The craftsmanship and design of Roden guitars are inspired by scenes from Jeremy Roden’s childhood. Read more on page 6. Photography by Ethan Good.
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Art on Northaven Trail off St. Michaels Drive. Photography by Austin Gibbs. FOLLOW US:
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HISTORY OF PRESTON ROYAL ANIMAL CLINIC:
Founded in 1969, by the late Dr. Malcolm Cameron, Preston Royal Animal Clinic (PRAC) has been serving the North Dallas, Park Cities, and Preston Hollow area for over 50 years. The practice has grown and changed along with the vibrant community that it serves.
VETERINARY CARE FOR CATS & DOGS IN NORTH DALLAS
Located in the Preston Hollow area of North Dallas, Preston Royal Animal Clinic provides comprehensive primary care for your dogs and cats. We specialize in dental, wellness, and preventative care, offering a full range of services to support your pet through every stage of their life, from nose to tail, kitten to senior. We are dedicated to making every visit a positive experience, which is why we practice Fear Free handling and adhere to Cat-Friendly guidelines. Your pet’s comfort and well-being are our top priority.
WHERE EVERY PET IS TREATED LIKE FAMILY
MADE IN TEXAS
“IF THE APOCALYPSE EVER HAPPENS
, I’m going to Jeremy Roden’s house.”
It’s a commonly-used refrain from one of Roden’s bandmates, referencing the longtime Preston Hollow neighbor’s ability to build almost anything. His skills are now often used on the custom guitars and handmade brisket boards he sells, but they have come in handy throughout the crooked (yet somehow roundabout) path his life has taken.
Roden was born in Amarillo, but his family moved around throughout his childhood. One constant was helping his dad out, learning how to use different tools to build and fix things around the house.
“He taught me the value of curiosity. You know, ‘Now that somebody’s taught me this, how can I make it better?’” Roden says.
At Richland High School in North Richland Hills, Roden discovered a passion for the arts — trying out drawing, painting and theater — and especially for sculpting, as he inherited his dad’s love building something with his own hands.
After high school, Roden pursued a degree in fine arts at the University of North Texas’ School of Visual Arts. There, he studied under sculptor Richard Davis and began using different media, like stainless steel, to create his art.
him to come teach 3D animation and modeling to a group of students. This experience is what kickstarted a love for teaching.
“I joke all the time, never tell anybody you’re busy. It’s the lamest excuse you can give anybody because we’re all busy. You have to make time for people ... So when I was teaching and I saw the need, it was that same mentality. I’m making time because there’s somebody that needs this.”
He began Oak Cliff’s Sunset High School’s 3D animation and modeling program. At Dallas ISD’s urging, Roden got a master’s in education from Concordia University Texas in Austin. With his new credentials, he was recruited to Richland College, where he founded the school’s interactive simulation and game technology program.
The 2010s saw yet another pivot for Roden, who went to work for Istation in 2011 and ended up getting his MBA from Louisiana State University in 2019. After earning his degree, the program’s associate dean asked him to come back and teach a class, which he has done since June 2020 while balancing his day job in digital media for Bank of America.
Roden’s father has remained a quiet throughline in almost everything he does.
“He was my best friend, and I think of him every day,” he says.
From Jimmy Neutron to custom guitars, Jeremy Roden has done it all
Story by NIKI GUMMADI
Photography by ETHAN GOOD
Roden planned on working as a fine artist in a studio, but during his senior year of college, his dad died of a rare disease. To help his mom, Roden began working at McAfee (formerly Network Associates) while finishing his degree. There, he was introduced to Keith Alcorn of the Irving-based animation company DNA Productions.
Alcorn brought Roden on to the lighting and special effects team working on the 2001 movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
Roden was working on the film when he got a call from his former math teacher at Richland asking
Through his role at LSU, Roden met Jack Marucci, who co-founded Marucci Sports, and was inspired by him to start a podcast. Halfway , named after the town in Texas where his father grew up, is now at six episodes and features special guests across different industries sharing their stories.
Roden’s life path hasn’t been straight, and it also hasn’t always been easy. Last year, when one of his sons became ill, he found himself unable to work or create in the way he once did.
“It was really, really hard to
get back and inspired to work,” he says. “My faith was tested. My inspiration was tested.”
His son is now doing better, and Roden has been rebuilding his creative energy. Sometimes, this comes through music. Roden plays in OKOTB (Old Kids on the Block), a 10-member band made
dad,” he says. “But I got irritated because all the cutting boards were ugly or they were overdone. They were just too small and they weren’t thick enough.”
