Heidi’s Sonoma Journey
This is the first of three stories about Heidi’s relationship with Sonoma - A Day of Rubber Stamps and Sonoma Charm.
🟩 A Day of Rubber Stamps and Sonoma Charm — Chapter 1 (You are reading this story.)
Click on “I Followed a Dream to Sonoma” to discover how an unexpected phone call brought Heidi back to make Sonoma home.
🟨 I Followed a Dream to Sonoma — Chapter 2
🟥 A Little Store and a Full Life — Chapter 3
In Heidi’s final chapter, she shares how opening a store and joining local activities helped her build a community.
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Heidi Geffen’s first visit to Sonoma lasted less than a day. Invited to demonstrate rubber stamps at a new shop, she explored the Plaza, visited the Cheese Factory, and found the town charming. She flew home that night with no plans to return as a resident.
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A Day of Rubber Stamps and Sonoma Charm
The first time I came to Sonoma, I wasn’t even here for 12 hours.
I was living in Los Angeles and had my own business selling rubber stamps and stickers. Through that business, I knew Andrea Grossman, the founder of Mrs. Grossman’s Paper Company. She was a very well-known, well-respected sticker maker, and her company was in Petaluma.
At the time, Andrea was opening a little store in Sonoma, across from the Chocolate Cow. She knew about my store in Los Angeles and invited me to come up for the day to do rubber stamp demonstrations.
I flew in that morning and drove into Sonoma. I had never been here before, and I thought it was fabulous—so quaint and so charming.
I remember walking around the Plaza and going into the Cheese Factory. I just noodled around a little, looking at places before spending the day doing demonstrations in her new store.
That evening, we went out to dinner at the restaurant that is now El Dorado Kitchen. Then I got on a plane and went home.
That was it. One day.
I absolutely fell in love with Sonoma, but I didn’t have any notion that I was going to move here. It was charming for the day, and then I went back to my life in Los Angeles.
I never imagined that my connection with Andrea would eventually bring me back—or that Sonoma would become home.
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Heidi’s first visit began with a professional connection and left a strong impression without producing an immediate plan. Her story shows how a brief encounter with a place can become meaningful much later, when circumstances change and an existing relationship opens a new possibility.
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This story was created from an interview with Heidi Geffen conducted by Don Lundgren. Heidi’s words have been edited for length and clarity while preserving her voice, experiences and meaning.
