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A Diva's Hobby Grows into a Business |
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Submitted by Keith Resseau on Monday, November 7, 2005 - 3:48pm |
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I’m sure Mary Anne Chanos and I were quite a site to other shoppers at
Collec-Tiques on Main: two middle-age women on toddler-sized chairs, knees under our chins, surrounded by equally small aprons, miniature tablecloths, and tiny teacups; earnestly discussing family and the healing power of creativity. But I felt very much at home there with the friendly woman who has created a pint-sized fantasyland with her own two hands. Pretend Tea Party is the name of Mary Anne’s line of hand-made costumes, aprons, capes, and accessories for children. She completes the illusion with a collection of inexpensive teacups, saucers, and child-sized furniture. Some things are old, some are new – everything is charming.
Mary Anne and her husband, Steve, moved from East Atlanta to the Galilee subdivision off of Brockett Road 35 years ago. Mary Anne and her sisters went to Grady High School in Atlanta, and her Mother attended the old ‘Girls’ High.’
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My yellow cab snakes its way down a narrow twisting street. Tiny storefronts overflow onto the sidewalks where vendors hawk cheap imported goods. An old woman in a wheelchair rolls down the middle of the street, seemingly oblivious to the cars and buses that pass within inches of her. Delivery vans sometimes entirely block what is little more than an alley. The meter ticks away dollars and cents.