Sycamore Hollow

Sycamore Hollow is On the Move

2010-03-11T11:57:00.007-05:00

Sycamore Hollow back in the day

It's a new year...well, it has been a new year for quite some time now, but as far as Sycamore Hollow is concerned, the new year began in late February with some big news (for us anyway).

Here's what's happening: Sycamore Hollow is morphing into The Roving Home.

The Roving Home seems like a more fitting name in our present incarnation as a business that is on the move. The online store can be found under our new name at www.therovinghome.com.

The new name speaks to the fact that our items will pop up here and there - sometimes in a booth at a show, sometimes in our own pop-up store, the first of which will take place in the Fall. We are refining our online store, and still need to load lots of photos of our inventory, but in the meantime you can check it out to see if anything vintage, new or handmade piques your interest.

Our blog has moved to: www.therovinghome.wordpress.com. The blog is at the heart of what we're doing, with regular posts that deal with design, both in terms of product updates from our online store and dispatches from the larger world, whether it be a feature on interiors or an essay about a particular artist. I post updates to the new blog regularly, so if you'd like to know when & where The Roving Home will be setting up shop next, you can subscribe to our blog.

Thanks so much for your interest and support of Sycamore Hollow these last several years. I'm excited about what the future holds and look forward to seeing many of you at a show or connecting with you online in 2010!

- Sarah

Merry Christmas from Sycamore Hollow!

2009-12-09T17:05:00.004-05:00

I've taken an extended break from all things Sycamore Hollow-related and will really be back after the holidays with some, relatively-speaking, big news. In the meantime, here is this year's original holiday card, which can be custom-printed in cobalt, green, black or aqua. Or printed in red, which is what I've chosen for my own personal self. I also decided to print it on newspaper in an effort of one-upmanship in awareness of the costs of over-consumption, both of cash and of environmental resources. Not sure if the US Post office mail sorters will rip the newspaper cards to shreds, but I guess I'll find out.

Changing Times

2009-09-27T00:24:00.005-04:00

No, I'm not referring to the upcoming Daylight Savings Time change (didn't we just have one of those?), but rather the changing times at Sycamore Hollow. Things are happening, involving lots of heavy lifting. I'm cleaning out the shop, literally and metaphorically. More later on exactly what this involves, but for now, enjoy a fresh new blog from Abigail Cahill O'Brien, someone who has helped me do some of the cleaning by purchasing some key pieces at Sycamore Hollow. I'm always happy to know that the items leaving the store are going to a good home.

A Chill in the Air

2009-09-16T18:11:00.006-04:00

I wandered around Rockport this morning running errands and experienced a distinct chill in the air. I forgot to put a sweater on my oldest son and felt like a bad mother. It seems like just the other day when I forgot to put shorts on him instead of pants and felt like a bad mother. Maybe the common element here is that I usually feel like I'm failing him, at least when it comes to listening to the weather report. Last year we grew gourds at the old Ohio homestead - here they are in all their glory.
This year the crop was not so bumper-ish. In fact, my brother, who has been faithfully tending them, reported to me that it is likely that not a single pie could be made by combining the entire crop. Needless to say, the crop from the old Ohio homestead will not be taken to market in 2009. So it's a good thing that I have my vintage furniture and handpainted pieces to fall back on. Can you hear a tinge of sarcasm? What I really wanted to feature in the photo is what the gourds are arranged on: an industrial cart painted in aqua with just the right amount of wear and tear. One of my all-time favorite pieces.

We are gearing up for our Harvest Festival here in Rockport. Put it on your calendar now folks. Plenty of homemade pies, wacky scarecrows, wacky Rockport-ers, and a cider donut or two.

Rocky Neck

2009-09-08T20:41:00.004-04:00

I went to Rocky Neck - billed as "America's Oldest Working Art Colony" - or maybe it's just "America's Oldest Art Colony" - but no, I do think there's a qualifier in there somewhere. Anyway, the point is, Rocky Neck hosts monthly events every late Spring through early Fall, with open studios, lectures and music. Rocky Neck has a shabbiness that ranges from the slightly deranged to the genteel, but all of it is interesting. And like all places with personality, the people who live there seem to really, really love it. Reminds me of the goon docks in "The Goonies" (which I just re-watched) and I mean that as a compliment. The moon was full over the harbor that night and it was pleasant beyond words. I even bought a painting, a small study by Eugene Quinn, who is at the genteel end of the spectrum. Great work. I stood in his studio staring at his work for a long, long time like a child counting her pennies at the candy counter, trying to figure out how to make the most out of a severely limited budget. He graciously makes his studies affordable for the rest of us. I would include an image of the painting but my photography skills don't quite measure up to the necessary standard.

If you can handle my sub-standard picture-taking abilities (not quite as important for the following photo), here's an image of a Sycamore Hollow tripod lamp in its habitat. I never get tired of seeing where pieces from the shop end up. This one is in a friend's lovely summer home in Rockport. I wish I was sitting on that couch right now, reading a book (okay, maybe a newspaper. Or a magazine) by the light of that tripod lamp.

Art in the marketplace

2009-08-28T17:52:00.009-04:00

One of the most difficult things about creating pieces for the store is balancing artistic interests with commercial ones. Unless you have a sizable trust fund or the ability to go for months without eating, you have to be concerned about making items that people will buy. The trick is to make pieces that you actually want to make that people will buy. It has taken me a long time to figure this out. One of the ways to address this commercial/artistic tension is to look to the traditional decorative arts for inspiration. These contain design elements that have stood the test of time, and don't usually involve a decorative piece with an image of a dog sitting on a pumpkin howling at the moon with the caption "Happy HOWL-oween!" for example.

