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Even before you enter the shop, you’ll notice the unusual name: “Bre’s Screwed Renewed Gifts & More.”

Owner Brenda Reeves explained that she named the business using her initials: Bre is short for Brenda, while Screwed uses the first letter of her middle name, Sue, and Renewed uses the first letter of her last name.

She will further explain that a large portion of her merchandise is signs of various sorts painted on repurposed scraps of wood, some of which contained screws in their original uses. Hence the latter two words in her shop’s main name, to which she added “Gifts & More” to indicate a wider selection of merchandise.

“I make a lot of customized signs on wood,” Reeves told a visitor recently.

The signs contain messages that can be inspirational or amusing, and can be personalized to say whatever a customer wants them to say. Several examples — replete with artistic lettering — hang on the walls:

“It’s not the Home that I love, it’s the Life that is lived here,” “Because someone we love is in Heaven, we have a little bit of Heaven in our home,” “I will walk by faith even when I cannot see / 2 Corinthians 5:7,” and (with spaces for photographs to be added) “Side by side or miles apart, Grandchildren will always be connected by [heart].”

Reeves has been making signs and personalizing other items, such as wineglasses, ceramic tiles or almost anything a customer wants, for many years from her home.

“People kept saying I was good and should be in my own store,” Reeves explained. “I can adapt the messages and customize them.”

Late last year, she heard that the business at 104 E. Indiana Ave., Certified Firearms Instruction, was planning on moving out, so she took the space.

CFI provides firearms training and gun classes for certification to carry concealed weapons. It didn’t leave the premises, after all, but operates out of a back room.

Bre’s Screwed Renewed opened in mid-November.

In addition to the customized signs, she also carries unusual merchandise from various suppliers, all of whom appear to have a similarly wry take on life. There are socks, coffee mugs, kitchen towels, oven mitts, and other unique wares, most of which carry messages that are off the beaten path.

But it’s the customized signs that Reeves is most proud of.

“I love to see the happiness I put on people’s faces,” she said. “It’s personal for them — it’s their family or whatever.”

The business opens at 10 a.m. every day but Sunday, and closes at 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 p.m. Friday, and 5 p.m. Saturday. Reeves can be reached at 386-490-5357 or by email at bresscrewedrenewed@gmail.com.

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