Roden’s solution was to make his own board. Since then, he has gotten a flurry of orders, which he says is almost too many to keep up with come Christmastime.
At home, he and his wife live with their two sons, and Roden’s daughter is in school at the University of Arkansas. He has taught all three of his children how to use his workshop.
“It kind of drives me crazy, because I, like, miss tools,” he says. “But then I’m like, I can’t get mad, because that’s how I was. It’s how I started with my dad. Everything’s come full circle.”
These three students are using creativity to build community
Story by NIKI GUMMADI
Drawingconnections
Photography by KATHY TRAN
When St. Mark’s School of Texas
sophomore Adam Zhang first volunteered with refugees on World Refugee Day, he noticed how easily people of different backgrounds connect through art. After his chamber music performance for the group, a 6-yearold boy came up to thank him and asked if he could see his violin.
“That was just really touching,” Adam says. “Because you realize, even though we all come from different backgrounds, we can all sort of relate to art and music.”
That moment led Adam, his sister Cecelia and classmate Aiden Ji to start UnboundEd Art, a student-run nonprofit dedicated to making art more accessible to the local community, in early 2024.
Though it was originally just the three of them, one of UnboundEd’s recent projects has brought them more members. The group painted a set of trash bins for Irving’s Heritage Park, with some inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Sunflowers
Their work caught the attention of other students around Dallas. The group now has about 10 core members, with a handful more that join in when they can.
In addition to opportunities to practice art, UnboundEd provides young people with educational experiences. Adam will occasionally lead tours, like at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows Museum. When there isn’t a special exhibit, the tours are planned around specific themes or ideas. The goal is to introduce students to art exhibits and encourage them to take advantage of the art around them.
“Lots of students and kids my age don’t realize they
have this great resource right here,” Adam says, with Cecelia noting that many museums offer free or discounted admission to students.
Adam and Cecelia, an eighth grader at The Hockaday School, say they grew up surrounded by art. Their mother, who used to work as an architect, taught them about art and encouraged them to explore it on their own from an early age. Adam had his first art lesson at 4 years old and Cecelia at 3. He has since also picked up the piano and graphic design, while she paints and dances.
“What’s so great about art is there’s different forms,” Cecelia says. “I can express myself through moving, but I also really enjoy watercolor and acrylic.”
Aiden, an eighth grader at St. Mark’s, found his own entry point into art through family outings. Growing up, his mother would bring him to galleries, museums and concerts around Dallas.
“That really brought my eyes to the world of all the different types of fine arts that there were,” he says. “And then that really sparked my passion for it.”
At St. Mark’s, he started drawing in Lower School and later joined the orchestra, learning the cello.
The trio’s long-term goal is to keep the nonprofit going after they graduate, passing it down to their younger artistic friends who are starting to develop their own skills. They also hope to expand to more neighborhoods across the DFW area.
“Everyone has their own inner passion, and that passion is almost always somehow related to art,” Adam says. “So I want to encourage people to find their own sort of hobby.”
The Zhangs’ garage turned into a makeshift studio for the newest holiday-themed set of Heritage Park bins.
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SHOPPING
BEST FURNITURE STORE
WINNER - BALLARD DESIGNS
2ND - MECOX DALLAS
3RD - ARHAUS
BEST CHILDREN’S CLOTHING STORE
WINNER - SMALL POCKETS
2ND - KIDBIZ
3RD - JANIE AND JACK
BEST WOMEN’S BOUTIQUE
WINNER - KAT + NOELLE
2ND - TOOTSIES
3RD - LILY RAIN
BEST ANTIQUE STORE
WINNER - FORESTWOOD ANTIQUE MALL (TIE)
WINNER - NORTH DALLAS ANTIQUE MALL (TIE)
2ND - ANTIQUE ROW
BEST THRIFT/CONSIGNMENT STORE
WINNER - CLOTHES CIRCUIT
2ND - TO BE CONTINUED
3RD - CLOTHESHORSE ANONYMOUS
BEST JEWELRY STORE
WINNER - BACHENDORF’S
2ND - SKIBELL FINE JEWELRY
BEST GARDEN STORE
WINNER - NICHOLSON-HARDIE HOME AND GARDEN CENTER
2ND - CALLOWAY’S NURSERY (TIE)
2ND - NORTH HAVEN GARDENS (TIE)
3RD - JACKSONS HOME & GARDEN
BEST MEN’S CLOTHING STORE
WINNER - KEN’S MAN’S SHOP
2ND - J.HILBURN
3RD - Q CLOTHIER
BEST GIFT SHOP
WINNER - SAMPLE HOUSE & CANDLE SHOP
2ND - THE TOY MAVEN
3RD - SUR LA TABLE
BEST HOME DECOR
WINNER - SAMPLE HOUSE & CANDLE SHOP
2ND - MARY CATES & CO.
