Some people engage in spring cleaning. Bobbye Cochran undertook some major fall cleaning. After she got rid of the boxes in the storage space of her 1 1/2 year-old store, Motif, she transformed the 400-square-foot space into a charming second shop, Sarabo, which she named for her late mother, Sara Bobo.
The store, wh:ich opened in October, is the children’s shop that Cochran and her mother had hoped to run together.
“She was a wonderful sewer. We always talked about having a shop so that she could make kids’ ouffits,” says Cochran, whose Motif focuses on grown- up “toys,” such as jewelry, scarves and assorted tableware.
While some of Sarabo’s inventory is fairly traditional– picture frames, rattles, baby shoes and velvet dresses– much is reminiscent of old- fashioned play. There are dozens of windup toys that are reproductions of turn-of-the-century German ones, including a hen that lays eggs and a duck that rides on a bike and spins an umbrella.
For older children, there are yo-yos with Keith Haring designs and a battery-operated toy convertible that holds a couple snapping photos as they zoom along.
Prices range from 50 cents for a “fortune-telling fish” to $200 for a Keith Haring rocking chair. The windup toys are priced from $2 to $98.
Sarabo is located on Seminary Street, around the corner from Motif at 1101 W. Webster St., 312-880-9962. Hours are noon to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays; and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.
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