We're going to meet my friend Annie.

She's amazing.

Hi, Annie How are you?

Hi.

I'm great.

Thanks for having us here today.

I'm excited that you're here.

Now, I've been to the Portage Collective before, and this is just such a fantastic collaborative space.

You guys have how many different vendors or partners do you have?

Sure.

Okay, so I think right now it's about 12 and we're getting ready to onboard a new partner.

But I'd love to show you around the shop.

Oh, you're with us?

Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

So first of all, we're a collective.

And that means we each have our own individual businesses with our own target markets and, things like that.

And we share a point of sale.

So the most checkouts you'll do here is two, and then we just help each other, we staff the shop and take turns, and we also support each other in lots of different ways.

Some of us have, skills on social media.

Some of us have skills in graphic design, and things are working together now.

Oh, it's really great.

So it really is a collective and it's it's great to share the load, share the burden, but also share like the joys and the inspirations.

And this is all women and queer.

Right.

That's right.

And why is that important to have something like that here.

Over here.

Well, you know, there's just so many opportunities, for business owners.

But a lot of our society is just automatically tailored to white men.

So we wanted to make sure that we were creating an intentional space where we're giving other voices a try and giving people a shot where they might not otherwise receive one.

I love it, and this space really is.

It's great for someone if you're looking for like that unique gift and you're not sure what you want, right then you do know what you want.

Our staff will tell you what you want.

I know for sure I.

Okay, what kind of space are we in now?

This is more of like housing and business.

This is our front room.

And so right here, when you walk in the door to your left, is KB artisans and not to feature them first for pride month, because one of our queer artists.

So Kara and Brennan are a husband, wife team, and they design a lot of different things.

So Brandon does this cool woodworking.

Yeah.

And he uses like, all reclaimed wood, so.

Oh, that's that's really cool.

Kara does a little bit of everything.

She does myself an ADHD artist, so she love her.

So she she does really funny stickers avocado crochet kit.

And she makes T-shirts to work.

Sure.

Oh.

Very cool.

Okay.

And she's brought in a line of boutique clothes, and we're really trying to cater to our neurodiverse peeps.

So she is focusing on clothing that's super soft for people.

It's, you know, the thing I love and, like, please make it comfortable.

Absolutely.

And then on this wall we have, guest artist.

Our guest artist gets to stay for six months at a time, so.

But know that's going to be here, for six months.

She's just getting started.

She's going to have an opening gallery on Saturday.

I mean, she works with stained glass, so she makes these really beautiful things from, like, these very intricate mobiles over to, like, very small things like peace signs or feathers that you can hang in a window.

So there's something for everyone.

Okay.

And then what's over here?

And over here is your Heather.

Isn't this so much fun?

It is.

So she does like reclaimed pieces that she's put together.

That's right.

She buys fabric, from estate sales.

She, buys things from the thrift shop and, like, cuts them up and rescues them so she can really.

She's magical at the sewing machine.

And I love stuff like this.

I like.

I think she has, too.

Yeah.

Like, I have it burn my hand when I'm trying to pick up the fry pan Yeah.

She's really famous for these potholders.

Here's, like, a 16 candles, one size.

She just.

It's so much fun.

And it's the perfect shape.

I love that they've got hanging loops.

Okay.

And inside she stuff, them with rescued towels also.

So like, from start to finish and everything that she makes.

She says machine washable.

So you know, that's important.

I like that.

And let's talk about too.

Like when when someone wants to partner here, what does that look like for them?

Well, we're a group and we were really into collaboration, of course.

So it needs to be someone who doesn't is not in direct competition with a current partner.

Okay.

We interview them, we have a two partner interview system, and then we, you know, talk about strengths and weaknesses and missing gaps that we have as a collective skills that we want to incorporate into our group.

And then we have a and and it's a great way for folks who are maybe, you know, they've outgrown their home space.

Yes.

That's a big thing for women, especially a lot of women, who are entrepreneurs start in their home.

And then eventually you outgrow it.

And like, you're you don't want dog hair getting on your or you don't want your kids poking around in your bins, or your spouse is like, I need these things out of my house.

Yeah.

So this is a great first place to try it out.

Oh, what a great idea.

So this is cute.

This is so fun.

This is Clara.

So she's kind of a partner to.

She is an art vending machine so owned by the men.

One of our partners.

You meet back there is an artist and she found this old cigaret machine and painted it and rehabbed it.

And now we have a bunch of different, folks who are stocking the tiny little boxes, and you can buy a token for it and get a piece of art that is so creative.

I mean, I love this.

What's so great about spaces like this is because you just start to see that creativity come out in so many different ways.

Absolutely.

Okay.

We have more stuff over here.

Oh yes, I will try and go faster.

Yeah, this is Feather Haven Gardens.

She's all about the gardens.

And she has a little farm.

And so she is kind of this is her busy season at home, so her section will be more full soon.

Gotcha.

I have been here other times when this was overflowing too.

Right.

And she also has chickens.

So, the chickens are laying plentifully.

She'll bring the fresh eggs, too.

