Unique Unique Design

Mayron and I have been working with Karen, the owner of Spoons, in McKinney for over a year and a half now.  Karen moved her restaurant, Spoons, to a better location on the square. We helped her with the interior design in there. And, she hasn’t stopped since. She now has a room upstairs called “the Upstairs” where she does small private parties. She asked us to work on that for her, then she moved to the space behind Spoons. It was once a city garage, a long time ago. Thus, she calls it “the Garage”. We have been working with her on that space. All this is a bit of a departure from my house, but Karen is fun to work with and she doesn’t really go for the conventional. The Garage is a bakery, coffee bar, and sandwich shop. She wanted lounging areas where folks could just sit and talk or read or compute. She, also, wanted more of a boarding house style, so she has long tables rather than small ones. We’ve had fun finding “garagey” items and then mixing it with crystal chandeliers and other fun stuff.  The original garage doors are used inside the restaurant and one is on the outside. These doors are fabulous! We don’t have a pic of everything, as there are still some things that need to be done.  These pics are mostly in the lounge areas.

lips

This painting of the lips was done by young girl. She painted them and gave them to Karen,

These chairs covered in drop cloths are awaiting  new custom made slipcovers.

That’s a fireplace on the wall on the right.

thru the chains

more chain

mercedes grill

Cool, huh! This grill is above the toilet in the restroom with old metal medicine cabinets and rings from oil wells.

Containers from old scales holding toilet paper are in front of one of the original brick walls.

This is a very wonderful original metal and frosted glass window. The pearl chandelier looks better in person since the long pencil crystals can’t even be seen and it’s not been plugged in yet. The iron window guard is for hanging your purse on.

tools

These are computer drawings that I drew of tools that are mounted in 16″ x 20″ frames. Just a little arty element.

You do need to go eat at Spoons or The Garage. Spoons is always full at lunch and breakfast as it is a very popular restaurant. They have a great menu and yummy bakery items. The Garage is due to open on Friday, Feb 26th. Tell Karen we sent you.

Thought I might get these up last nite, but didn’t make it. Had a lot of busy work yesterday working on those “need to be done” things! Didn’t do too bad in fact as I got several things checked off the old list.

Now for the good part……the pics of LaurieAnna’s shop! She does such an amazing job at merchandising. And she has such great people working with her in there. One young lady in particular that Mayron and I kept on the run in between all the others needing her. We called her “price girl” until we found out her name was Alli (not sure of spelling). She was so cute and so sweet running to and fro  and so YOUNG! We really didn’t get much of a chance to talk to Laurie, tho. The lines got long at the checkout right away. But, I know what you really want to see are the pics, so here goes.

chocolate bunnies

They looked like real chocolate!

glass teardrops and chandelier

old industrial lights

white and green and glass

loveseat

This little loveseat was precious, but it was hard to get a straight on pic. Do you see those 3 stools to the right? They were actually attached to a huge table that came out of boys lunchroom in a Catholic school I believe. It was an incredible piece!!

what an inviting scene

Don’t you just want to crawl in with a good book?!

Thanks for a fun and “feast for the eyes” show Laurie, Luann, Kaci, Linda, and Ludmill.

Mayron and I drove to Canton on Friday to attend LaurieAnna’s Serendipity sale. It was a beautiful sunny day, altho, a little chilly starting out. We arrived early so went and scouted out a place we shop at. Yea! we found a treasure!! Then back to the sale. By then we only had minutes to wait and cars started arriving.

We jumped out of the car and waited for Laurie to untie the ribbon barricade.

The first booth we walked up to was Linda and Ludmill of Willow Nest.

They had lots of white and they showed much attention to detail in the displays.

Isn’t this two tier tray precious, not to mention Linda’s items filling it?!

This little silver tricycle was way too cute!

One of our favorite pieces they had was a white chest of drawers with this fabulous old marble top, but, alas, my pic didn’t turn out. The metal table that trike is sitting on is very good, too, but was out of focus. I bought a white ribbon from them from a rodeo that said “little buckaroo” on it. I had to get it for my grandson (in the black cowboy hat) you saw in an earlier post,

We’ve heard much about Willow Nest in the past, so it was a pleasure getting a chance to meet and  chat a bit with Linda.

Next, set up on the porch was Luann and Kaci of Patina Green. We have loved their stuff for awhile now. We would see it in a booth in a shop  of a friend of ours in McKinney. They recently joined the group at Smitten that we did a post on awhile back. Problem was, tho, we had never met them. Well, we got that privilege today and what a fun pair! They are both extremely talented and set up a beautiful booth. Here are some pics of their great wares. I was able to get a little better shots under the porch with not as much direct light.

birdcage and more

lots of nests

look at these crusty old bottles

wonderful old sink that SOLD right away

pillows, smocked curtains and goodies

We had a great time at this sale. Ran into other friends and got to meet a few new ones. Tomorrow I will post the pics from inside LaurieAnna’s shop. No big surprise it was just beautiful in there. Laurie does an amazing job and you will love the pics. Even mine! LOL  Hard not to get a good shot!

