Oct 13, 2008

Local shop already busy for holiday seasonBy Megan TrotterHerald-Citizen.com

Cookeville, TN — Halloween will be here in just a few weeks and Thanksgiving is not far behind. This is the season for fun costumes, but what about when kids want to dress festively, but parents would rather they not go to school wearing their ghost or pirate costume?

The newly opened Lollipop Shoppe, located at 552 E. 10th St., has the answer.

Owners and sisters-in-law Amy Maberry and Elizabeth Witt offer customized shirts, dresses and even trick-or-treat bags for the holiday season.

“It’s something you can get that nobody else has here,” Maberry said.

According to the two shop owners, the autumn and Halloween items are flying off the shelves, keeping them very busy completing embroidery and monogram orders in between helping customers that are browsing the store.

“So many people think it’s a candy store because of the name,” laughed Witt. “Once they figure out what it really is, they are pleasantly surprised, but we’ve had several people coming in looking for lollipops.”

Maberry divides her time between working in the store and being a stay-at-home mom to her young daughter, Alibeth. Witt similarly divides her time between the store and her job as a nurse at Cookeville Regional Medical Center. Witt devotes her energies mainly to the financial side of the business while Maberry and her mother, Anne Frazier (or “Nanna Anne”) are more involved in the creative aspect. Maberry learned sewing from her mother as a young girl, but did not practice it much until she started making clothes for her own daughter.

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