Meet Me At Station 73

Station 73 is a gorgeous little cafe and gift shop teeming with history and character. Positioned in the old railway building in Springfield, it's a lovely peaceful little spot off the beaten track. Today I caught up with Trish Lavery, whose passion about local businesses and community has resulted in the old station rooms being filled with a smorgasboard of treasures from local creators.

The shop is run by a variety of people including volunteers, some of whom are also suppliers - this ties in with Trish's dream of creating a space that is really owned by the local community, and provides a platform ( #sorrynotsorry #punsmakelifefun ) for small businesses to form, grow and develop.

As you enter the building, you can see where the tickets were once issued, and you're surrounded with sights like this.

And although the building is old, it smells amazing, with locally made candles and soaps stationed ( #stillnotsorry ) at the door.

You could spend a long time looking through the displays, as there's a truly remarkable variety with something interesting for everybody. There's a rack of second hand clothing, but Trish says that items fly off the rack so the actual items available change pretty often.

There's also a great selection of antiques as it's a personal interest of Trish's. This was one of my favourite finds.

Trish's real passion though, is finding those special items that are made local - the closer the better - by some of the skilled people within our community.

The different things that people come up with are really fantastic, but the most encouraging thing for me is to see people putting themselves out there and being proud of what they can do.

But the gift shop isn't the only reason to come - both the shop and cafe are filled with items of historical value. From photos, old machinery and equipment to the old cashbooks, there are items dating back over a hundred years.

Trish loves hearing stories of people who come in with family connections to the station - some of whose names can be found with a little searching.

Kids will also love to come and see the place (as my children did), playing on the old "rocking motorcycle" and poking about some of the interesting objects, watching trains rattle on by,  or even setting up a little drawing station with paper and pens supplied by the friendly staff.

Or maybe poking around the shop themselves...

And maybe getting into a wee bit of mischief?

THERE'S that other doll!! (Who can stand in the way of true love?)

I highly recommend making the time to come and see the place for yourself, with it's warm atmosphere and friendly staff and GOOD coffee! It's a great hang out spot for locals to meet up as well as tourists passing through. It's places like this that really capture the kiwi culture of our vibrant small towns - and not too far off the tracks ( #illneverbesorry #shouldlvebeenadad #punsarefun ).

Gift Shop Open Hours (73 Connection)
9am to 1pm every morning except public holidays

Cafe Open Hours (Station 73)
Mornings, Mon to Fri

By Laura Williams

Heavenly Smells! An Interview with Nic's Candle Co.

The moment you enter Nicole's house is a surreal moment - it's like discovering your sense of smell for the first time. A revelation of "Oh! This is what has been missing from my life all this time... Could my house smell like this too?" Which is probably how you would hope to feel, walking into a candle maker's workshop.

One room in her house is set aside as her shop, with a gorgeous range of soy melts, burners, perfume sticks and candles of various sizes and scents. All of them are presented beautifully in glass jars, tea cups, or other professional packaging and would make lovely gifts.

It was a real privilege to get to know the woman behind this local Burnham based business, and now you can too!

Hi Nicole. How did you get into candle making?
My SIL creates her own range of soaps and she taught me how to create them and shared her supplier with me but I was more drawn the candle making products on the website as I am a candle lover and decided to give it a go and here we are a year later.

What made you make the decsion to turn it from a hobby into a business?
I started selling my products so I could fund my hobby and hopefully end up making some extra while my kids are at home. I'm proud of how far it's come.

What inspires you to come up with each new piece?
I get asked to create different scents from customers and then I pick out scents that I love the sound of and go from there and create what I think suits the scent. I have huge collection of scents! I'm slightly addicted.

Do you have a personal favourite product?
I have so many, but I personally love the smell of the peach smoothie and Piña Colada candles. My favourite looking product is my chocolate shot candles.

What is your favourite thing about being in business?
That I can pass on my passion to others and be able to tinker away at something I'm proud of while my kids are at home and preschool.

What do you love about your customers?
I love the range of customers I get and the conversations that spark up from purchasing a candle. They've got me this far and I wouldn't be here without them so I'm very thankful they have purchased and supported my creations.

You can check out Nic's Candle Co. HERE.

Are You Sure I Can't Eat This? - LovelyBubbly by Amanda

As entrepreneurs fairly new on the scene, we think it's a great opportunity to have other great Makers in our area. "LovelyBubbly" by Amanda is based right around the corner from us and makes some absolutely amazing soaps that look good enough to eat - and when I took my 3 year old over to her shop she literally tried to take a bite!

Here is a great opportunity to get to know her and her craft!

How did you get into soap making?
I started off by trying the melt and pour bases first, to get a feel for the mica and fragrances. But in my heart I knew I had to make cold process, there's something about making it from scratch that's so satisfying. And my initial goal was to make a soap cake! So I started with a lot of reading on the internet and you tube watching. Then I stumbled across a lady in Oxford that was taking small classes to show how it was done. Once I did that, I was away, and addicted. Although soap is certainly a 'practice makes perfect...sometimes' kind of activity.

What made you make the decision to turn soap making from a hobby into a business?
When I went on maternity leave with my third child, I took that as the opportunity to try and start turning something I love into something I love, for a job.
It's still a work in progress!

What inspires you in the design process of coming up with each piece?
I usually buy a fragrance that tickles my fancy and then go from there. Something that smells like a cake or cupcake usually turn into that!

What is your personal favourite scent?
That's a hard one! I love coffee scents because I live on coffee. I also love anything with lemon in it, or coconut, it's so hard to have just one!

What is you favourite thing about being in business?
It is really nice being able to chip away at a small business while at home, and while I'm juggling the kids school plus one at home. There is a lot of learning as I'm not from a 'business' background being a Nurse, but with Facebook, you tube and google...anything is possible for a stay at home now!

What do you love about your customers?
I love when they order something and you end up having long one on one conversations about life. One soap can turn into 'how was your day' and away we go. It's really nice that Facebook allows that sort of connection when a customer is buying something 'online'.

Amanda has a local following of fans due to her love for her craft and the creativity into which she puts into making truly original - but also practical - works of art. Every piece is beautiful enough to make an amazing gift, but also has a lot of thought put into which scents will complement eachother and work well. Some of the more elaborate pieces can be cut or broken down into smaller chunks so they aren't all used up at once - or look quite so tempting to small children!

Amanda is stocked in the Post Shop in Darfield, but has also recently opened up a physical shop in a freestanding building next to her home in Coalgate (and YES! it is Eftpos equipped!). She finds a lot of people buy off her directly as she is very accessible via her Facebook page and her shopify page makes purchasing very easy. Each soap is labelled with a guideline of how strong the scent is so people can buy to their tastes easily, even online.