festivals and shakerag

it's festival time again! i will be at the shakerag arts and crafts festival in peachtree city, ga this weekend, booth - 138, right in the middle of all the action. i did this show for the first time last year and loved it. it is set amongst trees and has such wonderful artists. which usually means that i spend a lot of my profits! hopefully this year, the ponies will not be located directly behind me and i won't be sneezing up a storm (don't ask!)

if you are looking for something to do with the whole family, you should definitely stop by. can you say funnel cake!

names and history

i often get asked "where does the name of your company come from". so if you have ever wondered, here's the story...

i have always had an entrepreneurial crafting spirit in me, the problem is that i am never focused on one particular craft for very long. about 6 years ago, i embarked on a children's stationery company which specialized in party invitations, baby shower invites, etc. i wrote down any and every name for a business i could conjure up in my head, but nothing stuck. every name was either too cutesy, too hard to spell, or too specific to stationery. if you haven't ever had to do so, know that naming a company is probably one of the hardest things to do. EVER.

then one day, i was paying bills and looked down at my return address and it hit me to name my company after the street i lived on. 1729 Linwood Avenue was the first house my husband and i purchased together. it was built in 1924 and we put our blood sweat and tears into renovating it. it housed us during the birth of our marriage and the birth of our two boys, so why not have the birth of my business centered around it.

even though my products have grown from custom stationery to lamps and other items, one thing sticks - what i create is for your home, which makes Linwood Avenue the perfect "umbrella" company name. plus, from day one i have thought the words/logo would make a perfect store masthead. (on my day dream wish list, owning a store to showcase my creations is pretty much on the top of the list. although i don't want to work on saturdays. something tells me i might have a problem there!)

linwood avenue and savannah

i'm back! not just on the internet, but mentally as well. i feel like i have traveled more this summer than i have for the past 10 years and it has been so rejuvenating. for the holiday weekend, we packed up the kids and drove to savannah, georgia for one last summer hurrah. i have been here many times before and the city never loses its charm. it seems like time passes more slowly by the water and that was something i needed - just a few days to relax and soak the sun in.

whenever i am in savannah, i visit one particular antique store which i can never remember the name of, but it is on the far left side on top of river street. 10 years ago, i saw a glass hand glove mold i loved, but for some reason i didn't buy it. so when i went back 5 years ago, they still had it and now it is in my possession. during that visit, i ran across old street signs and even though there was one that said Linwood Avenue, i passed it up. so, on this visit, i went directly to the section that housed the signs and lucky me, they still had the Linwood Avenue one. i mean, how could i pass it up again, it is my company name after all! i guess it is lucky for me that the store doesn't move their inventory very quickly :)

now off to hang the sign on my office door!

spray paint and a good day

today started off bright and early with a country estate sale - one of my favorite things! i bought so much milk glass (which i use to hold my art supplies) that the estate sale lady thought i was going to resell them on ebay!

then at another sale i found a great 2 tier chandelier which has been transformed into a hi-gloss red masterpiece. i absolutely love, love, love it. when it is completely finished, i will show you a larger photo. it is so satisfying to work on a piece the same day it was bought. usually my finds sit in the corner of the garage for months until i get around to them. but i am feeling the crunch of fall festivals so i need to get my butt into gear.

sprinkled somewhere in there, i managed to put some more coats of pink onto another chandelier and the first coat of yellow onto a patio set my mother-in-law graciously bestowed on me.

definitely a great start to the weekend!

4th of july and fun times

as a start to the holiday weekend, we packed up the kids and headed to our friends lake house on thursday. it is always such a relaxing, fun time and this weekend was no exception. there was a lot of swimming, jet skiing and eating had by all.
hope everyone had an equally entertaining holiday.
and in case anyone was wondering, this is a photo of my dream retirement home. i can't decide if it would be better beside a lake or the ocean???