When Donna Balliet was laid off 14 years ago, she - like most people in her situation - was quick to find another job. 

Balliet, now 53, had three children, one of whom was a two-year-old. She started working at the Lehigh Valley Hospital, but about two years into that position, Balliet realized she might have passed on a blessing in disguise. 

“I did get another job and I was gone 12 hours a day,” Balliet said. “I’m like ‘I didn’t wait this long to have him (my son) to not be home’ … I quit.” 

She split her time between a toddler and her passion: crafting. 

“I went full force,” Balliet recalled.  

Balliet owns the Love 4 Art and Kountry Krafts and Treasures shop on Delaware Avenue in Palmerton. She bought the former business a year and half ago after it closed in Lehighton, and has been running the latter for more than 10 years.  

Balliet has personally been a crafter for nearly two decades, and her mother, Joann Levan, was quite artsy herself. “It runs in the family,” Balliet said. 

Most of the crafts Balliet designs are rustic or country themed. She doesn’t keep a lot of her own work in her home, aside from a fall-themed burlap wreath she made 16 years ago - one of the first projects she took on before turning her creativity into a business. 

Before 2016, Balliet’s business was completely online. She would sell her works on eBay, Etsy or Amazon. But when a friend approached her about opening up a brick-and-mortar shop in Tamaqua, Balliet said, she had no hesitations.

Her husband, Timothy Silfies, wasn’t as sure. 

“He did not want me to do it,” she said with a chuckle. “You’re married to the business.”

Balliet told him, “I’m going to kick myself - I’m not going to know if I don’t try it.”

In 2018, the building housing her business shut down, so Balliet had to find another home for her work. She went to Love 4 Art - a former do-it-yourself art workshop in Lehighton - to inquire about moving Kountry Krafts into the same building.

Balliet walked out owning Love 4 Art.

She was eventually able to move both enterprises to her hometown of Palmerton, where they are today. Her business doesn’t have set hours, unless she has a class scheduled.

“If you see the light on, come on it,” Balliet said. 

To promote the studio and her work, Balliet also set up a large, white tent in the Carbon County Fair this week.

Of her experience, Balliet said that while the rain has been a nuisance, some have already promised to make a crafting appointments for them and their friends at Love 4 Art in the near future.

Captions: 

Donna Balliet, owner of Love 4 Art/Kountry Krafts and Treasures in Palmerton, stands under her exhibit tent at the Carbon County Fair. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS

ABOVE: Wooden scarecrow decorations made by Balliet. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS

ABOVE: A rustic, wooden snowman painted by Balliet. DANIELLE DERRICKSON/TIMES NEWS