"you must be open to change in order to evolve and achieve success"
I have some news to share with you today, I have decided to close @home. We have had a good 10 year run but in order to pursue new opportunities with my freelance career and event design it was necessary to make the change. This change will also give me more time with my family, time and space to be creative on a grander scale. I've spent the better part of 20 years in retail. I have garnered a great deal of recognition and have enjoyed the rewards of my hard work but I think now is a great time to re-invent myself. The prospect is both scary and exciting.
I am so grateful for all the good fortune my shop has brought my way and all the lovely people I have met along the way. You have been such an inspiration.
I would like to acknowledge my family and friends, my wonderful staff, loyal customers, sales reps and fellow retailers for all your support over the last 10 years. It has been an amazing journey, thank you for coming along and thank you for believing in me.
When it is all said and done if you are wondering where can you can find me? You can check in on my blog or send me an email for any updates. I will be in a tiny studio where I can meet with brides and work on projects for my editorial clients. I hope to teach some workshops, finish the two book proposals I started over a year ago and I'm bound and determined to get a product development/licensing deal with a manufacturer. I'm also planning to get a couple of spaces in antique malls and host some sort of pop up shop or warehouse sale from time to time (announcements will be on the blog) and if that isn't enough, I will finally have time to concentrate on getting the e-commerce portion of the @home website so I can sell online. So you see I will be very busy, just a different kind of busy.
I'm sure this has come out of left field for many of you but for me, it has been a year in the making. This was not an easy decision. I have loved having a retail store very much. My shop had a winning combination; it is really neat, people love it, I have great stuff, a fantastic location and an outstanding staff and most of all the BEST customers in the world!
Thank you for everything and stayed tuned, lots to come.
Liz
owner
@home
vintage general
photo: Kate Compton Photography
54 comments:
Dear Liz--
My friend, my sister in retail, my mentor-in-spirit...thank you for giving Savannah {and all of us out here in blog and magazineland who enjoy your work from afar} the opportunity to embrace your iconic shop for 10 years. While the brick-and-mortar entity will be missed by those lucky enough to have shopped it in person {not just in our fantasies}, it's an absolute delight to know that your vision will continue on through your online store-to-come, your work with brides, and in the pages of some of the country's best and most widely read magazines. YOU are a gift to the design and creative world, an inspiration to many, and a true good soul. Thanks for letting us be a part of your artistic journey in all of its incarnations. Best wishes to you for a vibrant closing season. You deserve it. :)
--Abby
Liz,
What a sweet letter. I wish you the best of luck in your newest endeavors. Even though I never made it to your store in person, the photographs and people who spoke of it adored it. I'm looking forward to your books and wish you success with writing them and hope that all of your dreams for the future come true.
Gabreial
As a small shop owner I really feel for you. It is not an easy decision to make, and I can understand your situation. You are so incredibly talented and creative. I know whatever the future brings, you will be successful. Best of luck starting your fresh new venture, Lori
Liz
I have been where you are. My sister and I have been in business 24 years. We have reinvented our business many times over. If you are like us, you pick yourself up and just keep moving forward. I firmly believe the most successful people are just persistent.
Your life will be rewarded in many ways...I know this. Bunnies By The Bay, was created after a terrible loss...but was turned into a healing and wonderful experience for us. You will not only survive...you will thrive. Warmly, krys
Liz- Your shop will surely be missed, it's one of the best ones around and even after leaving Savannah I have made the trip back just to do some @home shopping. I wish you the best and know you will do great in your new adventures. Katrina and I would love to come visit before closing, so please let us know when you have a date set so we can make the drive from Atlanta to Savannah. Good Luck in everything you do!
-Jenn
sad to hear you go... hope you will continue blogging and giving us occasional updates!
Dear Liz, we have never meant but have so much in common~ this goodbye is beautifully written, best of luck I hope our paths cross, I know you will be happy with your decision down the road, because decisions like this although very hard, allow one to move down the road and on to new adventures~believe me I know...
Have a great holiday season and cheers to the new year!
Liz,
I have happy tears for you! Your letter is so moving and touching. As a loyal customer of yours for many many years I am obviously sad to see you close shop. However, the world is your oyster and you have made a strong name for yourself in this industry. I have no doubt you are going to go REAL far & have much success in your future creative endeavors! You are extremely talented and a huge inspriation to us all!
I wish you ALL the best and definitely count me in for attending one of your workshops! I will see you in April!!! :) Love,Jenn
Your shop is one of the businesses that shines like a little pearl in rough, broken-down Savannah. I dread the day I walk down Broughton and your storefront is just as empty and desolate as the rest of the street.
