I REGRETTABLY HAVE BEEN ABSENT FROM BLOGGING AND READING MY FAVE BLOGS FOR OVER 4 WEEKS NOW! OY....
I miss my blogging friends and blogging world, but I've been busy at work lately. And here is why: we just launched our new on-line store C U R I O.
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. OUR FULL-ON BROCHURE! Now to the fun stuff. PRODUCT & PARTY.
We had CURIO'S launch last Thursday. The site went live and we kicked it off with a GRAND party. Here's how it all went down.....
THE INVITES
So, I knew what I wanted. I wanted these invitations to be FABULOUS and unique. I knew I wanted them printed on acrylic. I knew I wanted them square. Thankfully for me, one of my very bestest friends has a company called Cards Direct. They were so kind in that they offered to underwrite the invitations. WOW. You have no idea. So we met and started planning.
We laid out everything on the floor. Initially I wanted a hot pink and orange palette. It just wasn't coming together. That is when I had a light bulb moment. I had 2 rolls of Fornasetti Malachite wallpaper from Colefax & Fowler. I brought it in. My friend Deanna said "NOW this looks like you. This is it." We used that as the liner for the envelopes and changed our colour scheme to green, black and gold. Gotta have some gold in there!
Not only does Cards Direct ROCK, but my dearest friends at The Trusler Group, the best realtors in Dallas and I'm not just saying that, TOTALLY ROCKS THE HOUSE. They were so kind in underwriting the valet parking.
THE VENUE
Speaking of friends, when I was trying to brainstorm where to have this launch party one of my friends suggested the Penthouse Suite at The Stoneleigh Hotel in Dallas. ANOTHER LIGHT BULB MOMENT. Yessssss, that is the place. Perfect.
I had been to The Stoneleigh Penthouse once before, about 3 years ago, right after they remodeled it. Here's the history.
The Stoneleigh was opened in 1923 and designed by architect F.J. Woerner in the Beaux Arts style. The penthouse used to be the permanent residence of the owner Colonel Harry Stewart.
It has many hidden rooms and secret passageways and was decorated by Dorothy Draper. A few years ago, the hotel underwent a major renovation and Draper's protégé Carleton Varney revamped it and left a lot of Draper's original furniture and decor.
This is the 'Music Room'. Isn't it divine? That floral sofa is the original sofa in original fabric from Dorothy Draper. We had a bar in the corner and a food bar that served up the yummiest brisket and chicken sausage sliders. You can have elegant surroundings, but you gotta have some down-home good food, right?
So my plan was easy. This suite is gorgeous on it's own, but this IS a launch party for a store, so I needed to set up vignettes all around with some product displayed.
This is the library in the Penthouse. That sofa was my choice spot late into the night, enjoying laughter and dancing with my friends. Across it is this fabulous mantel, where I propped up some of my asian wares:
In the same room, we set up two cocktail rounds and pulled some chairs around them. I purchased some off-the-bolt tiger fabric from a textile warehouse and had two toppers made for these. I brought two candlesticks from home and put paper shades on the tops for a lamp-like effect.
The main hallway in this Penthouse is probably one of my most favourite parts of the whole space.
We added cocktail rounds in front of each window, and like the library, I bought some off-the-bolt silk velvet to make toppers for them.
There are two wall consoles that are original to the space. They are gorgeous! I decided to place vignettes here with some of my pottery and art from the store. And you know how I'm a fan of decorating with fruit! Bowls of kumquats add splashes of colour.
I purchased the awesome Pottery Barn greek key runners on Ebay. The groups of antique Roman engravings are listed on our store here.
There is another hallway that is adjacent to the music room. I made a vignette on that table as well.
 |
| THIS 19TH C DRAWING CAN BE FOUND ON OUR SHOP HERE |
 |
| THIS ORIENTALIST CANDLESTICK CAN BE FOUND ON OUR SHOP HERE |
 |
| THIS GROUPING OF PIERCED BRASS VOTIVE HOLDERS CAN BE FOUND ON OUR SHOP HERE |
 |
| THIS BRASS SUNBURST CANDLE HOLDER CAN BE FOUND ON OUR SHOP HERE |
We're REALLY proud of our first line of Bath Products. Named CLEO, our line consists of a decadent Beeswax Body Butter, Brown Sugar Scrub, and Dead Sea Salt Soak. So of course we had to show it off and let people try it!
