'An Imagined Life'

This past Sunday, The Blissful Home had the great fortune of being written up in the county's premier newspaper, The Canton Repository. We made Page A2! Writer Diana Rossetti did a nice job of capturing the "feel" of the shop in a limited number of words:

'AN IMAGINED LIFE' Abby Kerr taught high-school English in Columbus for four years, but the 29-year-old Plain Township native always knew she wanted her own business. She has it now in The Blissful Home, an intriguing nooks-and-crannies home furnishings and gift boutique at 4605 Fulton Dr. NW in Jackson Township. Kerr describes her shop as "casual, slightly funky, French-inspired style." Wandering through the clever displays created by her mother, Debbie Kerr, one feels the eclectic ambience of a Parisian flea market. Kerr, a GlenOak High School graduate who earned a bachelor's degree at Ohio State University and a master's at Kent State University, is a shining example of a young professional counteracting the "brain drain" against which this area has taken an active stand. She uploads her own photos of the shop and participates in the burgeoning blogging trend at theblissfulhome.blogspot.com. Her entrepreneurial spirit, she said, comes from watching her father, Mark Kerr, run his own business, Kerr Brothers Roofing, for 20 years. "I grew up seeing how a small business ran, the challenges and rewards," she explained. Her first venture was as one of the seven shops that reopened early last year in the former Yankee Barn, now the Village Barn, in Hartville. When her business outgrew the space, she began looking for a place in Jackson Township. Today, the building that once housed the Bureau of Motor Vehicles office has been transformed into what Kerr calls "a fantasy I had about the way I envisioned an imagined life." The Blissful Home is closed Sundays and Mondays.