3RD - SWOOZIE’S
Be on the lookout for a new nomination page on our site to nominate your favorites for Best Of 2026, coming January 2026.
CITY VIEW ANTIQUE MALL
You missed the Christmas Open House Sale? No worries, there are many Holiday Sales still going on among our 65 dealers! Come catch the Holiday Spirit, have some Christmas cookies, and shop for beautiful and one of a kind gifts for that collector on your list!
The Greek Food Festival of Dallas has transported neighbors to Greece for 70 years
Story by NIKI GUMMADI
ALLEN
Under strings of market lights and bright white and blue flags, an 11-year-old boy effortlessly sweet talks a steady line of customers into trying the fresh pastries being sold at his tent. He is one of hundreds of parishioners, from kids to parents to grandparents, who help run the Greek Food Festival of Dallas.
“There’s this great thing called Greek hospitality, and it even comes to Dallas, Texas,” Lindsay Karant, who runs the festival’s marketplace, says.
This year, Oct. 31-Nov. 2, the festival celebrated its 70th anniversary. Started in 1956, it was originally a fundraiser for the church’s ladies’ bazaar, where parishioners baked pastries to raise
Photography by LAUREN
Bfunds for the Church. Over the decades, it has evolved, briefly becoming a fashion show in the late ’60s and early ’70s before becoming the food-focused festival that brought in close to 18,000 attendees this year.
The festival is run by volunteers, drawing 694 from the church and 803 total.
“This is a family business, to be honest,” says Lindsay’s husband, festival chairman Billy Karant, who has been involved with the festival for 19 years. “All of these parishioners bring their families from their youngest children all the way up to their oldest, the grandpas and grandmas.”
The festival’s menu remains largely unchanged from year to year,
with some exceptions. This year’s additions were a Greek pizza ($9) topped with gyro meat, mozzarella and feta and the lamb bowl ($12) with shredded lamb on a pile of rice pilaf topped with Greek salad. They joined classics like the bestselling traditional gyro ($12), which has slices of lamb and beef on pita bread topped with onions, tomatoes and tzatziki, and the always-popular lamb chops ($12).
All dishes are cooked fresh in the festival’s kitchen and brought to the booths around the church’s campus. Damon Chronis, the volunteer in charge of cooking the lamb, mans his custom-built smoker featuring a cut-out of the Parthenon. The meat roasts for 10-12 hours in the smoker, which Chronis affectionately dubbed his “mid-life crisis.”
The main courtyard is inspired by the Plaka neighborhood of Athens.
Top left: Billy says the festival has become so popular, vendors now approach him about being included in the Agora. Top right: The best-selling lamb chops ($12) and gyros ($12) were joined by newcomer Greek pizza ($9) and traditional dishes like dolmades (3 for $7) and spanakopita (3 for $8). Bottom left: The origins of the festival include the ladies’ bazaar selling pastries as a fundraiser for the church.
In the main courtyard, the pastry booth offers a sweet post-meal treat. A sampler box ($30) includes three pieces each of baklava; kourambiedes, a butter cookie with toasted almonds; melomakarona, spiced cookies with honey syrup and walnuts; and sesame cookies.
More modern twists on Greek classics are offered, too, like the baklava cheesecake ($7) and the baklava sundae ($6). Across the courtyard, volunteers pour coffees and frappes ($5).
Lindsay co-chairs the marketplace known as the Agora, modeled after an Ancient Greek concept. The indoor space is filled with shoppers browsing through the handcrafted items like wooden crosses, mosaic lamps and jewelry, many of which are brought over from Greece. The space was also home to Greek cooking demonstrations throughout the weekend.
In addition to the food, the festival offers guests a chance to see the church. Volunteers lead tours, pointing out the ceiling covered in colorful iconography done within the last 50 years.
For Billy, who starts organizing the planning committee as early as February, the festival is more than just a fundraiser but rather a way to share his culture and faith with the community.
