Othello store combats slower business with class

Fae's Books and Crafts grows over last 28 years

OTHELLO — Things may be slower at the moment, but Faelela Mitchell has seen her business, Fae's Books and Crafts, evolve.

Mitchell and her husband of 55 years, Val, moved to Othello in 1959. Mitchell began the business 28 years ago. It moved about four times within the city of Othello, and got bigger with each move, she said.

"I belonged to a book club, to begin with, and every four books I got, I would get a free one," Mitchell recalled. "I was put in as the librarian at our church, and people were coming to me for books because I told them I would give the free book to the church."

Deciding she didn't like working on Sundays, Mitchell decided to open a bookstore in a room in her house. Two years later, she moved into a location in town, ultimately growing to take over two other spaces in the same building, and then moved into the store's present location, at 740 E. Main St.

The craft portion of the business began when Mitchell's daughter was getting married and wanted to make her own flowers for her wedding.

"We just started adding what people asked for," Mitchell said, noting that she added painting supplies because of her own interest in the subject.

Mitchell said she has remained with the business because she likes people.

"It hasn't been a real moneymaking thing, we put everything back into it gradually," she said. However, business has been a lot slower in recent years. "We're really having more classes, trying to get more people to come."

Classes include painting, scrapbooking, tatting, knitting and crocheting.

In the early years, Mitchell recalled, she taught three classes a day in addition to her work running the operation.

About six years ago, Mitchell opened another location in Moses Lake, at 206 W. Third Ave.

"We were afraid someone else would go in there with the books, and a lot of our customers came from Moses Lake," she explained. While the move contributed to slower customer numbers in Othello, they doubled in Moses Lake.

Mitchell spends the majority of her time at the location in Othello, where she has four employees, counting her husband.

"He's backed me on everything we've ever done," she said of her husband. "Always gone along with everything and always been a lot of help."

Mitchell plans to ultimately turn the business over to her children. While she might not like all the computer work the job now comes with, she said she still enjoys visiting people and teaching them.

"We have one student that came in very shy and bashful, didn't think she could do anything," she said of a person receiving lessons as a Christmas gift from her husband. "She's a totally different person now. She's more sure of herself, she's doing a good job and it's just helped her immensely."