Meet Vera! (But not this Friday.)

PrimaVera that is. If her face doesn't ring a bell from last week that is because she got a new one, face that is. The other face didn't seems sassy enough for this chapeau so, "Off with her head!" Not really, the other face will reemerge elsewhere down the road. Except for her stuffing, Vera is made with all vintage and salvaged materials. As a companion piece I also started a collage with some of the same elements. The photo below is a "in process" shot. Will take another when I am finished.

If it is the week before FIRSTfriday you will likely find me rearranging the shop and all of the elements therein. I enjoy giving the place a fresh look. I will say the job was bigger than normal this month. Last month was "clear out the Christmas trees" tidying so everything else just got kind of shoved aside. This week it was pull expired consignments, find the fallen treasures, sweep the hidden dust bunnies and put out the new merchandise. Eek, some of those bunnies were more like dust cows. It seems all my primping and fluffy efforts are in vain though as we are having a (pick one: 1foot, 2 foot, 3 foot) snow storm tomorrow.

The hysteria is so widespread that the County has cancelled school for tomorrow and the snow is not supposed to start until 1pm. This from a school system that has already used up all of its snow days and is now scheduled to be in session during federal holidays. Oy.

I DO plan on being in the shop tomorrow until it seems sensible to leave or 5,whichever comes first! If the weather pundits are wrong, and there is no snow, we WILL have FIRSTfriday festivities. Please tune in here for the latest info!

A New Year, A New Day

Some people might have started their New Year's Resolutions on January 1st but to me the year started today, yes, kiddies "Back to School Monday"! Of course I was going to write some pithy comments this morning but I was too busy trying to find a lost pack of invoices that slipped between a box and a bag. Argh. That is six hours I will never get back! There was much rejoicing when the book was found but my luck didn't hold for long. One of my aforementioned beautiful children neglected to lock my vehicle when we went into an eye doctor appointment and when I came out my mobile phone was gone. Argh! Trying to be zen about it but if I only have your mobile number don't expect to ever hear from me again as all of my numbers are gone. Yeah, yeah I know there are back-up systems, yeah, yeah I only learned how to actually program numbers INTO my phone three years ago. Yes, my name is Theresa and I am technically challenged.

One thing I am actually NOT challenged about it making chili. With Bob being the former chef AND him thoroughly enjoying cooking in what I call "showtime situations" (translation: any time people stand around and ooh & aah) I usually leave it to him! But on New Year's Day AKA January's FIRSTfriday in store Stifel & Capra celebration we decided to be open during the day and serve carb & proteins heavy food to wash down the prior evening's festivities. Turkey & turkey sausage 5 bean with water chestnuts chili for me, the infamous pulled pork BBQ multi bean spicy combo for Bob. As Bob makes some of the best pulled pork on the East Coast I figured his would be the ringer but I held my own or was maybe a little ahead in the voting by the end of the afternoon!

Looking back at the photos in this post I see a lot the beauty of nature, that love o' mine and the chopped up mess that is life!
The lovely sunset shot was taken on the way home from one of the most inspirational memorial services I have ever attended. My former roommate Peter lost his brother to an unexpected heart attack the week before Christmas. Doug was only 46, in good health and left behind a wife, three kids and a huge loving family. As a Christian I have been told that one should live their life like there is no tomorrow, that you need to be ready for and have faith in the big plan. My continued prayers for healing go out to the Moog clan and I've added living so someone misses me when I am gone to my resolutions for 2010.

August FIRSTfriday - You are invited!

If you are in town, DO stop in tomorrow for our FIRSTfriday fun. I'll be starting my day by hanging Dave Jenkins featured artwork and trying to figure out where in the heck I am putting all of the refreshments. I keep dragging displays around the stores trying to make some room, ha! I am sure it will all be fine by the time the reception starts. Really I am sure it will.

Betsy, my number one treasure hunter, just returned from a long vacation where she found some really cool goodies! My favorite is the wacky avocado shaped guacamole bowl with matching salt & pepper shakers!

