SALE

It is a misrable wet and cold day today so I thought some good news might cheer up the my regular visitors. Our holiday sale begins today. All decorations are 25% off.

After Christmas they will be 50% off.

Santa are you coming?

A wish to all my friends in blog/web land for a happy and safe holiday and to all my friends in retail a prosperous one as well. And lastly to my pals in the magazine world, even though you are probably knee deep in spring layouts and photo shoots I hope you can manage a single day for you and your families to celebrate the current season.

xoxo

Where is She?

So I suppose most of you thought I fell off the face of the earth but life has been very busy around these parts.

Since my last post one of my employees got married and moved to San Francisco, the other two move to Philadelphia, I did a design show house for SCAD, produced & styled two photo shoots for Better Homes and Gardens, decorated the store for the holidays and held an open house. I am a little tired so I hope you will understand why the blog has been on the back burner. I promise to be better in the coming months because I have a lot to share with you.

xoxo

My Little Houses

In retail you get used to ordering merchandise in the off season. You order Holiday items in January and Spring items in July. So when I am asked to produce projects for the various magazines I do freelance work for it comes easy. I made these cute little house this past winter for Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Crafts magazine (on news stands through December).

If you are interested in making some of your own little houses the templates appear in the back of the magazine and we are selling the embellishment kits at the store. There is an assortment of vintage and new holiday decorations (glass balls, bottle brush trees, plastic deer, snowmen for example) in the kits. It is priced at $25. Give us a ring if you have questions or would like to order one. The kits will be ready in about 3 weeks.

Shop # (912)201-0015

Adorn Magazine Feature

Yeah! @home is featured in the fall issue of Adorn Magazine. It is a great shopping story about some of the best spots for creatives to visit while in Savannah written by Amy Nieto a former SCAD student and regular customer of mine. Many thanks to Amy for including us with such a stellar group of businesses.

I just got my copy in the mail so I don't know if it is on the news stands. I checked the website as well and it looks like it hasn't been posted there yet. Keep checking I think it is a great story.

Website drama

Many of you know that I have been trying for some time to get a website up and running. Well the latest is that my web designer left town after graduating from SCAD and appears to have moved on as well. I am so disappointed because it was looking so cute. I will hopefully find someone who can help me finish it if I could just get my files from him. Please be patient.

SCAD Dorm Makeover

What an honor. I have been asked to decorate a dorm room for the Savannah College of Art and Design. I guess you could call it the model dorm room. It is the one that prospective students tour while visiting the college. I wasn't sure I was interested until I saw the bleak environment in which these art students were expected to live in and be creative.

The admissions department wanted to show these students the potential for their rooms and that is where I come in. I have big plans and will post after pictures when it is finished. So please check back.

Back in the Day Bakery

One of my favorite places in town, Back in the Day Bakery,
was recently featured in the New York Times 36 hours
in Savannah article. The husband and wife team, Cheryl
and Griff Day, have had much success in their almost
5 year run in Savannah. I am a huge fan and regular
contributor to their success and I have the curves to
prove it. As I get older time seems to scoot by. I
remember when they first opened in an up and coming
area known at the Starland District. Their bakery holds
the anchor spot and I believe has been a big part of the
revitalization of the area. I didn't know Griff too well
but I fondly called him the gentle giant back then.
He didn't talk too much and he still doesn't I just know
him better now. Cheryl has a good heart, joyful spirit
and great humor. I couldn't be happier for them. All
of this comes around at a good time because sadly Cheryl lost
her sister this time last year. I know that she has had
a tough year because if anyone would have
reveled in her successes it would have been her sister.

On the road

As the summer drags along here in Savannah I find
myself actually excited about attending the upcoming
trade shows. As a retailer it might come as a great
surprise that I do not love to go to market. My
background is in the antique business so the thrill of
the hunt is one that keeps me up the night before
an estate sale or keeps my eyes wide open during a
long car ride to an antique fair. When you have the
opportunity to order a hundred of something your
enthusiasm wears a little thin. That is not to say that
I don't like the things I find and order for my shop,
I just prefer the adrenalin rush that comes with the
unknown. So back to my original thought about
being excited. I think it is because we have been in
the new location for about nine months now and I
feel really confident about the direction the store
is taking. Each time we have moved the shop it has
felt like we were starting from scratch. So with this
buying trip I hope to find many unique treasures to
fill the store for the upcoming season. I plan to do
some junkin along the way as well.

Post soon.

Reconnecting with friends in far away places

This past month I had the great fortune to reconnect with a few gals
that I hadn't seen in a while. The first two, Kara and Darcy are a fair
distance away and I only know them through a few brief encounters
but I know if they were close we would be tight. Even with the distance
between us we plan to meet up in Atlanta at the gift show in July. They
are the owners of a shop in Greenville, OH called McMaster and Storm
(www.mcmasterandstorm.blogspot.com).
About three years ago Kara made a visit to Savannah and came into
my store we hit it off and promised to stay in touch. Within a few
months my sister and I went to the Springfield Antique Fair in Ohio
and I caught up with the pair in their booth at the show. I quickly
understood why she loved my shop so much. We had very similar
taste and as a result I purchased a group of items from the two of them.

Over the years we lost contact but I kept hearing from people visiting
Savannah from Ohio that my store reminded them of a shop in Ohio
called McMaster and Storm. I finally asked the last visitor Sally
if she knew the owners and she did. Sure enough it was Kara and
Darcy. She gave Kara a ring while standing in my shop . So after
all this time we are back in touch and I hope we keep it that way.

Then there is Katie, an artist with unimaginable talent and
co-creator of shopSCAD, a brilliant shop here in Savannah that
represents all things good produced from the students, staff and
alumni of the Savannah College of Art and Design. After leaving
her position with the college she relocated to Columbia to be near
her fiance and work on her art. She has rented an old storefront
where she creates fantastic assemblages and paintings sold both
at shopSCAD and on her etsy theconstantgather.etsy.com.

I met Katie and her mom Bonnie when they happened upon my
shop 7 years ago when we were in our first location. I knew I liked
her from the very begining. We had a lot in common and while
she was attending SCAD she helped me out in the shop once and a
while. Katie had a running tab at my shop and we would settle
up by trading her artwork and pottery for materials from my store.
When Katie graduated we held her thesis show in my shop.
Her pieces fit my aesthetic so well I remember one of her professors
saying "I can't tell when the art stops and the store start." She had
so many fans athe college she was approached by the president of
SCAD to open a retail store for them and shopSCAD was born. I know
I sound like a proud mom but I can't help it. I had the great fortune
to witness her bloom into a business women and an accomplished
artist.

shop pictures