Sep 17, 2008

Destined for success: Boutique offers a little bit of everythingBy Alice Thrasher

Fayetteville, NC — Want to know what is supposed to bring good luck and money in these troubled economic times?

Lil Tina Carter, owner of The Destiny Jade Gift Boutique, has some suggestions.

Carter and her daughter-in-law, Susan Brown, keep in stock live green bamboo stalks at the gift shop on Brighton Road, off Raeford Road. The lucky bamboo comes in several sizes with branches and leaves, or grouped into arrangements.

“We buy little bamboo shoots and nurture them like a baby,” Carter said. “They are supposed to bring you money; the more leaves, the more money.”

If you need even more luck, the shop stocks elephants made of clay, wood and other materials. If the elephant has its truck pointed up, that’s supposed to be even luckier.

Carter said she learned about the luck lore while traveling. He mother lived in Germany, and her father was an American soldier.

“When I was growing up we traveled a lot,” Carter said. “I was always drawn to the Orient.”

Carter moved to Fayetteville in 1985. She traveled to the Philippines and Japan nine years ago and spent a month. She picked up ideas for her shop; for instance, the ceramic cats with a waving left arm that greet customers are from Japan.

“In Japan, it’s a must to have the cat waving,” Carter said.

The boutique will celebrate its first anniversary Oct. 1. It’s located in a strip shopping center behind Hawley’s Bicycle Shop.

Carter’s first business venture was doing nails at homes and at car dealerships for their staff. She started doing nails at the Raeford Road Flea Market in 1990.

Carter said she started out in her retail business with $100. She bought items at flea markets to sell at the Raeford Road market at the outside tables. “For five years, it was hard,” she said.

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