Hey ya’ll cats and kittens. And basset hounds. And humans…
We’re open! Here’s our blurry selfie at the end of our first day as shopkeepers.
It’s been a long, fun two months. We spent a lot of days looking for cool stuff for the shop. And we spent a lot of late nights tucking things away, painting furniture and working over spreadsheets.
And then we tucked the last of the things away. Stashed not-quite-ready for showtime furniture upstairs and headed home for some super-late night nachos and a few hours of sleep.
Hey! Did I mention our awesome new shop sign fell OFF the S-hooks yesterday? It was all windy out and I heard the bang, didn’t connect that it was our sign. A little bit later one of the folks who works next to our shop came knocking at our door. When I called the sign guy with an SOS (yeah, it got all banged up) the first thing HE said was “Did it hit anyone in the head?”
Delayed panic attack. Nobody was harmed in the failure of our first sign. The sign-guy is working on a solution to tighten up the S-hooks, and from what I gathered from his very detailed email to me there is some potential welding in our future.
Its fun owning a shop!
Putting together the window displays took up a lot of my time over the last week. Our windows aren’t classic retail windows, but they’re still pretty big and I wanted it to be fun! Here’s the building in the rain. I love the urns we found, but with the pumpkins in them they remind me a bit of giant egg cups, which I find troubling for some reason. It’s connected to a vague memory of grandma, egg cups and eye rinsing. I obviously need to consult with the cousins for a group recollection on that one (“hey, cousin Erica, do egg cups freak you out?”)
Oh, right – here’s the shop!
Behold our inviting front door. See also: super cool internet find of open/closed sign that matches existing blue paint so well I didn’t mind paying almost as much in shipping as the cost of the sign…
Long-time readers might already know my penchant for white stoneware, ironstone… white paper plates. White. One window is set up a bit like a dining table…
Ahhh… Ironstone…
The other window is a bit more living-room style. With a paper skull, a GIANT yellow-ware bowl. And did I mention a paper skull?
I snapped a bunch of pictures at the end of the day. First day! Posterity! Also, friend-Heather sent a text requesting them and her wish is my command. Also, also, we tried to give my mom a Facetime tour yesterday, but due to some confusion with her wireless service… no dice. Also: I would not make a good technical help desk analyst for wifi users.
Ah! A long-range picture with Jeff roosting behind the counter (yeah, we went with the cool, antique one!)
I think this next one is my favorite part of the shop. I love black and white cross stitch. And the cork amepersand coasters make me grin. I want them on our Christmas tree!
Hey! Check out the pointy fingered hand on a stake below (upper right corner.) This was a TOTAL mistake order!! I misread the description on the website and thought I was ordering plant-markers – you know, they ones you write “carrots” and “thyme” on when you’re full of spring-time overachieving OCD? When they showed up they were three feet high! They’re actual stakes! All chalkboardy!
An attempt at a wider angles of the shop… isn’t the sofa dreamy?
Jeff found a box of porcelain and glass knobs at a flea market so we have a vat of them. I feel very mockingbird-like around them. Sparkly!
More ironstone. Sigh….
OK, the portrait below… I always love these when I see them in shops and we have a few in our shop. Jeff saw a tag at a sale that said “instant ancestors”… yay or nay?
More ironstone… sigh….
A few more long-range pics…
The ‘antique’ banner is from a shop close to us (Shabby Love in Harrisonburg, Virginia) Jeff and I bought it right after we decided to open the shop as a sort of a ‘commitment purchase’. See also – another ‘instant ancestor’ to the right.
Picture tour is over.
Here’s another story… we’ve spent tons of time in the shop and Jeff has been painting a LOT of furniture. Peppermint the hound is there too and after the last few nights, she’s COVERED with paint. As I’m typing away we’re binge-watching 30 Rock on Netflix, Jeff and Pepper are curled up next to me and he’s picking paint off of her ears like he’s one of those helper birds and she’s a hippo.
I’ll leave ya’ll with that!
If you want to keep up with shop-stuff, please click on over to join our email list. We’ll start sending newsletters next week. And if you’re local, come on in and say hi! For more frequent updates, hook up with me and/or the shop on Facebook.
And for you long-time readers… YES! There will be more sewing soon! Jeff and I are toying with different ideas to do in the shop, I mean, we DO have a whole second floor to fill up! And on a personal level I’ve got a real hankering to get behind the machine. And it’s fall. I need me some short dresses to wear with leggings! And petticoats!
XOXO – Patty
