By Carolyn Snyder

Once upon a time, Irene Miszler and Rebecca Mitchell were caught up in the daily grind of their careers - Miszler in corporate finance and Mitchell as a cardiovascular operating room nurse.

Each harbored dreams of pursuing their passions. Miszler wanted to open a wellness and beauty center. Mitchell simply loved fabrics and sewing.

And, like a fairy tale, there’s a happy ending: each owns her own business, thanks to enterprise and hard work. Here are their stories.

Miszler has lived in Los Altos for a dozen years and she considers its residents the backbone of her business, Bliss Beauty Center.

“I take pride in my clientele,” she said. “They are well educated, they appreciate quality and high caliber service and they are nice, genuine people.”

Bliss opened in January 2004 “after preparing for it for 20 years,” she said. It has become a full-service spa, hair salon and boutique.

Miszler, a native of Seoul, began her business career at General Electric, where she worked for five years. After almost 17 years at Sun - and hitting a birthday milestone - she said she woke up one morning and asked, “What have I done for myself?”

“I wasn’t working out. I was just working,” she said. “I began a whole new rediscovery. It was very gratifying.”

Miszler quit Sun. “I was ready,” she said. “I took my plan book and my execution book and went to work.”

During the nine months it took to get Bliss up and running, she averaged two to three hours of sleep a night. “Crazy” is how she describes herself in those days.

“If people look after themselves,” Miszler said, “they will feel good on the inside, which is reflected on the outside.”

Bliss offers therapeutic services to both men and women.

“I have a good group of employees. They’re like my family,” she said.

Mitchell has lived in Los Altos since 1983, as long as she has worked at El Camino Hospital. She has always been interested in textiles and sewing, to the point of taking dressmaking and tailoring classes at De Anza College and attending a quilting retreat with her mother at Asilomar.

Last year when she purchased Sun Valley Quilt and Fabric Company in Hailey, Idaho, where she and her surgeon husband, Bob, have a second home.

The Mitchells and their six children have been regular visitors to Hailey and the Wood River Valley since the ’80s.

“After 30 years as a nurse, I finally bit the bullet and bought one of my favorite haunts there,” she said of the business, renamed The Fabric Granary.

Her ad in the Idaho Mountain Express’ Business Digest explains the name: “A granary stores grain for Idaho’s abundant harvest, so come to the Fabric Granary for an abundant harvest of all your sewing needs.”

Mitchell liked to quilt with her grandmother. “I have all of my grandmother’s old quilting magazines,” she said. “I hauled them with me to Los Altos from Texas, and I’ll probably take them to Idaho.”

She keeps up with the market by attending national quilt shows.

Soon, her customers will have more space: she and her husband bought the old Wood River Furniture store on Hailey’s main street and are restoring the historical building as the new home of The Fabric Granary. It will include a classroom for sewing clubs.

Because of the challenge of buying and moving a business, Mitchell spends most of her time in Idaho and is on leave from the hospital. “I thought this would be a good way to ease into retirement,” she said.

Not likely, considering her days are as long, or longer, than they were before.

Bliss Beauty Center is located at 682 Rancho Shopping Center. For more information, call 947-6868 or visit www.blissbeautycenter.com.