Stephanie Nishikawa | Small Business Owner | Paper Garden Boutique

Bailarín Cellars celebrates those who do what they love. Their passion for life is unstoppable and their enthusiasm is infectious. We celebrate these heroes and learn from their words of wisdom as we chase our own pursuits.

This month we celebrate Stephanie Nishikawa, the owner of the Paper Garden Boutique, a fantastic local gem inside the Pavilions shopping center in Sacramento who just celebrated 14 years in business. Whether it’s handmade wedding invites, holiday cards, gift cards, or other thoughtful gifts, Stephanie’s talents are sure to make a special occasion extra special.

WHAT MAKES YOU DANCE?

“Inspiring my customers with fun and creative paper crafts.”

I always like to keep myself busy by creating cards, handmade gifts from paper and sending “snail mail” to friends and family… that helps pass the time for me and before you know it, there aren’t enough hours in the day!  Playing with happy paper colors and making beautiful gifts is what makes me tick – but more importantly, I like to create to make people happy once they receive these special treasures.

Before I kept my hands busy with scissors, glue, and cardstock, I held a microphone with the KOVR 13 logo and was a tv reporter and fill in anchor at our CBS local news station for 8 years. My career took me all over the world including Guam as a reporter, then back on the mainland to Kansas City, Missouri as the first Asian American tv reporter at Fox station WDAF-TV and finally back to my home state of California.

With the birth of my one and only son Miles, who is now 15,  I decided chasing bad guys wasn’t a good idea anymore.  The daily grind and hustle and bustle of live shots and getting stories on the air wasn’t appealing to me anymore.  I just wanted to be a mom, and create fun stuff.  So, I took a loan from my father in-law and opened up the Paper Garden Boutique.  I have never looked back and each day I am inspired to create fun invitations, cards and paper items to decorate my store.  It’s a dream come true to inspire everyone to do something creative.  I went from a fast moving, non-stop tango and foxtrot to a slow moving sway… as a 52 year old… it’s definitely a dance I don’t mind repeating over and over!

~Stephanie Nishikawa