In 2023, Humboldt creatives Marta Lapczynski & Chris Reynoso — both entrepreneurs wanting to level up the professionalism of their endeavors — carpooled each week to a business class at College of the Redwoods led by Professor Matthew Cendejas. At the semester’s end, Chris was ready to push forward finding a formal location for Atlantis Recording Company, & Marta had pivoted toward a vision for a mixed-use business centering local arts, & open to the public. Thus the concept of Good Day Studios was born.

The vision took even clearer form when Chris was scouting for Atlantis locations & noticed a 2,200 sq. ft. commercial building available for $2,200 a month. Marta got to work drafting a blueprint to create a home for Atlantis, two private soundproofed practice spaces for musicians available on longer-term leases, one private soundproofed practice space for rent by the hour, three private art studios, an art classroom, & in the front, Good Day Shop! Two peers hopped on board, wanting to participate in bringing this multidisciplinary arts hub to life.

The team of four spent January through April of 2024 viewing available commercial spaces in the indicated size range, & meeting to discuss operational logistics for Good Day Studios. However, by April it had become apparent that the right space was not presently available. The group considered alternate means of getting the business established, & settled on the idea of a year of pop-up events — think, “Good Day Studios presents: at The Miniplex: [this band], [this band], & [this band]!” — to get the name out there & start building momentum.

Simultaneously, Steve Lovett of People’s Records, after many years of wanting to expand his business, was undergoing the arduous but deeply rewarding process of moving People’s from 725 8th Street to the much larger space at 833 H Street, just yards across the Arcata Plaza. With 725 8th Street vacated after 43 years of continuous occupancy, building owners Gail & Tony Rossi sprung to action, hiring Arcata architect Martha Jain to help them figure out the myriad steps required to restore the very fatigued building.

During this season, Marta — who had worked for the Rossi family at All Under Heaven (735 8th Street) for the past six years — disclosed to Gail & Lisken Rossi plans for the Good Day Studios endeavor, revealing that All Under Heaven would need to hire a replacement employee in the relatively near future. The Rossis were enthusiasticallysupportive, & the spring season of 2024 was a very exciting time with so many projects in motion. Steve was getting situated at his new spot, the Rossis were dreaming about the future of 725 8th, & Marta was eager to bring Good Day Studios into the public eye.

Well, the Rossis soon learned that because of the building’s Historic designation, construction to improve it would be much more complicated than they’d anticipated. Each time they met with city professionals about inspections & permits, the timeline for the project was extended. Before long, Gail had realized she’d need to offer a short-term lease on the space because having it sit vacant for a year or more wasn’t realistic. When she disclosed this intention to Marta, everything instantaneously clarified: 725 8th Street was where Good Day Studios was destined to launch, via the humble start of Good Day Shop. But Marta went home & slept on this idea, frankly pretty nervous to present the concrete reality of parting ways from the employer-employee relationship that had meant so much over the course of the six years prior. But the next day it happened: Marta approached Gail with the idea of opening Good Day Shop at 725 8th Street — assuring her that “no” was a completely acceptable answer that would cause no interpersonal strife — but Gail responded, “That sounds perfect.”

From there, the rest is history. Marta spent late spring & early summer ripping shelving out of the walls, spackling millions of holes, scraping stickers off of surfaces, & applying fresh paint to the lower portions of the walls (with invaluable assistance from Chris Reynoso, Ramon Reynoso, Azariah Mohr, Giovani Loayes-Rocco, & a motley crew of others), meanwhile connecting with other Humboldt artist friends to ascertain who might like to sell their work at this brand new local art destination. Good Day Shop opened to the public on August 1st, 2024, & enjoyed a proper Grand Opening ceremony on August 9th, complete with a ribbon cutting made possible by the Arcata Chamber of Commerce.

Over the course of those last five months of 2024, Good Day Shop was able to pay more than $10,000 to local artists for sales of their work, & in early 2025 was nominated by the Chamber of Commerce as a contestant for “New Chamber Member of the Year.” Good Day Shop lost to YouthAbility, which was no surprise & spawns no hard feelings (we love YouthAbility!) — it was just a delight to be recognized at all, especially as a business still in its infancy.

The early idea for a year of pop-up events transformed into the monthly Good Evening Music Series, co-hosted in Good Day Shop by Lapczynski & Reynoso. See our events page for a small archive of these concerts.

2025

Business in early 2025 crawled along at a snail’s pace, but spring & summer saw real momentum beginning to grow, & for the first time, Marta became able to believe that Good Day Shop would succeed. One part-time employee even came on board at the end of April: Augie Tapia!

Alas, August brought the end of the initial 12-month lease, concluding Good Day Shop’s time at 725 8th Street. Marta had been scouting locations since February, & after a few false starts, had found the same problem as back in early 2024: the right space wasn’t available at the right time. But then, with just two weeks to spare, Augie was alerted to a small space nearby that had just returned to the rental market. Marta met with the owner that very morning, & the two performed a handshake deal the following afternoon — Good Day Shop had found its next home at 1034 H Street.

Good Day Shop closed its doors on 8th Street for the last time on August 3rd, 2025, & opened anew on H Street on August 17th, enjoying a Grand Opening celebration on September 12th replete with a robust dinner courtesy of Mr. Taco & live music from Daniel Nickerson, Augie Tapia, & friends.

It’s been a heck of an adjustment figuring out how to fit a business that initially enjoyed a luxious 1,500 square foot space into <300 square feet, while simultaneously supporting a significant increase in rent & an equally significant decrease in foot traffic now that we’re no longer in a prime location on the Arcata Plaza, but Marta’s fortitude & determination, thus far, persevere. Visions for Good Day Studios are on hold through the end of 2025 while the focus is, necessarily, trying to stabilize the business on H Street, but the intention is to get back to the drawing board on January 1st. There is a specific two-story building in Eureka that has a seemingly magnetic pull . . . but the future is unwritten!

Our greatest hope at this time is that you’ll come visit us at 1034 H Street!!!