By Michelle B. Long

If you’re looking for unique gift items; usually found in a Mall setting like Willow Tree angels, Boyd’s Bears, and Yankee candles-- you’ll find them at Kari’s Keepsakes and Gifts located in the Foot Hills Shopping Plaza, on North Franklin Street (US 460), beside the Christiansburg Recreation Center.

Upon entering the shop, in front of the Food Lion Plaza, customers are greeted by the gentle smell of WoodWick and Yankee scented candles.

At first glance, a variety of stuffed animals by Boyd’s adorn the front walls. Picking among stuffed bears, dogs, giraffes, monkeys and other animals-- all soft and nestled together-- you’ll be hard pressed to choose. A sleeping cat nearly the size of a real black and white kitty is curled up in the window. The price tag on the life-like stuffed animal reads a mere $10.00.

Willow Tree angels and other figurines fill up the display case and adjacent wall. These are highly collectible primitive style carvings out of wood. Taylor says she hopes to have the entire collection available soon.

Boyd’s Bear resins featuring bear figurines, in a variety of occupations and hobbies, line one wall area. For example, for the baseball or softball enthusiast, there’s a bear holding a bat in a baseball outfit ready to hit a home run.

A large selection of the Demdaco gift line offers a selection of inspirational frames, plaques, mugs, and clocks. Each item features a different saying, good advice or something your mother might say to you, says Taylor.

The shop also features a line of newborn infant dolls, complete with a maternity ward window for viewing, birth certificates, and on the weekends, they’ll even don nurse’s smocks and stethoscopes. If you didn’t know better, you’d think you were in a real hospital nursery.

“It’s an experience that I shared with my daughters and I wanted other moms to be able to share it with their children as well,” says business owner, Kari Sharlow Taylor, a former substitute teacher for the Montgomery County Public Schools.

She explains that she got the idea to open her own shop after traveling three and a half hours into West Virginia with her daughters to visit the closest “Newborn Nursery” featuring the life-like infant dolls by Lee Middleton.

Taylor, who opened the shop in March of this year, grew up in Blacksburg, graduated from Blacksburg High School and New River Community College and is now married with four children.

What makes the newborn dolls so unique is that the vinyl they are made of is sculpted to look like real babies, she says. They have different hair and eye color and represent different ethnic groups. For example, in the nursery, she displays an African American doll, an Asian doll, and Caucasian dolls as well as sets of twins.

The Middleton dolls are all age-appropriate, Taylor says. The “Nursery Dolls,” which are the ones featured in the back of the store, in what looks like a real newborn nursery, are recommended for ages four years to ten years old. The “Playtime Dolls” are for newborns to four years and the “Keepsake Dolls” are more of a collectible item for older kids and adults.

Taylor says the first doll she sold was a Keepsake doll. She sold it to a woman who appeared to be in her fifties, who wanted it for herself.

Playtime dolls range in price from $14 to $60. Nursery dolls begin at $80 with packages including clothing and accessories ranging in price from $99 to $174.99. Keepsake doll prices also begin at around $100.

Among the jogging strollers, high chairs, bassinets, baby doll outfits, and other doll accessories, you may think you are in a newborn section of a local department store, rather than a keepsakes and gift shop in front of the Food Lion Plaza in Christiansburg.

Taylor says her goal is to offer one-stop shopping for keepsakes and gifts, complete with cards and gift bags for purchase or, if you like, she’ll do a courtesy gift bag with tissue paper for free with purchase.