From the kitchen to the campground, these five fantastic items were locally grown in Utah Valley.
Lizzy & Stitch
Lizzy Dabcynski-Bean was hanging by a thread in an unfulfilling job when she decided to cut ties and cross over to cross-stitching. She founded Stitch People in Orem, where she jumps through embroidery hoops to match T-shirt logos and hair color for each hand-stitched custom family portrait. Since opening in 2013, she has not only stitched 300 portraits, but she also wrote the book on it — “Do It Yourself Stitch-People.”
Guiding Light
Electrician Jeremy Smith had a bright idea while installing complicated guide lights in a local home. After years of fine-tuning, he flipped the switch on SnapRays Guidelights — outlet plates with three LED lights at the bottom. Each plate has a photo sensor that automatically turns the Guidelight on and off based on the amount of light detected in the area. The Provo product lights up homes with different plate designs, including one with a USB port.
Shake it Up
Rachel Trujillo had just moved to Provo from Australia when she found herself shaking her head at the boxes of sugary treats in the grocery store. She and her husband wanted healthier options for their four children, so she shook things up and designed her own kid-friendly nutritional products. The result is KidzShake — protein-packed, sugar-free and vitamin-filled shake powders in chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and orange cream flavors, available for purchase online.
Picnic Spills, Meet Your Mat
Leave the sheets on your bed and keep grandma’s quilt folded in your winter chest. A better way to picnic has hit the park. Provo’s Marilee Killpack and Jeni Awerkamp created Let’s Playground, bonded leather mats that are waterproof, wipe-able and wildly stylish. In addition to the playground mat, Marilee and Jeni designed three other mats in different shapes and sizes for use as a diaper changing mat, a splat mat under high chairs or a beach mat.
Small Flame, Big Game
Steve Despain and a fellow outdoorsman had light-packing campers in mind when they cooked up the idea for the Nano Firebox — a 3-inch wide, 4.75-inch tall collapsible camping stove. The Nano Firebox, made in Provo, can boil two cups of water in less than three minutes using sticks and twigs as fuel. Steve’s customers are fired up about the Nano and the Original 5” Firebox, cooking everything from mini pizzas to potatoes and steak.