This week's featured Shop Wharton business
'Miss Priss' offers unique and affordable monogramming
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

Photo by Barry Halvorson Leigh Krenek offers monogrammed items for a variety of special events, including weddings, baptisms and confirmations at Miss Priss Originals.

Looking to give a friend a special something to mark the birth of a child gave birth to one of Wharton's newest businesses, Miss Priss Originals.

"I decided to give her a diaper bag but had to farm out the monogramming," Owner Leigh Krenek said. "It got a lot of compliments so I decided to do some more."

Krenek just celebrated her first year at her distinctively pink location at 108 N. Houston St. The design has even earned her business recognition from the Wharton Beautification Committee.

While she had a background in business - she graduated from Texas A&M and spent a number of years working in human resources - she had to get some help starting her own business.

"I was a crafts person but to be honest I didn't grow up sewing," Krenek said.

"So I got my mother-in-law to help me. After that I had someone else doing the monogramming but in 2006 I started the business out of my home and bought a monogram sewing machine. Things got too busy at Christmas that year that I decided there was a need to be filled and I needed to have a shop if I was going to fill it."

A member of the Chamber of Commerce, at Miss Priss Originals customers are going to find items not offered by the big retailers and not found in other local shops.

"I try not to carry the same things as the other boutiques and shops," Krenek said. "I'd like to see all of us succeed. So I concentrate on what I do. Everything I carry can be monogrammed or I can monogram something brought in. And all of the monogramming is stitched so I think its a little more elegant and more permanent so it creates more of a keepsake than something that is just ironed on. I have stock designs, can help you create a design and can even digitize a business logo and set it up on my machine. And if I can fit it on the machine, I'll personalize it for you."

And while sewing things on shirts, wraps, robes and towels is a staple of the business, Miss Priss Originals can also produce items perfect for use as bridal and groomsman gifts or to mark special family celebrations such as births, baptisms, confirmations and first communions. And all at affordable prices and in some of the latest styles.

"I try to price most of my items in the $20 to $25 range with the price including monogramming," she said. "And I attend the trade shows in Dallas and Atlanta every year where I can connect with the wholesalers and see what the hottest items are before they reach the big stores."

Originally from Sugarland, Krenek married local Agriculture Consultant BB Krenek and the couple has two sons. The family attends Holy Family Catholic Church and Krenek contributes her talents to the church prayer blanket ministry as well as contributing to various fundraisers along with participating in the Wharton County Youth Fair.

"That is when I'm not chasing around two young boys," she said.

With regular operating hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Krenek said customers are welcome to drop in any time her car's parked at the shop.

For more information, call Miss Priss Originals at 531- 0501.