klt:works

06/11/2026

Yay! Dry Inside is a such a gem of a spot in downtown MV!

MOUNT VERNON — While most bars revolve around intoxicating beverages, downtown Mount Vernon's newest bar, Dry Inside, does not.

06/09/2026

{KLT Micro Gallery} This month, we are featuring MVHS teacher, Melinda Elliot & her Creative Arts class project, “Creative Arts Postcards”. The postcards utilize various hand-designed papers that each student created over the semester. Paying attention to the “Principles of Design”, they collage their collection of papers on a postcard template, making creative, analog decisions throughout their process. I’m a big fan of the thoughtfulness of Melinda’s assignments for her Creative Arts class and want to applaud her for the skills that she continues to pass on to her students at a time when the importance of the arts is being overlooked. Good job, Melinda! We will enjoy the colorful quilt of textures & different points of view in our shop throughout the month! Stop by and check them out!

06/09/2026

Thank you for all you do, Mount Vernon Downtown Association!

Up next in the Main Street Week series: Main Street Bolsters Small Businesses!

Small businesses make up 99.5% of all businesses in Washington State. Just like they are statewide, small businesses are the backbone of downtown Mount Vernon. They not only power our local economy and recirculate dollars spent with them at least 4 times locally, but they also power our civic life, through sponsoring youth sports, donating to nonprofit organizations, and providing gathering spaces where our community members find connection. Every downtown business is so much more than a business - it is the manifestation of the owner’s dreams and the physical representation of their vision and labor.

The Mount Vernon Downtown Association works to support our small businesses in myriad ways, both seen and unseen. From providing a small business incubator for early-stage entrepreneurs, making connections for business and property owners, advocacy at the local, state and national level, to creating beloved community events that bring tens of thousands of people downtown, we continually work to cultivate a vibrant and prosperous downtown we can all be proud of.

Small businesses operate with narrow margins, which will be especially razor-thin this year due to traffic disruption from the SR 536 bridge project. We’ll be working harder than ever to keep these gritty businesses afloat and ask you to do all you can to support them.

Want to help shape the future of downtown? Reach out to share your hopes and ideas!

06/02/2026

We have a new addition in our shop- my childhood dollhouse! My dad & his friend built this dollhouse for me in the late ‘70’s & it has had many lives since. We gave it a little remodel when Sayer was born - it was his changing table/toy shelf & now it houses our shop record player, music books, & my paperdoll’s perfect attic space with KLT wallpaper, art, pillows (& imaginary dog). I love this special addition to our shop & enjoy watching people discover my little room. The shop truly brings me so much joy.

05/26/2026

We just got a stack of these in the shop!

Today is the day: THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE has finally arrived.

Get your copy wherever books are sold: https://bit.ly/TheLandAndItsPeople

05/11/2026

{Inspiration:Mom’s Day part 2} is and always has been at the heart of KLT:works. The storefront is sort of a (mom) love letter to him. It’s there that I pour out my fondness of watching him grow into an amazing human & where I understand his influence on my own growth & evolution.

Selling books in the shop was always a dream of mine- particularly children’s books. They are some of the first art that kids are exposed to & such a major part of a child’s life. My favorite mom memories were reading & drawing/painting with Sayer. He was a prolific artist & drew at his easel all of the time. I gave him my Ed Emberly drawing book- we would clip it to his easel & he would draw for a really long time (we will carry that book for as long as I can get them).

When I order things for the shop, Sayer is always on my mind. I think about the books he loved, the books that I think he would have loved, or that he would love in the present. I think about art supplies that he would have been eager to play with or vinyl (LPs) that he’d like to listen to now. (The stack of books is "Sayer Inspired" and currently in the shop - I forgot to add my Ed Emberly drawing books).

I have told many of you who have stopped by the shop, that it's highly curated and a labor of love- the common thread is my brain. It’s really just the way a creative mom who misses & admires her son, deals with her empty nest - & a way to cope with her kid going to college across the country.

Thanks to all of you who visit, like, & enjoy our shop! But most importantly, thanks to all of the moms who share their kindness, wisdom, & compassion daily. It is so important to support one another. I appreciate all of you.

05/10/2026

Thanks Mount Vernon Downtown Association!

04/16/2026

We will be closing today at 3:30pm due to the street closure.
See you soon!
Tulip Festival Hours:
Friday- 10-6pm
Saturday- 10-6pm
Sunday- 10-4pm

04/11/2026

It’s tulip printing time! I’m adding things all the time these days. Stop by when you’re out and about looking at the tulip fields. Downtown has so much to offer!

04/09/2026

It was a good day to test out the little reading areas in the shop with a new but familiar (BIG) book!