We strive for the Best.

It all started when David Mainka was a child living in Andrews. He loved woodworking and won several competitions in school for his incredible skill. He still has the China Cabinent that he made in High School that came home with 1st place. He shared his love of woodworking with me. I can remember playing in his shop as he built and taught me how to build.

In 2007 things changed. My Dad gave me a gift of a large Lathe. I loved his lathe but he knew I needed something newer and a bit bigger. I started to play and found pen kits to make that I began to give as gifts as I learned more everyday. From there my first pen went to my Grandmother for her Birthday. She loved it so much that she showed it off to everybody she saw. They all started asking how they could get one. We began going to events on the weekends while I attended Howard Payne University as a full-time student.

After graduating HPU I was soon married and put the business stuff on hold as we figured out our lives. Two kids later and several jobs I started to drift back to woodworking again. I began attending the events on the weekends. David started to join with his own items. We continued to grow in our skills and products. Our items began getting bigger like coffee tables and rocking animals. It all began getting hard to haul around to the different events. My two kids didn’t make it any easier as they began playing soccer on the weekends. We knew we needed to do something different but were unsure of how at the time.

A few years later David decided he was done with his job and retired early to get things in order at home. One afternoon he was helping me out and picked my son up from school for a little one-on-one time. He began walking down Center Ave to see the shops that he had not really paid attention to before. After going in a few he had an idea of ‘what if we could sell some of our things in the store, then we wouldn’t have to go to the events on the weekends.’ So that is exactly what we attempted. We went up and down Center Ave into every business to sell items. It all ended quickly as only one store decided to stock a few of our cutting boards but that was it.

Then the real fun began. Again David had an idea (he will deny it if you ask) why not just start our own store then we can put all our items in it and not have to worry about certain items not being accepted. We would have complete control. Of course I jumped right on that. We found an amazing realtor Joy and she took us to so many different places to find what we needed. We finally landed on the Texas Fun Co Building as they were in the middle of renovating, which gave us time to get things together and figured out.

My husband stepped up and joined in the fun with his 3D prints as he was starting to teach the class at Howard Payne University. He had a great idea of how to make the business more self sustaining. Ask local artists/vendors to join in as a collective. This way we bring in more of the community and makes it easier on us to not have to stock an entire store ourselves.

It has all worked out beautifully. We enjoy being apart of the local community, supporting the local artists, and having our products available on a daily basis. Things may not have seemed the best in the moment but everything works out for the best. God led us in the direction he needed so we could have the opportunity to have a store that the four of us support(6 counting the kids). In the moment it wasn’t the best from being laid off from jobs to family emergencies/sickness. But it all worked out with God’s guidance which we are the most grateful for.

We truly are a family run business as we all put in the time and effort including my kids who work some afternoons with me and have started making rubberband bracelets to earn their own money for toys (or what I won’t buy them as they say.)