But one of the things she's really passionate about is giving back to the community.

And so she has this fleece donation bin because we make fleece blankets for the patients at the Beacon Infusion Room for our folks who are receiving chemo.

So we got to do that.

And, Cat Lady Cafe, let us use her space to do that.

Awesome.

Okay, now this is some of my favorite stuff up here, too.

Okay, we're getting into food here, right?

Yeah.

It's exciting.

Here comes the food.

You can smell it when you walk in.

This is South Bend Challah Company.

So sheer brown.

Moved here, I think, just around the pandemic.

And she couldn't find any of the food that she remembered growing up as a young child in Israel.

So she started baking her family recipes and like, tweaking some things and looking up new recipes.

So now she specializes in Jewish baked goods.

It has everything from like halva cookies to stuffed bagels, even ice cream in the freezer.

Oh, no, I didn't know about that.

Oh, the garlic bagel chips are incredible They're incredible.

Okay, let's head up now.

What is this?

So this is like the main floor.

This is where the register is to.

And, our customers are welcome to pick up a record and put that on while they shop.

And then we have this shared fridge.

So there's always cold drinks that you can buy.

Most of the most locally sourced, since we can get them.

Sunchoke farms are stocked right now.

And chips and doodles.

Oh delicious.

All kinds of good stuff.

And then up here and I'm assuming you guys have some things that are like favorites people want to keep seeing and also remaining exactly some items.

That's not standbys that you can always count on being here and then some special seasonal stuff.

But then this is the rest of the chips and doodles.

All right.

So chips and get all those picks out of the hat.

Summer.

She has probably been in business longer than any of us.

And she has a great following.

There's.

She does a lot of catering jobs.

Cookie trays, brownies.

I think I've had her at some other events, like you probably have when you see those logo cookies.

Left, right.

Beautiful logo.

That's actually her.

Okay.

And then one of our newest partners is D'Maria Amor And she makes these cute custom outfits for toddlers.

She's got ninja charm socks, which are really trendy.

I mean, those kind of fun.

And she does that line bonnets, I see.

Okay, now I have another rabbit.

And I was actually just thinking I really need bonnet.

So I mean, yeah.

What?

You should probably get going.

All right, all right, let's head over this way.

There's still more.

There is.

We have schmears, too.

Oh, that's.

Oh, yeah.

This schmears This is the goody box.

So she's one of our newer partners as well.

She is, a momma who has an empty nest.

That's how she puts it.

So she wants to, take her love of thrifting and turn it into a viable You guys know that I love her.

It's so much fun.

She's really got an eye.

So, like, instead of, like, picking through sticky things at goodwill, like, you can come here and sniff all of that stuff that Amy has found best way to do.

Okay, this is Dragon Dreams.

I love her really cute artwork.

Oh, you can see how cute others are.

Ceramics.

They're like like a magnet for kids that would love that.

And she is working on launching her online shop, which will be up and going soon, and she's sadly going to leave us to go out on the road and do cons for the summer.

But we hope that she'll be back.

But that's great.

I mean, again, this is kind of either this is your stone or this is your stepping stone.

That's right.

And we are happy to be whatever you need.

Yeah, I know we have Mediterranean Michiana.

So Tumen is another immigrant who has brought her delicious food from her home country of Turkey to South Bend.

For us, and we're so lucky to have her.

And I eat a lot of my when she's out of that.

It's, this is Ellen Brenneman beautiful artwork.

I've seen her stuff.

It's like.

It's it's it's so good.

So a lot of folks don't know that she was very famous on Etsy for a long time.

And then, like, as she's lovely and she's she's born and raised in South Bend.

And I bumped into her.

When you're at Art Beat and I'm like, wait a minute, I have your koala picture on my wall.

And I bought it off Etsy years ago.

And she's like, yeah, oh my gosh.

It was great to meet her in person.

And she is the kindest person.

In addition to being oh so talented center, I've had to stop.

And, this is my staff, so my business is Take care South Bend, which I love your business.

So you've been doing that for a while now.

I have yeah.

I guess I just celebrated my fifth birthday and this message I think about.

But I do gift baskets and care packages and I feature products from local shops and makers.

So here on the shop I rotate a lot and it sort of depends on which partners we have here, because I don't want to, bump up against any of the things that they're already offering.

So depending on who we have here, I just put out an assortment of things that don't compete with them, and show off all the amazing things that you can have in it.

And I love that this also focuses on what makes something so great.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So right now I've got like a little bit of pride stuff.

We've got, some fun fidgets.

These are made at our public library.

I'll squeeze that 3D Printer.

Yeah.

Oh, isn't that satisfying?

It again.

My kids would love these.

Right.

Okay.

But this is there's so many things here, honestly.

And I know things are always going to change as well too.

When can people shop here?

Oh, we are open six days a week now.

So we are open Tuesday through Sunday.

We're only closed on Mondays.

Okay.

And where can people get more information on the place.

But you can go to the Portage collective.com.

Oh okay.

Awesome.

Thank you so much Annie and I enjoy my little fidget here.