I start thinking about Christmas displays for the shop. You wouldn't think what is shown in this photo would amount to much! But it actually is how an idea starts - by falling in love with something - a fabric, a new piece of merchandise, a trim, pillow, or a rug. In this case it was this beautiful apple green velvet and a luxurious trim from Houles.

Merchandise starts arriving for the Christmas vignettes. Look how far they have come with the artificial greenery! (Required by fire codes)

And then we put it all together in a couple of long nights just in time for the holidays! Many of my favorites are shown here: I kept a set of these antique gilded quails for myself. Very reasonably priced at $25-$45 and I use them all year round. Also look at the beautiful set of Limoge plates - love the hand painted rim on the chargers. I like to think the table setting helped sell the dining table -which sold the next week.

All Christmas packages are wrapped like this for the holiday season. I love the combination of woody rustic with gilded anything!

Lesson: Don't become too attached to your store vignettes - they hopefully sell and then you start all over again!