One such timeless motif is the birds-and-vine chinoiserie style, which has the added appeal of being a trend right now. Hopefully it won't catch on at the level of the toile craze of the early part of this decade. I knew we had reached a level of insanity with that look when I saw women actually wearing capri pants made out of toile. Very strange to see women wearing upholstery patterns as clothing, like Scarlett O'Haras for the 21st century except not nearly as attractive as their fictional counterpart. Anyway, the point is that I painted the tables in the above photograph in the chinoiserie style, which I find challenging artistically and also am happy with at a commercial level. I had just brought the tables into the shop when they were purchased by Francesca, also known as motherblogger. She has a great sense of design and I was very glad to know they were going to go live with her.

I've also been making these composite images with paint and old books. I've created images on boxes out of these elements but this is the first canvas I've done. Obviously, it is not breaking new ground artistically but it is a fun design nonetheless.

Summer is winding down. The small upright dot in front of the boat is my 3-year-old son getting in some beach time before he heads to work with me. The only good aspect of the end of summer is the prospect of Fall - the only season more beautiful than summer on Cape Ann...

Visit from Katy Elliott

2009-08-14T14:14:00.008-04:00

Katy Elliott stopped by the store this week. She posted some photos on her blog - be sure to check it out! She has worked for several shelter magazines and has an editor's eye for good design, so it was nice to have her in Rockport for the afternoon to see that our town has something to offer besides t-shirts (not that there is anything wrong with t-shirts - it's just that we have so very many, many of them).
www.katyelliott.com

For the last few months I've been staring at my kitchen wall. No, I'm not crazy - at least not to my knowledge - it's more that I'm very happy with the juxtaposition of our red vintage wall phone against our kitchen wall, painted the color of asparagus. Not canned asparagus, mind you, but fresh asparagus, perhaps artfully steamed in a bamboo contraption. Our home's color scheme is a very basic black, white and beige. This includes our kitchen, except for what is fashionably called an accent wall. It provides a little respite for the eyes, a spot of color in a sea of greige textures. So today's post is a tribute to our wall phone. Which also actually functions, as an added bonus. Though my happiness with the tableau the phone presents is often undermined by actually using the phone, tethered to the wall as I often am in a conversation I would rather not be having.

What's (not so) New in the Shop

2009-08-08T14:16:00.010-04:00

The thing about buying vintage is that, along with the piece itself, you are buying a bit of history. A vintage lamp has lived its own life, or several lives, long before coming into yours. Of course, old stuff is not for everyone. Not for new-house people, for instance. I was watching a t.v. show a few days ago in which the viewer follows the adventures of a couple looking for a house to buy. My husband, by the by, thinks I'm slightly nuts for spending a half-hour watching complete strangers tour houses, but it's one of those things with an appeal that you just can't explain to people for whom watching such a show would be akin to being poked in the eye. Anyway, this home-buyer was insistent on only looking at new builds. The prospect of taking a bath in a tub in which another human being had already bathed was so repulsive she wouldn't even consider it. Wow. She, and all her fellow lovers of the newly-manufactured, will clearly never be a customer of this store, but that just leaves more old stuff for the rest of us. Incidentally, the venerable NY Times has officially recognized buying vintage as a bona fide trend. You can read about it and view a slideshow here - very interesting to see what yard sale & flea market decorating looks like when maneuvered by the hands of the urbane.

I have a couple of new old charts in the store this week. One of these charts features geographical terms with great graphics. You can even write on it & clean it off with a wax pencil.

The other chart features botanical terms. I have a detailed photo of it here, highlighting Boston Ivy in honor of the Massachusetts connection.

An aqua bureau for a shot of summer color year-round.

Recycled Plants, Recycled Bottles

2009-07-18T16:05:00.010-04:00

I'm posting a picture, apropos of nothing, of my summer planters at the shop. They are composed of plants that I chose under self-imposed pressure (for some reason I allotted about 20 minutes at the garden center to pick out plants that I would be looking at for 3 months). As a centerpiece of each planter I recycled an ornamental grass that we already had. It even survived the hack job I did of dividing it for each planter. I'm not usually drawn to sweet peas, but I'm glad I chose them for this summer. It cheers me up to look at them, and we could all use some cheer in '09. And speaking of recycling, I just got these recycled glass bottle lanterns in the store this week.

A simple idea: cutting a circular hole out of the side of a glass bottle and creating a tin well for a tealight or votive candle at the bottom of the bottle. These bottles would look very cool hanging from branches for a little out-of-doors ambiance. And to those of you who look at the bottles and say "I could make it myself" I say: knock yourself out. First, you'll need to drink lots of soda or wine - don't forget to clean out all the sticky junk at the bottom! Then it's just a simple matter of acquiring a glass cutter with a circular bit (be sure to wear your commercial-grade safety goggles while cutting into the glass). Next you'll need to get out that pair of tin snips you've been saving for a rainy day and craft a tealight-shaped holder out of tin. After which you can head to the hardware store for the correct adhesive for attaching metal to glass - preferably one that will withstand high heat - and glue the parts together (in a very well-ventilated room, mind you! This stuff is toxic!). Next you'll get out your tool box and pull out the ol' wire cutters and a pair of hefty pliers so that you can twist 20-gauge wire onto the bottle - make sure the wire is mounted evenly so that the bottle doesn't list to the right or left. And that's all there is to it! Now you just need to hang that bottle in your backyard tree, light a candle and enjoy. It has cost you a weekend and half a paycheck, but you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you did it yourself. Unlike all those other slobs who simply walked into the store, grabbed a bottle lantern and slapped $8 down on the counter. Suckers.

