From San Francisco to Asbury Park:
A New Chapter for CMD

Nearly 20 years before I originally wrote this post, I packed up a suitcase and headed to San Francisco with a few hundred bucks in my bank account. I was 22, very young and very hopeful that I could carve out my own path somewhere far away from my family and everything familiar.

I still remember the first smells of Northern California, fragrant eucalyptus mixed with salty ocean air. As I flew West, I told my mom, "Don't worry, I'll be back in a couple of years." I thought it would be a short excursion, a chance to dip my toes into the cold, unfamiliar waters of independence. Instead, San Francisco became home for nearly two decades and the place where so much of my life, and eventually CMD, took shape.

Building CMD in San Francisco

It was never part of the plan for CMD to have its own storefront. But one day, after years of riding my bike through the same intersection of 25th and Valencia Street, the space that would become the CMD Shop sort of fell into my lap.

Opening that shop was one of those leaps that ended up changing far more than I could have imagined. It allowed me to bring my design studio and showroom together and create a place where customers could actually experience CMD. I became part of the Mission merchant community, met so many incredible people and watched this little jewelry business grow into something much bigger than the version I'd first dreamed up.

Saying Goodbye to the San Francisco Shop

Then came 2020. Like so many small businesses, we had to rethink almost everything about the way we worked. We created a virtual appointment model, focused more heavily on our online experience and discovered that I could still build meaningful relationships with customers even when we weren't standing together inside the shop.

Eventually, I made the incredibly difficult decision to close the San Francisco storefront and move back East permanently. I wanted to be closer to my family and the rest of my team, and after almost two decades away, going home started to feel right.

Leaving San Francisco was bittersweet. The Bay Area was where I grew into myself, where I started CMD and where so many people gave this business a chance long before I knew exactly what it would become. There will always be a huge piece of my heart there.

Hello, Asbury Park

The next home for CMD turned out to be Asbury Park, New Jersey, just miles from where I grew up and half a mile from another ocean. When I wrote the original version of this post in November 2020, I'd found a light-filled space on Bond Street and was imagining what this completely new chapter might look like.

Six years later, I'm still here.

Today, Asbury Park is home to The CMD Shop & Studio, where I design, meet with clients and welcome people in for appointments, scheduled Open Hours and special events. Our small team continues to make CMD jewelry by hand in our Upstate New York production studio, and the business has continued evolving in ways I never could have predicted when I first opened that door on Bond Street.

We've also found our way back to the West Coast plenty of times. San Francisco and the Bay Area remain an important part of CMD's story, and returning for pop-ups, appointments and events always feels a little like coming home.

Sometimes the Next Chapter Finds You

When I look back at that 22-year-old with a suitcase, or the version of me closing the San Francisco shop nearly two decades later, I can see how many times I've had to step into something before knowing exactly where it would lead.

CMD has never followed a perfectly straight line. Neither have I. San Francisco gave me the space to become a designer and build this business from the ground up. Asbury Park gave me somewhere to bring everything I'd learned and begin again.

I'm incredibly grateful that both get to be part of this story.

Here’s to all the places that become part of who we are,
Colleen

© Colleen Mauer Designs. All rights reserved.
Published: November 2, 2020
Updated: August 19, 2026