Liz--Oh my, what sad news! I am hoping to move to Savannah perhaps in the coming year and I will miss your lovely, lovely shop. It has been one of my favorite spots in Savannah. I wish you the best and will keep an eye out for your new endeavors! Wendy
Oh Liz,
I'm thinking of you today. I know what a hard decision it must have been for you. Although I'm sad for your shop to be closing, I'm happy that you're able to follow your passion into another area. You're so talented and wonderful and we'll all be cheering you on!
xoxo,
Serena
Liz,
I so enjoyed our visit this past summer in your wonderful store, and I'll think fondly of the cool escape from our techno-crazy life that you created on Broughton Street. Let's stay in touch and I know you'll be a success in your next venture.
Good luck with the next chapter of your creative life! (and the holiday feature on your house is amazing...well done.)
Best wishes,
Lisa Mowry
Liz,
I am truly sadden to hear this. Never would I walk out of your store without a goodie bag of beautiful vintage paper products. You helped me create and continue my webstore due to the goods in yours, and I thank you for that.
You're an amazing person and so was your shop. I'm upset that when I go back to Savannah to visit old friends and old haunts, your store will no longer be there for me, but I am happy to know that you are embracing a new path and are being successful at it.
Best wishes and take care,
-Tracy
Liz:
So sorry to see you go - and happy I got to visit with you recently at your "new" location (I will always remember you around the corner from our place on Taylor). I look forward to your new adventures. You are an inspiration - keep up all of the good work & I cannot wait to see what life brings you...I will be following along!
~Sonchia
I was in Savannah over the summer & visited your store. I loved it! While I'm sad to see you go, I certainly understand & wish you the best of luck.
Liz, I am sorry to hear this news. I enjoyed your store tremendously for the 4 year I attended SCAD. I hope I can stop by one more time before it closes. I can't imagine Savannah without your store. I hope the future brings great things for you (and maybe have some Hoppin' John on New Years Day for good luck).
Good luck in your future endeavors. Your store will be missed.
I know I am a voice from the past but I have read your blog since leaving Savannah and have always enjoyed your talent, your spirit and your creativity.
You are right in that opportunities await you even beyond your store.
I applaud you for making a decision that ultimately many of us would not be able to make.
May you be blessed in your endeavors and you can bet I'll keep on following you on your blog!
- Drew
hey liz,
my heart literally lurched when I saw this.......but after reading your fantastic letter........I know everything is going to be ok. What an amazing place you created there in Savannah.....so glad I got to visit and see it........and I know that we will be hearing much, much more from you in the near future.
I wish you all the best in you new ventures, and please know that you are in my thoughts as you make this bittersweet transition.
xoxo
Liz,
Good luck with the new venture. Even tho I have never been to your shop (except thru your blog, I felt like I had been there and it was on my "to do" list if I ever made it down that direction.) I am a big supporter of the small business and hope they never completely fade away.
stay in touch in blogworld.
That was a very graceful letter. It is just the next chapter in your life! I am sure you do not regret a moment of it and it makes us who we are. Good luck with all of your new and exciting ventures!
~Syd
Liz,
I've been out of Savannah for six months now and when people ask if I miss it I tell them that of course I miss the city, but there's a few shops that I miss most of all because there are none others like them--- Yours being at the top of the list. @home was my very favorite place to shop and I just loved your window displays.
I have a button that I've been wearing on my jacket that everyone asks where I got it. @HOME GENERAL IN SAVANNAH AND I MISS THEM! I tell exclaim each time!! Just this week I was wishing you had an online store where I could buy cupcake picks, vintage picture word/picture cards, and little trinket-y things I could use for party displays and gifts. You'll for sure have an online customer in me!!!
Moving onto a new career is scary and exciting at the same time (I know because I'm doing it myself for the same reason you are--- the recession). I have no doubt you will have great success in the next phase because the talent is in you.
I wish you the best and look forward to following your work in magazine form. (Please keep the blog going so we know where to look.)
Tracy
Hi Liz,
I was a SCAD student and lived in Savannah for a couple of years. I loved going to your store. What an amazing place! I am deeply saddened to hear you are closing your doors. Good luck in your new adventures!
Hi Liz,
we haven't met, but we've been hearing all about you and your wonderful design and planning skills through friends, especially Sarah of thesmallobject. we're so sorry to hear about the loss of such a wonderful part of Savannah's retail environment, but also very excited about your next steps, and hopeful that we will be able to work together on a wedding or photo shoot. We know the next phase will be a good one for you.
-michelle and greg
Although I've not had a visit to your brick & mortar store, it's always been on my wish list. Your blog is a true delight and I'll be anxious for an online shop.
Merry Christmas and blessings in the new year!
