The day is finally here!

Finally, I've got a free moment, away from all the crazy Christmas festivities (really, I had an incredibly low key one and was too busy watching E! channel) to tell you what our exciting news is....

We are opening a store in Newmarket in the first quarter of 2010! That soon, you ask? YES! Soon you will be able to drop all your fabulous gems off to our Newmarket store, if that is easier for you, and if we decide that we are not able to sell it there but it's something we'd definitely want to sell at Darby - we'll do the hard work for you and will send your clothes to our Darby St store. Too easy!

More news to come as I get more information...

Hope my 5 followers (Charlotte - hiiiiii) and you lurkers, have a lovely silly season. Slip, slop, slap and sip, stay and play! (do you like what I did there?)

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! xx

TWO

more sleeps petunia petal pies!

the countdown continues...

THREE SLEEPS!!!

I bet you're all shaking in your boots with anticipation and most of you will check this blog to find out what the suprise is BEFORE you open your Christmas presents :)

where in the World is Katy?

Unfortunately for me - I haven't been anywhere, I have just been slack and have not logged into the blog for weeks!

We have some exciting news and I personally think it's so exciting that I feel like I can't tell you straight away ...

so as of today, the 17th of Dec, the countdown to the big reveal begins...

EIGHT SLEEPS! (feels right to reveal on Christmas day ay?)

Also, if you're not already, then please follow us on twitter www.twitter.com/recycleboutique

look Mum, I'm on T.V.

Ok, so not quite but check out our cool Wellington store on bguided's channel on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obt4I08964w

think that's as cool as the owner Nick? then come in to the store closest to you (Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin or Palmy) and see for yourselves just how cool it is!!

come back Spring, I miss you...

So Spring lied, said she'd be here on the 1st of September, made a brief appearance but has since let Winter back in. With Winter came tonsillitis, so I've been outta action! Now I'm back though.

Yesterday, I got a forwarded email for the Auckland Cricket Association's (ACA) Pacific Island development officer asking people for donations of clothing etc to fill a container that they had organised to send to Samoa. Given that my Father was born in Samoa and I still have lots of extended family there, the Tsunami pulled at my heartstrings and I wanted to help the people of Samoa the best way that I could. As much as I would love to be able to go over there to restore fresh water to the villages or help rebuild fales (houses) for people who had lost them, that would be disastrous as I don't know the first thing about building anything! I racked my brain and figured the Recycle Boutique were in a good position to help with the clothing side of things as we donate multiple bales to the Auckland City Mission every week. I'd like to thank Ben of the ACA for making this possible for the Recycle Boutique to get 5 bales (about 2500 items) of clothing over to Samoa where it's desperately needed.

One of my staff members who has worked here for 5 years (so she knows her stuff - hi Hayley) said the other day "man, we have heaps of hot stuff in here at the moment" and she wasn't lying! Come in and see for yourself and while you're at it, bring in your cool, old Summer gear to sell in exchange for all the items you'll want to buy! x

The Windy City.

Yesterday, I spent 9 hours in Wellington where we opened our second Recycle Boutique 2 years and 3 months ago. I walked into our store down there (209 Cuba St) and was silenced with jealousy. A few months ago, the popularity of this fab, wee store meant a shop floor expansion was necessary and saw us taking over the store next door, knocking out the wall in between and making the store a 1/3 bigger. If you live in Wellington, make sure you go in a check out the awesomeness that is the Recycle Boutique. The staff are helpful and friendly and the contents of the store is FANTASTIC!

Admittedly, it reminds me of the original Darby St premises the Auckland store used to occupy. Kind of kitsch, grubby but in an adds character kind of way, back streets of New York kinda place. Three years ago next month, we moved across the road into a much larger site (which is good for you and us 'cause it means we can jam pack MORE cool clothes, accessories, shoes etc) but unfortunately, it is a hard space to make look cool. I'm making it my mission after seeing the Welli store in all it's cool glory, to jazz up the Auckland store a little, give it back a little of the character and charm it used to have - if you have any suggestions that you think may help me on this mission, please email me at sales@recycleboutique.co.nz xx

CONGRATULATIONS...

to our winner of the 'tell a friend' competition we have up on our website. Sophie* has been a customer with us for long time now and was so stoked with her prize, I felt obliged to participate in a little jump and squeal with her when she came into collect her 8GB iPod touch because she had never won anything before! Admittedly, it was hard to hand the prize over because it put my enormous old school iPod to shame.

