'Love it Back to Life'
Missouri Valley shop owners plan kitchen, tea events
Don Harrold, Executive Editor
editor@enterprisepub.com
The owners of Tori B Design and Vintage plan to expand their business and add a kitchen that would serve baked goods and host themed events. Victoria Seidler owns the business, which operates inside DNR Treasures (422 E Erie St, Missouri Valley), and runs it with her husband, Galen Seidler.
Victoria Seidler and a friend both sold goods at a market in Millard, Nebraska, until it closed. The friend and her partner, Roger, then bought the Missouri Valley building and asked Seidler, who studied fashion merchandising and design, to help set up the store. In exchange, Seidler received space to sell her own items.
Her friend died a year or two after the store opened. Seidler has continued to run the store for Roger, who works full time, and is selling his inventory to help him reduce it.
The couple plans to convert the building's existing kitchen into a commercial kitchen. The idea came to Galen Seidler while he was praying. His wife enjoys period films based on Jane Austen novels, and he proposed an event called Victorian Tea Time and Festivities.
"Kind of make almost like a dinner theater type of event, where ladies can come in and there'll be costume props and fun stuff, gourmet desserts," he said. The event would last about two hours and follow an itinerary. When he described the idea to female customers, about 95% responded positively. Customers will be able to reserve and pay for seats on the couple's website.
Victoria Seidler also wants people to be able to stop in for coffee or a biscuit. "I want this place to feel homey, like a positive thing for this town," she said. "Just a connection, a place of connection."
Money is the main obstacle. The couple has carved out space for a commercial sink, bought nonporous flooring and plans to do the work in stages. "We don't want to get into debt either," Victoria Seidler said. "You can't take big loans or anything." The kitchen would be used mostly for baking, and the couple does not plan to fry food.
The business is not a thrift store, the couple said, though some customers treat it like a flea market. "They'll try to wheel and deal you price down to a fraction of what the tag says," Galen Seidler said.
Victoria Seidler looks for high-quality vintage and one-of-a-kind items, which are becoming harder to find. She also makes jewelry, paints and repurposes furniture, and paints and sews clothing. The couple plans to add handmade home decor items, such as resin coasters.
The work began as a side business. She repurposes furniture and clothing in part to keep items out of landfills, and people sometimes drop off items and ask her to do something with them. "I love it back to life. That's my motto," she said. "If I can take something and love it back to life, that's who I am."
Customers, she said, are "tired of mass market and everything looking the same" and often come in looking for unique gifts. She has sold several pieces of painted clothing and is trying to find more time to make them.
Seidler has wanted her own store since childhood, when she made her own clothes and doll furniture. After college, she moved to Washington state, where she met her husband. The cost of living there led her to set her design work aside. She later returned to the area to care for her mother, and the Millard market renewed her interest.
The Seidlers, who are nondenominational Christians, previously served as pastors. Victoria Seidler considers the store part of a marketplace ministry. "The main purpose is, what would God want us to do?" she said. "And that is to love the people that come through the door as best we can."
The couple has prayed with several customers. Galen Seidler tries to do everything "as unto the Lord," a reference to a Bible verse. "We're just kind of walking by faith and not by sight," Victoria Seidler said. "Definitely not by the bank account."
She chooses items for the store the same way she shops for gifts, by thinking about what would be unique and personal to the recipient. "You just never know what treasure you're gonna find. Just pop in."