I've been finding the most lovely vintage fabrics to play with, lots of embroidered pieces and vintage style fabrics to put together fun pieces with, like these bags; LOVE the buttons.

A confession: I am a little sad this week because our local elementary school started this last Monday. Why am I sad? Because my kids no longer attend that school! Before you scoff, when do YOUR kids start complaining they are bored? When are you sick of going to the pool? Wouldn't you be thrilled to have a 2 week vacation in October (that's when we used to go to Cape Cod!)? The kids never had summer slump, that lack of learning retention that teachers so love. Teachers stay fresher, so do parents! Or I did. No, now I am just wistfully juggling my calendar because my scheduled help evaporated at the beginning of the summer and I don't feel like I am doing anything with my full attention. Nothing like trying to be at work full time and home full time simultaneously... OK, now I can hear you laughing hysterically and saying "welcome to parenthood!" I know, I know, but is it any wonder I am looking wistfully at those yellow buses driving by?

Love those...PEEPS?!?!

You might think it was our freshly painted new venue,Linda Morgan's awesome art dolls, or the continuous tours of the new artist studios but to some of the younger fans of Stifel and Capra, it was the Peeps! It IS close to Easter after all.
The rest of the crowd, however, had fun checking out my funky new revolving tacky jewelry cases for my tremendous, tacky, terrific vintage jewelry. I just LOVE hearing the the chuga, chuga,chink, of the goofy bicycle chains that run the things. What a hoot!

Jane, Sandi, Concetta, Vicki, Lori, and Heidi debuted their working studio/gallery spaces this last FIRSTFriday. They had lots of well-wishers toasting their success! We had a FanTAStic crowd; I don't think there was much of a crumb or a libation left to tidy at the end of the night. Cathy from Joie de Beads revived me Saturday morning with a humongous plate of doughnuts and Bellinis to enable us to finish cleaning the next morning. Nothing like a little fat, sugar, and champagne to get you motivated (?).

Thank you to EVERYONE who came out to celebrate our big move. Your support really reinforces that committing to the big thing will be a good move, rhetorically as well as literally. A thousand thank yous.

Whirlwind week! FIRSTFriday is December 5th!

I was so full of myself on Saturday because I uploaded three sets of photos onto the blog draft thinking I was ahead of the game for blog entries. Well, not so much in the writing department... Lots in the sewing department though! Most of the items I have been working on are Christmas gifts so I can't post photos of them yet (assuming their recipients are loyal readers!) but here are two of my hand fashioned Santas that are now gracing the front window at Stifel & Capra. I designed both of them from head to toe. I am especially pleased with Santa #1's "puffy shirt". It's a little Seinfeld-ish but it fits really well! I use to sew all of my own clothes in my younger days but this was the first time I fitted something without a pattern. He looks rather dashing don' t you think?

Tomorrow is the FIRSTFriday of the month and that means lots of happenings in Falls Church. We are doing tasting menus at the shop. On the savory side - cheese from Cabot Creamery and on the sweet side signature pie- Buttermilk Coconut Chocolate pie , brownies and blondies from King Arthur Confectioners in Annandale. This is Julie Fiorino's first event here so come try the pie and give her a thumb's up!

We will have more food and libations, sales and specials and I will be sporting my Santa hat; (mostly because I don't have time to do my roots), so come play!

A spectacular FIRSTFriday!

Here's a lovely photo of me and Cathy Soltys before the folks came in to celebrate another fun Falls Church First Friday at Stifel & Capra. If you're wondering about the lovely tag hanging off my neck it's because I take the opportunity to model the available stock when we have a guest artist featured! Cathy outdid herself with her new line for Joie de Bead's resulting in the single highest sales for a FirstFriday evening in our history.

After inventoring and reconciling our stock Cathy will have an expanded selection for the holiday season beginning on Wednesday so come see before it sells out!
We had a special visitor on Friday: a reporter from the Washington Post! Beth was here for over 90 minutes. Long enough I am sure for folks to tell her plenty of embarassing stories. I guess I will learn what was said when the story is published! I went for my Post photo shoot today, the kind gentleman took 97 photos and we whittled it down to a dozen to present to the editor. Keith was VERY patient as I couldn't figure out how to lose 30 pounds in the 5 days notice I had before the session; he did the best he could to make me look good!