All sarcasm aside, whether you make them or buy them, these recycled glass bottle lanterns would be a very cool addition to your outdoor (or indoor) life.

If Summer doesn't come to you...

2009-07-08T12:41:00.002-04:00

...Then you have to make it yourself. Summer, that is. The weather - cold, rain, fog, and more cold - still isn't cooperating, and it's all anyone can talk about here in coastal New England, ad nauseam. I feel the pain myself. After suffering through our raw winters, the least we can have is 90 days of relatively moderate weather. But not this year. This year we have already lost the possibility of a happy June, and are now in the process of ruining July. I need to move on from this topic, however. I mean, how long can one complain about lousy weather? I refuse to find out. And to help myself along, I'm posting a picture of an electrically-painted antique piece that will provide the viewer with a jolt of summertime color. If I can't have summer outside, then at least I will have it inside. And I promise: no more complaining. Until it gets too hot, that is. Then I'll be sure to have something to say.

New Project

2009-06-23T17:36:00.005-04:00

Usually I leave the personal stuff out of this blog, except for the occasional rant, but I just couldn't resist sharing this latest creation. It took a lot of work - but here it is, coming in at 8 lbs, 2 ozs...

p.s. So far he's not nearly as cranky as he looks in this photo!

Past Projects...

2009-06-21T12:54:00.003-04:00

Yesterday a couple came in with a photo of a canvas they bought from me a few years ago. For a while I was painting these canvases with designs in the negative, putting blocks of color around the image I wanted to create, which was usually left as raw canvas. It was a bit more time-consuming, of course, than doing things the other way around, but has a great effect. Anyway, here it is, recorded for posterity, assuming that is, that posterity will care. So thanks, Customers (who shall remain anonymous), for bringing the photo in - it's nice to know that past projects have lives that extend beyond the shop!

June in Rockport

2009-06-18T14:52:00.004-04:00

Things are quiet here in Rockport. We seem to go directly from a sort of April chill (with a few sunny days thrown just to remind us of how people live in other places) to the pavement-melting heat of July. It is technically June, almost technically summer, yet here I am ensconced in a sweater. And I am not alone. Most of the (very few) people I see passing by my window look dressed for another season entirely. I have had just three people in the shop today, two of whom looked dazed and confused, as if they meant to go on summer vacation in a nice little coastal town and ended up here instead. But just wait, I tell myself - in a few weeks, these same deserted sidewalks will be teeming with scantily-clad people who should, by all rights, be ensconced in sweaters. The shock of so much naked flesh here in Ye Olde New Englande juxtaposed as it is with what had been, just days before, chowder weather, is a lot for anyone to bear. Yet one must, in the retail business, take the bad with the good. Or, in the case of the current climate, economic and otherwise, the bad with the bad.

So on to the actual purpose of this post: Handpainted Wooden Boxes. These are useful creations, all one-of-a-kind, although the general themes do get repeated. The images are hand-cut from vintage paper and mounted on handpainted boxes. Here a few to spark the imagination. The rest of our current stock is shown at both our real store and our virtual one.

More Strange Vintage Lighting

2009-06-11T20:05:00.005-04:00

Last time I featured a homemade star (see previous post), and in keeping with the offbeat, today I'm showing off a vintage lighthouse lamp that an ambitious person with a nice sense of scale created with plaster (for those realistic-looking boulders), wood and - best of all - the top of an old lantern. This lamp is not for those of you who are shy about their lighting. It measures 25" tall with a base of 8" in diameter. Still, it's not imposing. Just a friendly lighthouse that would work as a conversation-piece, bedside lamp, a welcome beacon in your window, et cetera. And to add to its appeal, the lamp has been rewired. Check it out at our online store. Clearly I can't get enough of vintage lighting, but there are worse things to be addicted to.

What's New?

2009-06-05T13:40:00.009-04:00

I've been putting my little gocco (rhymes with loco) printer to work lately. For those of you unfamiliar with gocco, it's basically a tabletop screenprinter. It's great for creating original designs, all produced by hand of course, but in a relatively more streamlined way. Each design can be created multiple times using the same screen, but a screen does have a life - usually 50 or so printings. In that sense, each design is a limited edition. There are people out in gocco-land who create unbelievably complex designs with their printers - it is really fascinating once you check into what's out there. My images are more straightforward: here are a few designs I sell in the shop as hand-screened postcards and notecards. If your interest in them moves beyond just looking and into purchasing them, you can check them out at the online store here.

Whale - looking a little like a wood-block print.

Whale in aqua - a little bit more modern.

My nod to Motif No.1 - how much more amusing would it be to see the birds attacking all of us who endlessly photograph this fake fishing shack? Didn't quite have the nerve for that.

She's a Star!

2009-05-30T17:18:00.009-04:00

I was in Ohio visiting my family when my mom, an inveterate flea marketer, auction-goer, and yard sale huntress, presented me with this star. It lights up! It's handmade! It's vintage! It's perfect! My mom is convinced that I am, in her words, hard to buy for. It's not that I'm hard to buy for, exactly...it's just that there is not a lot of stuff in this world that is worth having in your life. If you have an abundance of space and a lack of preference (or taste, to put it less charitably), you can fill up your surroundings in no time. But how much more enjoyable the process and the end result when you take your time in the world of home decor, picking and choosing what you actually want to live with? Case in point is this star. While it won't actually be living with me in my home (I have sacrificed it to the store), it certainly makes the cut, in my opinion. Some enterprising fellow, or lady, crafted it out of plywood long ago (if 40 years counts as long ago) and I like to imagine the Hanging of the Star became an annual family tradition - just before this same family trouped off into the back 40 to cut their own Christmas tree. Of course I'm just making this last part up, but that is part of the fun of acquiring vintage pieces. They all have a story.