“It’s not just the dollars and cents,” he says. “It’s about the camaraderie. It’s about the fellowship. It’s about the articulating of the faith, about the overall outreach to the community.”
Under the main tent, a stage hosted the church’s dance troupes throughout the weekend. In between performances, though, a mix of attendees young and old joined festival workers on stage for a spontaneous round of dancing.
Billy says that as the church gains 100-200 new parishioners each year, he hopes the success of the festival continues to grow as well.
“If you haven’t gone, you’re in for a treat,” he says. “Come enjoy, absorb the hospitality, the kindness and, ultimately, the love.”
THE GIFT GUIDE
It’s that time of year again when we compile a few of our favorite things from our neighborhood stores. Find something for every type of somebody in your life.
Compiled by Niki Gummadi, Katharine Bales & Elizabeth Truelove
SWOOZIE’S
Glitterville Marie
Sweet Mat $89.95
LUCKY DOG BARKERY
Lucky Dog
Biscuits $9.95
THE WRITE CHOICE
Winter Memories
Picture Frame
$32.95
FOODIE
CENTRAL MARKET
Thai food and travel with Chef Nikky $42
INFUSED OILS & VINEGARS
JOSÉ
Turbo Salt $12.95
JOJO MOMMY
Farmyard Animals
$64.99
Italian Dinner Night gift basket $52
JK MICROCHIP COOKIES
Duo Jar Gift Box $34
RISE SOUFFLÉ
Marshmallow Soup BowlsSet of Two $80
MADRE
Ruffle Bud Vase in White $62
FRIENDS OF NORTHAVEN TRAIL
Baseball hat $31
ROAM FINE GOODS
Autumn Blossoms
Pillow $248
UKIE STYLE EMBROIDERY ART
Lace Earrings: “Sunflowers”$16
APPLES TO ZINNIAS
Green plant $85-$125
NAVY BLOOMS
Cheeky Shower SteamersSet of 8 Shower Tabs $27
ME DY
ELLIS HILL
Herringbone Throw Blanket $128
HOBBYIST
BIKE MART
TRACKR Heart Rate Monitor Chest Strap $99.99
DEAR JOHN PAPER CO.
Mahjong Tiles Big Chunky Notepad $95
BONSAI PAPER CO.
LAMY plus Coloured Pencils (Set of 24) $30
INTERABANG BOOKS
Dead and Alive: Essays $30
Elmore and the Big Christmas Rescue $18.99
The American Art Book $79.95
SESSION PILATES
SESSION Pilates gift card or branded socks $15
THREE SYNAGOGUES, ONE SHARED STORY
Dallas’ oldest Jewish congregations have grown together
Story by NIKI GUMMADI | Photography by LAUREN ALLEN
The official story of Dallas’ Jewish community starts not in our neighborhood, as some would expect, but instead in South Dallas. In the late 19th century, the death of a Jewish immigrant spurred community members to come together and form a society so the man could have a Jewish funeral.
The society eventually became what is now known as Temple Emanu-El, Dallas’ first Jewish congregation, founded in 1872 as the Hebrew Benevolent Association. This was soon followed by the establishment of Congregation Shearith Israel in 1884 and later by Tiferet Israel in 1890.
One can track a similar history for all three synagogues, moving from location to location as Dallas’ Jewish community continued migrating further north. Eventually, all three congregations landed in their current locations in our neighborhood in the 1950s.
Today, each of Dallas’ three oldest synagogues practice a different denomination of Judaism. Leaders say the congregations have always had a good relationship with each other, as evidenced by the overlap within their membership.
A clergy association meets once a month to discuss issues of common concern and ways in which Jewish institutions across the city can strengthen the Jewish community.
As the City’s oldest synagogue, Temple Emanu-El and the City of Dallas “kind of grew up together,” says Rabbi David Stern, who has been with the congregation since he was ordained in 1989.
The temple was founded as a reform synagogue and has remained that way since. The Reform Movement began in Europe in the 19th century and took a strong hold in the United States.
“It stands for the belief in the possible integration of Jewish life and American life,” Stern says. “That we could live out our Jewish identities fully in the American public square.”
As part of the reform movement, the congregation has had a strong emphasis on civic service and social justice since it was started.
Angelica Ruiz, the temple’s director of libraries and archives, says one of the things the congregation is particularly proud of is the temple’s involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. The rabbi at the time, Rabbi Levi Olan, was one of the first white clergymen to march with Black clergymen in the fight for civil rights.
