Miss Mabel Studio

Linda November 23rd, 2005

In 1992, my husband and I bought 3 1/2 acres in a small rural town in Washington State. It had a dumpy, run-down trailer on it (we thought, hey, we’ll build a nice, new home in 5 years so what?! Boy, were we wrong, but that is another story!) On the property is a building that was the original homestead building. It is problably 300+ square feet. As time went on we developed a vision to open an antique/vintage clothing shop. After much restoring and fixing up the building, we finally opened shop and successfully ran it for 5 years. I wanted a name that would conjure up the idea of an elderly maiden aunt; someone who would have perhaps worn those musty clothes. The name of the wife that lived in the building (and raised children in it) was Mabel Wakefield. We dubbed the business Miss Mabel’s. At that time she was still alive (suffering from Alzheimer’s) and her children (who were in their 70′s ) would come by to see the old family home and tell us tales of growing up there and “mother”.

As time went on, our little kids of ours grew bigger and busier, and we built that house we intended to (only it was not 5 years but 7 cramped years later). I started homeschooing our kids, so the business did not fit us anymore. I went on to produce a “zine” called St Julie Em for 2 years under the name of Mabel Lite Studios. I wanted to keep the name for continuity as well as the feelings and memories connected to that name.

So welcome to the studio, and if you see Mabel or anyone like her, tell her “hi” for us, okay?!

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