I am excited for you with all of your opportunities.....but will so miss the very best store in savannah ....actually my favorite anywhere. I will be thinking of you....there are tears in my eyes too.
All best to you
Michelle
You were one of my favorite parts of visiting Savannah. I wish beautiful things were more possible for us all right now. Thank you for trying so hard, for caring about your shop and the visitors you hosted. It was my great pleasure, along with my mother and grandmother, to meet you. Best wishes in the new endeavors.
Michelle at 'blue moss' called me this morning to break the news...
So so sad.
Your shop was what got us to dust off the sand from the beach at Hilton Head and drive to Savannah when we're on vacation. I've never walked in there and left without something amazing. (And I've never spent less than an hour in the shop circling a couple times just to make sure I didn't miss anything!)
Best wishes on your new adventures! (And I'll continue to hope they lead you back to a new shop when things turn around.)
After moving from Savannah to Missouri recently, I often checked your blog to see what's new with one of my favorite stores on Broughton. I am sad to hear about the store closing, but the prospect of a new journey for you sounds exciting! Thank you for sharing your vision and in honor of @home, I will continue to support the indie store owner! Good luck with everything.
I am so sorry to hear that, as I loved visiting your shop when I was in Savannah! I will miss stores like yours, afew of my favorites in San Francisco have closed their doors, too.
All the best to you in your new editorial endeavors! And, have a
wonderful holiday,
Victoria
My dear friend and collegue-
I know how difficult this last step must have been for you, but we all know how your coming days will be blooming with your beautiful work in so many ways. I will miss my visits to your store everytime I go to Savannah and I will miss our business chats. I have to say that the Savannah Downtown will never be the same for me. I wish you the best of this new chapter in your life, I it will be full of creativity and pure joy.
Congratulations are in order!
Cheers to you my friend.
Judith
I often read your blog to stay connected to Savannah and when I was visiting I always made sure to drop i your store and buy a few things. I am sorry you have to close. Your store will be missed and I just hope that one day there will be a @home II in Savannah. All the best to you!
Dear Liz,
I just wanted to take a minute to tell you how not just your store, but you as a person, have been an inspiration to me. As a creative person stuck behind a desk, you are a role model. You have followed your passions and your talents and have turned them into a career that brings beauty into the lives of everyone who meets you. This is something that I believe extends far beyond your storefront. I can only imagine the events so lucky to have you as their planner. I wish you the best of luck and hope that your blog will give a window into your daydreams and creations.
The very best,
Sarah Shell
baby lawyer/daydreamer
I am so sad to hear this!! I just moved out of town, but it will be disappointing if @Home is no longer there the next time I visit. Best wishes in all that you do!
We talked a bit at my wedding eve party - so it did not come as a total shock - but still, your shop is amazing, and I wish I could visit it one last time before it closes.
I am excited to see what you do with 2010 - you are so talented it will be wonderful to follow you and see what may come!
take care!
Your letter brought to mind Kathleen Kelly's sadness at your bookstore's closing in You've Got Mail: "People are always saying that change is a good thing. But all they're really saying is that something you didn't want to happen at all... has happened. My store is closing this week. I own a store, did I ever tell you that? It's a lovely store, and in a week it'll be something really depressing, like a Baby Gap. Soon, it'll be just a memory. In fact, someone, some foolish person, will probably think it's a tribute to this city, the way it keeps changing on you, the way you can never count on it, or something. I know because that's the sort of thing I'm always saying. But the truth is... I'm heartbroken. I feel as if a part of me has died, and my mother has died all over again, and no one can ever make it right."
So sorry for your loss.
Your store has brought so much joy and inspiration to me during my time in Savannah. I am very sorry to hear you'll be closing, but I know you will continue to be fabulous and inspiring no matter what you do!
I can't wait for an online store; my family and friends are used to getting @home gifts for xmas and birthdays, so you will have one loyal online customer ready to go. :)
Good luck, my prayers and wishes are with you in your future endeavors!
Dear Liz,
I'll never forget the absolute delight I felt when I visited your first little shop in Savannah many years ago. You were making price tags with rubber stamps, and I remember thinking, "Someday, I will have a little shop of my own as sweet as this one!" My own store has been open for two years now, and I understand how much of your heart and soul you put into yours. I wish you tremendous success in your new creative endeavors, and look forward to seeing what comes next for you.
It's bittersweet, but the journey ahead sounds exciting, and I'm sure you'll bring the same magic touch to your future.
Warm regards,
Kimberly
Dearest Liz,
Thank you for your heart-wrenching letter. No other store I know is even in the same class as yours; I know you'll be successful and happy in any avenue you pursue!
