Mad Hatties features teas, buttons

A new Spokane Valley shop owned by a mother and daughter is a tea party waiting to happen.

Visitors to Mad Hatties Boutique and Teas on Sullivan Road are treated to more than a cup of tea when they enter the store.

Customers can sit in soft chairs or browse a shop filled with unusual English china, including cups, saucers and teapots, along with boxes of high-end teas, handmade candles and hats, antique jewelry and buttons.

Those reaching for a cup of hot tea might notice a set of pre-World War II “Czecho-Slovakie” dinnerware. Others might gravitate to a miniature frog-theme porcelain teapot.

“We just want everybody to come in and have fun,” said Deborah Simpson, 53. She owns the store with her 71-year-old mother, Patricia Croff.

Simpson said opening the store was her mom’s idea, but it gave her a chance to quit a job with long hours and focus on a business that reflects their tastes and interests.

Customers can find unusual buttons to dress up any jacket. Simpson has collected the buttons for 10 years and belongs to the Idaho Button Society. Some buttons date back to the early 1900s. Others are still on their original cards.

Simpson said customers can use the buttons, some cost less than a dollar, to customize off-the-rack clothing.

“To me, it’s the most inexpensive way to totally personalize your outfit,” she said.

Displays show off antique jewelry and handmade and old beads. Simpson sells mirrors that she painstakingly borders with antique jewelry. She has sold several pieces in the $300 range.

In the back of the store, a display boasts a couple of dozen colorful wool and angora hats. The woman who knits the hats also raises and shears the goats and sheep, and dyes and spins the wool and angora. The result are stylish creations that sell for $69.

“Those hats are the Cadillac of wool winter hats,” said Simpson, who called the headwear “indestructible.”

This spring, the owners plan to add more beads and vintage clothing. They also plan to add a tea room.

“We need one out here in the Valley. We won’t be the largest one, but we’ll be a charming one,” Simpson said.

Southbound drivers can reach Mad Hatties Boutique and Teas, 618 N. Sullivan Road, via a right-of-way off Broadway Avenue.

The store is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. After the holidays, the store will close Sundays.

For more information, call 892-5455.

Metal fabricator expanding

Premier Manufacturing Inc. is building a 23,000-square-foot addition that will let the company bring its operations under one roof at 21510 E. Mission Ave.

The precision sheet metal fabricator, which makes cabinets for medical and electrical industries, was trucking its products from their Liberty Lake plant to their powder-coating facility, more than 15 miles away, said Keri Collins who owns the company with her husband, Kevin Collins and Chuck Lormis.

The project will get under way when the ground thaws, Keri Collins said.

Industrial park businesses expand

Several companies at Spokane Business and Industrial Park are greeting the New Year by expanding:

• Purcell Systems Inc. is leasing an additional 51,600 square feet of space, for a total of 133,000 square feet. The company, which manufactures power cases and enclosures for telecommunications companies, was recently ranked 21st in a list of the 500 fastest growing private firms by Inc. magazine.

• Diversified Marine Products, a wholesale distributor of marine products, has leased 7,760 additional square feet for a total of 21,000 square feet.

• Fastenal Co. is moving into a larger space to expand their hardware distribution operation.

•Cables Inc., a company that makes custom electronic cable assemblies, is renting 28,000 more square feet more than doubling its previous size.