In the bathrooms we placed sample jars of our Body Butter. Next to it, we put some of the butter with a spoon in a FABULOUS Portieux Vellerysthal opaline glass. If you're a fan of Il Tuo Tesoro like I am then perhaps you recognize them? I bought my set there, from my favourite treasure seeker La Dolfina.
THE FLOWERS
I am partially crazy and decided to make all the floral arrangements myself. But, when it came time to do the flowers, I was very fortunate for two reasons. First, one of my friends allowed me to use her account at a wholesale floral warehouse so I was able to purchase all the flowers at cost. That is MAJOR SAVINGS, right? And secondly, my mom & dad "sponsored" the flowers. How sweet is that? So it was just up to me to pick them out and arrange them.
My friend took me to the floral warehouse. I had never been there. WOW. I started with a scouting trip, taking snapshots with my phone of what flowers I knew I wanted to work with.
 |
| Billy Buttons |
 |
| Monkey Tail |
TWO CAR TRIPS LATER, I was ready to arrange.
I decided for the dining room of the Penthouse, to use a planter that we have for sale on Shop Curio.
Without having to go into details, I had to work furiously and re-do this arrangement soon before the party started. Luckily I had my girlfriends up there to help me. They showed up and worked for hours helping us set up. And of course my assistant Lisa worked day and night helping with EVERYTHING. I'm a lucky girl to have such wonderful people in my life!
I put some large sea-fan coral inside the arrangement. We will be selling lots of sea-fan coral this summer.
There were two niches in the gorgeous dining room that just begged to showcase blooming branches. I used two of my own Chinese porcelain vases.
My friend Pirette was great in helping with the flowers. She's a natural! She made these arrangements in the vases on the dining table look gorgeous. Below, I put some sterling silver candlesticks with natural sea-shells attached among votives. These nautical inspired candlesticks will be available this summer on our shop.
Speaking of Seashells, In the main entry to the space I used an orchid arrangement that I had made the month before for another event. It was still alive. What luck! Usually I don't keep plants alive that long.
Inside the giant clamshell, I arranged the two potted orchids with some more sea-fan coral, barnacles, and lots of quartz crystal specimens.
 |
| NEXT TO THE CLAMSHELL I PLACED TWO OF OUR CHINESE TERRACOTTA SOLDIERS THAT WILL BE AVAILABLE ON SHOP CURIO THIS SUMMER. |
I used another sea-fan coral in the arrangement I made for one of the bathrooms.
We placed the coral on the back of the vase and secured it with a silk ribbon.
I knew in the hallways of the Penthouse I wanted to use bright colours, with special attention to fuschia and tangerine tones.
We had some left over orchids and hydrangeas, so my friend Pirette put them together and made this vignette on a whim. Love it!
In the library, I wanted to use only yellow.
Forsythia branches and Ranunculus were beautiful on it's own. And they don't need any arranging! They do it on their own.
There is a garden room and I thought it needed tropical arrangements.
I made these compact pieces with my favourite monkey tail in each one for the outside tables. But it was too windy outside so they made the garden room even more colourful.
 |
| My son used some of the broken flowers and surprised me with a bouquet. |
We started off the Party with a Guest Book ON STEROIDS. Ha!
I found this large book that was made of hand-made watercolour paper at Jo-Ann's craft store. It had a brown faux-leather cover. I purchased some gorgeous hand-marbled paper swirling with black, white and gold. Lisa has worked for a book binder before so she knew how to cover it with this paper. I think it turned out incredible.
I had some vintage grosgrain ribbon that we used to make a page-marker, shown above and below. I rummaged through my box of findings and costume jewelry and used these three to make a charm for the book-mark. One is a faux-slag glass fob, one is a gold-tone coin, and one is a quartz crystal nugget. I had a gold vermeil clasp that I used to be the fastener.
But here's the kicker. I asked that everyone take 60 seconds to DRAW themselves, not just sign their name. I LOVE the results!!!
WHO KNEW SO MANY PEOPLE I KNOW ARE SOOOO ARTISTIC! AREN'T THESE GREAT? The next day at our home our electricity was out, and I had so much fun curling up in my chair and going through this book.
