And now she has just the right spot to offer an eclectic array in downtown Tonganoxie.

Standridge welcomed a new era in her career with Saturday’s grand opening of The Small Shop on Bury Street.

The Small Shop on Bury Street opened with a ribbon cutting Saturday morning at the store at 423 S. Bury St.

“I though it went great,” Standridge said during a phone interview Tuesday with The Mirror.

Shawn Linenberger

Folks visited the new store Saturday and enjoyed the Cheese Street food truck parked across the street. Aside from being gone for about 20 minutes to handle a minor propane tank issue, the cheesy goodness was being served from the food truck throughout the day and vintage items, coffee, sitter signs, dips and more were leaving the shelves with first-time customers at the shop.

Standridge enjoys selling vintage decor and had hoped to sell those items as a vendor at another shop or through other events.

But then came the opportunity to utilize the little bit of space on Bury Street — 208 square feet to be exact — and Standridge was ready to embark on a new adventure.

“It’s small; that’s why I put it in the name,” Standridge said with a laugh.

Sauce and cheese dips, sitter signs, succulents and barbecue sauce all were popular items Saturday, Standridge said.

She also had successfully predicted last week that her specialty coffee would be a hot item.

“There’s more on the way,” Standridge explained. “It’s almost gone. We’re already down to four bags.”

Originally from Kansas City, Kan., Standridge attended elementary school for a few years at Basehor and then moved back to KCK.

A stay-at-home mom for a few years, she has spent the last four years working in marketing for her cousin’s T-shirt business, The Sunflower Market. Some of those shirts also are for sale at the shop.

“A lot of vintage influence and band T-shirts are kind of our specialty,” she said.

The shop will be open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays in the early going, though they could change as Standridge gets a feel for clientele traffic. Bo, her husband of 13 years who is retired from the military, also will be serving customers at the family shop. The couple have three children, and Callie, who is a freshman this year at Tonganoxie High School, also likely will be assisting at the store, Standridge said.

The store actually likely will be open until 7 p.m. Thursdays, as Maegan and Bo plan to offer Facebook Live sales after 7 p.m. at the shop as a way for shoppers who might live elsewhere or can’t visit during normal operating hours to purchase items. The Small Shop on Bury Street also ships items, Maegan explained.

The Small Shop replaces the Rustic Heifer boutique, which moved into a larger space around the corner and down the street in the 600 block of Fourth Street.

That move allowed Maegan to embark on something “that’s always kind of been a dream of mine” in opening her own store.

Her journey also caught the eye of someone from Lecompton, who made the drive east after following Maegan’s story on social media.

“The feedback I got, it was well-received,” Maegan said about Saturday’s grand opening. “My fear was that it wasn’t going to be well-received and I felt like it was.”