SoapMaiden

Last month our web developer extraordinare, Kevin, from KR Graphix, did us a great service by introducing us to the Soap Maiden. She has an incredible line of soaps and lotions and potions that we have gone crazy over! You can tell that she loves what she does by the meticulous and appealing product she puts out. All of us shop gals have snapped up her all natural bars that are cured for 4 weeks! 

The Soap Maiden was telling me about how she has taken time to perfect her recipes, and how her chemistry classes really ending up paying off.  Frankly, I'm just jealous of her kitchen! Our personal favorites, are the Lemon-Lemongrass soap, and Peppermint & Cocoa lipbalm. It goes on so smoothly and smells delicious. The Soap Maiden is debuting new products with us every couple of weeks and just brought by a new selection of hand and foot balm and a clay face mask.

We love supporting local artisans with handmade product that is actually good for you. What we love even more is a product that looks, feels and smells good enough to give to your friends.  The Soap Maiden says around the holidays she's going to be putting together gift baskets that will include a smattering of some of her great product. Perfect for people you really love and people you are just getting to know! Bath and BodyWorks better watch out, the Soap Maiden is on the block!

Simple Pleasures

It's going to be another rainy Saturday.  The upside to all this foul weather is that the plants and flowers (yes, mushrooms included) are still beautiful. When I was letting my dogs out before work this morning I noticed that each of my roses had some beautiful blooms so I decided to bring some into the house.



It's amazing the joy that can be found in the simple things, like fresh flowers from your yard. I guess the adage of "stopping to smell the roses," really hit home this morning. It's so easy to want more and bigger and better, but sometimes simple is just perfect. 

Lost and found

Allison has coerced me into doing today's blog.  This is Karan, and I am not blog literate.  Allison is sitting next to me telling me where to click.  However, I read A LOT of blogs!  

We had a couple in earlier this year on their way back to New Jersey from Florida.  The wife pleaded with her husband to leave I-95 and go east to Newport News, Virginia.  The husband granted her wish----wow!

Seems that when they were in Florida for the season, they were at the library and ran across an old issue of Southern Living magazine.  It just happened to be the February 2010 issue which just happens to be the one that featured our shop.  She was obviously taken with what she saw, thus the 85 mile side trip out of the way.  

They were both so nice and made several purchases.  We look forward to their next visit when they head back south for the winter.

You just never know what you can find in an old magazine.  Maybe that's why I tend to hoard them!

For those of you who haven't seen the article, you can read it here.

To be mentioned in Southern Living was an incredible thrill.  From date of contact to date of publication was almost two years.   They sent a photographer who spent almost an entire day taking photos of everything----entire spaces to small vignettes to Lucy.   What fun it was! 

Tropical Rainforest

So to say we've had a lot of rain recently is a bit of an understatement. Over the summer in general, it seems like afternoon thunderstorms are the norm. This past week has been especially, hot, humid and wet.  We've had such bad storms and they have caused flash flooding and a lot of headaches.  A friend of mine who works for the city said their computers showed the amount of rainfall to be so torrential, it only happens once every couple hundred years. Most everyone has a story of flooded basements, cars, garages and yards.

 

Thanks to Sandy Joyce and Wendy Salas for the photos!

All the rain has given us some pretty interesting fungus. For instance, in my yard there is proof that God has sense of humor...

  Yes, these are phallic mushrooms. The only redemption, they are a really vividly cool, white to orange ombre. Not really the most clear picture from my phone, but you get the idea.

I pin, you pin

We love Pinterest. Plain and simple. It's a great way to keep all those nifty web finds organized, and Lord knows we are always in pursuit of ways to stay better organized. It's also a great way to get input. My sister-in-law, Liz and I swap design ideas all the time on Pinterest. I even started a group board for my favorite pinners and tastemakers to weigh on my impending living room re-do.

Our extraordinary web guy, Kevin, fixed it so that you can follow our shop Pinboard by heading to the homepage and clicking the Pinterest icon.  We are hoping to be doing more blogging, more pinning, more photographing and more connecting with our friends, readers and clientele, so hop on over and follow us!

French beds

We just got these GORGEOUS, French style twin beds into the shop on Saturday. 

Can't you just imagine some beautiful linens on these? Some fluffy down pillows?  Curling up with a book?  

                                   

We always love anything by Leotine Linens. How could you not love the beautiful color choices and the big, fat monograms? Maybe it's all the rain we've had in the past 48 hours but we definitely have snuggling up in bed on the brain today.

Shop till you drop

People often ask me where I like to shop, the honest truth is that aside from Trader Joe's and Care a Lot, I never have time to shop. In theory, I'm like many of you who like the hunt. Whether it's yard sales, antique shops, consignment shops, gift shops or the curb, I've always got my eyes peeled for a "great" piece.  That means something different to everyone, but to me, it means something that I can get for a good price, that I really love, or something I can get for next to nothing that I can transform into something I love. The problem is that taking time to shop around for myself gets pushed to the bottom of the list of priorities. That's one reason I think I had such a great time in Ohio - we went ALL over town and then some to the kind of places I love to shop.

  We went to IKEA on our trip - and while I really love an organized space, I'm not that great at creating one for myself. When I walk into those cubes that say, "this is my 325sq foot home" and everything just makes sense, I get inspired. I tend to enjoy things that are attractive over functional, IKEA does a good job of blending those.  My big purchase was more down pillow forms to replace the ones that were destroyed (you can read about that here) and some shelves to make more room in my kitchen cabinets.

                                               

Then we were off to the Ballard Design/Frontgate/Grandin Road outlet. I was very excited because I love to sit down with my Ballard catalog as soon as the new one comes and I thought for sure there would be some steals that I just HAD to have.

Of course there were things I liked - but nothing fit my frame of "good price, love it, or dirt cheap & can transform it."  Mom got this great chandelier in cream for her bedroom so it was not a wasted trip. We then headed over to Anthropologie, which I like to peruse because I think their displays are fabulous. I usually can't fit into any of their clothes, or afford their accessories, but I love it nonetheless.
  
After a lunch at Trio, where we had delicious "big salads" we stopped at Duck Creek Antique Mall.  Our friend from home Ricki used to live in Cincy and said Duck Creek is a must.

We poked around Duck Creek for an hour and unfortunately ran out of time to fully explore both floors.  They close at 5 and we can really empathize with employees that are ready to hit the road after a long day. Mom scored a pair of perfectly crusty green shutters for her screened porch, and I found vintage bamboo wine rack that I quite liked. 
Serious shopping isn't for the faint, we covered more turf afterwards but had to check out Cincinnati's legendary ice cream shop Graeters in between stops.

Graeters has some of the best ice cream I've ever tasted. Hands down. They have amazing flavors like Coconut Chocolate Chip, Mocha Toffee Chip, Buckeye Blitz, Black Raspberry Chip, Strawberry Cheesecake, just to name a few.  We become Graeters experts by the end of our jaunt to Ohio.  We may or may not have gotten some pints and had Graeters pack them in dry ice to bring home to our husbands and shop girls. 
 Some other highlights of our trip:

               Giggi, Karan and Dede - checking out the furniture at Home Emporium

We checked out Miller's in Lebanon, Ohio and were not disappointed.  We all found at least one thing to buy and most of the booths were having 20% off sales. 

 

 Karan's original still life she snagged for $30

 Dede's painting of France she snagged for cheap

My bambooed corner shelf that I snagged for REAL cheap

Dede's car loaded down with purchases

We had a ball.  Stay tuned to see where our goodies landed when we got home!