A Lifetime of Skills

Elaina Smith was just three years old when she started learning the art of ballet. She then spent the next 16 years of her life, up until her senior year of high school, dancing.

“I never wanted to give up dance. Dance was something that was always in me,” said Smith.

Smith comes from a family of creatives and creators, so dance wasn’t the only thing she was exposed to. She was around seven years old when her aunt taught her how to crochet. And just a year or two later, her mother taught Smith how to sew.

In her preteen years, Smith learned how to make hats, scarves, blankets, and coasters. Smith’s love for creating never faded through her teen years, even though she put it down for some time. It was about 10–15 years ago that she returned to sewing and crocheting, where she had to reteach herself a few things, but it all felt natural to her.

“It came back like riding a bike,” said Smith.

At one point, she had so much inventory that she decided it was time to start finding a way to get it off her hands. Smith started small by just making her traditional items, with blankets being her most popular item. She found herself being asked to create gifts for occasions like baby showers. The requests were becoming so frequent that Smith decided to create Lai’s Little Shop, an online Black and woman-owned gift shop based in Atlanta.

Lai’s Little Shop offers handmade gifts, souvenirs, wax melts, and more.

One of Smith’s most sought-after items is her Louis Vuitton-inspired fully crocheted bag that is set to be released in a few weeks.

“It’s just been my craft. I was making so much [and] the world doesn’t know. It was time for me to put myself out there,” said Smith.

Finding Herself Again

Smith recently turned 48 years old last month in July. She has over 40 years of skills in creating, and she had to remind herself of that.

She’s originally from the Bronx, New York, where she attended Catholic school from second grade until high school. As a kid in the 80s, she was always outside but had to be back before the street lights came on. Smith remembers, as young as preschool, being exposed to tactile art where she would play with rice and make rice trails for her toy cars.

Smith went to college right after high school, but life had other plans. She got married, had two sons, and moved to Georgia, where she currently resides.

After being in a 20-plus-year relationship, Smith recently got divorced and started all over, which meant moving back to New York. With all the new changes, Smith had to discover who she was again, which meant going back to school and finishing.

Smith officially graduated from Monroe University in the Bronx with a degree in business management in 2024. While in New York, Smith brought some of her homemade items and started attending vending events to build her brand and make sales. She didn’t take all of the inventory because she knew she would find her way back to Georgia to be close to her sons. Even though her sons are adults, Smith talked to them every day she was gone.

That year in New York was hard for Smith because she missed every holiday and birthday with her sons. But while out in New York, she found success, so much so that she was able to move back to Georgia and keep building Lai’s Little Shop. Since her move back, Smith has been constantly receiving requests from New York to come back and do business. Smith hopes to find a way to add traveling sales as a part of her business model.

“I really had to look into myself and remember who I was,” said Smith.

Smith was in an emotionally and financially abusive relationship for years, and at times, she thought she wasn’t enough. It took some time, but Smith has found her worth, and now she’s encouraging others to do the same by building her business.

“I had to remember who I was and just do it. I had to feel the fear and do it anyway,” said Smith. “I didn’t want [my sons] to think their mom was weak.”

She encourages anyone going through something to keep going and to look inward.

“You gotta grow through the struggle to get to where you need to be. You gotta know you’re worth it,” said Smith.