Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelsey Edwards.
Hi Kelsey, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
We are a mother/daughter team with two brick & mortar locations in the Atlanta area and an online shop. In 2012, my sister and I started a blog called You’ve Been Noted as a creative outlet from our sales jobs. We would host night markets with local artists from around the city that we called The Ballog. In 2015, we hosted one of our night markets in Serenbe — a sustainable community 30 minutes south of Atlanta — which led to us launching a holiday pop-up shop that season with the same concept as our market. I partnered with my mom on this venture, but I still had a full-time sales job at the time, so we would only open the doors when it worked with our schedules. The shop caught on, business picked up, and we would open for longer and longer periods. Flash forward to 2021, and I now work for The Ballog full time. We have two locations and an online shop, multiple employees, and carry work by over 100 different makers from around the country!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
We have learned so much since opening our little pop-up six years ago. It has been a fun journey, and some days I can’t believe I get to do what I do for a living, but it has not always been easy. Our shop has evolved a lot over the years — from only being open two days a week with no employees to now being open seven days a week with two locations, an online shop, and ten employees. We’ve faced many obstacles since we started this journey, from staffing challenges and theft to structural issues and navigating some red tape and bureaucracy to remain in business and find the support we needed from the community. Now we find ourselves in perhaps the greatest challenge yet — navigating a global pandemic.
Through it all, we have come to realize just how vital our Ballog community is. We are so thankful for everyone that has supported our shop — especially our amazing staff and customers. We would not still be here without them.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The Ballog?
Our mission is to support artisans who are local, independent, and socially conscious. We want to create a shopping experience with a purpose – to encourage people to think more about their consumption, understand that there are actual people behind the products they purchase and see the effect their dollar has on their community and the world.
The inspiration behind the name of our shop comes from my great-grandmother, Mary Ballog. She was the daughter of an immigrant family from Eastern Europe and lived a humble life in Gary, Indiana. She was a creative and inspirational self-taught artist that did not pick up a paintbrush until she was 40. She taught painting lessons up until she passed away at the age of 94. Her legacy is that you can create under any circumstance, and it’s never too late to start. The shop is a tribute to her.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
We are always looking for new, local, or indie makers to carry in the shop! We also like to host in-store events and pop-ups. We have done a plant pop-up and a vintage market. We have had live music, book readings, screen-printing, cookie decorating classes, lettering workshops, and live paintings in the shop, to name a few. So if you are a local artist, musician, baker, writer, etc. – we would love to talk and see if there is an opportunity to collaborate!
As a business, people can support us by checking out our shop in person, shopping with us online or sharing our mission with their friends!
Contact Info:
- Email: theballog@gmail.com
- Website: theballog.com
- Instagram: @theballog
- Facebook: @theballog
Image Credits:
Lauren Liz Lacey Sombar Curtis
