GIG HARBOR, Wash. — Retired from a career in high-end luxury retail, Tiffany Brooks has opened Curated Gig Harbor to do what she loves most: helping customers find the perfect gifts.
"It's just not everybody's thing," she said. "And It's hard and it stresses them out. I hear customers saying 'What if I give them something they hate? What if I give them something they're not gonna like? I'm gonna be embarrassed by it.'"
Gift giving, she says, is supposed to be fun.
"I love giving gifts," Brooks said.
So she's helping me find something for my sister who's having a milestone birthday. I'm wanting to spend about $100.
Brooks walks over to a table and picks up a journal, a book called "The Pivot Year: 365 days to become the person you truly want to be," chocolates, a necklace with an intuition theme, a locally made lavender sage and rosemary candle and matches with sparrows on a box.
"Alright! So, now we're gonna put everything in the box," she announced.
Everything gets boxed up in a black box.
"And then we have different color ribbon that we add to it and we can put little adornments on it," she said.
That seemed so easy I wanted to send Brooks on another mission, a manly gift box for about $150.
"It's sometimes hard to find the perfect gift for the man in your life and I want to pull together some things you can do," she said as she looked over the store. Every table has a theme, so do the shelves.
"We have these really great glasses," she said, picking up two. "They are made in Seattle and they have little mountains inside so they're really interesting."
Cocktail mixes go with the glasses.
"And then to complement the mixes, I'm gonna pull out some lavender bitters," she said.
She also picks up a Rainier-themed candle, a Kraken-themed catch all and a set of matches with our little octopuses on them.
For Brooks, the only downside to curating is not getting to see the reactions of the people opening the gifts.
"I would love to see the response," she said. "I really want our customers to come back and tell their stories. That is going to be so satisfying for me to hear."
Curated is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday The store is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
KING 5's Evening celebrates the Northwest. Contact us: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Email.