Just in time for Mother’s Day: La Jolla gift shop to host opening event Saturday

By Marti Gacioch

Hi Sweetheart, Molly Cygan Rossettie’s new gift shop at 7920 Ivanhoe Ave. in the Village, may fast become La Jolla’s go-to place for whimsical gifts for everyone and every occasion.

Whether it’s an oh-so-soft hand-knit monkey “Bla Bla Doll” for a favorite wee one, a soap dish sporting a skull or a special cookbook for Mother’s Day, Hi Sweetheart has 600 square feet of fun, colorful gift choices.

Though she opened the shop on St. Patrick’s Day, Rossettie will mark her official grand opening with a special event from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 10 (the day before Mother’s Day). Customers will receive a 10-percent discount on all purchases, and may partake in Champagne and sweet treats while shopping.

Rossettie previously owned the Little Apple gift shop in Philadelphia’s historic district for four years. After she and her husband moved to La Jolla for his residency at UC San Diego, she worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s bookstore for awhile, but longed to open a gift shop again. “I wanted to use what I learned in Philadelphia,” Rossettie said.

As an art history graduate from the University of California, Berkeley, Rossettie said she enjoys using her creativity to display her shop’s one-of-a- kind gifts. Items such as vintage/ bohemian turquoise spike earrings, summer lantern candles for outdoor parties, and sea salt and seaweed soap blend easily with California map note cards and La Jolla pillows, under her design direction.

“I also have an organizing side to me, which is good when you have a store, so some days are all creative and other days are all numbers,” Rossettie said, adding she taps many sources for her shop’s varied merchandise. “I’m always looking on craft websites, and in stores and magazines to find interesting merchandise items.” Current popular items include hand-printed baby “onesies” with San Diego themes, bracelets of “worry dolls” by jewelry designer Dolores Petunia, succulent-shaped candles, ceramic matching pitchers and bowls by Magenta, and “The Newlywed Cookbook.”

“We chose to be in La Jolla because we think it’s a beautiful place to live and work, and people take pride in supporting the businesses here as they walk to their errands,” Rossettie said. “Ivanhoe is coming alive and people are looking for little shops, and that’s what I’m trying to bring to La Jolla.”

■ Hi Sweetheart is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday at 7920 Ivanhoe Ave. (858) 729-1985.

hi-sweets.com

The Business Spotlight features commercial enterprises that support the La Jolla Light.