My Addie's Attic Blog

Summer in the Attic
I am excited to announce our first annual trunk show on August 10, 2012. My Addie’s Attic is hosting this very special event with Abelo Clocks and Decor, Love Alli Designs, and Hold’ Em Photography, all mom owned businesses!! We welcome you to join us for a fun night of networking, shopping (if you choose to), and a sneak peek of the fall lines.

In addition to seeing our upcoming lines, we will also have some great offers for you to take advantage of. My Addie’s Attic will offer prizes and some special discounts. Here is what the other great shops are offering:

Abelo will have a fantastic display of wall clocks, wall art and decor, greeting cards, bookmarks, and more! They will offer 10% off your purchase along with free customization! Follow these links to see more about Abelo:
Abelo Website
Etsy Shop
Facebook Page
Twitter

Love Alli Designs will be raffling off two headbands as well as giving a 15% discount.  See more of Love Alli Designs here:
Facebook Page
Etsy Shop

Hold’ Em Photography will offer a complimentary mounted storyboard in 10×20 or 16×20 with any My Addie’s Attic purchase (a $95 value good for any fall/holiday session!!).  See more of Hold’ Em Photography’s work here:

Hold’ Em Photography Website
Facebook Page
Blog

For our local Northern California friends and fans we will have beverages, refreshments and raffle prizes for you to enjoy. We will be sending out invitations with location details soon. Please leave a comment below with your email address so that we can send you an invitation.

For our online friends and fans we won’t be able to share the food and beverages, but we will host some raffle drawings via Facebook and the Blog that night. Please leave a comment below with your email so that we can send you a reminder invitation. Online winners will be drawn via random.org.

I will also be looking to add more participating vendors for random giveaways that evening. If you are an interested vendor please contact me at shop@myaddiesattic.net. Also if you are in Northern California and would like to host your own trunk show with My Addie’s Attic, please contact me at shop@myaddiesattic.com.

I am very excited today to introduce Maliposha to The Attic. The owner of Maliposha and I met online and struck up a great working relationship. Maliposha is entirely hand made in Eastern Europe. You can find their products in Eastern Europe and Russia. They are now looking to expand into the US market. Once I saw her designs I was in love. I thought her line would make a great addition to The Attic yet still add something different to what we already have. I also love supporting and working with other small business owners, I know what it feels like to follow your dreams and expand on your talent.

The Maliposha designs and cuts are very classic with a bit of a vintage feel. They use organic, 100% cotton and linen making very breathable clothes for hot summer days. And since the material is natural and breathable it helps with children who have sensitive skin or skin allergies.

I have tested some of the items myself and found that they wear great, wash wonderfully and hang or line drying will give you the best results to avoid shrinking and color fading. I think this is really a sweet line and am excited to know what you think of it. Maliposha has several other adorable items, including a boys line coming soon, that I would love to add to The Attic. So please provide your feedback and images of your little ones in Maliposha! The new line can be found HERE.

(the adorable template used above came from our friends over at Wild Hearts Photography)

Thank you, thank you, thank you for supporting me. It has been so wonderful and stressful building My Addie’s Attic. I have gotten a lot of support and great feedback from family, friends, and fans (my three favorite F’s). I would like to offer two $25 gift certificates to two randomly selected winners. I wish I had a little something for everyone, but I will continue to host giveaways, give out items here and there, and provide outstanding customer service.

In order to be entered into the random drawing I just ask that you do one thing. Please leave a comment below on this post telling me either what you like about my shop or a suggestion you have for improvement. I started this business not only as an endeavor for myself but to also help support my family. I will not make it without fans and customers, so I would love to get to know you better and listen to whatever you have to say about My Addie’s Attic.

The giveaway will run until May 30th, I’ll select winners using random.org and will announce the winners on this post. Please be sure to include your email in your comment or remember to check back to see if you are a winner.

*This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. Participants are providing information to My Addie’s Attic and not to Facebook.

Thank you for taking the time and providing your feedback, the winners are Amber S. and Michelle Lynch. I will email you with your coupon codes (Amber S. please send your email to shop@myaddiesattic.com). Your input has been great and please feel free to keep brining things up or sharing ideas of things you would like to see. I am doing a giveaway with Wild Hearts Photography right now and will also be co-sponsoring a giveaway with Lola Wraps coming up soon. Please check out their sites for details and the possibility of winning a gift certificate. Thank you again!!

I admit, I am obsessed with packaging. I think it all started when I worked at Hallmark in high school. Product presentation, just like food presentation (yes I am a foodie too!), is essential to the overall buying experience. It takes a litte more money and time, but it is completely worth it. And it does not have to be that pricey – with just some kraft paper and colored twine, your in business. Here are some of my Pinterest favorites, simple and classy.

And have you heard of Washi Tape? I found some french linen washi tape on Etsy last year and have been in love ever since. It is the most amazing decorating material. Not only does it come in thousands of patterns/colors, but it is pretty easy to make your own. I combine many of these ideas into My Addie’s Attic packaging. No matter how much you are spending, you should have the entire boutique experience – even when shopping online. I have purchased upscale merchandise in the past and been disappointed to have it arrived folded super tiny in a plastic bag.

Although limited to what the USPS will allow, I do my best to provide some fun packaging that I hope will be a little surprise upon arrival. I hand distress and decorate a wood hanger for each order. I took a few shots the other day to share with you. The end product is an antiqued hanger with some fun embellishments. I am hoping these hangers don’t get into the hands of your little ones, but if they do I try to stay with paper or smaller embellishments. If you wanted to make these on your own you could do some fun gems and rhinestones on the hanger.

