oatland island adventure

Our weekend family adventure took us to Oatland Island Wildlife Center only ten minutes from downtown Savannah. The island plays host to animals both big and small; panthers, bobcats, bears, alligators, turtles, bison, deer, wolves, owls, hawks, eagles, etc. The nature trail is a long and winding path into the woods and over the wetlands with stops along the way that feature different animals in their habitats. It was the last official day of tropical storm Fay so it was a surprisingly breezy day. Translation: the mosquitos were not too bad (four bites instead of 50). If you go on a not so breezy day plan to bath yourself in repellent. We ended the day on the Wetlands Observation Pier with dipping dots, a strange ice cream like item developed by a scientist/ice cream aficionado. I was not a fan but my son devoured them in seconds.

music

I hate to admit some of my most recent musical discoveries have come in the form of TV commericals. In the last couple of months I discovered Joe Purdy(from the Kia commercial) and Noah and the Whale(from the Saturn commercial). I had been listening to Feist and Cold Play long before ipod used them in their ads. I am beginning to wonder if these ad people have really good taste in music or if they are sent the stuff by record companies.

Roll over them to get to their links. Happy listening.

miniature splendor

A long time customer and fellow creative shared these pictures of her modern doll house with me and I couln't resist passing them along.  I could move right in, couldn't you?

liz k

Exciting news.  Liz Koomler, stitch master and @home shop girl has added new goodies to her etsy.  It is just in the nick of time because she is going to be featured in Country Home magazine in the fall. I submitted images of her creations for an article and instead of being in that feature they photographed her work for another feature on new American craft.  I am so proud and excited to see her pieces in a magazine.  I am especially happy to know that Country Home saw what I saw in her work.  

face lift

Not the kind you are thinking...

I hope that you have noticed that I have given the blog a makeover.  It reflects the new direction we are taking with the @home website.  The design and re-design of the website, as many of you know, has been a long and tedious process with many ups and downs.   I am happy to report that the new site will launch shortly and the e-commerce portion (cross your fingers) will launch in the fall.  

I have two talented people to thank for their creative contributions to my shop's branding efforts. Lindsay Hadley, my consultant/graphic designer and Devin O'Bryan, my web tutor.  Both have had the complicated task of translating my schizophrenic ideas to print media and the web.  I truely believe I finally have an image and website that reflects the eclectic and colorful nature of the store.  

I can't wait to see what you think of it.

now on news stands

I wanted to share these images of my most recent feature in Holiday Crafts Magazine. It is August and there is already a holiday magazine on news stands! There are Halloween projects in it so I guess they have to get an early jump on the competition. I hope you enjoy.

For those of you that have gone to our website and are now reading this the kits listed in resources are for the cardboard body of the house not the entire thing (available here). You will have to use your imagination and your own goodies to decorate them. The listing sounded a little confusing so I wanted to clarify for you eager crafters out there.

ginny h

I met the loveliest family yesterday. Two sisters with all their children in tow, I am guessing from ages 6-16. They were a large group of really enthusiatic shoppers so I started asking them usual questions I like to ask people visiting the area...where they were from, how they liked Savannah, where they were headed, etc. Low and behold they were Hilfigers! Ginny and Maria to be exact. Sisters of the famous Tommy. Come to find out Ginny has her own fashion collection and after she left I headed to google to check it out. I felt a little star struck. In the eight years I have had my business I can honestly say I have met a lot of famous people, movie stars, musicians, writers, editors & fashion designers most of which have been quite pleasant and interesting to get to know. Ginny ranks really high on the friendly scale for me. She told me all sorts of stories about the Real Housewives of NYC (she designs for Bethenny) and talked about her interests and style. I think she makes really lovely clothing and is well on her way to becoming a great name in fashion.

all mine

After seeing many of my favorite wreaths by Katie Runnels go to someone else, when she posted about this one on her blog and high tailed it to her etsy and scooped it up. I've been calling it "little hoot" which is the title of a children's book we sell in the store. It seemed to fit. Anyway, it is now hanging between two windows behind my sofa.