Sparta Entrepreneur, Christine Willis has found a marketable niche in Sparta, at 21 Main St.. The cleverly named, Expresso Yourself is a new shop that offers gourmet teas, coffees and pastries tempting the visitor to linger and try his or her hand at painting bisque pottery pieces. She has stocked the store with pieces of such variety, there is something of interest to both adults and children, from canister sets, dishwasher and food safe dinnerware, dog and cat bowls, and vases to children’s statues and banks of every theme. Willis’ shop lures groups or individuals of all ages. Book clubs, scout troops and seniors make it a destination. Birthday parties are scheduled any day of the week. Individuals come too as do Willis’ favorite gathering group, the families that come in to linger over coffee and paint with their children for hours. “Seeing them relax and spend time together as a family is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for. With the movie theater under construction and sports pulling families in every direction, I figured this to be a good opportunity to relax, get creative and have good family time,” commented Willis. “As sports come to an end and the cold or rainy days roll in, it’s nice to have a place to go and relax.” With adequate parking in the rear of the building, the visitor can stroll conveniently round to the front entrance via the wide porch steps right off the parking lot. The Victorian style front porch creates the perfect setting for painting pottery while sipping an espresso. The mosaic tiled, wrought iron tables and chairs and festive holiday décor of the porch provide an attractive entrance to the artistic visitor. The ambiance continues inside as light jazz can be heard and a brand new color palate of sky blue and chocolate brown offer a calming, earth/sky atmosphere designed to encourage creativity. The hardwood floors bear a light stain to offset the simple, mission style wooden tables and chairs, a perfect compliment to the natural feel started by the decor and giving the room an overall neat and clean appearance. The traditional eight- foot windows with thick Victorian mouldings, are intentionally left bare to allow streaming rays of bright sunshine to play off spacious studio area on a cloudless day. Star shaped lanterns hang in the windows to create a Bohemian feel. Brown bookcases on the rear wall are a luscious backdrop for the contrasting white pottery pieces purposely and cleverly placed at a child’s eye level as a lure to the artistic in young visitors. Willis plans to eventually offer classes in her imaginative, creative shop to teach techniques she knows well like tie-dying and wax resisting. After the New Year, she also plans to coordinate with local charities to offer a portion of her profits to a different charity each month. Expresso Yourself, can be reached at 973-729-0055 or for further information log onto www.expressoyourselftoday.com.