Gift ideas for babies and women made with love at Willow’s Sunshine Boutique

CLARKS SUMMIT — The first part of the name of Whitney Garey’s store (Willow’s) represents her Native American heritage.

The ‘sunshine’ part of the name emphasizes her positive personality.

The ‘boutique’ part in the name reveals the type of store it is.

Put them all together and you get the title of the store on Depot Street – Willow’s Sunshine Boutique.

The majority of the items in the boutique are handmade by Whitney. She makes things for babies and children, including newborn gowns, loveys, rompers, crib blankets and teething blankets.

“Basically everything you can think of a boutique would have,” she said.

Whitney also customizes women’s merchandise made by others. She designs baby elephant plush dolls for infant events such as first birthdays or christenings. One of the elephants on display with the store’s logo customized on its ear gives a visual example.

“Everything’s made with love,” said Whitney.

Whitney also makes signs with both funny and inspirational messages. Bow-making parties give customers opportunities to decorate bows, which Whitney creates herself.

Whitney changes her merchandise by season.

“I like changing out the season because I have so much stuff I couldn’t imagine trying to put everything in the store all at once,” she said.

For the upcoming holiday season, she will have Christmas dresses for girls. She will have a line of Christmas clothes for boys as well. She will make customized Christmas pajamas. There will be a sale on Black Friday as well as a three-day sale during the second week of December.

On Sunday, Dec. 11, the shop will have its 4th annual Christmas party at 2 p.m. There will be a hot cocoa bar with a meet and greet with Santa and the Grinch.

The clothing on the mannequins upfront is changed to go with the season. In the back of the store, there is a reiki room, where Whitney is bringing back Mommy and Me yoga sessions after its cancellation during COVID. The sessions are available by appointment only. During the spring and summer, they are offered at Pock Park down the street.

Before starting her own business, Whitney worked at Abercrombie & Fitch as well as tanning salons such as Dream Tan and TanFastic. It’s been her dream to be her own boss, make her own items, and to make it affordable for mothers, who can’t afford upscale things.

“How I would like to dress my children I would like to offer to other moms,” she said. “So I started off really trying to bring stuff that’s unique to Clarks Summit and surrounding areas, and I just venture out to slowly offer things to other people.”

Whitney is a mother of four children – Maddox, Rae, Bentley, and Noah. Her three younger children pose wearing some of the mother’s items in photos and videos on her store’s Facebook page. Her daughter Rae and one of her sons were in a video demonstrating the use of a car poncho.

“Basically, it keeps the child warm at the same time as being safe,” she said. “I did a lot of research, and I wanted to bring that awareness to people. Whether or not they buy the car seat poncho or not, I still want them to acknowledge what they can do.”

Whitney began her business online in 2014. For 10 years as a resident of Dunmore, she has been noticing the support of small businesses in a community. She opened a brick-and-mortar store originally at the same spot the hair salon Curl Up and Dye is located. In 2019, she had a grand re-opening at her current location on 124 Depot St. with the Women’s Entrepreneur Class from the University of Scranton.

Whitney enjoys the freedom of making anything she wants. She likes getting to use her sewing machine at home to bring them to the store later. She admits to not following patterns. She brings uniqueness to her products. Sometimes, she incorporates her Native American roots to her clothmaking such as adding wildflower designs to her dresses.

“When I leave here, I take a deep breath and say, ‘Wow, I did all this!,’” she said. “It’s always proud because I made such a big achievement.”