In addition to providing quality clothing products, I also strive to provide outstanding service because I think that is what you want and deserve. When purchasing online through small boutiques you are supporting a family and/or maybe a mom. I think it is important to show that we not only appreciate your support and patronage, but will also do whatever we can to make you happy with your decision to shop with us.

It is so great to have a long weekend to spend with my family. It is also important to send some love to all the families who have lost their loved ones for our freedom. If you are not familiar with Blue Star Families and Got Your 6, please take a moment to look them up. They are both great organizations that support our men and women and their families. I am offering a weekend discount of 25% off all sales (except for Swanky Baby Vintage) and will donate 30% of this weekends sales to the above organizations. So please consider My Addie’s Attic this weekend when you are planning your summer wardrobes. You will enjoy a nice discount and know that you are giving back to our military families.

Over the past few years I have found a love for antique shopping. I used to go into antique shops and be so overwhelmed with what I thought was a bunch of junk. While some of it may very well be junk, there are a lot of great finds as well. The key for me was picking specific items to focus on. I stick with anything kid related (except dolls – I don’t know anything about the doll market and although beautiful some of those old dolls scare me), old suitcases, and smaller furniture and accessory pieces. If I can think of a creative way to use it in a picture, then it is basically sold.

For Mother’s Day my husband and kids took me out to a beautiful little area in the wine country for a picnic and some antique shopping. Both husband and kids were very patient and one shop owner busted out the Little People plastic farm set when she saw me walk through the door. She made a spot for them on the floor right up front under her very watchful eye. I wasn’t sure if she wanted me to enjoy my shopping experience, or if she became nervous at the sight of kids entering an antique shop. Either way, it worked out great and everyone was happy, including the shop owner when I lugged all my finds to the front. I found some great little items to bring home and several other great items that I could not bring home. I took the kids outside so my husband could pay. The poor guy came waddling out the door with his hands full and giving me “the look”. The good news is that we lugged everything, including kids, back to the car and got everything packed in. The bad news is that he left my perfect little antique doll stroller (the one with the black lining and black shade) on the counter. I did not realize it until the next morning. The shop does not offer shipping, so you know what that means…..another trip back up to that amazing area but maybe this time without the kids:)

Here are some of my fun finds with Addie in the Blue Pony Vintage Greta G. dress in Sunset Floral. The dress fit right in with all my new finds, plus it is so adorable and reminiscent of an era long gone.

Antique shopping has inspired me to use everything old I can find in a new way. With so many things mass produced today I love the smallness and uniqueness of finding something no one else may have.

Okay ladies (and a few gentleman) start pinning! My Addie’s Attic is giving away a $100 gift certificate to a very lucky winner. What do you have to do? It is pretty easy, just select your favorite item or items on our website and pin it with the a note mentioning why you love the item and that My Addie’s Attic offers free domestic shipping. Leave a comment below for each pin you make. On May 11th (which happens to be my little guys birthday) I’ll announce the winner using random.org. The more items you pin, the more your chances increase.

And remember that besides free domestic shipping and hassle free returns, we have a free headband with purchase (yes, there are still a few left – I will include one with every purchase until they are gone), a great pre-sale on the fabulous Swanky Baby Vintage, and we do our best to offer a complete boutique experience with our service, packaging, a custom designed hanger, and the exquisite clothing we select. As always thank you for your support!!!

Random.org generated number 24 out of 48 comments, Elise is the winner! Please email me at shop@myaddiesattic.com for your redemption code! Congratulations and thank you to everyone who pinned!

We finally had a beautiful and sunny weekend, so it was the perfect time to try out some new headbands I recently received. I am testing these out for The Attic so I ordered a few in a variety of patterns (it was so hard to choose just one or two anyway!). They are all handmade in the USA, reversible and very comfortable. The headbands have a small section of built in elastic in the back making them adjustable for any age and no closures means no hair pulling. They come in narrow and wide for a fun and different look. Each side is a unique pattern coordinating with each other. They stay on nicely and are perfect for holding hair out of the face.

As a thank you to my fans and an opportunity to get your feedback on these adorable headbands I am offering one free headband with every purchase – a $15 value!! Here is the yucky business stuff: this offer is not available on previous orders, available while supplies last, headband will be randomly picked at shipping (sorry, had to put all that in).

These are great hair accessories for summertime fun and I think you will really enjoy them. Your support is invaluable and your feedback is always welcome so that I can serve you better. If it is not perfect for you then I will not be content.

Use code HEADBAND at checkout to receive your free headband with any purchase.

Swanky Baby Vintage has recently announced its summer collection called Candy Coated Carnival. This summer line is filled with fabulous and fun, mix & match wardrobe pieces. The inspiration behind the line will truly make you nostalgic for a fun carnival day, summer beach boardwalks, and the excitement of amusement parks. You can mix & match leggings, tops, and dresses to have several outfits from a few pieces. And the Elephantastic dress is a real standout.

The Candy Coated Carnival line will begin shipping in May. Due to high demand My Addie’s Attic will begin taking pre-orders on Monday, April 9th at 12:30 EST. This means you can reserve your favorites by putting either 25% or 50% down. Or you can pay in full if you prefer. By putting down a deposit you secure your favorites from the line. Once the products arrive I will bill you through PayPal for the remaining balance. When you pay the balance the product will be shipped to you, with free shipping of course. If you change your mind for any reason, your deposit will be 100% refunded to you. It is that easy. Please contact me at shop@myaddiesattic.com if you have any questions. The Candy Coated Carnival product line is listed at the Swanky Baby Vintage collection page on My Addie’s Attic website. You can preview everything now and see all the great colors and combinations.