This week, a HUGE thank you to five women who helped to raise lots of moola for Child & Family by modeling on behalf of Peonies at the Village Fashion Show: Amy Friedman, Pat Hermann, Kim Rogala, Pat Thompson and Marsha VanDerBeek—you are beautiful women, inside and out. Thanks to each of you.

Oh man, do you hear that rain outside? Expecting 1-3 inches—that’s a whole month’s worth of rain in ONE day. But soon these showers will bring lots and lots of flowers so of course that’s a perfect segue (heh heh) for us to talk about all of the beautiful new blooms coming into Peonies every day.

Summer dresses, summer skirts, canvas and embroidered belts, sunglasses and more. Stay tuned to new items and special sales with Peonies on Facebook, where we post special deals for fans and friends. In fact, check it out right now for a Facebook-only shout out.

Peonistas, have an incredible week.  Click on any photo below to enlarge and if you have a question or want more info, call the shop: 860.581.4518.  ~ Pam and Laurel

{ hurry, beautiful blooms don’t last }

Today we want to tell you about our little giveaway over at Facebook. Become a fan of ours on Facebook and you will automatically be entered to win a $50 gift card to shop at Peonies.  On the same day each month, we are choosing a winner at random for the $50 gift card. So that means that if you become a fan, you get the chance to win every month. (If you are already a fan, you’re already eligible).

Most of you know that $50 can go a loooooooong way at a consignment shop. We’ll also have special offers for Peonistas there, too so lots of reasons to join us. BTW, feel free to friend us, Pam Williams and Laurel Peters.

Be sure to start reading our blog each week, too, for the latest on everything Peonies. Peony love!

~ Pam and Laurel

CLICK ON ANY PHOTO BELOW TO ENLARGE

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{ hurry, beautiful blooms don’t last }

Consignment shopping opens up so many fashionista possibilities. Sure, you can wear the leopard halter to a cocktail party. Or, reimagine it as the most spectacular beach cover up in the world.

That is dressing to thrill: your budget and your soul.

Thing is, to do this whole consignment thing well, and find the really good stuff, you really have to be a regular. As in shopper. So what are you doing? Come on over to Peonies and see what we have in store for you this week. Very small sampling of goodies below.

~ Pam and Laurel

{ beautiful blooms don’t last long }

First things first: a huge thank you to all the Peonistas who responded to our survey. You didn’t hold back and we loved it.  We are learning so much from you. We’ll share a little bit about what you told us each week. You also gave us lots of ideas.

Katrina Marciniec (Hi Katrina!) suggested Peonies do a monthly fishbowl with the winner getting a $20 gift card. Thanks for the suggestion, Katrina.  Guess what? A $20 gift certificate awaits you at the counter. Come shop! (By the way, the survey was completely confidential. We asked you to leave your name if you wanted to. Some of you did, like Katrina, while others preferred to remain anonymous. We totally respect that! We hoped for sincere feedback and we are getting that.)

Consigning new items last night made us sooooo very excited for spring.  So many new items on the floor and it makes us just giddy: we are thinking warm, we are thinking pink, we are thinking sailing, beaching, hiking, playing, and sanding (Laurel’s verb for walking barefoot on the beach). You will start to feel that way, too, when you come into the shop. There’s no beach, but it’s getting brighter and lighter as new warm-weather items arrive daily. Ooooh, we can’t for you to see: Issey Miyake, vintage Lagerfeld, Gucci, DKNY…Habitual. And the markdowns are getting sweeter every week. Speaking of which, have a good one.

~ Pam and Laurel

Oooh, you’re going to love Peonies.

~ Pam and Laurel

P.S. The Lifesaver® photos are our shameless attempt at subliminal advertising. You are supposed to see the Lifesaver, then think “PEONIES! OMG I haven’t been there in a while” and then hop into your car and zoom right over to see us. Is it working? : )

Oooh, you’re going to love Peonies.

~ Pam and Laurel

Oooh, you’re going to love Peonies.

P.S.  We love when you leave comments or ask questions. Anything you want to know? Anything you’d like to see us inventory more of? Less of? Scroll down and comment below.

Oooh, you’re going to love Peonies.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010, 7:15 am

Dear Maggie,

(Ooops, did we get you out of the shower when we called you last night? Sorry, we had so much to tell you!). We just didn’t want you to be shocked when you opened up the store this morning. Well…..whatchathink?!!!! Looks pretty different, huh?

We’re pretty happy with the new shoe shelving we found at Ikea on Sunday. Thank goodness we got all four sets assembled; now no more shoes strewn about the shop. It should also be waaaay easier for customers to find shoes and try them on (there’s a little stool next to the shoe area, and peds, natch!)

We reorganized and moved almost everything (oh, we left your cosmetics on the counter in the bathroom, and if you need extra toilet paper, well, it’s either in the closet in the bathroom, the top shelf in the back room or maybe borrow some from one of the neighbors?) There’s also a lot of new merchandise on the floor. We didn’t photograph it, truly there no time!

After all the moving, we marked down over 300+ items to the most insane prices. The sale items are on racks with prices clearly marked, just look for the big pink signs. (You may not be able to find the TP but you will not be able to miss those signs.)

In case you’re looking for it, the three-way mirror is temporarily disbanded; we’ll put it back next week. If anyone wants to see how they look, they will need to twirl around in the privacy of their own dressing room. LOL. Hey, what do you think about the leather chair in the front? We like it without all the stuff on it!  Let’s keep it clear (it looks like a great place to sit and read a book but we hope you will be so busy today you won’t have time).

