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From The Robin’s Nest Offers Unique Items, Lovely Setting

By MARK EVANS

STE. GENEVIEVE HERALD

From the time she bought the parcel of land at 22010 White Sands Road and built a house there, Robin Mazo wanted to have a shop there as well.

This past weekend that dream came true, when From the Robin’s Nest opened its doors with an open house.

Located directly across the road from the Ste. Genevieve County Fairgrounds entrance, the little blue shop is just down a gravel path that leads down a sloping hillside from the house. On the other side of the house is a picturesque pond.

Like its location, the shop offers many eye-appealing objects. It includes many home decor items as well as things for the garden, such as tame elderberry shoots.

“It was a big idea,” Mazo said.  “It took four years for it to come to pass.”

Mazo said that 99 percent of the craft items she sells are either revamped pieces or made from scratch.

“I hand-craft signs, plaques, things you’re going to hang on your wall,” she said. “I also do hand-crafted bouquets.”

Taking something old and making it new is really Mazo’s passion, however.

“My specialty, really, is taking an older piece that’s outdated and revamp it to make it current and unique,” she said. “That’s what I like to do the best.”

The crafter came out early in Mazo.

“Even when I was a kid, I was that one kid that would make a craft, like potholders, walk the neighborhood, sell them for a quarter, run home and make more,” she said. “That was me, so I’ve been crafting and creating all my life.”

Mazo is a retired music teacher from St. Louis.

“I’m a musician by trade, but art has always been part of my life,” she said. “So, when I moved down here, I just thought, ‘Oh, this would be a perfect spot where I can sell everything that I love.”

Mazo said she will not ship merchandise or sell over the internet.

“I won’t do any online sales,” she said. “My theory behind that is I want to be a  destination. Ste. Gen. is a quaint little town all by itself and there’s lots of things to  do here. I want people to come to Ste. Gen. I don’t want people to sit at a computer and pick an item and I send it to them.

“My space here, with the pond and the gazebo, it’s peaceful, it’s beautiful. It’s a destination. You get the whole package.”

She said friends and family members who have seen inside the shop have predicted that it will be “very popular.”

“I’ve had very good feedback so far,” she said. “I’m getting more followers everyday on Facebook. I’ll go out to a garage sale, because that’s where I find some of my goodies, and people will say, ‘You’re that Robin!’ So, words getting around.”

She doesn’t think the out of town location will be a hindrance.

“Even though I’m out here, basically a mile, mile and a half away, I feel like it’s worth the drive,” she said.

She intends to build a website right away, with photos of the merchandise and the scenic property. Right now her online presence is on Facebook.

Mazo doesn’t feel she will be competing directly against any other local merchants.