The Met’s incredibly talented young owners, Brenda and Geoffrey Michel, approached Tina early this summer with the concept. And as you read this blog, Tina’s husband (architect Thorning Little) is installing his design for the boutique for a soft opening on Oct. 15.

 Queens' Wreath's Tina Little.

"Geoffrey called me in June and said, ‘The Circle is going to miss you,’” Tina recalls. “I jumped at his offer.” Indeed, the boutique is good for both companies. Little’s long-standing customers on Longboat Key don’t have to cross the Ringling Bridge, and her growing base of downtown clients has the convenience of a Main Street location. “I feel Tina has the experience and taste level to offer our clients an incredible presentation of jewelry from around the world. Queens’ Wreath clearly understands luxury and timeless value,” Geoffrey Michel explains. So QWJ gets double the exposure-- and The Met further expands its complete lifestyle vision with upscale fine jewelry.

Celebrating and improving life is just what Shayna Teicher is doing with her new store, Butterfly Effect, on North Orange Avenue. The grand opening is set for Friday, Oct. 2, from 5-8 p.m. Shayna’s shop will showcase a selection of all-natural bath, body and skin care products as well as make-up. She’s focusing on companies that give back to the needy around the world, and will be doing events to help local charities.  Local vendors featured at the shop are Jasmine McAllister, who created a special recycled line of eco-friendly Jaszy’s Jewelry for Butterfly Effect, and SanRe skin care products—a Sarasota-based company that makes natural herbal “organic skinfood” at reasonable prices (“$30 for a cream instead of $90 for a comparable national brand,” Shayna says.) The grand opening party sounds fun: champagne, nibbles, mini spa treatments and more.

 Shayna Teicher.

Meanwhile, I hopped over to Venice last weekend to check out my favorite antiques stores on Miami Avenue. Wow! They’re gone, except for a very few consignment shops. Instead I found a new knife emporium—yes, a knife emporium, called Ubasi Cutlery. The owner is 32-year-old J.R. Kondisko, who’s been collecting knives since he was a kid. J.R. had just hosted the Sarasota Knife Collectors Club (formerly the South West Florida Knife Collectors Club) – that’s right; we have a knife collectors club. Who knew? Well, these knives look like jewelry. Most of them cost from $500 to $2,000 –some go to $20,000. So I asked J.R. if he gets them on consignment from the manufacturers like some jewelry companies get theirs expensive gems. Nope. He paid for every last one of them. And on his first weekend in business he sold two knives at $7,000 apiece. Still, with the average age of 70 for Venice residents, I’m hoping his Internet business does really, really well.  There are some beautiful gifts to be had – a collection of kitchen knives that can be custom colored; affordable brands favored by the military, police and firemen, too.