On Saturday, three women asked again if we could stay open at least one night a week. So sorry about the late message that night (did we get you out of the shower then too?) Now we can stay open until 7pm on Thursdays. Customers will love that; and we will definitely start that this week. Yay. We owe you one! Tell everyone (uh, tell them that we’re open, not that we owe you one! Ha.)

Thanks Maggie. Keep up the great work; great that someone noticed and thought enough to write to us about you.

~ Pam and Laurel

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P.S. to Maggie

>The story on Women in Business aired on Better TV yesterday featuring yours, trulies. So much fun to have lifestyle correspondent Rhiannon Ally at the shop once again. The link to the video.

> Can’t remember if we refilled the heart-shaped dish on the counter? Yep, we were eating mints all night long, forgot dinner. The big bag of Lifesaver® refills is under the counter. Nice to let everyone leave the shop with at least one sweet memory of Peonies! (We know, we’re goobers.)

>OMG, we almost forgot!!! Did you know you can get breakfast at Ikea? For $5, we got TWO FULL BREAKFASTS at the Ikea Restaurant with eggs, sausage, french toast and home fries. And coffee!!! (Oh, most definitely go for the syrup on the French Toast.) Yum. Speaking of $5, we have one whole rack in the shop — anything on it, $5.

>Pls. remind consignors to cash their checks (we can’t reconcile our books until they do!) and if anyone wants a print out of their donations for tax purposes, we can email it to them. Or they can stop in and we’ll print an update for them.

Thank you!

Awwww, we love you guys! Last week, when we experienced Major Technical Difficulties, your encouraging words cheered us on. Thank you.

Say, do you remember the gorgeous Rhiannon Ally from Better TV? (she and the Better crew filmed us back in September?) Recently back from shooting in London, Rhiannon stopped by Peonies yesterday to interview us for a segment she’s shooting on women in business. BTW, she loooved the sweater/skirt combo shown here.

After Rhiannon left, we had lots of work to do in preparation for our handbag sale.

Yep, we have decided it’s time to bag it, and this week is Peonies’ first handbag sale. (Laurel absolutely adores the gorgeous Cole Haan handbag; Pam loves the Parvadino. But there was no time for us to shop!) We marked down so many handbags last night it was just crazy. (Shopping tip: fly in and make a bee-line for the corner with the brown leather chair. First come, first served. Maggie’s ready). Look at just a few of the great handbags on sale, all at prices not to be believed. Truly.

Our winter sale continues this week with up to 75% off clothes, scarves and shoes. Not to mention all of the great new stuff we put on the floor last night (yay, we didn’t lose any photos!!!). Anything look interesting? Well, come say hi and try on a few things: we have Lifesavers® on the counter so it’s worth a trip just for a little burst of Wint-o-green, you know? Happy week, all!

~ Pam and Laurel

Have you ever been frustrated by technology?

Have you ever struggled learning new software?

Do you ever want to throw your computer across the wall and just be done with it already?

Well, you are not alone.

Peonies just invested in new photo management software to help us organize the thousands of photos we take to show you what’s new in the store. Last night, we took 67 photos. It’s a long process: we price newly consigned items, print out labels, pin hagtags to garments and then set aside a few pieces to shoot.

We uploaded last night’s photos early early early this morning. We waited patiently (with coffee, lots of coffee, always with lots of coffee) while the photos uploaded. Finally, our photo software prompted “Are you sure you want to permanently remove these files?” we thought “no, no of course we don’t want to trash 9 long hours of hard work. DUH.”

Click!!!

Oh god, we just clicked “delete” instead of “save”.

That is why there are no photos for you this week. Soooo very sorry!  #$%! happens. You know?

This makes us wonder: Are we old? Inept? Technologied-out?

Does this ever happen to you? (Please make us feel better and say yes). Well, we know one thing for sure: this is not going to be a week-wrecker. There’s tons of new stuff at Peonies: Baggalini’s, jeans (Vertigo and Seven for All Mankind), a killer Komarov jacket, amazing shoes (many pairs on sale for 75% off) and mucho mucho Chico’s Traveler.

We just can’t show it to you.

So maybe this is a good time to ask you: is the effort worth it? Do you like our weekly updates with photos? Are they of value? Anything we should change? Should we keep doing them in 2010? Comments welcome!

~ Pam and Laurel

P.S. A most happy way to start off the new year might be with a fabulous bargain: the majority of clothing and shoes at Peonies are 50-75% this week. Oh, and if you love the fabulous lovebird placecards shown above, look here.

~ Pam and Laurel

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During the winter holidays, Peonies is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10-5 pm except:

Thursday, December 24, 10-2 pm

Friday, December 25, closed

Thursday, December 31, 10-2 pm

Friday, January 1, 2010, closed

During the winter holidays, Peonies is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10-5 pm except:

Thursday, December 24, 10-2 pm

Friday, December 25, closed

Thursday, December 31, 10-2 pm

Friday, January 1, 2010, closed

Thank you for a great year!

~ Pam and Laurel

P.S. 75% off lots of clothes. Yes, 75% off. Not a typo. And a silk bag with your jewelry purchase over $10. Sweeeet!

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CLICK ON ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE

{ beautiful blooms don’t last }