Creative Customers

2009-05-25T17:30:00.006-04:00

One of the benefits of having the store is meeting all the creative people who come in with strong ideas of their own. Of course I get plenty of "what do I do with this?" queries (especially when looking over my admittedly more bizarre pieces), but just as often customers don't need me around to give them inspiration. Take the wall hanging shown below, for example. A customer purchased some of this paper from Midori (a sort of Americanized version of the traditional Yuzen paper I also sell) and created this bird silhouette as an overlay. I thought this was a great idea and was happy for the store to play a small part in her project. Actually, I just stood behind the counter and sold her some paper, so my part was very very small indeed.

Whale Trunk + Artist's Living Room = Great Decor

2009-05-23T11:43:00.009-04:00

It's feeling festive in town today, as the holiday weekend has arrived - or maybe it's because the economic news hasn't been all bad lately (for a change). Perhaps reporting on the demise of life as we know it, economically-speaking, was not nearly as fun for news outlets once they themselves started becoming victims of the tanking economy... Whatever the reason (and I'm skeptical that the reason is based on facts), the news has been slightly sunnier lately, with hints that things might not be as bad as we thought. The tourists and locals wandering around town seem to sense this, and are deciding that buying a cup of coffee, or a throw pillow, or maybe even (whoa!) a painting does not make them bad people. Just people enjoying a holiday weekend in a small town. Speaking of not-bad people, Karen Tusinski, an amazing artist who happens to have a gallery across the street from the shop (www.karentusinski.com) sent me a couple of photos of her latest Sycamore Hollow acquisition, a small rustic trunk painted with a whale motif. I felt honored that she put it in her house!

Top left corner shows a little of Karen's work.

The tripod lamp next to the couch also came from Sycamore Hollow.

Spring, definitely.

2009-05-16T13:30:00.010-04:00

Wow. Two months since I last blogged (is that a verb?). Been very busy at a lot of nothing. The shop is shaping up for the summer - just one short week until Memorial Day! For those of you who care, the website died a lonely death. Just as I completed updating it, my hosting service informed me they would no longer support my software. The software that I used in designing the website was, indeed, nearly obsolete, but what could be more appropriate for use in a store that sells vintage pieces? A vintage website for a vintage store. Sadly, my hosting service did not agree with the inherent charm of vintage software, and we have parted ways. But never fear, some sort of internet presence will be available by the Memorial Day deadline. Meanwhile, the town of Rockport is festive for Spring, as this weekend we celebrate Motif No. 1 Days. What are Motif No. 1 Days you ask? A two-day celebration of the arts, centered around a red fishing shack so beloved by artists as a subject that it was dubbed Motif No. 1 by an art teacher (perhaps tired of looking at so many renditions of the same building). Anyway, here in Rockport we love our Motif, and have set aside a time every Spring to ritually celebrate its existence. Here is our Festival poster, with artwork created by a very talented 9-year-old third-generation Rockport artist.

www.rockportusa.com/motif1days

Spring, I think.

2009-03-07T15:28:00.010-05:00

Spring is in the air in Rockport. Hordes of people are walking around here today with their wool coats open and their scarves dragging behind them through the leftover little piles of dirty snow. Inside the shop, however, all is not so spry. The nice weather caught me by surprise, and my window display still looks trapped somewhere in mid-January. Dark looming trees and lots of brown. But never fear! By next weekend Butterflies will be fluttering by and creatively crafted flowers will be blooming in my window. If you're in town, stop by. No doubt we'll have a blizzard just in time for Spring.

In honor of this weekend's time change, and the presumably longer light it will bring into our lives, here's a little sampling of a few of the lamps I have in the store right now.

Check out more at www.sycamorehollow.net

Out with the Old...

2009-02-14T16:07:00.009-05:00

Today I am kicking an old friend out of the shop. (No, it's not you. Don't be so paranoid.) In the spirit of trying to stay current, I am moving out this beautiful cupboard, to be replaced by a display piece that is a bit more streamlined. I find that the less stuff I have in here, the happier I am. Which begs the question: why am I in the retail business? I think people expect stores to be crammed wall-to-wall with items for sale, but I just can't bring myself to merchandise that way.

Anyway, goodbye to the cupboard - it will live with me for a while at home before moving on to greener pastures.

Speaking of streamlined, these new cloches I just got in are in a shape both current and timeless.

And speaking of timeless, peacocks (unless you're referring metaphorically to a real, insufferable person) will never go out of style. This is the Sycamore Hollow peacock watching over my winter window. It's sitting on the vintage mushroom-shaped wood piece that I picked up at the flea market last winter (after I paid for it of course). This piece is a bit on the weird side, and customers always ask "What do you do with that?" or "What is that for?" Why for putting a peacock on top of course! No, I don't say that. The wood piece is just for adorning your life, a bit of low-brow sculpture. Just go with it and ask yourself if it is always necessary to be so practical - rotten economy notwithstanding.

Late to the Funeral

2009-02-08T15:00:00.010-05:00

A customer just popped in to ruin my day with the news that domino magazine has shuttered. Beyond depressing, as this is just the latest in a recent string of magazine deaths. The first and worst to come to my attention being House & Garden. The Venerable House & Garden! I should have know that newer mags would not be long for this world. Domino, however, I thought would survive through the recession, as it's point-of-view is unlike any other shelter magazine's out there. I never felt cool enough for the magazine (see previous post) but I really, really loved its DIY perspective, as it made me feel like I COULD be cool...someday. And now that day will never come. So thanks Kelly, for the bummer news about domino. Happier to hear the news from you, however - someone else who loved it - than reading a sad little post on domino's website. *sigh*

Domino Magazine: RIP

Now, onto hopefully a happier subject: projects.

