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Showing posts from 2016

Happy New Year! What's In Store

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Ready to ring in the New Year? We are! It's been a great year for us here at Offbeat Avenue. We went to some amazing auctions in the spring to get great items to sell; met some great people at Ladies Night in the summer, opened our brick in mortar shop in downtown Leominster in September, and had a busy Christmas season online and at our shop! We can't wait to see what 2017 brings. Even though Christmas is over, we're still getting lots of views of our items online. Here are some of the most viewed items this last week of 2016. Vintage Ceramic Lady Head Vase Planter Bust with Original Necklace We love this lady! Like some girls we know (😏) she's in good condition for her age! We love her original pearl necklace and festive plastic bouquet as her hat! She would look great on a bedroom vanity, or in a classic pink tile bathroom. Vintage Radio Zenith Console Floor Standing Cabinet Radio  We're not surprised this vintage radio is getting a lot of v

Winter Stroll Leominster 2016: How to Get Into the Holiday Mood

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Well it's finally here! The Winter Stroll in downtown Leominster MA from 2PM-5PM. Here at Offbeat Avenue we're excited because this is the best way to get into the holiday mood. The unseasonably mild weather combined with a less than civil election season put a real damper on everyone's mood. Us too! We didn't even start listing Christmas items until recently--we were still in the Halloween frame of mind 😃. I'm happy to say things have changed. Today, December 3, it's a sunny but brisk 40 degrees out there so bundle up and head on down to the stroll for some family friendly fun. Most of the businesses downtown will be offering free snacks like candy, cookies, or hot cocoa. There will be hay rides, roasted chestnuts, and of course our favorite lighted dancing snowman in the Common. Be sure to drop into the basement of the Unitarian Universalist church at 15 West St, right across from the Common to warm up and visit Michelle, who will be working our ow

Small Business Saturday + Vintage = Affordable One of a Kind Gifts!

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Small business Saturday 2016 is underway at the shop, and we've got some goodies for you! Drop by the shop today 139 Central St in Leominster to get 15% off your order! Or shop online and enter NOV15OFF at checkout to get your discount! Shop Now! Vintage Cocktail Bar Tray w Colorful Drinks Recipes & Cartoon People Vintage Beer Bottle Opener in Shape of Guitar Vintage Big Eye Ballerina by Maio Pair of Middle Eastern Etched Ornate Rustic Metal Lidded Jars Vintage Red & Black Bridge or Poker Drink Coasters Vintage Lot of 8 Stained Glass Style Plastic Suncatchers View all items: Shop Offbeat Avenue.

Offbeat Avenue Featured Small Local Business on LATV

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We're so psyched that Leominster Small Business Association featured Offbeat Avenue on their first show! Michelle spoke to Mayor Dean Mazzarella about what kinds of goodies we offer and why it's a great place to shop for anyone looking for something cool and funky. Michelle even brought one of our coats we have for sale to show the Mayor why vintage clothing is so sought after. Take a look!

Men Love Fannies and Other Frederick's of Hollywoodisms

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Michelle brought in some choice mail order catalogs from the early 70s by Frederick's of Hollywood. You'd find some of these items in the back pages of magazines like Cosmo, Glamour, or Mademoiselle and you would not have missed them! Vivid drawings of gals in alluring gowns, pantsuits, wigs, and (ahem) accessories! Take a look see. Men don't just love fannies they love human hair too! I'm all set I've got both! My eyes are up here! Frantically fringed.  Before shopping, measure up to fashion first! Leg falsies.  I don't think you're using that right. But do they love a natural skin part... Cause it's hard to Gryffindor to sex...

Countdown to Halloween - Vintage Style!

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One week to go! We just couldn't wait to break out the Halloweenie stuff this month! As soon as the leaves turned we got to work on listing. Boo-tique Fun Michelle found a treasure trove of funky ghost and bat Halloween paper decorations. Cat-eye Glasses We just listed some vintage Foster Grant black cat plastic eyeglasses. Take your Pick Look at these adorable cupcake picks! Halloween Costumes   It's not too late to sew up your outfit for trick or treating. Browse more Halloween vintage here.

Official Offbeat Avenue Ribbon Cutting!

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We're so excited to have our own Mayor Dean Mazzarella and some peeps from Leominster City Hall drop by Tuesday, October 4 at 8:30 AM for our official ribbon cutting! Please drop by 139 Central Street (right across from Acme Auto Body) to say hello and help us open our fabu vintage boutiqe! Woo hoo cutting some rug for our ribbon cutting!

Offbeat Avenue Vintage Boutique is Now Open!

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After months of work and lots of help from friends and family, we finally are open for business at 139 Central St in downtown Leominster MA! We're open 11-4 Wednesday through Friday, 11-5 Saturday and 12-4 Sunday. Drop by to see our selection of clothing for men and women, vinyl, barware, home decor, ephemera, and more! Michelle holds up our sign showing our new hours!

Offbeat Avenue on Inside Leominster Ladies Night

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Last week Michelle and I had a booth at Ladies Night at City Hall in Leominster and it was a blast! The turnout was great. We met lots of women business owners in the area as well as got to spread the word about Offbeat Avenue opening up downtown next month. The weekly local cable access show, LATV's "Inside Leominster" broadcast live from the event, and we were lucky enough have Mayor Dean Mazzarella interview us on the show to talk about our new shop. Take a look!

Moving Day for Offbeat Avenue!