If you have a stink old iPod like me or you don't own one at all (shock, horror!) then head over to www.recycleboutique.co.nz and enter (and if you haven't sold clothes with us, bring down your cool stuff you don't wear anymore that someone else would love then race home and enter 'cause you have to be an existing seller with us) - and while you're there, check out our 'what's hot' page and if anything tickles your fancy, pop down to our store. I put money on your finding something else 'hotter' :)

*last name withheld because it seems like the right thing to do, plus Sophie might not want her friends trying to scab her prize

not even ow, we're waaay more fashionable!

Chang from the Edge was interviewed on I AM TV and the piece was shown this morning. I managed to catch it this morning (while waiting for my boyfriend to wake up, since I had been showered and ready to attack the day since 8am!) and wanted to put out a disclaimer! Those of you that are clever will have recognised that it was our store that Chang was being interviewed in. For some reason I AM TV really like filming tidbits at the RB which is great when our logo pops up in the background but they do a good job of making it look like we have some very questionable pieces in store. Come down and see for yourself that we have HEAPS of cool stuff in store with hundreds of new items being put out daily!!

I have a bit of an obsession with bows and my favourite buy of this week was a pair of red suede ankle boots with a high heel and a BOW on the front! Watch this space as every Friday, I will put up a photo of my fave piece I have bought for the week (yes, I buy multiple items from the RB a week, perk of the job)

Have a lovely, safe weekend x

It's a BOY!

One of the darlings of the Recycle Boutique found out she was pregnant at the beginning of the year and decided to work until the 9th of September as she was due on the 23rd of the same month and figured that would give her 2 weeks to get herself organised before her bonny baby arrived. Everyone was dreading her departure 'cause she has been with us a long time and was a great worker (worked hard but was fun to be around at the same time!) but at the same time, we were excited because we knew it meant we'd be welcoming her little man soon.

Unfortunately, everything did not go to plan and said darling was unable to come into work on her last day because she started having contractions that morning!!

Congratulations from all the staff at the Recycle Boutique to our darling Sian and her fiance Alf who welcomed their first baby, a son, into the World on the 10th of September at 12.37am. We can't wait to meet him! xo

AHA, I showed you procrastination!

So finally, months after deciding to start a blog on behalf of the store and wanting it to be apart of the main website, I thought 'you know what Katy? you could just utilise blogspot and then put a link up on the website' ... so that is exactly what I am doing :)

One thing that has the R.B* buzzing at the moment is the Council's plans to close off Darby and Elliot Streets and make them pedestrian malls. We've had an instore survey going for the last 3 weeks and it's been interesting to hear some of our existing customers responses. One of the questions ask if you would no longer sell your clothes with the RB as it would be too much hassle to find parking if the change went ahead and thankfully, only about 8 out of 150 people have said that that would be the case (though it'd be much better if it were ZERO people!) For more info on the proposed changes, go to the link below.

http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/council/projects/elliottdarby/darbystreet.asp

Some of you may not know this but the RB has a reasonably large selection (about 20% of the store) of new (never worn!) clothes for Men and Women. This week, we got almost 200 pairs of jeans. Most of them are acidwash, some of them are tiedye, most are skinny leg, some of the skinny leg are ripped and some are high waisted with a wider leg and all of them are cool.

(ok this pic was working last night, but of course, it isn't today!!! will fix this asap)

Though they are not the exact jeans and I might get in trouble for using this pic as it's not me or a photo I have taken, it gives you a good idea as to what some of the jeans that we just got in look like and for only $70! Bargain.

Recently we also got in a whole lot of Insight, Something Else, Little Lady From... etc so I recommend coming down to grab a cheap pressie for you or for a friend because all of that stock was $50 or under!

Check back regularly as I will be putting up photos of new hot stuff we get instore (including pics of the actual jeans we are selling!)

Katy x

* RB = Recycle Boutique for those that didn't get my abbreviation hehe