.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Inspired by her own love for crafts and getting away with the girls, Nicole Engler-Selser started her second business in Valley Junction in late October.

Walnut Place Retreat is a venue for parties, getaways and working on any type of craft project. The retreat is located next door to Engler-Selser’s existing business, Engler Embroidery and Etching, at 324 First St. in West Des Moines.

Cross stitching started it all. Around age six, a baby sitter brought Engler-Selser her first project, a Daffy Duck cross-stitch pattern.

“I have been steady ever since,” Engler-Selser said.

Though she never got into knitting, her interests spread to stamping and making cards. When Engler-Selser moved to Des Moines from Minnesota, her friends sparked her interest in scrapbooking.

Engler-Selser and her friends enjoyed taking a weekend, or just a day, and going somewhere where they could lay out all of their project materials and supplies and escape. She saw a need in Greater Des Moines for another place to do that when location, size limits for groups and double booking at existing venues added complications to their plans.

“Our group of friends was either too small or too big for places; some locations were too far from small children and husbands,” Engler-Selser said. “It was getting harder and harder to get away.”

Pulling from experience

Recognizing an opportunity through her personal experience, Engler-Selser said she checked out Google and did not find any craft retreats in the area.

She then drew upon background and knowledge of crafting and the community to make Walnut Place Retreat happen.

With a degree in both business administration and computer science and having watched two generations of entrepreneurs in action, Engler-Selser said she had a base of business knowledge.

“I watched my parents run their own business; my parents and even my grandparents have basically always been self-employed,” she said.

Because Engler-Selser was once a customer of similar businesses, she holds valuable personal knowledge of and experience with the activities and needs of the likely patrons of Walnut Place and used her knowledge to help design the retreat.

“Personal experience with what you are trying to start helps,” Engler-Selser said. “You know the appropriate setting and what is adequate to make it work. I know that we need to have good lighting and avoid busy walls that create distractions. Without a background going into it, there would be more work and improvements to be made later on.”

Being active in the community, and with her home, family and original business all located in Valley Junction, Engler-Selser said it seemed like the perfect place.

“We are within walking distance to stores in Valley Junction, like Heirlooms by Design (scrapbook supplies) and The Quilt Junction (quilting materials),” she said. “Guests can walk to find everything they need, or just stretch their legs and get a pizza.”

Engler-Selser’s parents purchased the property that’s now home to Walnut Place Retreat from the Carlin family in 2002. The Carlin family built the house after moving here from Italy in the 1930s, Engler-Selser said. A family-owned restaurant, grocery and Out the Door, an antique shop, once occupied the lot.

As the property sat vacant, Engler-Selser said her parents were faced with the question of selling or renting out the house.

“We were overwhelmed with idea of making (the building) a home again because it had both the commercial and home feeling,” she said.

In June 2007, Engler-Selser decided to go with her idea for a craft retreat. Within those five months she remodeled the kitchen, added new appliances, refinished the wood floors, repainted and even had the bathtubs reglazed.

With four bedrooms decorated in trendy colors, two bathrooms (a third is on the way) and ample work tables, Walnut Place Retreat can accommodate 12 overnight guests and 18-24 guests for a day trip.

Beginning business

Walnut Place Retreat is an escape for anyone who likes to craft, Engler-Selser said, and people from a wide range of ages and interests have inquired about the place.

Though she designed the business with scrapbookers in mind, she said interest from quilters has been a pleasant surprise.

Engler-Selser’s goal for the business goes beyond the bottom line.

“I would like to see the place utilized to its full potential,” she said. “Have people come and enjoy the place and get together with friends, not necessarily have 12 bodies in the beds on the weekends.”

After failed attempts to turn her interests into an opportunity, Engler-Selser did not anticipate her hobbies turning into a business.

“Creative Memories consulting, or teaching at parties, was not for me,” she said. “Since that did not work out, I never thought it would be a full-blown business.”

Before Walnut Place Retreat, Engler-Selser established her initial business venture, Engler Embroidery and Etching. She got that idea from a walk through a mall. On a trip to Omaha. Engler-Selser and her father stopped at Council Bluffs’ Mall of the Bluffs. She spotted a man embroidering at a kiosk and was inspired.

“The machine put me in a trance,” Engler-Selser said. “You just program the embroidering machine and it does what you tell it to do.”

After that, Engler-Selser started an embroidering business out of her home. In December 2004 Engler Embroidery and Etching moved to its current Valley Junction location.

Engler-Selser added a second machine after the move. She creates custom-embroidered logos, sweat shirts and bags, and etchings on glassware, stone, bricks and tile.

With her husband, a member of the 186th Military Police, on his first tour of duty in Iraq and scheduled to be gone 13 months, and raising a young child, Engler-Selser said she is grateful to have her own businesses.

“With my own business, I can work from home and do what I need to do,” Engler-Selser said. “It beats punching a time clock and taking my child to day care.”