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Wow it finally happened! We moved all of our inventory out of the storage unit, and yesterday we moved all of the large fixtures and furniture into the space. Whew! We had a lot of help from Michelle's family and friends, and my hub Steve as well. Once all the furniture was moved in, it was up to us to figure out where to put everything. Now we have to figure out how we're going to display our items and get an inventory system that will work best with our online items and offline items. Here's a sneak peek into how it looks now...so much left to do but it feels good to have this finally done!

Ladies Night Out Leominster MA: Drop by This Free Fun Event!

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It's been hot and humid for weeks up here in Central MA so do something cool--drop by Ladies Night Out, a free community event at City Hall in Leominster MA on Thursday, August 18 from 5pm to 8pm. Offbeat Avenue will have a booth inside City Hall! Dozens of local vendors (including yours truly) will be offering raffles, special freebies, offers, and services. The evening closes with a great fashion show. First 150 attendees will get a free gift bag chock full of goodies from local vendors. Lt. Governor Karyn Polito will be the special guest for Ladies Night Out! Be sure to go to the City Hall Auditorium at 8pm to watch her kick off the Fashion Show. For more information go to the Ladies Night Facebook page . Cue Kool and the Gang!

Love is the Rug! Our New Vintage Shop Goes Shag

What do you do with a dark brown painted plywood floor? Cover it up in fuschia tiger print! We looked all over for a decent rug but worried an old one might, well, stink. Literally! Rugs absorb odors and the vintage ones we looked at were either too much do re mi or just didn't look like they belonged in our soon to open hella cool shop. And then we found it! The nap is still mushed a bit from being rolled up but a good vacuuming will fluff it up in time for the Grand Opening! Mosey on over to our OffbeatAvenue Instagram for more cool shots like the one below: La la love our vintage shop rug! #loveisthedrug #loveistherug #fuschia #zebra #tiger #print #glam #glama #pink #vintage #shop #store #coolfinds A photo posted by Bindi Frazzenfrappa (@offbeatavenue) on Aug 2, 2016 at 2:55pm PDT

The Road to Our Vintage Shop Part 3: Signage

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New Vintage Shop opening in Downtown Leominster this fall? Sign me up! This weekend up here in New England has been super hot--it hit 90 degrees yesterday! Seems like the perfect weather for going up on a hot tar roof to do some sign hanging, doesn't it? Well, that's what my husband did yesterday. There's a window on the second floor of our new shop that you can see from the street, so it seemed like the best place to put our Offbeat Avenue signage. Me and the hub hanging the sign. Believe it or not I got sunburned just from hanging out the window! My hub Steve got up on the roof and got to work, while Michelle stood on the street level to let us know if it was centered correctly. Steve used screws with washers to hold down the grommets on the vinyl sign. Once it was all set our sign was up! Hooray! It made it seem much more real now. And we're psyched people will be able to see our sign as they drive by. The sign looks great! The warm weather als

Boutiqe Opening Soon!

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The Road to Our New Vintage Shop: Part 2

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Dressing Room: Idea to Reality Since my last post I'm happy to report that the dressing room is done! Dressing rooms can be tricky to set up because we needed it to be big enough to move around in and the curtain had to be tall enough for people of average height to get some privacy. We secured the wall which is actually two doors that are braced perpendicularly to the wall, screwed in the fixtures to hold the curtain rod, and hammered in our sign. Don't you love Michelle's hand painted Dressing Room sign? The pictures here show the panes in the doors, which we plan to cover with some graphics for privacy (no peeking as Bertrand says!). Dressing Up a Paneled Wall The other challenge we had was what to do with the paneled back wall? Our back wall is the first thing you see when you walk in and unfinished paneled wood was not the look we wanted. Michelle and I went back to the store and got a bolt of bright pink fabric to hang ove

The Road to Our New Vintage Shop: Part 1

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Great news vintage fans! Me and Michelle are opening up Offbeat Avenue shop here in Leominster MA in the fall! We're so excited to have a brick and mortar shop in addition to our online presence on Etsy and Ebay. This weekend we've been working on the space and getting it all set up in time for the grand opening. Michelle painted an arrow to use on our dressing room Dressing Room 101 Yesterday our challenge was to set up a dressing room in a room that didn't have one. The space itself has many windows, so we didn't want to block any of them with a dressing room, so originally we were going to set up a simple curtained dressing room near the cash and wrap. But we decided instead to put two free standing doors next to each other and place a curtain between them. Easy right? Not if the doors are different heights. So we had to find a finial to make the doors the same height so we could hang the curtain rod. We finally found a wooden arrow at the craft store

Summer's Almost Here! Vintage News from the OA Gals

Hey Vintage Peeps! Me and Michelle are pumped. Summer is almost here and we have grown our Etsy shop to more than 1000 items! I'm happy to report we now have a Men's Vintage Section since we carry so many goodies for the guys including Hawaiian shirts, cufflinks, and smoking jackets. We've also added tons of vintage shoes   which we're psyched about. Vintage shoes tend to run a bit narrow but many of these have good widths that would fit on a modern foot. In other news we are expanding our reach out of the cloud onto the street: that's right we're going to open up a shop right here in downtown Leominster in Central MA sometime this fall. Don't worry, we'll still keep our Etsy shop open and running as always. Mozey on over to the right of this blog to join our mailing list to get an alert when we'll open. Back to the summertime fun!