Behind the scenes....the Holiday Open House

Every year as we wrap up our Holiday season, we wonder how we can  possibly top what we've just done...how can we  find cuter ornaments, how can we come up with any better ideas for next year...no way...it's going to be impossible!

Then we go to Atlanta for our major January shopping trip,where all of  next season's themes are figured out.... the blood starts flowing...the ideas start coming, and the cute stuff starts appearing before our eyes and Voila! We know it's going to be another killer Holiday Design House.

I thought it might be fun to give a little insight into what goes into creating the house and let you know how its coming along.

This year we bumped our opening back a week because its almost a nervous breakdown trying to take apart the October Design House and take it to the level of our Holiday open house in three weeks. As it stands, our families are not fed and no laundry gets done at home until this puppy is done.

As we have mentioned in previous posts, the ornaments, garlands, and such are all purchased in January.  Amy and I also start purchasing vintage auction finds, sleds, skates, tobaggens, skis all throughout the year and stow them away for this event. The boxes start trickling in in July. Kim and Diana try to keep up with the unwrapping and pricing during the summer as they know all too well that its like a slow moving freight train that's coming straight at them with delivery after delivery after delivery.

Next when it becomes apparent that the freight train is winning we bring in the high school recruits all lined along long tables, laughing, eating and pricing Christmas bears, balls garlands....

Meanwhile Amy is formulating her game plan and themes for all of the rooms. She starts assessing her color palettes to see what tones work  well together, what walls need to be painted, what antique elements need to be brought in and what other layers she will need to complete the look.

Some rooms are no brainers like "letters to Santa"...we found a killer life sized Santa who sits at a desk and gorgeous ribbons with letters to Santa printed on them....soooo cute.

 

Once everything is set, furniture, trees, lighting, the ornaments start coming into the house...once they start rolling in Amy personally styles each and every room.( because she is ridiculously good at it!) ..it will take her one full day per room...which is two weeks!

Holy Crap Batman!!! right about now we have a come to Jesus meeting and she delegates out the spaces she will not be able to get to...such as the barn, , front porch, bathroom, outdoor areas...and we start to figure out how to get these areas up to par with the beautiful house.

 This year we will be hosting 60 extra vendors that will stretch from Lucketts Store on over to the Design House so that should make all of this even more awesome than usual.

Click this link and check out how the house is looking so far.

We hope you'll come visit us November 8-9-10  10 to 5 

see ya then!

Past Holiday Open Houses

As we were looking working on the ads for this year's Lucketts Holiday Open House, we were going through TONS of old photos of the house and shop.

We wanted to share with you some old photos 1) so you know what to expect during our open house on Nov. 8-9-10, and 2) so we can recycle these images that were long buried.

This year, we are having an outdoor winter market with 60 additional vendors outside so the 14 acres surrounding the shop will have additional tents with holiday and winter-themed merchandise outside.

Here are some pics from past years, enjoy!

It's looking like fall at the shop!

Anne brought in a bunch of pumpkins and gourds of all sorts in to the shop this past week.

There are a bunch of varieties and these are really beautiful. 

We just love what Anne is able to do with these gourds and pumpkins.  She has so many great ideas for displays and vignettes for your home.

Here are a few pictures from her space this week

Last minute use what you have holiday decor

Happy Holidays everyone!

I just wanted to share some beautiful pictures and a few last minute projects you can do quickly to decorate your home for the holidays.

Holiday Open House - the line up!

We have several local vendors joining us for our Holiday Open House*.   We really wanted a farmer's market feel for this year's event, so several months back we chose a few local businesses to help carry the theme for us and offer our customers some wonderful local products.

Don't forget, Marian Parsons will be joining us Friday, November 2nd, and Saturday, November 3rd. 

Bring on the bling!

I was able to sneak in to the Design House before the storm.  While I can still tell you there is some work going on to get things ready, there was a lot of eye candy!

I fell in love with the decorated trees.

Here are a few closeups of some of the holiday bling...

Building vignettes for the Holiday Open House

Last week, we were mostly building the bones of each room; adding furniture and large accessories.

Amy had already had her pow-wow with Henry and the rooms were painted, and it was decided what each room would "be".

Now it's time to add more layers to each room and complete a few vignettes.  Come read a little more about how we do it...

Holiday Open House - Sneak Peek

Aside from great holiday decor, ornaments, and new furniture, the Design House's Holiday Open House is going to be featuring some great gift ideas.

At our November 2, 3 & 4 event, we're going to have luxurious alpaca gear, made from local alpaca farmers, as well as several new styles of hats Amy & Suzanne found earlier this year that just arrived!

An owl pricing party

Who says we can't make pricing owls in a cold chicken coop fun? 

Here are a few pics of Diana, Tori and Kim, pricing owls in the barn and chicken coop a few days ago as we get ready for the Holiday Open House.

Awesome surprise....we also have Marian Parsons, Miss Mustard Seed, lined up to sign books on Friday & Saturday (November 2nd & 3rd) of the Holiday Open House weekend!!!  {read on...} 

Setting the stage - painting, furniture, alpacas & donuts?

Here's my third post in a series featuring how we're getting our Design House all ready for the Holiday Open House on November 2, 3 & 4.
So I left off my last post talking about pricing owls, angels, and more owls.  Now the October Design House is over and we can actually move the plans from Amy's head to actual paint on the walls and furniture in the rooms.... 

Let the games begin!

Here's my second post in a series featuring how we're getting our Design House all ready for the Holiday Open House on November 2, 3 & 4.  

So I left off my last post talking about going to holiday buying shows in January and pricing Christmas balls in July....

