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BELDEN – Candi Stines looks around her new business and all she sees is eye candy from her handwelded custom creations to the shine of jewelry that catches the light.
Partly named because of the business contents and partly because of her own moniker, The Candi Shop is now open for business in the former antique store on Belden’s Nebraska Street.
Stines has wanted a retail space for awhile and at one time was determined to buy the old Belden bank building. She also had her eye on the antique store which was for sale but purchased by Misti and Chris Aldrich.
“I kept saying (to Misti), ‘When are you going to sell me that antique store?’ every single time I saw her,” Stines said.
A short time later, the Aldriches had the opportunity to buy the Down Home Bar & Grill and turned it into the Brass Bell restaurant. Needing to focus their energies on that business, Stines finally got her shot at purchasing the antique store, moving in and officially opening earlier this month.
She loved the character of the antique store, especially the built-in shelving and original tin ceiling and border.
“The two display windows, oh, I was like, let me in there. I had that done before anything else. I love decorating,” Stines said.
The new storefront combines Stines’ love to create with her laidback sales style.
She started her custom welding art business – Happy Heifer Welding – more than four years ago and has been selling Paparazzi brand jewelry under the name Blingaholics for the last two years. Both are heavily featured in the Candi Shop. Display cases full of rings and bracelets line the front area near the register while earrings hang from a 10-foot-tall vertical board.
Most of her sales come from social media live shows three times a week. Stines will now conduct from the Candi Shop.
Some of Stines’ welding art pieces are artfully arranged on the businesses’ back wall including horseshoes fashioned to the image of a horse head, angels, flowers and others.
She got her start with welding by simply wanting an item that a Sioux City, Iowa, antique store would frequently sell out of.
“I came home and I go, ‘Show me how to make that flower.’ He (her husband, Fred) taught me out in the driveway and I’ve been going ever since. People have been ordering from the beginning when I didn’t know what I was doing,” Stines said.
Since then she has pieced together multiple custom orders from initials and last names to house numbers, sunflowers, American flags and more.
She also is able to custom make other items upon request like canvas bags and T-shirts.
Stines has a creative flair for repurposing items in her crafts and she learned much from her grandmother, the late Twila White, Wausa.
The Candi Shop also contains some antiques from the building’s former life.
“I originally thought let’s just get rid of this and set it out in boxes for free but the the more we look … and find out what it’s worth, it’s fun to do it,” Stines said of a the very large antique collection she inherited.
The Candi Shop is open Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Stines hopes to create a space in the middle of the store to host jewelry parties or painting classes in the future.
But for now, its just exciting to open a store in Belden and see the town she’s called home for nine years grow.
“Misti and I are trying to revive this town big time,” she said with the Belden revival mainly coming down to having the right people at the right time willing to put in the work.