More prizes!! You all need to go over to Time Worn Interiors blog. Theresa is drawing a name for some great things, including a book.  You need to leave a comment to get your hat in the ring and there’s about a million comments!!. LOL So, head on over and take a chance. And, of course, in the meantime enjoy her lovely blog.

Also, it won’t be long until the dogwood is blooming….especially on those east Texas highways. It means Warrenton/Roundtop is getting close. It’s always a pretty trip down there in the spring with all the wild flowers.

Hope to see some of you at LaurieAnna’s Serendipity Market tomorrow!

We are trying to restock my house as it’s gotten low on goodies. I have some pictures below of some very cool stuff that we wish  we were restocking with!!! But for right now, you are not going to find it listed in our “Check It Out” section.

What amazing doors! Now that lampshade I’m pretty sure was worn by someone at TNT’s 100th post party!

There are just several things here that would just go right in my house! Don’t miss that foot on wall under the sconce. Wonder if it belongs to the guy on the floor!? Those sconces are pretty OKAY too! 

pictures: 1st option

All who visit, we offer you a cupcake and please smell the roses.

No, we didn’t make these. Credit goes to a Country Home article on “Sweet Lady Jane Bakery”  feb. 2007

Not your traditional Valentine’s day colors, but beautiful nonetheless. They are from my Valentine. Sorry, I’m not sharing the chocolate truffles!

Oh no, I ‘m too late for the social event of the year…TNT’s 100th post BASH!! I’ve been flying all day, dodging cessnas, and F-18’s, and helicopters. My man even got me a wrist corsage and look at the jewels. I just knew I’d be queen of the ball. Well, clean up crew stand back I’m coming in for a landing!

I’ve spotted a landing pad….flaps are down

O.K. landing gear are down. Hope I don’t ruin my “rock”

Wow, what a mess! Must have been one heck of a party! Who is that lying behind that potted plant over there? Is that a feather boa? or my Auntie Pearl!

And now my man shows up! Well this is (was) a Texas party and he came by horse, so it is hard to cross the interstate.

Bless his little heart, I told him TNT only throws fancy bashes. He wore his best tie! Thank heavens he brought his six shooter, I think there are 2 women out by the pool fighting over Cat Daddy. Do your thang cowboy!

So sad, looks like me and my cowboy missed quite a hoedown. Except the 2 ladies rolling around by the pool hissing and spitting, there’s nothin’ left but limes, bottles, something gooey and red smashed on the couch, one very cute shoe, and is that a squirrel wearing a tiara passed out on that napkin?!!

Debbie you know how to throw ‘em. It’s been fun following all this craziness. Thanks for all the laughs from you and all these creative and fun people in blogland. Hope you get a good nites sleep. Call Mayron in the morning, anyone needing an excedrin. Her neighbor’s dogs ate her dress, so she couldn’t attend.

Are you ready for some fizzling, bubbling and rolling billows of smoke? Here’s some lab bottles to get it going…..sorry you’ll have to supply your own chemicals and mystery formulas. Maybe you can conjure up a date (your own Mr. Hyde) for TnT’s 100th Post/Giveaway/Birthday Celebration this Friday the 13th. Not everyone can win the bidding on Cat Daddy! LOL

I’m waiting for someone to come over to shop, so thought I’d take a quick pic and post it. As you can probably see I haven’t even gotten them all cleaned yet, but I will. I need to go wire a chandelier now, so better get back to work.

experiments, anyone?

I did get my bathroom painted and the ladder put away. I am now moving stuff back in. It’s a ways from being done, but it’s getting there. I’ve, also, moved several things in my living/dining room. Will be getting some new (old, but new to us) things from Mayron soon. Rain may stop us for a couple days, but that’s ok as we need the rain here. Bit by bit we’ll keep moving forward. We have a few people wanting to come shop, so we’ll keep our shoulder to the grindstone. These pics are a work in progress. I apologize for the not so great photography. I have trouble getting good pics of whole rooms…..maybe it’s my point and shoot camera OR do you suppose it could be the photographer?   Anyway, here’s what is started.

Some of this is waiting for “new” merchandise, so it’s a temporary fix.

old iron garden piece

There you go. It’s a start! Am sure things will change and then get refined.

I’m waiting for paint to dry (fun, huh?), so thought I’d take a picture and show you I really am working. I’ve been moving stuff around in my living room, too. Am trying to decide how to put this all back together. Maybe by tonite I’ll have a photo of something nice to look at. Let’s hope!

not very pretty