Staff photo by EMILY BARNES
Michelle Rhoderick, right, owner of Sarah Rose's Legacy in Waldorf, gets help from her mother, Sarah Dixon. Rhoderick named the scrapbooking store after her mother and her aunt, Rose.
All in the family: Sarah Rose’s Legacy, a scrapbooking shop in Waldorf, is as much a “labor of love” as a business. Michelle Rhoderick of Mechanicsville opened it in July 2006, not long before the economy tanked.
“It’s been really hard,” Rhoderick said, but she opted to keep the store open. Her mother minds the store during the day, while Rhoderick keeps it open at night, sometimes as late as 11 p.m. Other family members, including her husband and sister, spend time manning the store as well.
“There’s not a lot of profit … I’m not getting a lot of money for it. Profits go back into the store. It really is a labor of love,” Rhoderick said.
Commemoration: From the beginning, the enterprise was a family affair, as Rhoderick grew up doing crafts with her mother. Both women started doing scrapbooking 10 years ago to commemorate a family reunion, she said.
The store’s name honors both Rhoderick’s mother, Sarah Dixon, and Dixon’s inseparable twin sister, Rose Oldland, who died in 2008.
One of many several scrapbook pages hanging on shop walls shows the sisters’ double wedding on May 13, 1950.
Recently, Rhoderick’s brother picked up a scrapbook she had made to celebrate her nephew’s wedding. In general, though, she doesn’t do scrapbooks on commission, saying they take up too much time.
“My brother can take it, bring it back, take it and bring it back,” as she finds time to update it. “He’s my brother. But a customer will want their stuff now,” Rhoderick said.
New friendships: On a recent Friday night, a cluster of women sat in a back room chatting and working on their own projects as they waited for a takeout dinner to arrive.
Scrapbook aficionadas gather there for classes in making books or little boxes out of cheerful colored paper, or just to have company as they work. She’s met other local women who share her passion, none of whom she knew before.
She had one male regular, an umpire who thought an attractive scrapbook showcasing his experience could help him find work.
“He wanted me to order supplies for a portfolio he wanted to apply for an umpire’s position. … I’d never thought about that before. I said, ‘Good idea!’” Rhoderick said.
She said she hadn’t heard from the man in months. She hopes it means the strategy was successful.
Running the store has its costs, primarily the marathon workdays Rhoderick endures, manning the shop late into the night after working a full day as an office manager.
Asked how many hours she works in a week, Rhoderick answered, “You don’t want to know.”
But in the end, the rewards are worth it.
“Sometimes it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ But it’s fun because it’s with friends.”
ERICA MITRANO
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