January Whites

When I was thinking about taking the holiday decorations down and settling into the new year for the new location (which I love by the way), I was thinking about white and snow and lights reflected in that magical winter light. I grew up, for the most influential part of my childhood, in Massena, New York, a small town near the Canadian border where it could start snowing around Halloween and begin a melt down in late April. Now, living in a milder climate for the majority of my adult life, I never seem to get over the longing for this magical snowy existence and beauty.

So after I took the tree down and all the decorations, I decided a snowy existence or a semblance of one, was just what I needed for a transition from holiday to winter. This last Thursday when I was in my front room restocking paint, I heard some young boys walking home from school with a question...."why is that store all white?" I had to laugh. Well, I guess I did get my point across.

I love ambient light in a room and this was a chance to show one of my lampshades that I made and soon will be featured in a class with Annie Sloan's beautiful fabrics!

I love the store at night just when I am ready to shut off the lights and lock the door. I always leave three lamps on so people can peek in and wonder what is there on the shelves and way beyond. I think we all love to walk in our neighborhoods at night and peek into windows to see how people decorate and live their lives.

One discussion I had with my husband and a customer this last week was of past memories. We all recalled when January was a month when all of the department stores featured "white sales", and then in February there were the men's suit sales around the President's birthdays. In March everyone looked forward to appliance sales. I think these indelible memories for many much younger are long forgotten.

We are nearly to another holiday, Valentine's Day. I am hard-pressed to give up my white decor right now, but I may hang a few Valentine hearts somewhere in the shop. For now I am enjoying the imaginary beauty of snowflakes and magical light cast on snow at twilight. There really is nothing more beautiful.