Mae B is a celebration of the home.  Mae B is all about color, fun, warmth and being able to put together a recycled and restyled environment that people want to experience.   

Our goal is to share our endless supply of great ideas and to inspire others to jazz up their day and their spaces with something funky and junky.  Something can always be done to reivent, reimagine, rethink, refresh, reuse, redesign, recreate, refurbish and, most importantly, recycle 'junk' to make this a better, more beautiful world.  It is invigorating and cleansing for our souls and our spaces, and it makes us - and other funky junkers - happy.  We also hope to focus on making people more comfortable with and less afraid of color, so they can actually use it, work with it, and love it. 

Our Business

Mae B became a reality in 2006.  Together, Mary Mohni and Deidre Dau Welch, are the creative force. 

The name Mae B came from a label that Mary used to put on clothing she made in high school.  Mae is her grandmother Ruby's, her sister Molly's, and her daughter Frankie's middle name, and Mary's nickname is B. 

Mae B has a tag sale feel with flair.  Most items are one-of-a-kind.  Hesitation may mean that someone else takes home what should have been yours.  Our intent is to be and extremely different type of shopping venue for Northwest Iowans, something with a city sense of style, something very novel.   Customers can be inspired to create an expression of themselves within their homes and personal spaces through smart pricing, design services and a sense of trust.  It is our desire that our customers will look to us a valued resource to achieve a home environment with pizzazz for a reasonable amount. 

MaeBean was our 2007 expansion, as is the beginning of a web presence.  MaeBean is yet another move toward finding more customers as the traffic through Hartley continues to increase.  The smell, the taste, the caffeine perk and the shared experience of coffee have become a staple of our modern life and culture.  Our goal is tap into a fraction of those millions and possibly introduce a few new ones to the many benefits of coffee for our health and well being.

This past year has been a bit chaotic.  We had to move out of our location on the highway in October 2008 and we moved everything but the coffee equipment into storage.  We stored things at Mary's, Deidre's, and Leroy's office and building at Sorenson's.  We moved into d-Lux Drive Inn for the winter (knowing it was a temporary solution).  In March 2009 we had to move out and we had talked to Pete Riley about pourchasing the Hartley Implement building.  He agreed and we started the process April 1.  The new roof was finished the beginning of June as was the install of our new windows.  New electrical and plumbing also happened, along with all new paint and decor.  We opened for business August 1 and had the Grand Opening on the 27th.  We have continued with events such as the Sutherland Labor Day tractor ride stopping and our first junk sale on October 1 & 2, as well as having the next sale November 7 and being included on the Tritonia tour of homes. 

Who We Are

As partners Mary Mohni and Deidre Welch enjoy a friendly, creative work environment that is inspirational and inviting, and respects diversity, new ideas and hard work.  Our contrasts will be a learning and endearing experience for both.  Together, the ambitious duo are determined to provide a unique and funky boost for you and your homestyle.  We love what we do and want to create a positive experience for those that enter our world.  We have magic to share.

Mary McCarty Mohni, a.k.a B                 Mary grew up right here in Hartley, IA.  After giving city life a chance, she moved back home, where life seems to be a little slower and a lot less stressful.  She and her husband, Mike live on the the farm he grew up on with the best thing that happened in her life, her baby girl, Frankie Mae.  They all enjoy hanging out with their two dogs, Ellie & Josie, and the multitudes of cats that magically seem to appear at their home.  Now she gets to do what she loves - giving new life to old pieces and drinking really good coffee.

Deidre Dau Welch                              Deidre was born in Hartley, grew up in Sutherland, lived in Ames for a short time, has lived in Hartley for about 17 years and will be buried here.  Painting has been a passion of hers for years.  Her family is her husband, Kelly, parents, siblings and their familes, and close friends.  After years of office work, this is an adventure and a thrill.