Ashleigh was in California over the weekend. Her family was being honored by the AirForce so she wasn't here to join in the festivities. A special thanks to Robin, Laurie and Bob for pitching in behind the sales desk. You all were a huge help. Thank you. And thank you to everyone who came out not knowing that there would be a reporter there. You made me look great!

Views of a kitchen

The Pellegrino and tomato vignette only lasted as long as dinnertime, but my long suffering husband has well, suffered, a lot lately in the random decor department. The vintage blown glass bird has been sitting in the ficus tree since December 2005 because my daughter deemed it "pretty" and refused to pack it.

That dims in comparison though to the beat-up pink tinsel tree that is gracing our dining room at the moment. (You know it is bad when I had a half a dozen girlfriends and their families over and it didn't get moved out of the main floor so I could look like my house is clean all of the time!) Why is it there you ask? One of my curb crawlin' colleagues alerted me to its existence on trash night so I had to go get it. Actually, to be truthful, I had been sitting on the porch with neighbors for the equivalent of a couple of glasses of wine in me so I decided it would be prudent to make my husband Bob go fetch said hot pink tinsel Christmas tree as soon as he pulled in the driveway. He wasn't too happy about the idea of going with all of the snacks and beverages on the porch but I convinced him that someone else might liberate this marvelous convection before I can clean it up and use it for a shop display in my girly-girl room. So, ahem, there it sits in the dining room looking a Warhol-esque Charlie Brown tree. Will post another shot when it is ready for its close-up....

Party like a 11 year old!

Mom is enjoying the look on her daughter's face as all of the girls yelled "SURPRISE!" on Wednesday night. The young ladies (and they generally behaved like ladies!) ate pizza, didn't spill soda and learned how to use fusible interfacing, vintage fabric, trims and buttons to make some pretty ornate designs on their new custom pillow cases. This group shot was an "in progress" shot. More embellishing was indeed happening into the evening AND the next day when some girls came back in to play some more. LOTS of fun. Happy Birthday girl!

Today is the first and that means it is FIRST Friday, so stop in tonight for snacks, a beverage and to see Kathy O'Brien's latest jewelry collection. We are here from 5 to 8 tonight and 10 to 5 tomorrow, before I head out on a week lonf buying trip, uh, vacation with my family. A posse of 4 is holding down the shop while I am gone so DO Stop in. I don't want to hear stories of them being lonely when I return!

Time flies whether you are having fun or not!

Today is August first and I can't quite believe I've been in the space since June and the shop has been open for a whole MONTH. Wow!

I must say that being in the space does reinforce that I have made the right decision in opening the retail gallery. (As opposed to continuing to cram all of my treasures into the my home studio. ) I went into my studio last night and could actually lay my hands on all of the materials I needed to make 2 custom pillows without shuffling piles and moving boxes of merchandise from place to place to uncover the goodies that I needed. Talk about a cheap thrill! It makes it very inspiring to work in both places...

My next mission is to shop for yummies for this Friday night's Store Happy Hour. We really did have a blast last time and I hope that the turnout is just as good this month. It's just no fun having a party if nobody shows up! So DO come and visit that is! We are open from 5-8pm on Friday night and then 10-5 on Saturday.

Something else fun that is evolving at the shop are private parties. We have multiple groups of folks booked in to meet at the store. One group of ladies is renting the gallery room and bringing their unfinished projects to work on. Just think, no little ones running around. We will have music and refreshments. Imagine, the moms will be able to complete an task and speak in complete sentances at the SAME TIME!

Another new group that is forming is a Strategic Goal Group. We will be meeting on the second Thursday of the month at noon for a 60 to 90 minutes. Basically it will be a bring your own lunch time. A time to talk through your personal, professional, or artistic goals getting feedback from and brainstorming with others in the group. We have room for 2 to 3 more people in the group so if you are interested, please email me directly. Knowing the folks involved already it will be a blast!

Hope your day is as bright as mine!