In the 1920s, Olan’s predecessor Rabbi David Lefkowitz opposed the rise of the Ku Klux Klan.
Ruiz also points to members of the congregation that were part of the push for the desegregation of Dallas schools, including prominent members like the Marcus family of Neiman Marcus.
Natural light floods the space from the windows placed throughout the building. Stern, who serves as senior rabbi, references a sixth century teaching from the Talmud, which says synagogues should have windows. He says this teaching has many interpretations, one of which is that windows allow you to look outside to see the beauty of creation and nature.
“Especially for us as a Reform synagogue, we do not believe in a kind of fortress of Judaism, a kind of drawing the wagons into a circle and facing inward,” Stern says. “It’s always been our ethical commitment to be able to see beyond your own walls, so that’s what the windows represent to us.”
Walking through the synagogue, one can find a digital impact map, which shows all the nonprofits, schools, universities and social service agencies that members of the congregation have led or heavily contributed to.
The temple has grown rapidly since its founding, now becoming one of the largest Jewish congregations in the South with around 2,500 member households from across the city. As a result, Stern says the congregation’s demographic has gotten more diverse.
Another major change he has seen over the years is a return to Jewish tradition, which mirrors changes in the Reform movement as a whole. Compared to 30 years ago, Stern says there is now more Hebrew used in worship along with more rituals and traditional practices.
“We still maintain our emphasis on social justice, and yet now deepen that with a richer sense of attachment to tradition and ritual and practice,” Stern says. “And to me, they sort of sustain each other in a very beautiful and powerful way.”
Stern says that despite the congregation’s size, members are still able to connect with each other due to the clergy and congregation’s emphasis on forming relationships.
“Not every rabbi is privileged to lead a congregation that they would want to belong to, and I feel that sense of privilege,” he says.
Congregation Shearith Israel
Though it is now a conservative synagogue, Congregation Shearith Israel predates the movement itself.
Senior Rabbi Adam Roffman notes the term “conservative” is not a political label but rather describes where the denomination is relative to others.
“(The Reform Movement) was an attempt to modernize Judaism to match the American religious lexicon,” Roffman says. “The counter reaction to that was the Conservative Movement, which said, ‘OK, we understand the desire to integrate ourselves into the American religious scene, but we are not willing to go that far.’ So it was an attempt to conserve traditional elements of the religious practice.”
This includes practices like keeping a kosher kitchen and adhering to the rules of Shabbat observance, among others.
Shearith Israel has been on Walnut Hill Lane since the early 1950s. While the original sanctuary at the south end has remained essentially unchanged, the rest of the campus has expanded over the past 70 years to accommodate a steady rise in membership.
Roffman has been with the congregation
for 12 and a half years and serves as one of three senior rabbis, a structure he notes is uncommon. He and his wife, Senior Rabbi Shira Wallach, both became senior rabbis last July when Senior Rabbi Ari Sunshine expanded his office to include them as co-senior clergy members.
“The current leadership of the synagogue, it’s been our mission to create a space that is unfailingly warm and accepting within the boundaries of the identity of our institution,” Roffman says.
This includes creating a space where people connect with each other enough to feel
Tiferet Israel
comfortable having difficult conversations. Roffman says that being located in an area that is politically purple has given the clergy a goal of making the congregation a place where people from both sides can identify with them.
“At a time where there’s just tremendous division in America, in our city, and even within our Jewish community, over certain issues, it’s been our goal to construct a space that’s a safe sort of sanctuary from the ugliness that is happening outside these walls,” he says.
Today, Congregation Shearith Israel has about 1,050 member families and roughly 240 students that attend the Pre K-12 religious school that meets twice a week. The congregation is growing quickly. Roffman says they lose around 30-40 families a year due to moves or deaths, but they gain about 75 annually. The building is routinely filled to capacity during the High Holidays.
Roffman says that this has made maintaining a close-knit feel while sustaining growth a top priority looking forward.
“I think the challenge will be, how do we continue to adapt ourselves to more modern sensibilities of how it is that we do things like prayer and ritual, and also how can we continue to stay small while being big?” he says.
The Jewish community in Dallas goes back seven or eight generations, and Roffman says the congregation plans to continue to be a dependable anchor for these families and those that join.
“This is a place that’s been around for a long time. There’s a tremendous amount of institutional loyalty here, and with absolutely every intention of being around for decades and decades and decades,” Roffman says.
