Knightsbridge sneak preview

Taking a break from sewing and filing button backs to share some pictures with you.

Fall is here, and with it the need for some new accessories in our closets!  A great new trend I have been seeing on my fashion forward friend Tracy (http://www.sellabitmum.com/), in the J Jill and Sundance catalogs, and now on my dining room table-the infinity scarf.  I am calling mine "roundabouts", because I like to be different and I thought it was a fun name.  (On top of that, my sister thought of it, and she is a genius when it comes to picking out names for things.)

The beauty of the roundabout is you don't have scarf ends getting stuck in the car door or dropping in your soup!  I have fashioned mine from the softest bamboo and cotton knits you have ever felt, I wish there was a way for you to feel this fabric through your computer screen, it is simply luscious.  I found it at my very favorite fabric store, Treadle Yard Goods here in St. Paul, and it is simply the best knit fabric I have ever worked with.

And look at all of the fun colors I found!

The roundabout is extremely versatile, let me show you your options:

Wrap it around your neck three times for this look:

Wrap it four times for a different look, and extra warmth:

You could even wrap it three times and pull a section over your head to fashion a snood (come on, you know what that is...).  But my dress form doesn't have a head, and I couldn't figure out how to do it on myself and take my own picture....

By wrapping it just twice around your shoulders, you even have a comfy, lightweight shawl.

Talk about versatility!

They are all packaged and ready for giving, only $24.  (I used the vintage ribbons I found at that amazing estate sale a few weeks ago.)

I will have an assortment of solid colors, and some prints in cotton blends available for sale at the Knightsbridge holiday boutique on Saturday, Nov. 19th.  More info available here:
http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/Minnesota-Monthly/Events-Pics-Calendars/Calendar/index.php/name/Knightsbridge-A-Truly-Royal-Shopping-Experience/event/8697/

Stay tuned next week for more peeks of what else I will be bringing to the show!  Button bracelets, funky necklaces, quirky adjustable rings, wool and button pins....

happy shiny glass

Done.  For now.  (wait, as I am putting the pictures on here I see we missed part of the trim around the front door.  dang.)

The massive house painting project.  No, our house is not at all large, but the project itself felt really big.

Two hundred and eighty two individual panes of glass are contained in our 1400 square foot home.  Seriously.  And at least 20% of those panes had to be replaced.  About one third of those panes needed reglazing.  All of the trim around all of those panes of glass had to be painted.  Each pain pane has been cleaned, and now sparkles.  Perhaps the only time in the history of our home that all of our glass will be clean at the same time.

Other than our bathroom, every window is original to our home.  Next spring Mike's project is repairing all of the double hung windows so they can be used as originally designed, able to open from the top or bottom.  Another project.

We were blessed with a warm and dry extended fall season, which helped us finish the house.  The whole project isn't completely done, we still need to paint the basement windows, the garage, and the fence.  I need to find new window boxes, to replace those too worn out to be repainted. We will get there.

As I drive down our street, or approach our home from my walk, I love seeing the result of all of our work.  It seems to be happy, and smiling in contentment, with it's new coat.

if you can't make it to London....

...to do your Christmas shopping, you can find a somewhat similar experience (minus the airfare and driving on the wrong side of the road) in St. Louis Park on Saturday, November 19th.

Here's more information, featured in Minnesota Monthly:

http://www.minnesotamonthly.com/media/Minnesota-Monthly/Events-Pics-Calendars/Calendar/index.php/name/Knightsbridge-A-Truly-Royal-Shopping-Experience/event/8697/


Stop by this week for a sneak preview of what I will be bringing, as soon as I find my camera's memory card....

How is it already November?

The Christmas commercials started bright and early the day after Halloween.  Actually, I saw a couple in the week BEFORE Halloween.  Really?  Do we really need that much time to think about one holiday?

As a retailer myself, and having worked for one of the largest retailers in America, I get it.  I know that the fourth quarter has a huge impact on the bottom line, and it is crucial to get customers in the door.  But how many hours do you really need to do that?

The holiday season has become so over emphasized.  The Mall of America, where we have our business, has announced they will be the first mall in the country to open at midnight on Thanksgiving.  We will not be opening that early, as I think it is ridiculous to expect any one of our crew to be at work at that time. They have turkey to digest!

Granted, we don't sell big screen tvs or bargain laptops, so we have no need to open at midnight.  The mall will have a designated time that we have to be open by, last year it was 6 am, I am guessing this year it will be earlier than that.  And Mike will head in early and man the store, while the rest of our crew arrives at a more reasonable time, when people will actually want to fly.

We have been busy putting together our own strategy for the holidays, and how we can attract customers to spend their hard earned money at our business.  Ad budgets have dwindled, and we need to get very creative to sell those gift cards.

Each year, the next several weeks are stressful and nerve wracking and I can hardly wait for January 2nd.   But we do make time for family fun, no matter what:

Each year I try to do something to find the joy in the season, and keep things in perspective.  Even if it's just sitting with a hot cup of tea while listening to my favorite holiday music and thinking about childhood celebrations, it's important to maintain my sanity.

What do you do to keep yourself grounded during the holiday season?

boo!

Happy Halloween to one and all!  It doesn't seem quite as festive on a Monday, but I am guessing I will still be able to eat some fun size candy bars.  I hear that legislation has been introduced to make it a law that Halloween always be celebrated on a Saturday...

It's amazing how many 'scary' movies were on tv this past weekend.  I was attempting to make things for my show while suffering from a migraine, and did not even have the energy to search for good tv.  I had watched all of my recorded shows, and our dvd player was on the fritz.

I stumbled across a movie on the Lifetime channel, "Within", about a little girl who could see things others couldn't.  I got sucked in, and Charlie came out and saw what I was watching.  His comment?  "Wow mom, how depressed are you?  LIFETIME?"  I told him I wasn't depressed, just feeling too lousy to bother turning the channel.

The next movie on tap was "Secrets in the Walls".  Well, I HAD to watch that.  This one was about a single mom with two daughters who move into a house with a past. You can just imagine what happened....

I am amazed at how many scary movie moments take place in a bathroom.  Have you noticed?  Either the closed shower curtain that must be pulled back, or the creepy images seen in the mirror.  And then there is the major bathtub scene in one of my favorite scary movies "What Lies Beneath".

Then it was on to "Orphan".  Major creep factor.  I had to finish that one today, as I ran out of daylight- of course I can't watch movies like that in the dark...even then I still had wacky dreams last night.

What are your favorite scary movies?  And will you be watching one tonight?

(all images borrowed from google searches)