For Janet Morales and Stu Eli, collecting is in the genes. Every week, the couple; their daughter, Holly; and her stuffed animal du jour pile into the station wagon and take the same Virginia back roads Morales traveled as a young girl when her own mother, an avid collector, would take her antiquing. "I remember dreading it then," Morales says. "Isn't it funny how you start to love the same things your parents do?"
Of course, she's also figured out how to spin these trips for a tantrum-prone toddler. "We're going on a treasure hunt!" she tells Holly, who squeals back, "Treasures?!" And so they head off to scour antiques malls for the family business, (Three Potato Four), an online boutique featuring modern and vintage housewares that the couple launched from their northern Virginia home last year.
Aiming for a mom-and-pop-shop feel on the Internet, Morales and Eli keep their virtual storefront stocked with things that simply strike their fancy. On any given day, Three Potato Four might feature 1950s alphabet blocks arranged to spell the word punk, glass apothecary bottles, Japanese graphic tote bags, or an exclusive urban-landscape print from Brooklyn photographer Matthew Schenning.
Morales and Eli met in college and have been collecting together ever since; after graduation, they moved to New York City, where they furnished their apartment with flea-market finds. As they worked office jobs there—Morales as a graphic designer, Eli as an account manager for a design firm—the couple dreamed of opening a shop, especially after Holly was born. "But we realized it wouldn't work financially in New York," Eli says.
The clincher came on a rainy day in their Brooklyn loft. "The windows were leaking, and there were puddles everywhere, and I broke down crying," says Morales. "It wasn't the place for Holly."
In 2006 they moved to Virginia, where Morales's parents and two sisters live, and where they could afford to start a business. The couple reside in the shingled colonial house in which Morales lived as a child (they rent it from her father). "I love being near family," she says, "and as my parents get older, I want Holly to spend more time with them."
While relatives often pitch in as babysitters, on most days after preschool, Holly is integrated into her parents' business. Her bedroom is next to the office, and Morales and Eli take turns watching her and working. There are kinks to being a couple as well as colleagues: "Sometimes I'll half-joke to Stu, 'Don't manage me!'" Morales says.
They realize, though, that they have an ideal setup. "It almost doesn't seem right," Eli admits. "Holly can play outside while we make something for the shop. And this is work?"
The couple will soon add their own pieces—like Morales's hand-stitched quilts—to the website, and this month they'll be launching a kids' section, which will include fine fine-art zoo-animal photos, vintage Matchbox cars, and other treasures that are begging to be rescued from obscurity. They have some help with that: Some of Holly's picks—including pull-down maps and tea sets—have already made it onto the site. Must be the DNA.
