplace Performance Centre in Peterborough.

Emily reflects on that moment in the guidance counsellor’s office, which led her to pursue a degree in tourism from Niagara College.

“It’s funny thinking about it now because, in my own way, I’ve proved him wrong.”

Despite being discouraged from a career in music, while at Niagara College, Emily discovered that the tourism and culture industry would allow her to combine her education with her love of the arts. Emily’s first position in this industry was as a box office manager at the Georgian Theatre in Barrie, and then as a publicity manager at the Sudbury Theatre.

Emily credits these positions with introducing her to the industry and with providing a strong foundation of experience.

In 2004, Emily moved to Peterborough with her husband. Shortly after the move, she secured a position with Peterborough Musicfest. Emily began as a fundraising coordinator, then moved into the marketing department.

While with Musicfest, Emily discovered the passion and enthusiasm for arts and tourism in the Kawarthas.

“The passion of this area for music and entertainment is contagious,” she says. “So many hard-working people are dedicated to enhancing this community.”

Emily led Musicfest as general manager between 2010 and 2014, a period which saw Musicfest bring Tegan & Sara, Serena Ryder, Davy Jones, Carly Rae Jepson, and Kim Mitchell to the Fred Anderson stage at Del Crary Park.

In 2014, after 10 years of working for Musicfest, Emily was looking to gain new experience in the tourism and culture industry in Peterborough. A position at Showplace became available, and Emily joined the team as Marketing Manager. In April of this year, she was named the permanent General Manager after acting in the role for almost a year.

At Showplace Emily continues to bring world class music, comedy, and theatre acts to the city. Helping the community experience such events is one of her greatest rewards.

“The results of a career in this industry can be intangible, but they are definitely worth it,” she says. “I genuinely love going to work every day. At the end of a show, I like hearing people come out and say, ‘That was amazing!'”

Showplace Performance Centre is a community space, Emily says, with the mandate to bring in culturally diverse programming and to encourage and support active community involvement.

The 2018/19 season at Showplace is a testament to this diversity. Upcoming acts include the sold-out Steve Earle and the Dukes, Foley’s East Coast Pub, The Music of Abba, Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace and Chantel Kreviazuk, the Nutcracker Ballet, and Roch Voisine.

In addition to these great acts, Emily emphasizes that Showplace is much more than simply an entertainment venue. It’s also a community space that people can book for weddings, award ceremonies, graduations, high school musicals, conferences, and other purposes.

“It’s an important space for Peterborough and I’m honoured to be the General Manager,” says Emily, stressing that the strong team of predominantly women managers inspires her every day.

“The people I work with are incredible. Out of our five core managers, four are women, and three are members of the Women’s Business Network. Their ideas and passion for the organization are what drive me.”

Emily has served as internal communications director on the board for the Women’s Business Network (WBN) and is currently on the board for New Stages Theatre Company, a local professional theatre company that puts on readings of Canadian plays.

“We are so much stronger as a community if we partner together,” she explains. “It’s not about competition with other venues — it’s about bringing in performances to enrich our local community.”

Emily is hopeful that a strong local arts community will provide opportunities for any person aspiring to a career in the arts.

So, what does Emily now have to say about her career path?

“I think I made the right decision to not give up on the arts,” she says. “I’ve been a guest speaker to students in tourism programs and I always said, don’t close any doors.”

Showplace Performance Centre is located at 290 George Street North in downtown Peterborough. For more information and to order tickets online, visit www.showplace.org box office information, call 705-742-7469 or email boxoffice@showplace.org. You can also follow Showplace Performance Centre on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Betty Johnson has never seen a real estate market like the one she is seeing in Peterborough right now.

With 16 years of experience as a local realtor at RE/MAX Eastern Realty Inc, Betty is taking some deep breaths and doing what she can to help buyers and sellers stay calm and to stay out of the frenzy that is turning the local real estate market upside down.

“I want to make sure people are protected,” Betty explains.

That desire to keep buyers and sellers protected includes getting to know her clients, understanding their budget, and trying to figure out what they really want and need. So Betty starts with a plan: she takes the time to figure out not only what her clients want, but also what they can afford.

“It will save you heartache if you know up-front what you can spend,” Betty says.

New financial stress tests are making it harder for people to access as much credit as they might have a year ago and, with 30 years of experience as a mortgage broker, Betty’s personalized service includes helping clients prepare for securing the funding they need to get the home they want.

“I’m like a buffer for my clients,” she says. “I spend lots of time explaining the details to people, like with clients who are self-employed. I talk to people about what they will need to prepare for and what financial details they will have to present.”

Betty has also seen a boom in business with seniors who are selling a family home to move into seniors’ residences or rental accommodations. She says she loves working with these clients and using tools like pre-home inspections and a professional photographer to get homes sold for the best price.

And then there are the younger, first-time buyers that Betty feels protective of. These are the clients she encourages to hire home inspectors so that they know what the actual costs of repairs will be, and so that people can realistically plan for what costs they will face once they move into their new home.

“Marriages fail because of the stress of debt,” she says.

The emotional ups and downs are a reality for Betty and her clients and often she says she feels like a therapist as she helps them navigate the waves of local uncertainty.

“It’s a tough market now and it’s tough to get a house,” Betty explains. “There’s not much inventory, there’s lots of demand and, with multiple offers happening, things can be stressful.”

