At one point along her journey, Sam Smith, owner of Josephine’s Redeemed Boutique, was ready to close the doors and lock up for good.

But she’s glad she decided not to.

“I have some very loyal customers,” said Smith. “And I love this business. But I’m a small business and I’m trying to do this without taking out any business loans. There was a point when I didn’t think I could make it. But we hung in there mostly because of our customers.”

Smith opened Josephine’s in July of 2013. At that time she had about half the floor space she now has and her inventory was mostly what she and her family had collected throughout the years.

The store specializes in anything vintage, antique and repurposed furniture, locally made signs and artwork, and items that have been rescued from the trash.

Since she first opened, she’s added a Man Cave, a room where there’s items that men would find interesting.

“We added that because we wanted something for the men who come in here with their wives to do,” she said. “Sometimes, they’ll head back there and read the old copies of Rolling Stone magazines that we have, or look through the old vinyls.”

Indeed. Smith has a good-sized selection of old recording albums, all of which have been cleaned and placed in new plastic sleeves to protect the original album covers. She sells them for $5 each. Above them, on the wall, is a collection of hubcaps. Other items in the Man Cave include tools, advertising signs and even industrial items like wine barrel hoops.

Smith and her husband and her parents find many of the items in the store at estate sales and auctions. Sometimes the items are saved from the scrap yard, or the dump.

“It’s part of our mission,” she said. “We want to give new life to old stuff.”

Another new area of the store is the “school room,” where she has old books and children’s readers from the 1950s and 1960s. Old school desks and school maps are a part of that, too.

And she’s added a classroom, where she teaches sessions in various crafts including string art, jute wreath-making, making paper rosette flowers and creating “smash books,” an artistic journal.

“We have regular classes and we offer to host parties, too,” she said. “We have birthday parties for kids ages 5 to 13 where they each get to make a journal. We’ve also had bridal showers here where the guests help make the favors for the wedding.”

Parties can include instruction on how to make items that guests have seen on Pinterest.

And Josephine’s now has a flower market where she creates fresh flower bouquets in vintage vases for holidays, and makes corsages and boutonnieres for proms and other dances.

The store, named for her grandmother, has more gift items than she originally intended. But she’s liking that.

“We carry things for new babies, some jewelry, and books and journals that are locally made,” she said. “Many of our graphic prints are made by Sandy Lloyd and carry local images.”

The signs are popular with customers and help keep the local history alive, she said. She’s working hard with other businesses in the area to bring back Annapolis, the name of the original town that was founded in the area of her store.

“Everybody who shows in my shop is just a little artist trying to make it,” she said.

Her store, at 1961 Bay Street, is housed in an 1902 building that was originally a mercantile.

“Just being in this location has been important to me,” she said. “My grandmother was the one who taught me to not waste anything. She reused things all the time. So, in a way, this is all because of her.”

A butterfly patterned quilt made by her grandmother, Josephine Thumma, hangs on the wall near the entrance to the store. Her grandparents, Josephine and Bud, were longtime residents of Port Orchard. Smith moved to the city when she was just 3 years old.

She finds that many of her customers are longing to take a step back, away from electronic and social media and television.

“They just want to think about when times were simpler,” she said. “So they come in to look around and recall their own memories.”

To find a class listing, go to www.facebook.com/JosephonesRedeemedBoutique, or call 360-621-8841.

Store hours are Mondays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays she’s open by appointment.