This event on Sunday, May 20th from 1 to 4 pm is going to be awesome! It will be creative and fun and the outside of Venetucci Home in Westbrook, Connecticut will be wrapped in scenes of Paris including The Eiffel Tower, L’Arc du Triumph, Versailles, sketched in black on a pink background. This event will benefit The Get In Touch Foundation founded by Mary Ann Wasil Nilan of Milford, Connecticut, who lives everyday with cancer. Mary Ann, who is a friend, founded this organization for breast health awareness and has gotten the program into schools across the state and into more than 50 countries. It is to teach young girls about their bodies so that they might help detect any abnormalities. It is true that doctors are seeing girls as young as 12 with breast cancer. Mary Ann has quite a story and she will be here and will share it. She is an energizer bunny all the way around and is doing so much good for so many.

This will be a day of fun and shopping and learning. There will be a fashion show from the boutiques that are now at Venetucci Home and there will be two new Connecticut designers that will be debuting. One is Jimmy Johansmeyer of West Haven who is an actor and costume designer and has made a line of swing coats for Annie Mame that you can order. The label is “JJ for Annie Mame,” what till you see these!

I will also be debuting a new line of cards that might be just right for those of you who know someone with cancer, both humorous and sentimental, but all on point, they are being developed by Anna Rubino of Milford, Connecticut who did a lot of the marketing materials for The Get in Touch Foundation and my sister Carol Largent, a second grade teacher, who had cancer and underwent a double mastectomy. These are two gals who have been there done that, so see what you think about this line of cards called “Cards For Carol.”

A percentage of anything sold on this day will go to benefit The get In Touch Foundation, so if you’re out driving around along Route 1 in Westbrook on Sunday afternoon, come join us, the event is free and there will be goodies to eat.

I don’t know about you, but no matter how hot is it in the summer time ,when there is a cool breeze at night I usually like to grab a scarf. So I decided to make some infinity scarves to have at Annie Mame. These are scarves that have no end, they are a huge loop of material and you can put it over your head twice or three times depending on what kind of a look you want. I made ten of them to put in the shop on one day and three sailed out the door, so that must mean others feel like I do that it’s just nice to have a soft summer-like weight scarf in the car if you need it. I will continue to have these year round in all different kinds of colors and weights for just the right kind of climate. I like polka dots so you’ll see plenty of those kinds of scarves.

So I found these darling “onesies” for babies that I thought I would carry at Annie Mame, They are so soft and the Connecticut designer dews a vintage hankie on them to give them a little frill, a little skirt. I am hanging them on vintage hangers on a vintage pink child’s chair, how’s that for keeping in genre? They are sized 6 months to a year, see what you think of them. Having three daughters, I know I would have bought these, not only because they are so convenient for Moms but because they are so soft and have just “a little moment” to them. These will be one-of-a-kind as the skirts on them will all be different because the hankies are vintage, kind of fun right?

If you’re going to give a gift, why not carry that sentiment all the way down to the card. “Vee” of Harwinton, CT is making beautiful gift tags for Annie Mame. These are little works of art suitable for framing. I had a stack of these in the boutique and they flew out the door because they are so special. Come on in and see this latest batch of darling tags and grab a few so you have them around the next time you’re headed to a special event. They’re all set with a little ribbon around them ready to be tied on your package.

Well these are just awesome from Colette Lattanzi who heads up the  Button Monster out of Milford, Connecticut. These were designed in about an hour after I uploaded the pdf to her and voila, two days later…here they are. I thought these would be fun to have in the shop and to put on clothing and hats that I will have there.

On May 20th, which is a Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. there will be a free event at Venetucci Home in Westbrook where there will be a style show and I will be debuting  a line of swing coats by my friend Jimmy Johansmeyer of West Haven, Connecticut. I think I’ll pop one of these buttons on those. Mark that date down if you can and come on out, there will be food and drink as always and lots of fun.