2011 Christmas holiday hours

Our holiday hours are:

• Christmas Eve 10am-3pm. 
• Christmas Day we are CLOSED. 
• We will reopen on Monday, December 26th at 10am.
• All other days are 10am-5pm.

Thank you for shopping with us this year!

Season's Greetings Everyone!

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Displaying vintage ornaments

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Aside from decorating an entire Christmas tree with vintage ornaments, there are several other ways you can display your pretties.

Maybe you don't have enough ornaments to fill and entire tree.  Maybe your vintage ornaments don't really mix well with your pipe cleaner and candy cane reindeer ornaments.

If you don't have enough ornaments to fill a beautiful tree like the one at the left, scroll down to see some pretty pictures and clever ideas for displaying your vintage ornament collection.

Also please read through the bottom of this post, I put a message from the shop --- lots of Christmas and holiday decor at great prices, so stop on by this week!

 

Vintage ornaments can  be really beautiful when displayed in a decorative bowl.  This glass bowl allows all of the color and textures to peek out.  Pretty!

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If you only have a few ornaments, you can group them by color and make small vignettes like the one shown here in pink.

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Making a vintage ornament wreath one day is on a lot of bucket lists.  Warning, if you're going to attempt this, you'll need A LOT of ornaments in A LOT of different sizes.  We love these at the shop and will make them from time to time, but it can get very time consuming and pricey.  You may want to mix vintage with newer ornaments to save money.  Either way, the result is well worth it!

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Another good idea if you just have a few special ornaments.  You can display each on a candlestick and show off both collections.

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 If you have an antique drying rack, why not bring it out for the holidays to display your vintage ornament collection?  You could probably easily make a similar rack with some dowels and scrap wood.

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 I personally like the minimalist approach.  Just open up the box and display all of the beauties in their original box on a side table. That way you can pick them up, inspect them, admire their colors, shapes, and variety.

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***********CHECK YOUR LIST TWICE!***********

Looking for a last minute gift?  Need a stocking stuffer?  Want to get a jump on holiday decorating for next year?

There are tons of holiday items marked down throughout The Old Lucketts Store.  The amounts vary by dealer and are up to 50% off.  We also have individual holiday merchandise markdowns throughout the store.

Yes, we still gave decorations, gifts, soap, candles, and ornaments for the holidays!  Stop by this week!

Seven use what you have on hand wrapping ideas

Here are some holiday gift wrapping ideas that can be made from things around the house or items you normally wouldn't think about using.  Some are so beautiful and functional, it's like getting two gifts in one!  Leave us a comment when you're done browsing and let us know your favorites.

1.  The Elegant & Earthy Monochromatic Wrap

The handmade burlap bows adds so much dimension to this natural wrapping, made from vintage lace, jute, and recycled kraft paper. 

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2.  Everything But the Kitchen Sink Wrap

You can use vintage flatware to adorn gifts.  I think this is printed wrapping paper, but what about using a lovely vintage textile to wrap a small gift.  Your wrapping then becomes a gift itself!

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3.  The Lace Snowflake Wrap

Vintage lace and doilies look like intricate snowflakes against this simple kraft paper wrapping.  The vintage button and ribbon are a beautiful added touch.  Paper doilies would probably work just as well.

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4.  The Really Had Nothing On Hand Wrapping

The nicest wrapping job I've even seen done with just newspaper and ribbon scraps.  Kinda makes you forget it's just newspaper!

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5.  The Sprig of Greens Wrap

Clip a sprig of green from your tree and tie it with twine on to your box.  Very pretty!

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6.  The Ornament Giveaway

Add an ornament to your package trim.  It can be brand new and specifically chosen for this person,  or it can be an ornament that no longer matches your decor but looks pretty with a big ribbon bow.

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7.  The Anti-Wrap

Instead of using a box and covering everything up, this person put a gift {pecan bourbon cookies} inside her gift {a set of bowls found in Chinatown}.

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Leave us a comment and let us know your favorite last minute wrapping idea.

Happy wrapping!

Retro Christmas Trees

The retro tree is hot this year - think feather trees, tinsel trees, aluminum trees, and silver & white trees.  Take a look at a few favorites this season from some of our favorite blogs.

A small girly retro tree with a really cute scene at the base.

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The retro monochromatic tree.

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Aluminum tree with aluminum star burst ornaments!

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The feather tree with groovy glass balls.

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Blue and white tinsel tree

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Silver tinsel tree reminiscent of the 1960's.

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Mini tinsel tree {click on the source link below for a DIY tutorial}

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What style of retro tree is your favorite?   Leave us a comment below!

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We've cleaned out the Design House and moved lots of the goodies over to The Old Lucketts Store building.  Lots of great gift ideas and home decor all around The Old Lucketts Store.  Our favorite candles & cozy scarves are here and there's a ton of new furniture on the porch as well, so stop by.  Here are few pics of items that have migrated over.

Our favorite owl decor.

Table runners and cozy wraps.

Our favorite moss topiary dogs.

A wide assortment of stuffed animals.

Warm cable knit scarves.

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A Deconstructed Tree {Woodland Tree}

Thank you to everyone who visited us for our Holiday Open House weekend.  We had so much fun meeting everyone at the events and look forward to seeing you all again soon! 

Last week on our blog, we deconstructed a Peacock themed Christmas tree.  Today we're tackling a woodland theme, featuring a favorite holiday accent of our this year - owls!

Here is a sample inspiration tree up close.  If you study the picture, you'll start to see layer upon layer of decorations that vary in size, color, and texture.  

 Now let's deconstruct the tree into six major elements.  Remember, this isn't an exact science or formula; you can always add or subtract to get the look you prefer.  The intent is to give you an idea of categories of decorations to help you recreate a look that speaks to you.

 Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a wonderful week!

We're linking this up: