LINGLE – Carolyn Lewis’s story is one of ups and downs, wins and losses. And through it all, runs a constant thread of hope, perseverance and faith.
Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, near the banks of the Cedar River, her family soon moved west to Evergreen, Colo. That was where Mrs. Lewis learned lessons that would stand her well in the years to come.
“We lived in Evergreen in the 1940s and early 50s,” she said. “In a house up in the mountains with no water.
“My dad hauled water every day,” Mrs. Lewis said. “We learned how to make out on very little.”
The family later relocated to Cheyenne, where she graduated from high school, later attending Colorado Women’s College in Denver. She studied English and business. She didn’t envision where life would take her from there.
“I was trained to work in an office, to be a secretary or an office manager, because that was a good job for a woman,” Mrs. Lewis said. “I got a degree in two years. I wasn’t interested in being a teacher.”
Her roommate at Colorado Women’s hailed from Torrington. It was through her Mrs. Lewis met her future husband, Toby. Today, they’ve been married for 55 years, close to 50 of those years spent in the Torrington and Lingle area.
For a few years after they married on Oct. 27, 1962, the couple stayed in Denver, with Mrs. Lewis working in an office while Toby worked construction. But he had a passion for rodeo – specifically roping events – which soon brought the couple to western Nebraska.
“I had a really good office job in Denver,” she said. “We lived there for a while, then moved to the middle of a feedlot in Minatare, Neb. That was quite a change.
“He always wanted to be somewhere he could rope,” Mrs. Lewis said. “We came here to the Valley so he could go roping every weekend.”
They eventually bought their first home and started acquiring farm land around the rural residence. They continued buying land, a small parcel at a time, until they’d acquired about 100 acres of prime property. The first of the couple’s two daughters, Christie, also arrived, joined later by second daughter Cherrie.

They thought it was the start of the American dream.
“We loved our home in the country and bought all this farm ground” at high interest, during the 1980s, Mrs. Lewis said. “Then, in the late 80s, land prices went down, cattle prices, crop prices went down – everything we had money in was lost.
“We ended up losing our land and having to sell our home at a loss,” she said. “We rented a house in town.
“It’s heartbreaking, because we did everything right,” Mrs. Lewis said. “We knew that land was where you invested your money, because we always want land. But we live with the consequences of our decisions and choices.”
If anything, the challenges that were dropped in their lap inspired the Lewis family. Toby had since left managing the feedlot and was pursuing a career selling western wear and gear on the road, a business that was hit by farm crisis of the 80s as well.
It was just sheer chance – and, frankly, a lack of liquid capital – that brought Mrs. Lewis to the next stage in her life – hand-painted, wearable art.
For several years in the late 80s, Mrs. Lewis was the owner and sole artist of CL Designs. It all started when she was looking for gift ideas.
“The Lord did it, because I didn’t have any money for gifts at the time and I had birthday gifts to give,” she said. “I started painting things for gifts and that started it.”
Friends saw her designs, including the owners of a couple small boutiques in Torrington, and they offered to market her clothing. Again, the hand of providence stepped in when a clothing salesman saw one of her designs a friend was wearing and wanted to market it.
Mrs. Lewis’s designs ended up in high-end resort shops and boutiques around the country, even making their way to Europe. Toby’s business, too, picked back up and, by the time she stopped producing hand-painted clothing – she had more than 40 different lines with hundreds of designs within each line – the Lewis’s had managed to pay off all the debt from their farm, as well as putting a down payment on a new home in Torrington.
“We were fortunate,” she said. “I always say God prepares us in advance for what’s going to happen.
“My whole story is being led by God from one step to another,” Mrs. Lewis said. “I had tools – I could work in an office, I could work on an evening job I could do at home.”
And it was her faith which, over the years, led her on a path of speaking for women’s retreats, sharing the lessons she learned through trials and the strength she carried out of her tribulations. Mrs. Lewis still speaks on faith, God and strength. But it was 20 years ago or more, on the home-bound leg of a long speaking tour around the state, that she got the idea for her current venture.
“I was on a speaking trip across Wyoming to Christian women’s clubs,” she said. “I was going through little towns and I noticed all these little stores, all the shops in these small towns, had really cute names.
“And they didn’t just sell new or old things, they had a mix of things,” Mrs. Lewis said. “On a five-hour trip home from Lander one day, I had the thought, ‘If I ever had a store, I’d name in Whimsy.’ That just stuck in my mind.”
Now, not only is there a Whimsy on the main drag, the Can-Am Highway, in Lingle. There’s a Whimsy and a Whimsy II. Mrs. Lewis sells art, musical clocks, antiques and all variety of items from her first shop, while the Whimsy II is dedicated to vintage and antique furniture and larger items.
“I wanted to carry artwork, carry some pretty things nobody else in the area had,” she said. “And, I could sell things for new entrepreneurs just coming into business. It just grew over time.”
Mrs. Lewis today says she’d never envisioned owning her own business, let along two, on that first day of at Colorado Women’s College so many years before in Denver. But she’s still relying on her own story – from losing a farm to opening a now-successful shop at the age of 55 – to help her help other women through her speaking and ministry.
“Most people don’t start a new business when they should be ready to retire,” she said. “It’s encouraged a lot of people – I tell young women you don’t have to do everything while you’re young and your kids are little. Years later, you can have a career.
“One lady ran up to me (after a speaking engagement) – I was talking about how we’d lost the farm and how God was giving us strength, helping us know what we could do,” Mrs. Lewis said. “She hugged me and said, ‘Oh, thank you. God sent you to give me hope.’
“I always remember that. It’s heartwarming to think you can give them some strength and hope.”