5 years ago, at the age of 32, I was newly married, had a house, worked in the fashion industry and earned good money. I worked hard and played hard. I had amazing friends and family.

I couldn’t be happier, right? Wrong. I was working 40+ hours a week in a fast paced stressful environment. The job itself wasn’t rewarding and gave me a lack of self accomplishment. So, I decided to take charge of my life –  to make lemonade out of lemons. I dug deep about what I could possibly do on my own and after months of research, the vision came. I wanted to start a children’s business, but not just any ordinary children’s business. It had to be fun and unique. I wanted to share it with the world. That’s when we took the streets of local flea markets to sell vintage kids clothes out of our Ice Cream Truck inspired VW Bus and the rest is simply history.

Since then we have grown out of two spaces (our 4th Street and Broadway locations in Long Beach, CA). This year, we finally found a location fitting for our growing business on 2nd St. in Belmont Shore! Being 4x bigger than our first location, this was our biggest space yet. Check out each location we’ve had to see how far we’ve come!

4th St. Location, opened July 2013

Broadway Location, opened January 2015

2nd St. in Belmont Shore, officially opened December 2017

We had our grandest of openings yet this past Sunday on December 3rd from a ribbon cutting event with Third District Councilwoman Suzie Price to an adorably festive marionette puppet show. We even had the pleasure of hosting Crayon Fawn for their pop-up. In all honesty,  we had the absolute BEST time celebrating the pre-holidays in our new location with all of our amazing guests! We dressed the shop in candy cane color balloons by Wild Child Party. Our bellies were happy and full with delicious treats from our favorite Belmont Shore eateries like The Pizza Press, Pietris Bakery, Frosted CupcakeryandLong Beach Creamery! Our neighbors, 2nd St. Beauty even offered mini Mommy & Me makeovers! Our vendors I Love Plum, Sago Mini, Kid O, Candylab, Stay Anchored LB, Mini Melissa, Lil Lemons, Native Shoes, DL1961, Bunnies by the Bay, Petit Collage, Yellow Owl Workshop , Teeny Tiny Optics and Nailmatic generously contributed to our swag bags for our guests! Not to mention, we had theTraveling Photo Bus and photographer,Jeff Zielinski capture all of your smiles that day! And It was definitely a packed house!

The journey has been a long, fulfilling and inspirational one. Sweet Threads is a dream curated from its humble beginnings and it would not be where it is today if it weren’t for the love from its many supporters. Thank you for everything and here’s to what’s to come.

xoxo Shella.