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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

TG’s Creative Collections now open in Cook

David Colburn
Posted 7/2/21

COOK- Shoppers at TG’s Creative Collections, Cook’s newest boutique-style shop located in the familiar old cabin on 2nd Avenue SE just east of River Street, may well find themselves …

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TG’s Creative Collections now open in Cook

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COOK- Shoppers at TG’s Creative Collections, Cook’s newest boutique-style shop located in the familiar old cabin on 2nd Avenue SE just east of River Street, may well find themselves leaving with the perfect vintage item to brighten up their home or delight their fashion sense. But if they leave the shop that has “a little bit of everything” without a good dose of laughter, they’d best go running back, because owner Myranda Grecinger and her mother, Debi Traut, stock as much of that as anything, and it’s free.
“We laugh a lot,” Debi said. “We sit out at the table a lot with friends and drink a Coke during the day and we have people that will come and sit in the rocking chairs and sit and talk for a while. That’s what you want. That’s community. They don’t have to buy anything, just come and visit us.”
Community is as important to Myranda as what she collects and sells, which is why she’s returned to Cook after many years living in Lawton, Okla. near her parents and the Fort Sill Army base.
“My brother was in the Army and he was stationed overseas,” Myranda said. “His wife was home alone with the kids, so my husband David and I moved down there to be closer to them. That worked out really nicely for a little while, but after about, I guess, eight years, my husband said, ‘That’s enough, I’m ready to go back home.’ So we started working our way back towards Cook. We were busy and involved in the community when we were up here, and that sense of community is something that no matter where we’ve moved, we haven’t found. That’s why we knew that this was where we were going to end up being again.”
Inevitable, too, was that Myranda would open her own collectibles store one day. It’s a dream that took root in her childhood.
“My mom and dad collected antiques since I was a kid,” Myranda said. “Some of the most fun we had was traveling to different places and finding interesting pieces in whatever flea market or shop we could find, so I had an appreciation for these things.”
The desire for her own store was stoked even more while working alongside her mother at a store in Lawton.
“My mother and I worked for a place called Antiques by Helen for a wonderful woman named Helen Jones, who I just love,” Myranda said. “And she really helped me learn about antiques and vintage items. Working for Helen, we began collecting, because Helen had such a love for old things. And she’s very good at selling.”
Myranda and Debi also started hitting estate sales and store closings, buying up as much of the “good stuff” as they could, and filling up multiple trailers with their treasures.
Myranda also prepared by getting a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology, and has since added a master’s degree with a dual focus on American history and business that she received from Liberty University last year. She’s also completed the final steps to become a certified appraiser.
The Grecingers took a giant step back toward Cook two years ago, but not a complete one, as David transferred to a store manager position with Tires Plus in Rochester. Myranda went to work at the History Center of Olmstead County, but her position was eliminated last year due to some restructuring. She had been traveling back to Lawton often, spending more time working at Antiques by Helen and collecting even more items, and she and David agreed that it was time to start looking for a place in Cook for her business.
“I didn’t want to go work for somebody else again when the ultimate goal was to have my own space, and it didn’t do me any good to open a place (in Rochester),” Myranda said. “So we started looking in Cook for a place and came across this, and it was in our budget and we would have enough money to make the changes we wanted to make.”
From November through May, Myranda, Debi, and David worked on consolidating all of the scattered inventory in Cook as preparations on the building continued. And there’s no question that while it’s Myranda’s shop, she and Debi are equal partners, whether together or apart.
“We’re partners in crime in everything, everything we’ve ever done,” laughed Debi.
Distance won’t be an obstacle to the partnership when Debi returns to Lawton, as she and Myranda have already made extensive use of FaceTime to discuss and design the store’s layout and assess possible additions to its eclectic inventory.
So, is TG’s Creative Collections an antique shop, a collectibles shop, or none of the above?
“We try to carry a little bit of everything,” Myranda said. “We’ve got a little bit of home décor, a little bit of jewelry and accessories, we’ve got a little bit of cooking utensils and kitchen needs, linens, fabrics, books. Definitely cabin décor. Yeah, we try to have a little bit of everything. And it’s constantly changing because of that. When I set out to do this, my mindset was to make it an eclectic collection of things that we appreciate.”
“It’s a creative collection of household goods,” Debi said.
For the time being, David is still commuting to Rochester during the week for work, a bit of security that will give Myranda the time to see what items move more than others and tailor her inventory to the interests of shoppers in the North Country. Doing estate sales, appraisals, and family genealogies are all in the business plan, too, and she’ll ease into those as time goes on. But the dream is in motion, and it’s just going to keep growing from here.
“By the time I’ve been here several years, I certainly hope that we’ve established our presence and have a strong base of return customers that come to us, knowing that we will always carry that certain something that they’re looking for,” Myranda said.
“And the people who come in and say, ‘Hi, guess what just happened to me,’ just to talk,” Debi added.
“What’s really been nice is that we’ve already had a little bit of that starting,” Myranda said. “To have that presence in the community is the most important thing to me.”
TG’s Creative Collections is open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. More information is available by visiting their Facebook page, or calling Myranda at 507-319-7983,