Mother Nature attends EH Open House Uninvited...

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...." or, in my case, "let it ice, let it ice, let it ice." If you don't live in the area then you may not be aware of the huge ice storm that struck St. Louis area the night before the open house event and knocked out power for about 500,000 people for a day or so, and by the weekend, there were still about 400,000 people without power. While I never lost power, I did lose sales. Needless to say, there were more important things on my customers' minds than buying French soaps, bun candles, or peppermint foot scrub soap. And I don't blame them. But we had our open house as planned and we did get a few brave souls who came out and I was happy to see them and had nice chats.

Speaking of visiting and chatting, during my open house, while chatting away with customers and friends (okay, actually they are all in the same), I saw a young man in my store, going over every inch of it and he looked familiar, but I couldn't place him. It turns out his name is Brandon, who came all the way from Iowa just for my open house! Brandon visited my store several months ago and he and his mother are planning on opening up a store, and he wanted to go to Elizabeth House for inspiration - how flattering is that? For now at least, Brandon plans on calling his store, "House Things." I look forward to visit yours store someday, Brandon.

Above are photos of my exterior. The photos really don't show the windows very well. But basically, my theme this year was very simple and very still. Peace. Peaceful. Quiet. Something I haven't had in quite a while - just to be still. While I am lucky to have a lot energy, a busy social life, and something always "cooking" in my head - I do have a side that most never see - especially me. And that is my quiet side. A chance to just "be." What exactly does that mean? Oh it can mean different things to different people, but for me, it simply means be in the here and now. Not thinking about or regretting the past, nor planning and working for the future, but just to really enjoy today, who I am today, what I am doing today, and the place I am. When I take those rare moments to really just "be," I find myself more content, more happy, and more peaceful. For me, the trick is to be able to "be" more often. And so my theme.

My theme is very basic encompassing simple paper. Paper leaves, paper "EH" everywhere, paper walls, and paper cones. I also added simple, pure snow. It is in my window, on my table and sprinkled here and there. The store is sort of like a snow globe that has been left to rest....For well over a year now, I have been a snow globe that has been shaken quite a bit - so much so that my snow globe looked like a friggin blizzared. Well, I am determined that this coming year, my snow globe is going to rest a bit. Let the snow settle and take more time to just "be."

Don't misunderstand me, my snow globe's blizzard was filled with excitement, hard work, joy, sadness, challenges, new dreams, broken dreams, travels, phone calls, visitors, laughter, crying....basically my "blizzard" was a very passionate life. Now that I am ready to watch the snow fall quietly to the ground for rest - by no means does that mean less passion. It simply means I am going to be very passionate about just "being."

Passionately calm surrounded by elegant things and warm hearts a great life it does make.

May your snow globe be as snowy, or as quiet as you wish in the coming year. Merry Christmas!

From my snow globe to your snow globe,
Elizabeth
www.elizabethhouse.us

P.S. I still can't figure out how to load in a lot of photos, so look at the table of contents and there are several postings after this one. They are all titled "EH Open House Photos." NOTE: You will need to hit the "back" button at the top of your screen. I am less than thrilled with this site and how its table of contents work. Then just click on the next posting in the table of contents that comes above this one and then work you way up the list to see it in order. Thanks for being patient. I have been trying to post this for over 5 days now. The internet wouldn't upload it, then the photos would disappear, then the text would be messed up. You name it. Anyway, glad to have gotten up finally!