Here is a photo of a recent frame I made. Kind of Asian, kind of trendy-crafty.

A recent view of the shop. Arrange, then re-arrange, then re-arrange some more! is my motto. The very happening vintage glass lamp is sold, but the glass bottles I will always have with me. Love those and can't stop carrying them, even when I'm afraid that my glass bottle market has been saturated. The shapes are very compelling.

You are here...

2009-02-01T15:10:00.006-05:00

Karen King of Boom Studios created these lavender-filled heart sachets with vintage linens. She's a wiz, that Karen, and can whip up just about anything on her sewing machine. And not just any old anything, but items you actually want to have in your life. One-of-a-kind pillows, cards, tags, sachets, and, best of all, hats. Yes, she actually makes hats. In spite of 3 years of intense 4-H meetings culminating in supposedly wearable projects, I have yet to create anything involving sewing that anyone - even someone genetically required to love what I make (that's you Mom) - wants to possess. So Karen's talent is a wonder to me. She will have her own online shop on Etsy soon, so you will be able to access her creations directly. Until then, this amazing sachet, acquired through Sycamore Hollow, will have to tide you over.

Craftytime, Part II

2009-01-23T14:07:00.007-05:00

I have stacks of old books that I've been using for collage projects. For those of you who think it's a desecration to dismantle old books, I would posit that I am actually aiding in a sort of reincarnation for a book that was destined only for a landfill. What could be less dignified for a book than to slowly deteriorate amidst piles of diapers and banana peels? Instead the book lives on, hopefully in your very own home, in the form of, in the case of my current project anyway, little paper hearts cut from its pages. Awwwww. That's pretty sweet.

Tiny little Heart Boxes - perfect for candy or momentos or...

Book Box, with a nice little surprise inside (see below).

Look at us! A vintage cake-topper couple, with vintage wedding bells, preserved at the moment of perfect happiness for all eternity.

Wintertime is Craftytime.

2009-01-18T15:12:00.007-05:00

Rockport is deserted. It snows every weekend like clockwork, and I just spent the last few hours of this cold Sunday afternoon staring out the store window at a total of ten people (actually more like five - they went up the sidewalk then down, so I counted them twice) struggling along, heads lowered against the blowing snow. But you never know, I tell myself, someone may brave the weather to buy a lovely handmade paper box. Or a vintage glass float. Or a birthday card. Birthdays don't stop just because it snows outside.

Well, I've been making things lately. That is, after I spent the first week of January curled up in a ball, in my usual post-Christmas state of sedentary misery. But now we're deep into the winter, and things are picking up, creatively-speaking. Rockport is about as quiet as it is possible for a town to be and still be inhabited by human beings, so there is not much to do at the shop, besides blow the cobwebs off the counter and fondly remember when people in this town shopped locally, at least during the winter months (actually I have no memories of such a time). Winter is a good time to stock up on all the items I make for the shop and brainstorm about rearranging furniture. Yes, there are more important things to contemplate during these uncertain days, but in the wintertime, I am not so nimble, physically or mentally, and am happy to consider the right epoxy for gluing seashells, or what color to repaint my walls. I'm sure I'm not alone. Below are a few photos of some pencil box collages I've made, as well as a few wintery displays in the store. May you stay warm and un-snowed upon this January!

Stack o' pencil boxes

"Christmastime is Here..."

2008-12-05T15:08:00.007-05:00

...as quoted in the immortal lyrics of "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Charlie Brown needs to get with the program - someone needs to let him know that Holidaytime - and not just Christmas - is here. Yes indeed. Holidaytime is here, and I have the anxiety to prove it. I accomplished my two modest goals for the holiday season in the store: 1) Create my tower of boxes, to be crowned by a peacock (simulated peacock, for all you animal lovers out there), and 2) Change the playlist on my iPod to more accurately reflect the season (sorry, Ray Charles. Save your bad-luck, good-timing ways for next summer). I'm not sure which was more difficult: decoupaging dozens and dozens of boxes by hand or reprogramming the iPod.

So check out the tower of boxes - they are pretty awesome - and priced to sell as a gift in themselves or to fill with something amazing you purchased or created (Small: $12, Large: $18). I also am featuring a new line of cards and calendars designed by a very talented graphic artist that are quite holiday-ish (some are even Christmas-ish) without being scarily so. Those of you, such as myself, who fear purchasing and sending Christmas cards, agonizing over what will accurately represent you and/or your family (will it make me look stupid? Sentimental? Overly commercial? Overly Christian? Not Christian enough? Fat?) will be pleased with what Sycamore Hollow has to offer.

That's all for now folks.

p.s. Dear Media: You can stop informing us that the world is coming to an end, and that, by purchasing something (especially something not on sale) we are at best, stupid, and at worst, bad, bad people.

Out with the Fall, In with the Chaos...

2008-11-09T16:39:00.005-05:00

This past weekend proved to be a last gasp of Autumn, first gasp of the holidays for me. I was in a Holiday Show on Friday & Saturday, and watched Santa jingle his way through the show floor while a choir sang "Winter Wonderland". It was surreal in more ways than one. However, I am resigned to the fact that the holidays begin in November now, and am determined that I won't complain about this every year ad nauseam, even though my own preference would be to decorate the house not a minute sooner than Christmas Eve. Just like Laura Ingalls. That is, if the Ingalls even were able to scrape enough together to decorate the claim shanty or sod house at all. Now onto the relevant stuff: what's new in the store? As of November 15th, a whole bunch of Christmas cheer, with a good dose of poor overlooked Thanksgiving thrown in. I'll have handmade cards and ornaments both cool and goofy, and a few stocking stuffers too, along with, of course, the usual mix of vintage lamps and accessories. Stay tuned...

