Nov. 27—LIMA — Jessica Kelley has quite the knack for making candles.

"I've been making candles for fun for as long as I can remember. My mom used to make candles and she taught me," Kelley said.

This past summer Kelley decided to start a small business, CCP Candle Co.

"I'm a stay-at-home mom and my partner works weird hours so it's really hard for me to find a job that doesn't interfere with him. I've got three kids and childcare is extremely expensive so this is something I can do on my own while I still watch the kids," Kelley said.

Kelley was one of the vendors that set up shop temporarily at 2510 Shawnee Road.

The Pop Up Shop was for women-owned businesses.

"It was a family florist at one time and it's been vacant for quite a while so the owners have redone it and they're looking to rent it out right now," said Ann Meiering, a co-organizer of the Pop Up Shop. "Trish Bush, who runs Bread and Batter in this building as well asked the landlord if we could utilize it for a pop-up shop. I'm a big advocate of women-owned businesses and local businesses and especially with COVID. I love women-owned businesses so we just kind of came up with this idea to do something around the holidays on Small Business Saturday."

Jennifer Blankemeyer owns Jenny's Joy Bakery, a business she's run for just over five years.

She sells cookies, breads, pies and everyone's favorite around here — Buckeyes.

She's happy to participate in the pop-up shop.

"I think it's wonderful. We need all the exposure we can get, especially now with everything going on. This will be very helpful," Blankemeyer said.

Trish Bush owns Bread and Batter Bakery at 2508 Shawnee Road in Lima and started her business a year and a half ago out of necessity.

"My family has 22 different food allergies that we have to navigate around and it's not easy. There just wasn't anything in the Lima area for that, so we thought if we're in this situation, other people must be too. That's kind of how we got started. We just wanted to be here for the people that don't have anything else," Bush said.

She's pleased to support women-owned businesses.

"A lot of women are told that they're not able to do everything and that's just not true. We can do whatever we put our minds to," Bush said.

Reach Sam Shriver at 567-242-0409.