“Like the collectible items in her store, Nancy Brennan decided that a Lynwood Center gift shop was worth keeping.So when Peddler’s Cove closed last October, Brennan bought the store and inventory, and re-opened it in November as Pleasant Cove.I’ve always loved this store, Brennan said. And the response has been really positive. People have said they are so glad that it was kept open.As with so many other on-island businesses, Brennan’s underlying motivation was to stop commuting. A nurse for 20 years, Brennan’s job at Children’s Hospital in Seattle required her to drive onto the ferry with the attendant waits, then drive at least half an hour each way – roughly three hours out of each working day.I had always dreamed of having a little shop of some sort, like a bookstore, where people could come and browse for things, she said.The opportunity arose in October when Kathie Lavic announced that she was closing Peddler’s Cove so that she could spend more time traveling. After trying to sell the business as a going concern, Lavic had reached the point where she was closing out her inventory and planning to sub-lease the space.That is when Brennan came along.I had been a customer of hers, Brennan said. I came back from a vacation and saw she was going out of business. We talked, and I agreed to buy the inventory and take over the business.The store’s staple is gift items, particularly collectibles like beanie babies, toy bears and ceramic fairies.The principal audience is children, especially girls, and people buying presents for children.The store carries a substantial selection of Department 56 material – ceramic and porcelain replicas of buildings from bygone villages, more imagined than real. There is, for example, a full set of Dickens Village components, and another for a New England town.They go out of issue after awhile, Brennan said, and collectors find missing pieces on the internet.While the pieces are mostly Christmas-themed, and can be used as sort of secular creches for seasonal decorating, the scale fits well with model railroads. Brennan said a number of her buyers are train hobbyists.Brennan is gradually expanding the range of offerings. She has a baby-gift department, some decorative housewares and some garden supplies. She also offers a line of greeting cards so people don’t have to go into Winslow just to buy a card.The next item on her plate might be to display and sell locally produced and themed artwork.The world of retail was a complete career change for Brennan. Born in St. Louis and educated at Creighton University in Omaha, she left the Midwest for San Francisco. There, she married husband Jim, a marine scientist whose job eventually took them to the Northwest, where they settled on Bainbridge.We’ve been here nine years, she said. We love the area – it’s a great place for kids.On the negative side, she said she was surprised by the amount of work a retail business requires.Everything that comes with a business that you don’t think about has been a real eye-opener – the accounting, inventories, re-ordering and things like that. Business has been a little spotty so far, she says.Christmas was great, then it slowed down to almost nothing in January, picked up in February for Valentine’s Day, and has been steady in March, she said.But the rewards she has found have transcended financial benefits.The kids are 9 and 10. They get off the bus from school right in front of the store, and come in and help me stock things. They’re real excited. And my husband helps, too, so it’s a family activity.And, she said, the store helps her feel more a part of the community.It’s really nice to be working on the island, meeting people and seeing familiar faces. I really feel like I belong here. And I finally get to see the island in the daylight. “