2008-10-29T14:58:00.003-04:00

Well, Dear Reader, it has been a long while since last we connected through this new-fangled medium. You haven't missed much, let me assure you. The shop has settled into its post-Autumn low-fi hum. You can hardly hear the sound of it running at all. Which poses a question much like the old tree falling in a forest conundrum. If a shop is open, but there is no one in town to come in the shop, is the shop actually in business? Rockport gets so quiet at this time of year, I sometimes feel as though I'm sitting in my living room instead of my store (a living room overflowing with lamps and pillows - much like a crazy grandmother's...)

The holidays will provide some excitement, and, as we are always reminded, they are just around the corner. Hopefully the economic doldrums won't keep people from running around and at least feeling festive, even if they are unable to open their wallets and pour credit cards on the counter. ("I'll take two of everything!") The retail party is definitely over, but my shop is small enough and eccentric enough that I was never an attendee at the party anyway.

I've been busy with Autumn-related activities, one of which was to go to my family's farm to pick up some home-grown gourds to sell at Rockport's Harvest Festival a few weeks ago. I feel as proud as if I had planted them myself - oh wait! I did! (along with many other people in my family.) The gourds now grace the shop and it is fun to see them piled high in the manner of a Martha Stewart magazine spread. Not that I'm comparing our modest harvest to what goes on over at her amazing farm, Chanticleer Corners. (I don't think Chanticleer Corners is actually the farm's name, but it is close enough.)

Upcoming events include our annual Fall Sale & Amazing Bake Sale (to benefit the Cape Ann Food Pantry), held in conjunction with a few other Rockport shops on November 1st. And to make the transition into the holiday season, on November 7th (!) I'm a part of the Holiday Gift Show held here on Cape Ann. Hope to see you at these events!

Magazine Talk

2008-09-24T13:09:00.009-04:00

A few days ago I came home to a mailbox stuffed with magazines. My spirits soared, as I contemplated the prospect of spending an evening looking at things I cannot afford to buy and ideas I am not able to execute. Nevertheless, I was happy, as the point of shelter magazines is inspirational; they rarely function as real-world workbooks. I get a lot of magazines, and one of the three that showed up that day was Martha Stewart's Living. I have to say, Martha's still full of spit & vinegar, or whatever the appropriate 19th-century expression is. The one thing that disturbs me (no, not her stint in jail) is her increasing obsession with Halloween. Or Hallowe'en, as she likes to put it. (it's Fancier!) The magazine was filled to the brim with ideas for turning cakes into haunted houses, gourds into spiders, cheesecloth into ghosts, and you even had a template for sending out those Hallowe'en party invites that you're scratching your head over how to design. My shop is located near Salem, Massachusetts, also known as Witch City, and I've seen the people who prioritize Halloween. I can safely say that they are generally not 60-ish year-old women who wear Donna Karan and vacation on St. Barts. It seems to me that Martha's affection for the holiday has even clouded her perfect vision when it comes to ruthlessly editing the crafty portion of her magazine. I stared at the picture of gourds with pipe-cleaners jammed in the sides to make legs and thought for a moment that I had accidentally received Better Homes & Gardens or - oh no! - Woman's Day. Not that there is anything wrong with those fine magazines, but you expect more from Martha. Admittedly her gourds are especially cute ones, organic no doubt, and photographed as though they were highly-paid fashion models, but I'm not sure her demographic would know where to purchase pipe cleaners even if they thought the whole idea was charming. Oh, that's right. You can purchase pipe cleaners through Martha's website. I guess if you stay in her universe and never venture out you might think that all this Hallowe'en stuff is attractive just because she has deemed it so. I have great respect for her but I draw the line at buying a jello mold in the shape of a human brain so I can have a Hallowe'en party for people over the age of 25 who don't care and, more importantly, shouldn't care about such a weird holiday that we've elevated to its current status only because we're all so uncomfortable with Christmas now.
Continuing with my magazine rant, I also received Country Home. A nice magazine - it always encourages me to keep on truckin' with my simple homespun decorating. I feel as though my mother has given me a pat on the head after I read it, as though saying, "That's right -continue to put those black & white vintage photos inside old crusty bottles and line your fireplace mantle with them! You're a clever girl!" Country Home had a nice feature on industrial lamps, which affirmed my love affair with vintage lighting and brought fond memories of industrial lights I've sold through the shop, but I was startled to see the prices these lamps are bringing, at least on the pages of C.H. Sorry shoppers, but I guess I'm going to have to jack up my prices just to keep up.
The final magazine I looked through in the pile I received that day is the awesome-est: Domino magazine. It's like that super-cool girl in high school you were too scared to talk to and who strutted the hallways in outfits that you secretly thought were weird but knew couldn't possibly be weird in a bad way or she wouldn't be wearing them. Domino, I'll just say it, is way too cool for me. Annoyingly so. Yet I adore it and read its pages eagerly hoping that, even now, with my youth left in the dust, I'll someday have friends so amazing that I'll be invited to a party where the girls are wearing frocks, the dishware is mid-century, the upholstery is re-issued Josef Frank, and the cheese was smuggled onto the plane from the host's last jaunt to wherever the best cheese comes from (I'm too frightened to guess). It is never too late to hope, my friends. So you can imagine my disappointment when Kelly Wearstler, who, metaphors aside, really was that supercool girl in high school, and whose taste I really, really admire was featured along with her newly re-decorated guesthouse, and that guesthouse turned out to be... Well, I'll just say it. It looked ugly. So ugly that I was actually happy that there is no chance that I will ever be Kelly Wearstler's friend and invited to stay at her guesthouse (which is really saying something). Kelly, it seems, has "moved on", as the magazine put it, from Hollywood Regency into post-70's opulent grotesquerie, which involves lots of puffy upholstery sitting atop rounded chrome, metallics reflecting other metallics, and bleached oak.
Trends are moving way too quickly, and I'm sure KW has a vested interest in staying ahead of the game, and more importantly to her I'm sure, not getting bored, but we all had just adjusted to starburst gold mirrors against brown walls with white trim, and now we're onto the look of a Miami penthouse, circa 1982, and not in an ironic sense. The problem is, this look can't be dumbed down. You have to have money to do it properly (if such a thing can even be done), and if the masses start flocking to buy chromed pieces at Pottery Barn, I think I will be unable to go on. Besides, the whole look seems very incompatible with the zeitgeist. With financial markets failing and celebrities scooting around in hybrids, recycling rainwater and crafting old sweaters into handbags seem more suitable for the prevailing mood. At least I can only hope.

