by Lynn Colburn
Simply Adorable Apparel & More held its grand opening for its new physical location at 150 W. Temple St. in Waverly. The grand opening was held over the weekend, beginning Friday, March 25. Morgan Haycraft, the shop owner, says she has been running the shop online for almost a year before deciding to open physical doors.
“The shop was kind of for me and my mom, and then she decided it wasn’t what she wanted. So, I decided, well, what’s one more business here in town,” laughs Haycraft.
However, she wasn’t kidding. Morgan Haycraft, and her husband, Dylan, certainly stay busy — the two own several small businesses in Waverly including Morgadilly’s Bar, 220 S. Miller St.; Dip-A-Dilly’s Ice Cream Shop, which they opened last year and has already opened up again for this season; and a laundromat, which is right next store to their ice cream shop (both at 220 S. Miller St.). Also, Dylan Haycraft owns Dylan Haycraft Trucking Inc., which is headquartered at 150 W. Temple St., the building which now also houses the new boutique.
Currently the signage over the storefront of Simply Adorable Apparel & More only says “Dylan Haycraft Trucking Inc.” and that sign will stay. Morgan Haycraft says, “My husband actually bought the building for his trucking business, and we were just going to have offices up here, but then he said, ‘I don’t really need all this space, I just wanted a couple of offices.’ Well, now he has one office and I have all this space (she laughed with a smile).” Morgan says she couldn’t take his sign away from him, but she has plans on tinting the windows and adding Simply Adorable Apparel & More signage on the windows to help people find the shop more easily, too.
Morgan says her husband started his trucking company in about 2014 or 2015: “He bought his first truck. He only has one truck, and he only runs for himself — but now he is brokering out to other guys. So, some days he has 12 loads he gives out to people. He hauls hogs, cattle and many things … and he has always wanted a shop because he used to park down at Whalen’s, and then this came available. This building was so old. Nothing had been done to it, probably since it was built. There used to be a big counter down there (pointing to one side of the room) and it was bright orange and I said, ‘This has to go.’ My grandma and my grandpa worked here. My grandpa was like the main person for Allis-Chalmers. His name was Mike Mitchell. When we were cleaning stuff out, I found some of their old things and my mom really liked that.”
“So, we built a wall here (pointing to the back wall of the shop) … and there is still a bunch of back space back there, but I’m letting him have it,” laughs Morgan.
She continues, “I told our contractor, Charles Perry, who also did our work at the Ice Cream Shop, that I wanted black touches on everything. There also used to be a drop ceiling and these tresses were already here and I said they are beautiful, that they need to be seen! So, we’ve open it all and we have lots of wonderful space.”
In addition to all the businesses, this busy couple also have three children: two boys, stepson Bentley (10) and Paxton (3), and their little baby girl, Teagan (10 months). Her daughter, Teagan, is the reason the boutique got started. Morgan says wanted to find the cutest little clothes for girls. Since then, the business has expanded.
“We have women’s clothing and shoes, kids’ clothing and shoes,” says Morgan enthusiastically. “We are branching out to [include] a bunch of small businesses as well. One Knotty Maker, who does macramé, is doing stuff here and we’ve already held a class in the shop. And we are talking about working with Wilcrete with the concrete and the candles. And then we have The Perfect Piece, who does my little sunglasses. Anyone local is what we are trying to get and help. I want to help expand all local businesses, because we own so many, and we know how hard it is.”
Morgan says she got started in business early, “My mom and dad had owned the bar for 20 years and they got a divorce and my dad got it.” It was about 2016 when she started managing the bar for her dad, which lasted about two years.
“Then, me and my husband got married and we finally thought, ‘Let’s just buy it.’ We were doing all the work and we bought the whole lot. There was the bar, a laundromat and a rental property,” shares Morgan.
She continues: “Well, we talked and talked about the people who used to own the ice cream shop. First it was Double Dribble. Then, it was Time Out Treat and we were going to buy it from them, but they ended up having to tear it down … which worked in our favor. I’ve always thought the town needed an ice cream shop and it was without one for many years. I remember when I was younger, we’d get ice cream almost every day after school. And we lived right behind the one that was behind the school and would walk up with the older kids to get ice cream … We thought, we don’t use the other half of the laundromat, because it had a bunch of old machines in it. So, we got rid of half of them and we updated one half. Then we built a wall down the middle. And my husband said, ‘Just do your ice cream shop.’ We did all that last year! And I think that has been my favorite thing we’ve done.”
Morgan went to Lincoln Land Community College for culinary and baking classes. “That is how the food in the bar started,” she says, adding that was how the ice cream shop started as well.
She notes, “Although the creativity of the Freak Shakes we started at Dip-A-Dilly’s. For those, we all kind of throw ideas together and then we just come up with something. We do all different things on them! Cotton candy, lots of different cereals, pretzels … we’ve tried a lot of ideas. They are over the top, but people love them!”
Morgan says that for now, the hours for Simply Adorable Apparel & More are: Thursday-Friday from 3-7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m-4 p.m.; and Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. She says, “We are kind of playing it by ear and figuring it out. And we are still doing our online portion with our group, so people can still purchase on there. We are working on our website to where it can be easy access. We do have shipping, and local people can pick up when the shop is open, or they can still do a porch pickup from my home like when we were just with our Facebook group. And people can reach us at Simplyadorable21@yahoo.com.”
About keeping up with it all, Morgan says, “Sometimes it’s a lot. The days can be overwhelming. We just take one day at a time. My husband’s hours have always been crazy. And then the kids, you never know what a day or night will bring. But we do love it all, and we are lucky to have a really good group of girls that came back from my ice cream shop — Eden Copelin, Kaylee Ford and Lainee Ford — that help at both the store and the ice cream shop.”
Head to Waverly to see all the Morgans have to offer not only at their new physical storefront for Simply Adorable Apparel & More, but also make sure to stop for a Freak Shake or ice cream at Dip-A-Dilly’s while you’re there — or if you prefer, something at Morgadilly’s Bar. This couple has it all.
