Christmas has been rocking and rolling in the shop for a couple weeks now and the the beginning of the season always kind of feels like a log falling repeatly on your foot in retail. As you scramble to finish unpacking, prepare for open houses that need to be manned, finish finite details of the planning that has taken months and months to complete. In our shop it also means finishing all the sewing of pillow collections that need to be released, take photos of the product for the online shop and get the listings ready, travel between greenhouses and hunt the season favs and this year we added decorating a Christmas house tour back into the mix. It doesn't sound like a lot or maybe it does but, for my three woman team it can feel like a whopper. Luckily someone blessed me with two of the best girls out there. They're fierce workers and ready to be hammers of their own getting this vision out there and ready for customers to enjoy.
It's the best time of the year in the shop as everything glitters and glows.
So without too much more talking, I am finally getting the tour of the shop at the beginning of the season on here.
My concept this year:
Vintage European Traditional Christmas!
Get off the big box train and be me.
I know that sounds weird but I really wanted the focus of the shop to come back around to the vintage traditional I love at this time of year. Don't get me wrong, I love me some quirk and cute too but the pieces that hold value, invoke memories, and will be kept around for years to come was our plan. That was the focus.
Less "Christmas" but still looking Christmas.
Gifts and pieces that can easily transition through seasons but with a simple sprig of greenery become an exceptional holiday piece.
Murray the fox comes to mind with this.
I enjoy looking at the all natural and neutral Christmas photos but also am aware that I have a severe affinity towards green so that some colour will always be welcome at this time of the year.
I am also adding a disclaimer here:
I took these photos the day after setup. A lot of stuff has sold, sold out or changed already. Many things in great quantity still but I just wanted to make that note for anyone looking at these photos.
Yes that is a 6 foot antique dough bowl in the center of our tables. We had an amaing load of vintage arrive on our doorsteps days before we setup and I almost started crying seeing some of this stuff. Again, silly? Yes of course it's just stuff but being able to use this supplier I hunted down that sources things from Europe, is authentic vintage was important to me to complete this look. This order was an absolute bugger along with a couple others to get here. This poor holiday season was inundated with shipping dilemas and dramas, credit card fraud, broken stuff and other wonderful parts of owning a business but seeing all the stuff setup how I envisioned it makes the endless phone calls and emails worth it. Plus wine because well.......
Proud mama bear of her shop and her people.
The copper kitchen. It tied our theme together and really solidifies that this area is where you find the kitchen bits and of course the food. Oh the spreads and foods.....
Murray the fox. Holiday but eclectically wonderful the rest of the year as well.
So many pillows.
These mailboxes were an idea forming since last Christmas. They are made for outdoor use but also make great letters to Santa mailboxes to hang up for the season.
I have another use for mine at home that I will be sharing next week in a post about Christmas traditions.
All of these styles are available in our online shop
We had a little fun drawing with dry erase markers on the old photos in the shop. I may have done this at home as well and just made Emma's day. She's been pointing and laughing at all the prints with reindeer antlers and saying HO HO.
Thanks for touring around a bit. There's so much to see in the store that I can't possibly convey on here in one post without drowning you in photos. More to come and we have lots of great blog posts to come this season including the tour of my home that I do every year as well as some plant care tips.
Also look forward to a new series starting tomorrow called
Things we get asked..... all the time.
Have a great day everyone,
