Blithe and Bonny
Happy And Pretty, Which Is The Literal Translation
A shop in California, and a song
Glenda Baer opened Blithe and Bonny in 1996 as a small gift and home shop in Felton, California, stocked largely with things she had made herself at home in Bonny Doon: purses, totes, candles, soap. The name comes from Balthasar's song in Much Ado About Nothing and means happy and pretty, which is a reasonable summary of the intention.
Fifteen years, then eight very long weeks
She spent the next decade and a half perfecting the soaps and candles before exhibiting at the San Francisco Gift Show in 2010. Later that year a buyer from Anthropologie placed an order for 165 stores. In eight weeks, working out of the kitchen with friends, neighbours and family mixing lotion, pouring soap, labelling candles and packing dish soap, they produced more than twenty-four pallets of product. It is not the sort of thing you forget.
Now in Happy Valley, Oregon
Today it is a mother and daughter operation making hand and body lotions, soy wax candles, dish soaps and bath products in small batches. The soaps are still wrapped in dictionary pages, as they were in the shop in Felton, which is the sort of detail nobody would keep unless they meant it.
Find them here
Have a browse through Bath, Body + Cosmetics, Candles + Home Fragrance, The Utility Room, our family-owned brands, or the American by Design edit.
