Let's Meet Lauren M. Precker

Hello friends I am so happy to introduce the sweet and talented Lauren M. Precker to you all. Lauren is the creative behind the brand Lola & Pickett

I discovered Lauren through my friend Michele C. Strauts of Crafting Culture and I immediately went to Lauren’s shop and bought some her pretty clam and oyster shells. I’ve hung them on cabinet knobs instead of tassels and love the different element they infuse.

Lauren welcome to the Chalet can you tell us a bit about yourself? Hi Meryl thank you - we recently moved from Alexandria, VA to Richmond, VA and are deep in the throws of house hunting. My husband, Stephen, and I are getting ready to celebrate 10 years of marriage. We have our spunky one and half year-old French Bulldog/Boston Terrier mix, Oliver and our daughter Lily was born in October.

Please tell us about your business – when it started – where to find it and what you sell. My Etsy shop is Lola & Pickett named after our first Frenchie, Lola, and the street we used to live on. I sell a combination of painted and decoupaged oyster and clam shell items - such as ornaments and trinket dishes. In addition, I also sell seasonal décor items. Items that are painted and decoupaged - like pumpkins and Easter eggs.

This whole venture started back in the fall of 2020. Like many people, I was laid off due to the pandemic and was feeling a little lost and burnt out. I decided to take advantage of my severance package and take some time to recharge before jumping back into the corporate world. However, I am not someone who can just sit around day after day, so I decided to spruce up our fall decorations with some painted pumpkins.

I thought the final product turned out cute and maybe other blue & white fans might like them, so I put them up on Facebook Marketplace on a whim not thinking anyone would want them. Boy, was I wrong! I had people ordering them as fast as I could make them and even asking for custom color combinations.

We had a beach vacation in Cape Charles, VA booked just as pumpkin season was winding down. I have always loved to beach comb and collect shells and while I was walking along the beach one day, I was looking at the oyster shells that were all over the place and thought that I could make my own version of the oyster shell ornaments I had seen in some of the shops in town and as they say, the rest is history!

My husband is from Long Island, NY and my mother-in-law still lives there and is an avid beach goer. During the height of COVID when there weren’t a lot of safe outdoor spaces, the beach was her go-to escape. Collecting shells for me to decorate became a family affair as most of the large clam and oyster shells come from her walks along the beaches of South and West Hampton. My friends are also invested as they are always on the lookout for good shells while on vacation.

Lauren have you always been creative? I have always considered myself to be crafty. I loved coloring and painting growing up and like to make things for our home when it comes to seasonal décor. I got my bachelor’s degree in Interior Design and worked for a few years after college in residential and hospitality design firms.

Are you someone who decorated your bedroom often? I LOVED redecorating my room as a kid! I would even help my friends organize and rearrange their rooms during sleepovers. I still can’t help myself from organizing and styling bookshelves when I go to my parent’s house. I taught my mother Elaine the Marie Kondo method of getting rid of things if they don’t bring you joy and now, she is out there telling her friends to let go and thank your old items before giving them away!

Do you share a creative passion with someone in your family? My maternal grandmother Elizabeth was very artistic. She drew and did oil paintings. When my mother and uncles were younger, she would enter all kinds of contests to create jingles or art for various companies and would win! My mother said they always had new bikes from her contest winnings. If she had lived in a different era, I think she would have been in a corner office at a big advertising firm on Madison Avenue.

While my cousins got their musical talents from her and my grandfather – (they met while playing in a band for German immigrants) – I got the crafty gene which we bonded over. My grandparents bought one of those giant doll house kits where you built it from the ground up and by the time they finally finished, my older cousins who they had originally built it for had aged out of playing with dolls, so they gave it to me. She and I spent an entire summer picking out wallpaper for the various rooms and making all kinds of dollhouse sized food out of clay.

During the summer they also volunteered at their local “Dump” which was basically a big warehouse at the local dump where you could get rid of household items, furniture, and clothes. Since she was the one sorting through everything, she always put aside the “good stuff” like old prom dresses for my dress-up bucket. I am pretty sure I got my love for junk stores from her as well.

Where did you grow up? My family is originally from Massachusetts with many of my relatives still living throughout New England. My parents Elaine and Dennis and I moved to Williamsburg, VA right before I turned twelve. They still live in the house we moved to; which is within walking distance of Colonial Williamsburg. If you are ever walking down Duke of Gloucester Street and hear someone yelling at a little dog named Max, that would be them.

I am an only child and so is my husband which can sometimes make for challenging situations as we are both so used to getting our own way ha! After being together for almost fifteen years I *think* we are getting pretty good at understanding when to let the other one win.

Where and What you went to school for. I got my bachelor’s degree in interior design from Marymount University in Arlington, VA. I went to small catholic schools my entire life and instantly felt at home there. It is a great school; where you can get the best of Washington, D.C. with the benefits of having a real campus. I made lifelong friends during my four years there. We are actually getting together for our first real girls’ weekend since the pandemic at the end of April. Wish my husband luck. It will be his first nights alone with the baby lol.

I worked in high-end residential and hospitality design for a couple of years after graduating when the recession happened, and the hospitality design industry was hit hard. I took that as my sign to go back to school and I got my master’s degree in strategic public relations from The George Washington University. Since then, I have worked with various non-profits in the D.C. area as a social media and communications manager.

We had our daughter Lily in October and three weeks before she was born my husband was offered a new job down here in Richmond, so within a matter of couple of months we had a baby, moved, and sold our house! She just started daycare, which she loves, and I am back at work full-time doing social media. With her in “school” I have an hour before I log-in for my 9-5 and a full hour at lunch to work on Lola & Pickett inventory. It’s amazing how much I can get done in that small amount of time without having a baby in the house.

So what are your plans for the rest of 2022? Plans for 2022 include finding a house! We are in a temporary apartment right now while we try and find a permanent home. While the housing market isn’t as crazy as it is in places like D.C., we are still up against some tough competition. I can’t wait until we have more than 1,000 square feet of living space.

For Lola & Pickett, I would love to keep on growing my following and slowly expand into new products (hello napkin rings!) and patterns. When you buy from a small maker like me, there is so much love that goes into every part of the production process. I can’t explain the thrill I get every time I see that notice from Etsy or Facebook that I have a sale. It still shocks me that anyone wants something I have made. I want to share a discount code with your readers: CHALET10 for 10% off their total purchase before shipping with NO item restrictions. This Code has no expiration date.

Lauren thank you so much for saying Yes when I asked - you are a super busy lady. Thank you for the offering the discount code - CHALET10 - I know as a small business your margins are tight. My readers can use this code toward a little something for themselves or for a Mother’s Day gift. I wish you continued success with Lola & Pickett!

You can find Lauren on Instagram & Website.

Til next time friends be well!