Spheres in September

2008-09-17T16:18:00.005-04:00

September 17th, and it's my first post of the month. I think I'm supposed to be doing this every day or something. At least that's what the blogging experts tell us. The Blogging Formula for Success: a) Be sure to post on Something Meaningful every day, b) Build an audience for your Important Thoughts, and c) Bore your audience to tears. I have the last part down pat.

Okay, today we're going to talk about spheres. A recurring motif in nature, spheres are all around us. Why, the earth itself is a sphere. If I would take the time, I could give you some wikipedia-d information that gives a bit of history of man's relationship to the circle and its role as the representation of the infinite. And so on. But for the purposes of commerce I'll skip all the high-minded stuff and go right to what matters to me personally. I am surrounded by circles every day in the store. I find that I am drawn to shape again and again, as I keep buying vintage glass floats (insert mental image here), old croquet and bocce balls, and now wooden orbs composed of tiny round shapes glued to a sphere to form a festival of circle shapes. You really have to see it to know what I'm talking about. I WILL post a photo. Really!

For today's final sphere: a vintage lamp composed of a teak arrangement above an aqua colored glass ball. Huge lamp, huge statement. Very cool.

Labor Day Blowout Sale!!! This Weekend Only!!!

2008-08-29T14:00:00.007-04:00

Fortunately I don't have the personality of a car salesman (although I do have the lungs), but, like a car salesman, this Labor Day weekend only I would be willing to offer 0% financing on, say, a sheet of Japanese paper. I have sympathy for the customer who appreciates beauty but cannot afford to choose between a sheet of expensive paper and a few trips to Starbucks, all in the same week. Shop at Sycamore Hollow and we'll work something out. Ah...it seems like only a few posts ago that I was talking about Memorial Day, and now look where we are - Labor Day! I should be sad, as Rockport is a seasonal town, and goes from streets filled with naked (or nearly so) bodies on their way to the beach, to streets so empty small clothed children could play entire innings of baseball without having to pause for traffic. But then I would call the truant officer because those same children should be in school. And they definitely shouldn't be playing in the street. I don't actually mind Rockport's quiet season(s), because they provide a nice contrast to the rest of the year, and the town itself is just as beautiful and amazing as ever. Have a great weekend, don't labor (get it?) too hard, and join me for my next post: the Website Saga, part III: Will I Ever Get Photos Uploaded?

Projects Unfinished, Finished, and Destroyed.

2008-08-16T19:12:00.009-04:00

The list of unfinished projects is long, and grows longer by the day. At least the list as it exists in the real world. The one in my head has little checkmarks beside each project - done and done. Unfortunately I must occupy the real world and try to complete tasks ad infinitum... I have a terrible habit of getting really excited about a creative venture, starting with a fistful of paintbrushes and going at a job - for about 10 minutes. Not even the prospect of public humiliation (so to speak) will prompt me to finish. Witness the example of the back wall behind my counter. "I'll paint a graphic bird/tree/nest thing!" I told myself in a state of delirium. All went well until I got to the boring part, where the bottom of the tree went on and on and on... I just couldn't take painting another blue inch, so I stopped. You think I'd be a little embarrassed to have customers staring at such a glaring example of non-stick-to-it-iveness, but I'm not. On to the next thing!
I did, however, finish with great diligence my design on the chalkboard wall in the store. The theme of birds, once again, prevailed, and I lovingly looked upon my handiwork every day. Until an enterprising young non-customer smeared chalk all over, destroying my minor masterpiece. I confess to not really considering the impermanence of chalk as a medium - which is the whole point of chalkboard paint - when I spent so much time composing my paisley pattern. Next time I should consider completing the paint job instead of the chalk job. Brilliant.

Speaking of brilliant, I post a photo, for your pleasure, of an amazing light fixture (the gold light, not the EXIT sign - yuck), new to Sycamore Hollow but not new to this world in general. No indeed, this piece of goodness has been around for awhile, as evidenced by a littl e wear and tear and the patina of the gold-leafed surface. It is huge, and if I had my act together I would post the measurements. It will make an impact wherever it ends up. I only wish it could end up in my house, but I am not in the business of keeping this stuff - most of it anyway...

Still working...