BIG HUG*
- Angeline
I have LOVED shopping in your store EVERYTIME I visit Savannah! I will miss it so much, and my little day trips to Georgia will never be that same! Best wishes to you in all of your future ventures, I'll be following along on your blog!
I recently visited your store and fell in love when I first step foot inside. I'm sad to see that it is closing but I am excited to read about your next chapter! Good luck and thanks for your design inspiration!
Liz, we are sad to see the store close, but glad that you are moving on with amazing plans. You are so talented, and we can't wait to see what comes up next for you. Blessings in your new endeavors!
Liz, so sorry to hear that the shop will be closing - this year was "Tybee Island Year" and I was looking forward to shop your store once again. Best wishes to you ahead!
It's 40 minutes past the first day of 2010 when I finally read this blog post. I am beside myself right now, Liz. Too sad for me. BUT, I know you are an amazing creative individual and you already have so many cool things going for you and I am proud you have been pursuing them. Thank you for being there and bringing beauty to my past city. Thank you thank you.
Loves,
Amy
I wish you all the success on your new found adventures. Don't see this as an end but a new beginning of something Great!
Oh this breaks my heart. It truly does. Your shop was always THE most important place on my list anytime we visited Savannah. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to meet you back in June during our last visit - and so happy that during a time of much financial and personal distress, we took the time/$ to take a trip at all. I hate to think we'd have missed that last opportunity to set foot inside your store. I asked if it was alright if I took pictures when we were there and you gave me the okay. This may sound totally sappy, but I'm glad now to have them 'cause your store was my happy place and at least I can look back on my photos.
I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors and look forward to seeing what you create, you have such a beautiful vision.
Sad, I'm just reading your letter. I gave up my gallery in 2005 and it too, was heart-wrenching. I did, literally, grieve for a good 2 years...finally, realizing it wasn't any fault of my own. I would watch women go into the hair dresser, jewelry shop and bakery next door without a glance into the gallery. It just plain hurt my feelings, but now I am motivated again to begin a new endeavor here in my own backyard. I am excited for you that you have so many ideas and opportunities with the perfect attitude to go with it. You are very inspiring to many women. Best wishes in 2010. Angie
So sorry to hear about your shop closing, although I never visited myself, it sounds like a place I would've liked very much. Good luck in this fresh new year!!
Liz,
Forgive me for being so late with this, as I was just catching up from the last month. I can't imagine how hard of a decision it was for you to decide this, but please just know (and I know you do) how many people whose lives you've transformed by your wonderfully beautiful and talented aesthetic, both inside and outside of @ Home Vintage. I live in Jacksonville, and EVERY TIME my husband and I visit Savannah, I'm like a kid turned loose at Disneyworld once I set foot in your lovely shop. As I type this, I am looking at my owl paperweight on my desk, which my husband bought for me in your shop the day he proposed to me. All I can say is thank you for all that you've done to make this crazy world we live in THAT much more beautiful. You keep following that big, creative heart of yours and you will always be happy & fulfilled. All the very best of luck & love, Marisa L. C. Ratliff
I am so sad to hear this. I admired your home on Design Sponge (even posted about it on my own little blog) and more recently in Country Living -- I love your style. You are obviously very talented and creative and I'm sure that life has something else in store for you! Best of luck to you in your new adventure!
Oh no Liz I am so going to miss you. I was so looking forward to my visit this April 2010 to the store again as I did last year. It is my FAV place to shop in Savannah. Wishing you all the very best. Rebecca in Northern, Kentucky
Liz,
Your blog has been a source of great enjoyment for me, and though I have neither met you nor the store (nor have I been within a hundred miles of Savannah this year), I am sad to hear you are closing your doors. I was rooting for you.
However, I know that you and your many talents will continue to bring small sprinkles of grace and beauty to the people who bump into you. Take heart.
And thank you for sharing these little bits of yourself with online friends. I am thankful for you and wish you all the best.
:D Anna
I know you told us not to be sad for you, but I was so sad to read this! A friend of mine visited Savannah a year ago and absolutely raved about your shop. I still hadn't had the good fortune to visit, but you were definitely on my list. Sigh. I guess I won't have the chance now. I do hope that your new ventures are working out. You seem to have an amazing artistic eye. I'm going to remain hopeful that you might work out the kinks with selling online, because I know that I'd love to be one of your customers!
I wish I'd read this earlier! I drove by your store today in hopes of going and was so sad to see it wasn't there!
I just saw this posting about your lovely store closing and was extremely heartbroken. I'm so glad that we stumbled across it last summer while visiting Savannah. From the moment I walked in, it was officially my favorite store EVER! For my birthday my husband took me to Savannah (from Jacksonville) just to go shopping at your store. It was the highlight of my birthday and what I always looked forward to when visiting Savannah! I wish you the best.
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