Hidden away in a corner of Nolensville, Fresh Blue Mornings is the perfect treasure of modern stationery, boutique party supplies, and gifts for every occasion. The owner Laura treats the business as an extension of her family, greeting customers, giving suggestions, and helping customers find the perfect gift or supplies for their needs.
Laura’s business originally started out of a love for paper dating back to her time in middle school when she first started collecting stationary supplies. She actually calls it more of hoarding, but her love really exploded when she discovered scrapbooking shortly after the birth of her daughter. Fresh Blue Morning comes out of this love of all things pretty from gorgeous paper and sweet little gifts to beautiful party supplies and lovely packaging. She loved decorative pieces that inspire gift-giving and thoughtfulness and treasures helping people celebrate a special day or even the every day.
“I’ve always believed that little things matter most and are the most-remembered. I believe in the power and beauty of a handwritten note, especially in this age of electronic devices,” she said.
On top of this love for beauty and paper crafts, she says she “always had an inkling to start my own business and knew immediately the direction I wanted to go.” Shortly after relocating to Nolensville in 2010, she began to seriously think about making her dream a reality.
She officially started her business in 2012 with the opening of an Etsy shop stocked primarily with paper crafting supplies. Then in 2014, she decided to take her shop local, finally opening up a storefront. She says that “I felt there was a niche that needed to be filled. With my interest, passion, and background, I felt that it was the perfect niche for me, as it pairs my love of paper and gifts with a love of meeting new people. My goal is to inspire the stationery-lovers, gift-givers, party-throwers, paper crafters and the ones who have no idea what they’re looking for until they come in and see it.”
The most pressing question for me once I heard her story was why she chose the name “Fresh Blue Mornings.” She responded with one of the most touching and inspiring things that I’ve heard in a while. In her search for a business name she “came across a quote by Jean Rhys – about how running away on a fresh blue morning can be exhilarating, and it just seemed to click with me. When I think of a fresh blue morning, I think not only of the prospect of a new day, but a second try, a new start, another chance to correct something that maybe we goofed the day before.”
It’s something that maybe we’ve heard in a lot of places, in a lot of forms before, but hearing it from her was powerful. Thinking about each day as a new beginning opens up possibilities of the many things we can do, and the idea, just in the short time that we talked, speaks heavily to her personality.
I also asked what are some of the things she enjoys most about the shop. She responded that she “enjoys walking into a pretty place – a place that I created, surrounded by things that I love, and love to offer to others.” She’s been told that her shop is a warm, welcoming place that makes people want to stay for a while, and to her, this is one of the highest compliments that she could receive. She calls the shop her “happy place” because it’s in a town that has a wonderful sense of community and pride, and whose residents are passionate about shopping small and local. She also gets to meet wonderful customers who share their daily lives and stories and some that stop by just to chat and see what’s new. She says she “truly loves what I’m doing and I love sharing my passion with others.”
She invites people to stop by and check out the shop in-store or online at freshbluemornings.com. With the beautiful spring weather, the shop has some gorgeous pastel party supplies that are perfect for any spring celebration from birthdays to baby showers to Mothers’ Day including some fun new baby gifts like memory books for mom & baby and 1st-year calendars to help document those special moments and milestones.
For a truly local treasure, visit Laura at her shop off of Nolensville Rd in the Brittain Plaza behind Burger Shack and Rita’s Italian Ice and Custard.
Fresh Blue Mornings is located at 7175 Nolensville Road in Nolensville. Visit their website and follow on Facebook.