2008-08-03T21:26:00.007-04:00

It's 9:30 p.m. and I'm still here at the shop, trying to upload photos onto the website. My broadband service has decided to take a break from its busy, busy workload and has reduced online access to a trickle. A sad reality of doing business online is that you have to do business online. "Oh yes! I'll e-mail that photo to you!" I cheerily say to any interested party standing before my counter on a sunny retail afternoon. "Not sure which color you'd like? No problem. I'll e-mail 20 photos to you depicting your options and you can peruse them from the comfort of your own home!" I'm a genius, I tell myself. Until I find a moment to send the photos at the bleary-eyed (for me anyway) hour of 9 p.m. and my computer freezes. Control, alt, delete. Reboot, resend, re-freeze. And so the cycle of life continues... On to happier subjects: those Japanese papers just keep giving and giving! I decoupaged (yuck - not a good word when used as a verb.) a bunch of shadowboxes, then painted the frames white, and hung the whole group in the entryway to the store. One of these days I'll post the dimensions of the shadowboxes for your viewing pleasure, along with your options of paper with which to cover them, just as soon as my computer and I are friends again. Well, friendship might be asking too much. Just as soon as we are on speaking terms.

e-commerce? e-likely!

2008-07-19T13:51:00.002-04:00

I am chipping away at gaining the technical wherewithall necessary to build a happening e-commerce site. In the meantime, the dozens and dozens of you clamouring for one-of-a-kind pieces from Sycamore Hollow will have to be satisfied with looking at pictures and e-mailing me with your order. Actually, this option isn't really possible because I don't have very many photos loaded onto the site. But all that is about to change. As of this week, I am currently taking photos and entering the upload netherworld. I really don't like this part of the business, but it seems that one can no longer fill a retail space with interesting things and expect people to rush in and fill their arms with purchases. They prefer to fill a shopping cart online. I am trying to catch up to the 21st century - I just bought an ipod nano - can't deal with the big version (1,000 songs? What person over 18 has the time to load this device with 1,000 songs? My apologies to you if you are just such a person). Anyway, the store is now filled with the crisp, bell-like sound of my baby ipod, instead of the crackle of that dinosaur, the CD player (may they fill landfills in peace). Well, enough about me; let's talk about the store. I've been covering scallop-edged boxes in the wonderful, amazing Japanese paper I carry. I get a glimpse of what it must be like to be happy each time I look at them. I also came into a pair of beautiful hand-cut glass vintage lamps this week - they, too, provide moments of joy. Until next week...

Crazy-time in Rockport

2008-07-04T14:37:00.001-04:00

The 4th of July in Rockport is a lot of fun... If you're a six-year-old in search of free candy and not afraid to scrabble around in the street for it after a grown man parading by tosses it at your face. The rest of us have a pretty good time as well; the day holds sights not easily viewed in a small New England town the rest of the year. Lots of naked flesh on display, some to happy effect, some not. Last year I took a picture of a rain-soaked shirtless middle-aged man with the ensuing paunch strolling along the sidewalk barefoot and sporting a mounted deer's head with the antlers decorated for the occasion. This parade of strangeness is followed by Rockport's grand old tradition of setting afire a 20-foot-high gasoline-soaked tower of pallets. It is a sight to behold, and as other towns eliminate fireworks due to budget cuts, our bonfire rages on. Oh yeah - and I do open the shop's doors, just in case someone is dying for a vintage planter in the shape of lovebirds and can't wait another minute to buy it.

New View of an Old Map

2008-06-28T13:01:00.002-04:00

A few years ago I acquired a great old French map of western Europe, with bright, saturated colors. I wanted to get it reproduced in a cost-effective way so that the whole world could enjoy this map. And if not the whole world, than at least the few souls who come into the store or shop online. Lo and behold, I finally have reproduced the map in all its glory, and it can now be yours as well as mine. The colors are still bright and beautiful and it is actually a little more wall-friendly, as I reproduced the map in a smaller size than the original, which demanded more wall space than most of us have.

You might want to consider making this map your own. You and your distinguished dinner guests or uninvited neighbors can examine it and reflect on all the places you've been or the places you might want to go...Or you can use it to cover up that giant hole you made in your drywall in your misguided attempt to hang a shelf with a hammer and a couple of 4-inch nails. It's up to you, really. Map measures 25" x 19"

It's Cookin' Here at the Hollow...

2008-06-13T14:47:00.002-04:00

If you have to suffer anyway from the intense and unexpected June heat, Rockport is a great place to be. Walk to the beach, roast for a little bit, then de-roast inside a very pleasant air-conditioned Sycamore Hollow. Central air is a new experience for me, as for the last several years I have only had a window unit puttering along, and unless you were standing directly in front of it (and believe me, customers were waiting in line to do just that on hot summer days), it was pretty useless.

The latest and most delightful addition to the store - besides cool air - is our selection of screenprinted Japanese papers. Lover-ly. Most of the papers we carry are made in Japan in the traditional method, and a few are made in the U.S. using 100% recycled cotton paper. Great for gift-wrapping (if you're feeling extravagant), book-making, covering boxes, etc. etc. Go crazy with Japanese paper - this month's creative tip from Sycamore Hollow.

Summer is Here...

2008-05-23T18:20:00.001-04:00

Memorial Day Weekend in Rockport means hordes of people flooding into town, looking for a vintage lamp or two to start their summer off right. No, the reality is that people will be looking for a hot dog or two. Or an ice cream cone or two. But just in case hot dogs & ice cream are not what you're in the market for, check out what is new in the store: pillows created by an artist in Kennebunk, Maine, with screenprinted images that appear abstract at first, until the viewer realizes that the image depicts a ship's rigging. Clever, beautiful, and handmade - it doesn't get any better than that!