Love Stories, Letters, and Lace

Chalkboard Guilt. I was feeling it. I had painted an entire wall of the shop with chalkboard paint. I opened that wall up to infinite possibilities. I had visions of grandiose swirling letters and nostalgic quotes. It was a blank canvas of awesome... until the night before opening day.

It was past midnight on November 24th and I was an overtired, over emotional, over stressed soon to be shop owner. I had chalk in my hand and I was staring at a blank wall. A wall that I had to write on. Like, right now before I pass out in an exhausted stupor. All of my lofty ambitions of vintage lettering and clever phrases lost a very short battle with my desire to curl up in bed for a few hours before our shop had it's grand opening that morning. Ambition, at that point was greatly outnumbered and, quite honestly, never stood a chance.

I scribbled "Welcome to Troubadour," dropped the chalk where I stood and blearily drove straight to my warm bed.

Now it's mid January and I am lulling into a routine with the shop. I decide it's time to revisit the chalkboard wall battle. Thankfully, I had already had an offer from one of our vendors, Christine Brown of Fawn, to be the artist of Troubadour's first official chalkboard wall display. With Valentine's Day just around the corner we go for a "Love Story" theme. Christine described the end result as "walking into someone's love story." A pretty cool notion if I do say so myself.

The shop window also reflects the theme. The window is framed in pieces of aged book pages scattered with the ubiquitous paper doily hearts. Stacked antique and vintage books act as pedestals for some merchandise while book page paper hearts are strung from the top.

I love the look of the displays and I'm so thrilled that Christine helped my neglected chalkboard wall reach it's "infinite possibilities" potential. Come see it in person and take a stroll through someone's love story.

Christine getting started.

The amazing finished product.

A vintage mailbox gets romantic.

Details from our shop window display.

Pretty little love story.

Mission Monday: Clean House

I'm ashamed to say, but my Christmas decorations are still up. My house looks like it could be on an episode of "Hoarders" and I just can't take it anymore. Since the shop is closed and I have no plans of leaving the house (side story: my husband took my car keys to work with him) today will be the day. Today I will take back this house. For the good of all of humanity.

One of the major issues in my household is toys. I have a three year old son who has grandparents that just can't stop buying toys. It's like Toys 'R' Us threw up in my living room. We have a toy box... ok, well it's really a vintage steamer trunk... but it holds toys. It's obviously not enough as it's full and there are still toys all over the place.

Exhibit A:

So today I am tackling the toys and getting rid of Christmas (until next year of course.) If you're having an organization battle, Pinterest has loads of possible solutions. Here are the ones that I've pinned and hope to emulate in my own home. Wish me luck!

Welcome to Troubadour

Troubadour is a home decor and gift shop in West Brookfield Massachusetts that showcases the work of local artists and crafters along with hand selected vintage and antique pieces. We have artists from all over New England and get new items in just about every week. If you're looking for a fun place to shop for unique home accents and one of a kind gifts, then make a stop at Troubadour.

Troubadour

6 Central Street

West Brookfield, MA 01585

ShopTroubadour@gmail.com