Bella Erder, and her husband, Mark, were living and working in Hong Kong in 1997 when they bought a vacation home in Norfolk, CT, where they would spend summers and Christmas vacations. Seven years later, they decided that they wanted their sons, Luke and Jake, to be educated in the United States. To maintain their Hong Kong-based careers — Bella has a marketing/branding company and Mark has a video production company — they began taking turns living in Norfolk with their sons. Their unusual “tag-team" arrangement has allowed them to enjoy big city life in Asia and small town life in New England — the best of two worlds. Now Bella has a second career as the owner of Aija, a store in the heart of Norfolk that sells jewelry made from semi-precious stones as well as accessories, tableware imported from Asia, vintage books and other gift items. She likes to collaborate with local artisans and on August 16, she will host a pop-up shop featuring clothes from Annie Walwyn-Jones and hand-blown items by Gilmor Glass of Millerton. Norfolk is a very sophisticated country town. It has a wonderful, eclectic mix of people. It’s a very warm community, and if anyone is in crisis it seems the whole town folds around them to offer support. We have great live music with Infinity Hall and Yale's Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. We have one of the most beautiful libraries in the region and a fabulous historical society. Our famers’ market has grown over the years and allows us to support local agriculture. Aija began when my son Luke was at the Indian Mountain School, when I took a table at the holiday fair and sold some jewelry I designed and had made in Hong Kong. I started having trunk shows at our renovated farmhouse — “ladies’ nights" when I would serve wine and cheese and dress a couple of rooms in my house so it would feel like a store. A few years ago, I decided to open a second-floor shop in town as an experiment. The people who were willing to walk up a flight of stairs loved it, but I underestimated the resistance people had to exploring a place that they could not see from the sidewalk. So when a large storefront became vacant in town, I decided it was time to lease it. Now when I am in Asia, I will go on buying trips to Vietnam and Indonesia to bring back porcelains, baskets, beaded purses. My motto is “Indulgence without excess." I never want my customers to have sticker shock. I always want them to be pleasantly surprised. Most of my jewelry, for instance, is $20 to $80. It’s important for all our small towns to have shopping destinations. The town centers are struggling, but people don’t always support them, so I’ve had to made Aija more than a store. It’s become a community center and salon, where people come in and sit on the sofa and have a cup of coffee. I’ll exhibit local artists and host reiki evenings, which bring people into town. I carry items like notebooks, cocktail shakers and bottle openers that make wonderful hostess gifts when you are going to a dinner party. I’m a foodie and I love that there are so many good restaurants in our area. We love going to No. 9 in Millerton. Allium in Great Barrington is always delicious, and my new favorite is Prairie Whale — the food is not predictable and the environment is very welcoming. We also enjoy going to Nudel in Lenox or the Southfield Store which is just across the border in Massachusetts. When we have out of town guests we go further afield. We’ll take them up to the Clark in Williamstown and then have a picnic at Tanglewood. In the winter, I stay closer to home and Tuesday Trivia night at the Woodcreek Bar and Grill in town has become a great way to fill those long, dark evenings. And I do my part at Aija. Every Wednesday from the third week in August through December we’ll have a reiki share and I am planning other wellness evenings, as well. It’s very satisfying to have a store that is really a community center, too.
