One of the pleasures of motherhood — or grandmotherhood - is dressing your child for the day. As you button up dollsized coats and pull on knitted pixie hats against the winter wind, or strap little feet into sandals before heading out the front door, it’s almost impossible not to end up grinning.
Trudi Jeffrey should know. As the mother of two daughters — Kaylie, 10, and Gracie, 7 — she grew tired of the hour-long drive to Canberra to buy pretty dresses and bed linen, deciding instead to set up a children’s boutique in her NSW hometown of Yass.
You can’t miss her shop, Petite & Belle, as you drive along the main street. A 172 centimetre-high toy soldier stands guard on the footpath out the front, and the windows display children’s outfits so appealing you almost wish you were small again.
Walking inside, the atmosphere is warm and convivial, similar to that of a mother’s club. Amid the flutter of wrapping paper and gift ribbon being curled with scissors are discussions about impending births, fear of needles and what to buy “twins who already have everything”.
For the girls, there are pinafores, skirts, stockings and slippers.On the boys’ side are cardigans, knitted vests, tousers and shirts. Many of them are well-known brands, such Chino, Bebe, Run Scotty Run and Jelly Beans, but Trudi says her aim is to go for quality and a good price, regardless of the label.
Children love visiting the shop. There is a pink-and-white gingham changing tent at the back from which little girls can emerge and twirl about in a new skirt, flushed with excitement. You’ll also find bed linen, birthday candles, coloured pencils, stickers, dolls and miniature cooking sets.
Trudi, 35, and her husband, Darren, moved to Yass from Canberra with their girls four years ago, industriously renovating a turn-of-the century home and then finding a shop to rent. Trudi’s training as an interior designer helped her jazz up the interior of what had been, at various stages, a saddlery, general store and hairdressing salon.
“The morning we opened, there were mothers with prams out on the footpath waiting for the doors to open,” she says.
Darren still drives to Canberra every day to work but loves the community of Yass.
“Everyone has a connection here,” he says. “The bloke who came to fix up the plumbing said his dad used to own the shop — apparently it used to be the general store, part of the hotel, so people would pull up out the front, order their groceries and then head to the bar.”
You may not be able to buy milk and bread any more, but you can still nose your car right into the kerb out the front.
enterprise | YASS NSW
100 Country Style JULY 2009
