I have exciting news! The Shop has moved into a retail space in the Del Ray section of Alexandria, on the main shopping street, Mt. Vernon Avenue. The front room has the Shop with books, posters, jewelry, greeting cards and t-shirts on display. I am installing an art-hanging system for framed art. The plan is to have Friday happy hour art events to showcase a chosen artist's work. The back room is being used as production space for the Shop, wrapping cards, sewing purses, and screen printing t-shirts, bags and art.
The move happened in early December, just in time for the Del Ray bar crawl. As I was moving items in and setting up shelves, I noticed a lot of people walking by wearing Christmas hats and festive outfits. So I opened my door and put out an Open sign. I got a good number of visitors and even made some sales! Being used to setting up quickly was helpful!
By now, holiday cards and items have now been removed, and replaced with birthday, anniversary cards and more. The month of January has Scotland's Rabbie Burns Night, so I have all of my Burns poetry books out, and British items and books on display. Valentines Day is coming up soon, so I will be creating a new valentines print for shirts and bags.
Wishing you a happy new year for 2022! Hopefully I will see you soon at 2101A Mount Vernon Avenue.
Gratefully,
Ellen Hamilton
Design Studio in New Space
Yellow Dot Designs in Back Room
The back room of the Shop is where I will be working on design projects.
In the studio, I have been working with a local architect on a signage project. Another project is a series of children's books, which are being printed as paper-back books. Page layout and book design were all done here. We chose a nice thick white paper for the books, and glossy covers.
Visit the Yellow Dot Designs website
Book Selling Well
I have been a bit concerned about running out of books! Sales have been excellent. This is a story that is basic to the founding of this country, but which happened so early in history that not much has been written about it. How and why so many Scots migrated here, told through one who made the journey, has gotten great attention. If sales keep up after the holidays, I will think about re-printing the book.