The sign reads: Inside Out Antiques and Gifts. However, it could read: Five Crazy Ladies.

At least that’s what the husbands of the “five crazy ladies” say.

The antique and gift shop is located on Highway 231 north in Troy at the Luverne/Troy overpass and is owned by Elizabeth Motes, Barbara Ward, Krissy Pinckard and Bonnie Holland. June Flowers, the resident decorator, makes the fifth “crazy lady.”

“We love it,” Ward said. “We’re having a ball. We each work one day a week but it’s not like work, really. It’s more like play.”

The idea for the antique and gift shop was born of a birdhouse.

Ward’s husband, Dwight, builds and sells birdhouses and it is a rather long drive “out in the country” for those who want to purchase one of his creations.

“We said a lot of times that we should have a place in town to sell Dwight’s birdhouses,” Ward said. “One day, Elizabeth and I were talking. She loves antiques and the idea of a shop just started from there.”

Pinckard wanted to get in on the “fun” and those three crazy ladies thought that Holland, a botanical artist and award winning cookbook author, would make a great foursome.

With a lot of elbow grease and imagination, they gave new life to a log cabin that had gone untended for more than a year. The owners stocked the shop with items of their particular interests and then selected handcrafted items made by local artists.

They stood back and looked at what they had created and they liked what they saw.

“Inside Out is a unique shop that features items that you won’t find anywhere else,” Ward said. “We’ve had people from Panama City stop here to shop and have heard that people down there are talking about our shop. That’s good news for us.”

The items that Inside Out offers are of the highest quality. The owners won’t sell anything less.

“We have pottery by Harriet Boyd, kudzu baskets by Buster Scruggs, therapeutic soaps and lotions by Susan Williamson and prints by Kay Barnett,” Ward said. “We have Bonnie Holland’s award-winning cookbooks and food items. We have handmade Santas and wreaths and mother-daughter aprons, fine china and home accessories of all kinds.

“We love for people to come and browse. We have so much that you can’t see it all in one visit. We have people come back again and again and every time they say they see things that they haven’t seen before. It’s a unique and fun shop. We hope that people have as much fun shopping at Inside Out Antiques and Gifts as the ‘crazy ladies’ have operating it.”

Inside Out Antiques in open Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.