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Fred & Mary’s Home opened its doors on Main Street in downtown Kingston Springs just over one year ago, and has since transformed into a collective of local, women-owned businesses.
In early September, Fred & Mary’s owner Carolyn Fredericks welcomed four Kingston Springs businesses into her brick and mortar: Jollifrogs, Ruby Ridge Collection, Milkweed Mercantile and Bearcat Collections.
Together, the five thirty and forty-something-year-old moms make up the new Fred & Mary’s collective.
“My collection was selling really well to one audience,” Fredericks said of what was the original Fred & Mary’s inventory during the store’s first nine months. “The beauty of infusing more aesthetics and points of view and products and collections has been that we have now multiple audiences. There really is something for everyone now, and the town has responded so warmly to that.”
She added, “It's been really fun to see where everybody's passions come from and how it manifests in these very different ways, but how it all works together so nicely at the end of the day.”
Fredericks had to downsize her own inventory to make room for the additional four booths who joined, each taking up about one-fifth of the store. The Fred & Mary’s owner said she considers herself lucky for being able to pivot when she did earlier this year.
As part of Fred & Mary’s mission in the sustainability space, one original section of the shop Fredericks' is keeping is the refill station.
“One of the original visions that I had for being here was to create a cleaning product refill station,” Fredericks said. “That is one of the areas that sold well for me over the year, and so that is one of the areas that I'm expanding now at this point. That has been a very intentional part of my business.”
Fredericks emphasized that Fred & Mary’s had ended up in “such a different place … from where I started.”
She added, “I would not have seen [it] coming, but I have felt so supported by others on my journey, and it has been really rewarding to be able to open up what I have here, to create opportunity for other people who also have dreams and goals but want to start small … All of us were at different places in our entrepreneurship journey when we came into the space together, but it has given all of us an opportunity to grow further and faster than if it had just been one of us alone.”
Emily Roberts was the latest edition to the Fred & Mary’s collective with Milkweed Mercantile. Her booth offers one-of-a-kind locally made jewelry and Kingston Springs merch – including the popular “Follow Your Harpeth” hats.
Roberts is a musician by trade – making up one-half of the band Carolina Story with her husband Ben – but said owning a gift shop is always something that’s been “stirring” inside of her. “I tell people it's like my mind on display, because it's all the things I love and the people I want to support,” Roberts said of Milkweed Mercantile, which purposefully sources sustainably made products from local women.
Roberts said the benefit of the collective has been to have products available for everyone in town, rather than catering to just one audience. But an unexpected positive to joining the collective, Roberts said, is finding a community with other Kingston Springs moms.
“I've been a mom for 10 years now, and we all know that when you become a mother, you just naturally isolate and you go through those feelings of loneliness,” Roberts explained. “To be able to do this and still have my young kids running around the shop as we speak, the community aspect that's come from it – that feeling of isolation is gone.”
For Small Business Saturday, Roberts is highlighting Milkweed Mercantile’s partnership with Nashville Blanket Project: with every blanket purchased, one will be donated back to those in need within the community.
Ellie Kambitsch is the proud owner of Bearcat Collections. Bearcat is a 1920s slang word for a lively, spirited woman who has a fiery streak. “I felt like that embodied me,” Kambitsch said.
“I've been sitting on the Bearcat idea since before the pandemic, and I've been collecting vintage clothing for a very long time, but seriously collecting within the last four years,” she added. Sustainability is a big part of Kambitsch’s mission as well, noting that 85 percent of her clothes are thrifted.
Kambitsch said her favorite pieces of clothing range from the 1940s-1970s eras. “I love loud prints, bright colors,” she continued, adding, “It's a little bit of bringing something old into the new world and giving it a new life.”
For Small Business Saturday, Kambitsch is spotlighting her handmade Christmas ornaments that have brought new life to vintage jewelry. A new product that she “is really proud of,” the handmade ornaments feature pieces of vintage earrings and necklaces from the 1960s.
For Ruby Ridge Collection owner Crystal Shirk, being a part of the Fred & Mary’s collective has been a “dream come true.” The business – which is named after Shirk’s daughter Ruby – is a mix of antiques and retail items.
“I've always wanted to have an antique booth somewhere, and I just have tons of years of experience in retail, and for the last year and a half I've been a full-time mom, so it was something I could do where I could still focus on my family,” Shirk said. “I've always wanted to be a mom, and I've always wanted to do antiques … I get to do it all in one.”
Shirk said her booth at Fred & Mary’s is “a reflection of what my house actually looks like – modern, new things along with antiques peppered in.”
A major component of Ruby Ridge Collection is the Kingston Springs and Pegram merchandise. Shirk has teamed up with her friend and neighbor, Gypsy Soul Stoneware, to sell coffee mugs. She also has South Cheatham themed tea towels, wooden spoons and coasters.
For Small Business Saturday, Shirk is promoting a retail piece of her collection: Emily Lex Studio’s watercolor workbooks. “Speaking of shopping small, it is carried by some major retailers. But one thing I think is really great is that it makes art and watercolor really accessible,” she said.
Jollifrogs is keeping it in the family, run by mother-daughter duo Karen Kloess and Rachel Taslimi. The gift shop was originally operated in Nashville for five years until the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. Jollifrogs has officially reopened a “mini version” as part of the new Fred & Mary’s collective, offering locally sourced goods targeted at moms and their kids.
“We call it a family boutique,” Taslimi said. “A mom could come in and shop and knock off a birthday gift, a baby shower gift, hostess gift, and not have to go to three different places.”
Jollifrogs offers a wide variety of goods from soaps to candles to baby clothes and toys. Taslimi said they are “playing up the small town Kingston Springs farm vibe” with a country theme for the toys and clothes.
Taslimi said it's been “fun and supportive” to work alongside four other women who are “in that similar walk of life with families and kids, but still have that drive to do more beyond their home.”
For Small Business Saturday, Jollifrogs is recommending its bow collection. The business, dubbed Rachel’s Ribbons, was founded by her mother when Taslimi was a little girl: “You can't really find them anywhere else, so if you got a little girl and you need bows, come to us.”
Fred & Mary’s owner, Fredericks, emphasized the “magic” that happens when women come together to make something work. “Women make the world go round, and it is not lost on me that most of the small businesses in this area are women-led, women-owned, women co-owned,” she said. “There is something really magical about women putting their mind to something, and it coming from a place of love and care.”
For this holiday season, Fredericks just has one message for the community: shop local.
“I feel so lucky to have the privilege of these small businesses here. Now that I've been one myself, I understand what that means, and it's all the more reason that I want to intentionally make sure that I'm scheduling time to shop locally and support these small businesses,” the Fred & Mary’s owner said.
“We'll get our Christmas tree from Joy at Wonder. We’ll gift a certificate from Leslie for the Yorkshire Deli in a stocking. I'll be taking my out of town guests to eat at Turnbull for coffee and dinner at SKYKING and the Fillin’ Station. And on my wish list is a membership at Alma,” she said. “I will certainly be in [Ewe & Co.] finding something to put under the tree.”
“And not to mention, someone could cross off their entire shopping list in this space,” she continued, adding, “If we don't really purposefully shop these businesses, they won't exist. So it is a privilege to have the amount of love that we're putting in for people to have access to.”
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