Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Michelle Parparian and Amanda Linton close House of Vintage with an epic cupcake bash, a killer sale & new dreams


After years of vintage clothing and cupcakes, Michelle Paparian and Amanda Linton are leaving this charming house with the white picket fence behind. Parparian opened House of Vintage eight years ago and Linton’s been baking cupcakes there for about four years.

The dynamic duo will continue doing what they love best, but in a more mobile way. “We’re kind of done being stuck in a location,” Linton explains. “We wanna get out and we wanna travel.” For Linton, that also means getting out to parties and community events with a mobile cupcakery. “We’re going to go mobile so we can see our customers enjoying our cupcakes, not just picking them up and going to their big party, so that’s exciting for us.” She assures, however, that regular customers will still have a place to go for their cupcake fix. The new home base for House of Sweets will be inside All Good Things, a dessert cafe that’s opening in a Lake Worth antique mall in September. Details, as they emerge, will be posted on Houseofsweetsbakery.com.

The pair will continue working together too. “The [vintage clothing] is Michelle’s business, but we flip back and forth and help each other because we’re best friends,” Linton says. “Part of the reason shes doing that is so she can travel the country and find the vintage stuff and come back and sell it here, and kind of report along the way. We’re starting a blog to document out travels so it’s going to be Vintage Pickers. we’ll blog when we find stuff that’s awesome. That’s the fun of vintage is the hunt, like ‘Wow, look what I just found, a couple dollars!!’ So we’re going to try to document that and bring people to that side of what we do too.”


Parparian will surely be feeling the thrill of the hunt on Aug. 1 when she launches her five-week road trip through Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. Linton will join her for the last leg of the trip and there will be plenty of blogging about finds along the way. “The entire trip I’ll be blogging – video blog, photo blog, text blog,” Parparian says. “When I get back I’m going to be working on all the stuff I have that will go online to sell and I have an assistant who is going to help me with all that. The vintage clothing will be kept in a smaller space in Delray Beach where they’ll have invitation-only openings (to everyone on her mailing list) twice a month. “I will also do Stitch Rock in October and other shows, including a new show in February combining my stuff and Amanda’s stuff.”

Parparian will now rent out the charming house with the picket fence to someone who will live there. She has fond memories of setting House of Vintage up with a bunch of friends from college 8 years ago. Her fondest memory, she says, is the day that Molly Rogers and Danny Santiago, costume designers for Ugly Betty and Sex in the City, came in and praised her store and bought things that were later on the TV show, Ugly Betty.

Parparian and Linton are excited abut the new ventures, but will miss the little house, too. “I am going to miss playing dress-up while I waited for the cupcakes to bake, and mostly its charm,” Linton says. “It just felt like home.”




Article Copied from ArtMurmur is all about South Florida art. Posts here will include mini-interviews with artists, details on recent and upcoming shows, tips on places to explore art, quotes heard while eavesdropping at art shows and, of course, plenty of photos ... everything we can squeeze in here about South Florida art and the people who create and support it. My e-mail: colleen.dougher@gmail.com.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

OMG :'( I was trying to show a friend your store and just now found out you closed it! I loved shopping here anytime I was visiting my mom who lived a few blocks away. It was one of the few stores off/on Atlantic that I didn't get that 'if you're not going to spend at least $500 dont bother coming in' vibe! It really had a 'welcome to our home' feeling about it and of course everyone who worked there was amazing and super friendly! Ooh and if they happened to be making a batch of cupcakes it really was like home!! This is a store I will definately miss shopping at during my visits to FL! Much love and best wishes in your new adventures!!