CuriousSofa.com Blog: CHRISTMAS 2020

'Tis the Season!!

Well despite the uncertainty that 2020 has thrown at us, it looks like Christmas is still going to happen. At least it has for Curious Sofa at Glenwood Antique Mall (and online).

It was challenging to decide if, when and what to showcase for the coming holiday season but as always my first go-to idea started with a specific color palette. This year, because of the sweet little wool spun trees I found, my color scheme became pink and gold.

I am not much of a "sweet, feminine, or shabby chic" kind of retailer; in fact I purposely avoid pink to not present my store as overly cute but this year, I was ready for the challenge- in fact, I really enjoyed curating this look for all of you and to my surprise- you have loved it! Who knew there were so many pink lovers out there?!!

At Glenwood Antique Mall, we had one dealer work night to get things ready for our Christmas Open House. I had been collecting and ordering items for Christmas over the last few months and stock piling it all in my workroom. As I was about to smother myself, I was glad to get all that merchandise out on the showroom floor. But silly me, I thought I could do it on one night.

My good friend and fellow dealer Shon always comes to my rescue for some manly help as he loves to decorate and create a display (and being 6' 4" he helps a lot!).

His job was to tackle the high corners of my space with the white tree and polar bears. After my determination that the white tree would fit up there, he climbs a ladder, hoists the tree into the sky, and being too tall for that area knocks a few ceiling tiles down that come crashing onto his face. As I apologize and hang my head in embarrassment he is cut and bleeding from my insistance (oh the stuff we go through). I sawed off a few inches of the metal base and voila, his second attempt was successful.

• The polar bears came from my personal stash and sold before I even promoted them.

• Wrapped packages from an idea I did years before at the Prairie Village Store.

• The portrait of the Society Maiden came from an outdoor flea market last October. I had to have it because of the pink dress!

• Dark brass candlesticks and red books (because pink covered books were hard to find) had been collected over the last few months.

• The St Francis (Saint of the animals) statue was bought with rebar exposed on the bottom. I had my manly friend saw it off and then I made a concrete base for it so it would stand up straight. It weighed about 500 lbs after that!

• The white oval table was a curbside pickup that was hideous! I repaired and painted and painted it then sealed it with a wood varnish. Guess what? The wood varnish peeled all the paint up like stripper!!! I had to do everything all over again as the clock was ticking and I had to get it out to make that statue the centerpiece of the booth. With some padding underneath Shon and I hauled it on top. A week later, after it sold, I took everything apart to replace with the Madonna and the new polyurethane underneath had yellowed where everything had been sitting- because I am sure it was not 100% dry. Joy, joy. Now I will have to repaint AGAIN! Ugh.

• The amazing white deer is a new market item covered with white embroidered Kantha fabric made in India. A stunner and yes, expensive. I decided to go for it as having one eye catching item is something I cannot avoid for well needed drama.... and they went so well with St. Francis.

• I started collecting pink and ivory fur vests for my mannequins.

• The mod sequined dress was another one of those touches of the unexpected but festive things I like to add. The vintage barkloth curtains had to be added for the pink of course.

• The giant Liberty head was just a strange find that I had to have. It sat in my workroom for months and every time I looked at it, I did not know how I was going to display it. Because it was hollow I filled it with 3 cans of expandable spray foam to hopefully enable me to make a base for it but it didn't do a thing. Again the clock was ticking and Shon and I kept talking about how to display it. I said, "You know what I need is a big packing crate with wood excelsior, just like it came off the boat from France". We agreed. So you know what that means? I was scouring Craig's List and Marketplace until the wee hours of the morning for crates.... nothing. I concluded I was going to have to build one from apple crates or an old packing crate (just what I wanted to do). Then I saw this trunk.... and the clouds opened! Not only did I love it, but it was the perfect size! But it wasn't going to be that easy. I waited, and waited and waited for the dealer to message me. Then of course she was 45 minutes out of town and meeting her immediately did not make her the happiest, but she did. Then a stop at Hobby Lobby for the excelsior (are you keeping track of the money I am spending just to display one piece?!!! Sadly, this is not uncommon for me). It sold before we had our Open House. She was a good one.

• Confession. I have a Starbucks addiction. I have to drive thru every day for my latte. I consider this my social life, sad I know, but I take what I can get. Depending on what errands I have to run, there are 3 different locations I visit near the shop. For months, as I drove thru one of them, they had these AMAZING hydrangeas along the drive thru. This summer they were glorious and colorful and I was tempted every time to tear off a few but I refrained (because there were always cars behind me!). Then when they started to turn brown this fall I was obsessed. What was going to happen to these? Were they just going to drop to the ground and no one was going to enjoy them?!!! So I had a plan especially after I prepped this trunk with all the golden touches. I am usually home by 8:00 most nights and this Starbucks closes at 9. I would have to come back after closing but I knew I wasn't ever in the area around that time, but as I was driving home from dealer work night at 9:15 I remembered and whipped the car around and drove thru, stopped the car and with clippers in hand (that I had tossed in the van just in case) I did some pruning. In fact, I did a lot of pruning and you know what- you couldn't even tell any were missing they had so many! Now of course they are shedding all over my booth, but they add just the right touch inside the French Horn I have for sale.