Housing prices in Peterborough have jumped over the past four years. In 2014, the average selling price for a home in Peterborough was $263,000. In 2018, that price is closer to $402,000.

As more people are financially squeezed out of the GTA and as more people consider Peterborough as a great place to live, local homes are increasing in value. Higher sale prices now make moving within Peterborough difficult for many locals. This can stall new inventory from hitting the market and make life difficult for people who have to move.

“You really do have to listen to people to get a sense of what’s going on,” Betty says. “It really is almost like being a therapist.”

Looking to the future, Betty thinks the market will even out in the years ahead as new housing stock is built and brought to market, but that prices will remain strong as more and more people discover all that Peterborough has to offer.

“We have everything you need, right here,” she says. “We’ve got a great lifestyle and that’s why we’re growing. People love Peterborough.”

You can contact Betty Johnson at RE/MAX Eastern Realty Inc., Brokerage (91 George Street North in Peterborough) by phone at 705-743-9111, toll free at 1-800-567-4546, or by email at betty@bettysellshomes.net. Visit her website at www.bettysellshomes.net or connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Diana Carter’s love of fashion and retail began at a young age.

“When I was three, my mother put me in etiquette classes,” says Diana, owner of Style Boutique in Bridgenorth. “When I was four, I was in the Eaton’s catalogue.”

Born and raised in Toronto, Diana started working at Town and Country ladies store when she was 15.

“I loved every minute of it and wanted it to be my career,” she recalls, “but my manager encouraged me to explore other opportunities.”

Looking back now, it’s a good thing she took her advice.

Diana’s varied experiences in the business world include a bookkeeping business, a horse riding stable, operating a resort in Buckhorn with her husband, and even farming chickens and turkeys. Diana also continued her love of fashion and retail by selling Leigh Morgan Fashions and Mary Kay products.

“I enjoy the challenge of entrepreneurship,” she says. “We don’t always win, but you grow from it personally even if you don’t succeed. It gives you a sense of pride.”

Over 40 years ago, Diana’s parents moved to Buckhorn and opened The Gallery on the Lake. On a visit to the gallery, Diana met her husband and relocated to the area as well.

“My father Edwin Matthews was an artist and, before he came to Buckhorn, he also owned an advertising company in Toronto,” says Diana. “I grew up around entrepreneurs.”

With a love for retail and the spirit of entrepreneurship running through her family, Diana’s decision to open Style Boutique seems like it was a long time coming.

Style Boutique began about 10 and a half years ago when Diana received a phone call from her husband.

“He said to me, ‘I’m afraid to tell you this, but I just saw a store for sale that I know you’d like. I was working as a bookkeeper at the time and I loved it, but it lacked the social interaction that I craved.”

At the time, Diana’s daughter Lisa, a merchandising manager for clothing stores Garage and Dynamite, had moved back to Peterborough.

“Once I thought about the store idea, I called her with the idea of opening up a boutique,” Diana says. “We decided to do it together.”

At the time, the store was called Hellwinkies. Diana and Lisa gradually began to rebrand, turning the store into the staple in Bridgenorth it is today: a boutique store offering a wide array of clothing options, including casual wear, work attire, formal wear, and mother and grandmother of the bride dresses.

Regardless of the shopper’s needs, Style Boutique offers a supportive staff dedicated to making their clients look and feel amazing.

“My motto at the store is that I am honest but I’m not brutal,” says Diana. “When my clients leave the store, I want them to feel good about themselves. I want them to wear their clothes with pride. My clients can trust me to give them honest and appropriate advice.”

How do Diana and her staff know they’ve done a good job?

“When clients come back with photos of the wedding or event they bought the clothing for, that’s when I know we’ve succeeded,” she says.

In addition to the variety of clothes available for purchase, Style Boutique also offers bra fittings once a month. Bridget Leslie, owner of My Left Breast in Peterborough, visits the store to provide this service. The boutique also facilitates alterations for clients, and clients are welcome to bring in existing clothing for a fashion consultation.

As much as she loves retail, Diana says the most rewarding part of her job are the relationships she’s developed with her clients over the years.

“We have such great customers,” she emphasizes. “We love to help people who don’t like to shop. We are in a good spot for that because we aren’t in the middle of a mall, which can be hectic and stressful.”

Style Boutique offers a more personal shopping experience. Among the most rewarding moments for Diana and her staff is when clients visit the store to find an outfit for an event they are dreading.

“They walk in and don’t even want to look at anything,” she says. “But when they leave, they have a bit of a smile on their face.”

Developing a business is hard work, but Diana says she’s received a great deal of support from the community, particularly through the Women’s Business Network of Peterborough (WBN), which she has been involved with for more than two decades.

“The women of the WBN all have the same drive and mission,” says Diana. “We all want to learn from each other. No business is easy. You hear about everyone else’s trials and tribulations and they make it. It gives you the confidence to keep going.”

As a way of giving back for the support she’s received from the community over the years, Diana organizes fashion shows for local charities.

“I love to support the community. It’s really important to me. This has been a great place to do business.”

Style Boutique is located at 827 Ward Street in Bridgenorth. For more information, call 705-292-8191 or visit www.styleboutique.ca. You can also follow Style Boutique on Instagram, on Twitter, and on Facebook.