Tiferet Israel is the city’s oldest Modern Orthodox Jewish synagogue. According to a piece by Dave Sorter in the Texas Jewish Post , the congregation was started by 11 founding members, many of whom were immigrants from the same region of Poland. For its first couple of years, services were held in the home of one of the founders. After several moves, mirroring the City’s other Jewish congregations, Tiferet Israel settled at its current location on Hillcrest Road. One of Tiferet Israel’s most visible traditions is the annual Kosher Chili Cook-Off, which draws attendees from across North Texas. Tiferet Israel says its vision is to “inspire all Jews to explore and embrace the beauty of Judaism through the love of Torah, the Jewish people, and the land of Israel.”
Tiferet Israel did not respond to a request for interview.
Congregation Shearith Israel was originally in South Dallas, where its historical cemetary is still located on Dolphin Road.
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COLLECTED, THEN CRAFTED
The mother/daughter duo turning vintage items into handmade wreaths
Story by NIKI GUMMADI
Photography by JESSICA TURNER
INSIDE THE CURREY FAMILY’S PRESTON HOLLOW
HOME, boxes of vintage ornaments, tinsel and trinkets are easy to come by. What started as a hobby has slowly filled almost every room and become a fulltime business.
Wreathed by Pie is run by Laura Currey and her mother Ginny Currey. The duo sells handmade wreaths and vignettes — smaller items with a base — crafted from vintage materials. Ginny and Laura started making wreaths about a year and a half ago after being inspired by posts they saw on social media. Ginny had been following the Instagram @handmadebyminzer, which sells wreaths and trees made of vintage items.
“I bought, I don’t know, a handful of them,” Ginny says. “And I’d get them in, and Laura and her sister Rebecca would be like, ‘Can I have that? That’s mine now.’ And really, that’s when we thought, ‘OK, I think we could do this.’”
Laura, who Ginny describes as the “creative genius” behind the company, studied interior design at Wade College and spent nearly 10 years working for Nordstrom before turning to Wreathed by Pie full time.
The company’s name comes from Laura’s family nickname. When she was younger, her dad started calling her “Pea Pie,” and the name stuck.
Laura says her approach to the business is fluid and changes day to day depending on how creative she is feeling.
“Sometimes, I work on four different things at once,” she says. “Because I start, and I’m like, ‘I’m tired of this one.’”
According to Laura, inspiration for her next piece can come from almost anything. Some of her ideas are inspired by social media, but she also starts projects off with specific themes or color schemes in mind. Each product is designed and built by the Curreys, usually over two or three days.
The Curreys source most of their materials from estate sales and thrift stores, occasionally traveling out of state to find older, rarer items at lower prices. Ginny says other areas of the country, like the Midwest, tend to have a larger inventory of antiques to choose from. Even readily available materials are usually sourced from estate sales, as
Ginny says there is a noticeable difference in quality between vintage items and those that are available in stores today. Vintage tinsel, for example, is fluffier and has more wire in its base than today’s options.
For Ginny, the search for vintage items to use has allowed her to get to know her city better.
“We drive all over different neighborhoods. I know I grew up here in Dallas, and I didn’t even know where I am,” she says.
Ginny and her husband, Rick, were both raised in Preston Hollow, attending The Hockaday School and St. Mark’s School of Texas, respectively. After a brief stint in Lakewood, the Curreys moved into their Preston Hollow home 28 years ago.
The house doubles as storage and workspace. The living room holds boxes of inventory and projects that Laura and Ginny are working on or have completed. Laura and her sister’s childhood bedrooms are home to overflow materials. Filled with folk art and colorful furniture, the home seems to be a natural setup for the business.
Laura says she was always creative growing up, a trait encouraged by her parents.
“Even as a child, we would bring friends over, and my mom would have crafts. We would always do those, and she’d come up with other fun things from looking online, like even decorating old cigar boxes, stuff like that,” she says. “Same with my dad, too. He’s also very into art. I just kind of grew up with it.”
Unsurprisingly, Christmas is Wreathed by Pie’s busiest season, but the business offers pieces for other holidays too, especially Halloween. Most pieces are sold in person, either at markets or through private appointments.
Laura says that as she has been working on growing her business, one of the hardest parts has been letting go of pieces she has gotten attached to through the process of creating it.
“There’s so many things where I’m like, ‘You know I think I’ll just keep it,’” she jokes. “It’s so hard sometimes.”
The Curreys can be contacted at WreathedByPie on Etsy or @wreathed. by.pie on Instagram.
