Today we’d like to introduce you to Maria Easter.
Hi Maria, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Michigan, my husband is from North Carolina, we are a blended family of 8 beautiful children and 13 grandchildren. I met my spouse in 1999 and we married in 2000 as an Army wife we moved around a lot, I didn’t get to work for very long or didn’t work at all and I enjoyed going to local home decor shops wherever we lived and I longed for the opportunity to one day open my own. When my husband retired after just shy of 24 years, we settled in Virginia and I worked a few jobs here and there even finished my degree in Health Information Management. I was looking for jobs when Covid-19 struck and everything as we know it stopped. I was eager to do something, but my husband was recently declared Legally Blind, so I pivoted to at home jobs and everyone was looking for at home jobs, so it was a challenging time. I took a leap of faith one day and decided to start my own home decor business Ecommerce only and in October of 2020 the Bell & Nook went was started. I had the help of my daughter Kaitlin Honaker to help me design the website. It was challenging in the beginning finding distributors with all that was going on with Covid, but I managed we started small. We started with home decor small things like vases, mirrors, pillows, and small military type gifts. The business grew and I had another idea for a business, Spring beginning of year 2025 I opened another Ecommerce business The First Outpost which encompasses all things from camping, hiking, baseball, exercise equipment to military gear and gifts, eye ware and everything in-between. Nine months after that I started The Rocking Horse Co. with my daughter Amanda Kelly which features children’s and adolescent clothing, toys, gifts, decor, and nursery essentials, which is doing well. I had more ideas for more businesses and saw a need for an online Celebration store so early Spring 2026 I opened The Paperly & Co, which is not only a supply for celebrations store, but we also offer stationary, balloons, gifts and much more. I would not stop there; I continued to brainstorm more ideas for more stores and then most recently we have opened With Divine Grace a Religious Store and East River Home an Elevated Living and Beautifully defined home store. So needless to say, I have been very busy! I had The Bell & Nook, LLC trademarked last year so I refer to all of my stores under “The Bell & Nook Brands” We are so excited to keep adding to our business and have grown to over 7,000 orders all across the brands since we have opened in 2020. We have sold to major movie production companies, businesses who are opening stores, countless interior designers, we have been featured in a major food magazine for one of our products in 2024 and have helped countless individuals with gifts and decor for their homes.
To give back to our military community and our first responders we have added a discount through GOVX for military, veterans, their spouses and first responders. We have been fortunate to be able to donate to many charities Blind Veterans Association (BVA), Visual Impairment Services Outpatient Rehabilitation (VISOR) Group at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Richmond who has helped my husband in so many ways he would not be able to do what he does now without their assistance. We have also donated to local sports teams, churches, and charities within our community.
We are a family run business who prides ourselves in exceptional customer service we are live people you can speak and chat with, we work very hard to get orders out in fast and efficient manner. We love making our customers happy, we have and will continue to get our customers’ orders to them in time. We love what we do, and the best part is we do it as a family, I can help contribute financially to our home while staying home and taking care of my husband. I work alongside my children and husband we are a team and we have grown this business together. I can’t wait to see what the future hold for us. I hope you read this, and it inspires you to pursue your dream whatever it may be. Thank you for listening to my story and I hope you come and check out our businesses!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The first year was a struggle, I had some sales here and there and I even started selling on 3rd party websites, I was doing ok but not as well as I had hoped, I sell exclusively through my websites only now. I had enough and got discouraged, and thought I can’t do this, I stopped selling and took down the website I took 9 months off to reflect and decide if I wanted to go back to try again. My husband sat me down and said I could do this, and I had to give it time. He was and is my biggest supporter, cheering me on all the time. I decided to rebrand and re-d0 the website, I advertised, word of mouth and referrals the sales came in, and sure enough everything changed.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I am the owner of The Bell & Nook, alongside my husband Tim we are proud to say The Bell & Nook LLC is the home to now 6 brands: The Bell & Nook, The First Outpost, The Rocking Horse Co., The Paperly & Co., With Divine Grace, and East River Home. Each business has a different specialty: Home Decor & Gifts; Outdoor, Sports, and gifts; Children’s clothing, nursery decor and toys; Supplies for celebrations, fresh flowers and stationery; Religious home decor and gifts; and finally Fine furnishings and home accents.
Customer Service, and the variety sets us apart from others. This is because our customers are often surprised that they are speaking to real customer engagement specialists versus AI. Also, we get a lot of compliments on the variety of our offerings, we try to carry products that are unique and different.
I am proud of the way that my business has grown from humble beginnings until now especially fulfilling a need for my customers not only in my community but around the country.
We try to have a little something for everybody if you need help choosing a gift and finding something special, we will try to help in any way we can, we ever offer personalization with some of our items and during special holidays we offer gift wrap and cards.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
Flying over to Puerto Rico to meet my parent’s families with my mom, we flew First Class, she had saved up for us to have a wonderful vacation. We stayed two weeks, I got to swim in the Ocean, tubing in the river, see the first fire station on the island, visit the highest point in Barranquitas, my parents’ hometown, with a church group and my cousins. I was able to see all the way to San Juan where we flew in. I met a lot of family I did not know I had, we had amazing food, attended my families’ church where my mother and father were married, visited countless museums and see Castillo San Felipe del Morro.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thebellandnook.com, www.thefirstoupoststore.com, www.therockinghorseco.net, www.thepaperlyandco.com, www.withdivinegrace.com, www.Eastriverhome.com
- Instagram: @thebellandnook, @thefirstoutpost, @therockinghorseco, @thepaperlyandco, @with.divine.grace, @EastRiverHome
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebellandnook/,https://www.facebook.com/thefirstoutpost/,https://www.facebook.com/therockinghorseco/, https://www.facebook.com/thepaperlyandco/ , http://facebook.com/withdivinegrace