The dress on the invite said CURIOUSLY CHIC. My guests lived up to that dress code. I love my chic friends and colleagues!
 |
| My fabulously stylish assistant Lisa in a chic vintage dress! |
 |
| WE HAD A WONDERFUL CLASSICAL GUITARIST PLAYING ON THE DECK. |
 |
| THE PARTY KEPT GOING INTO THE NIGHT! |
MOST IMPORTANT: THE SITE
What a long trip it took to get me to the right website designer. I won't even go into the nightmare I had with the first one I hired last year, but needless to say he never designed the site for me. Took my money and disappeared. So you can imagine my relief when I found the website design firm of my dreams. Angels sang! PUGH & COMPANY is the best. First they helped me re-do my CASHON & CO. INTERIORS, LTD site. They listened to my ideas and delivered all the way around. Then when it came time to do CURIO, they went over and beyond.
Keeping the theme of our store's name, we decided it would be cool to have the site look like a room with a real curio 'cabinet' in it.
I sent Ken Pugh some images of curio cabinets and wunderkammers that I liked:
Then I sent him pictures that I found inspiring, regardless of content. Pictures of images that just 'spoke to me'.
I had only a few requests: I MUST have some malachite, some tiger/leopard print, and some gallery-style artwork. So Ken sketched up a design and we talked about it:
So then he hired the BEST illustrator Mark Ross. And less than 48 hours later, an idea on paper went to this on the computer:
ISN'T IT FANTABULOUS!??
Now, to make it work. Ken has a programmer that is brilliant. Kash worked night and day, even on his big birthday, to make the nuts & bolts of Shop Curio work perfectly. He came over to teach me how to do everything I need to do to keep it running and updated. He still takes my calls. Ha. And for all you techies, Ken and Kash made this site a flash-type website but made it non-flash so it will run on iPhones and iPads. BADDA-BING!
SO, WHAT COOL THINGS DOES CURIO HAVE?
 |
| Antique painting in original frame with sketch on reverse |
 |
| Early 1900's Painting of Mother & Child |
 |
| Large Marble Carved Foot |
 |
| 19th c. Asian doll with human hair |
 |
| Set of 6 Jabara Madeira vintage cocktail napkins |
 |
| Vintage silk Bergdorf Goodman purse |
 |
| Lot of World War Papers |
 |
| Large Sunburst Mirror |
 |
| Turbo Shell with Gold Metal 'Hermit Crab' |
 |
| Crocheted Lion Baby Booties |
 |
| Set of 6 Natural Shell Napkin Rings |
 |
| Brass Cuff Bracelet with Natural Agate Stone |
 |
| Pair of Vintage Sterling Silver Salt Cellars |
 |
| Vintage Metal Frame with Original Bird Print |
 |
| Antique Continental Brass & Porcelain Compote |
 |
| Gold Shark Tooth Necklace |
 |
| Set of 3 Pin Cushion Sea Urchins |
 |
| Large Bone Bracelet with Red Coral Specimens Set in Sterling Silver |
 |
| Golden Pyrite Specimen |
 |
| This item has sold |
 |
| Malachite Earrings |
 |
| Decorative Lynx Pillow |
 |
| Small Butterfly-Wing Dish |
 |
| Perfect Italian Porcelain Sheep |
 |
| Tiny Egyptian Revival Jasperware Jug and Plate |
 |
| 'Light Bulb' Salt & Pepper Shakers |
 |
| Antique London Westminster Souvenir Spoon |
 |
| Vintage Suzani Hand-Embroidered Textile |
 |
| Pair of Suzani Embroidered Pillows on Raw Silk |
 |
| Antique Koret Trésor Jeweled Purse |
 |
| Notecards |
 |
| Notecards |
 |
| CLEO BODY PRODUCTS |
 |
| Works by Artist Lisa K. Renz |
 |
| 'BURST' Watercolour monoprint, collage, pen on paper, 2010 |
 |
| 'STRAND' Mixed Media on Paper, 2010 |
WE WILL ADD LOTS OF NEW ITEMS WEEKLY, PLEASE VISIT OUR NEW ARRIVALS OR SIGN UP TO BE ON OUR EMAIL LIST.
Thanks to all my employees, friends, colleagues, and supporters. Special thanks goes to my family. You didn't complain when I served microwave pancakes for dinner on more than one occasion during this process. I am one lucky girl.
OFF TO GO REST NOW. CIAO!
