Ahhhhhhhhhhh, Sawmill Festival :)

I love Sawmill Festival Weekend. Why? Because I never have time to set foot on the square! It's always a super busy weekend for us and we also celebrate our anniversary during Sawmill weekend. We try to have plenty of new offerings in during this weekend and a two loads of furniture and home decor were due to arrive last week. Everything except one load of the furniture made it in time for the busy weekend, and it's a good thing it did because thanks to you, our customers, things really were flying out the door!

Check out the web page -- the furniture, home decor, and lighting pages have all been updated with new pieces that have arrived. Also check out the Sale page because our 4th Annivesary Sale Tags will stay up until the end of the month on any remaining items.

Congratulations to our doorprize winners -- Haley N. of Bruce for the $40 gift certificate, Debria P. of Calhoun City won the large clock, Jennifer R. of Bruce won the ceramic vase, and Ann H. of Springfield, IL (see why we love the Sawmill Festival -- you never know who will walk in!!) won the sugar mold.

THANKS everyone for keeping us hopping this weekend -- we're replenishing in order to be ready for your next onslaught! :)

Before & After

I am so glad I took time to photograph this curio before and after its transformation. It is now at home in the new condo of a customer and blends perfectly with her Hollywood Glam taste in decorating. She loved the look of it originally, but said the brown/gold tones would not work with the black/white/silver look in her living room.

Soooooo... I suggested I could paint over the gold swirly designs with silver and have a round mirror cut for the top (which is a removable tray) and for inside the cabinet. I also knew she had been lusting after some mirrored furniture from earlier conversations!

Here are the before/after shots and I'm waiting on one of it in her condo which I will add to the customer photos page of the website soon.





I put the crystal on it to show you how beautifully reflective the piece is now. I can't wait to see how the homeowner uses it with the graphic black and white chairs she purchased for her living room.

Note: I shared this "before and after" for this cute curio in my July Newsletter last week, but thought I'd add this story to the blog in case you don't subscribe (You can do that and make sure you get future newsletters containing decorating tips, bridal and gift registry information, and monthly recipes by going to this link: Artifacts Newsletter)

Whew!

I feel like I'm so behind I've almost caught up with myself. :) I still haven't gotten out a June Newsletter but I'll try to do better next month & I owe all my faithful newsletter readers 2 recipes to make up for skipping.

BUT, I do have three events this weekend to remind you about:

• Housewarming for Autumn, Jaret & Greysen Prestage will be Sunday, June 28. You can see their selections here: Prestage Housewarming
  
• Bridal Shower for Tammye Cook, Bride-elect of Mark Hill will be June 27 at Parker Baptist Church. You can see their selections here: Smith-Hill
  
• Emily Regis will marry David Chambers this Saturday, June 27. Emily registeredfor a few items with us at the request of her local friends. You can see them here: Regis-Chambers
  

A large load of home decor has just arrived. Planters, candlesticks, wall pockets, metal wall decor, "barn stars" and much more. You can see some photos on the Home Decor page of the website. Also don't miss a new photo on the Customer Photos page!

Coming Soon: I want to share a blog post with you about the conversion of a table we recently accomplished for a customer! It was so much fun and I have before and after photos of the table in the store and she has promised to send me a photo of it in her home as well!

New furniture in this week!

We received two load of new furniture pieces and lamps last Thursday & Friday. Several of them (a sink, and two jewelry armoires) have already sold, but we still have lots of pretties for you to see like the chair and table with crocodile top. Go check it out on the Furniture and Lighting page on the website and check them out.

Also, don't forget the Shower for Dr. Jonathan Collins and his bride-elect Nicole Epema. Jonathan stopped by Artifacts on his way to Missouri and bought some furniture from us and we are delighted that he & his fiance have used the website to make some of their selections for the shower this Saturday, June 20 in the home of Mrs. Cheryl Hendrix.

You can see the Epema-Collins selections and several others on the Gift Registry page.

Shower Reminder - Anna Stepp & Devin Cooper

Shower for Anna Stepp, Bride-Elect of Devin Cooper will be this Sunday in the home of Mrs. Lori Longest of Bruce. You can see Anna & Devin's selections HERE.

Cha-cha-cha-CHANGES!

Mike says I don't move furniture around at home as much any more because I get my fix doing it at the store. Maybe that's true because I do get to rearrange things when pieces are sold or put on layaway and we need to "fill up the holes"!

Nearly every time I rearrange the mantle area in the front room I think the current arrangement looks just perfect -- far better than the one I had there before. I guess I also scoot the old arrangement out of my memory bank because people will say, "You know that piece you had under the mantle a few weeks ago??" And my mind will just be blank and all I can imagine being there is the one that's there now!

That said, here is the latest under-the-mantle piece -- which is just perfect, don't you think? :)

Traditional, Transitional, and Contemporary!

These tall floor candlestands just arrived and I love their clean, crisp lines mixed with the curve at the bottom. This is a perfect example of a "transitional" piece or transitional style. If you have more traditional furniture and accents in your home, look at them and you will see that most of them have curves, swirls, loops, a certain softness about them.

If you have more contemprorary furnishings and accessories they will have clean, straight lines, more geometric patterns and shapes instead of those from nature.

These candle stands artfully combine both styles and would work with either style decor. If I think about it this afternoon, I will photograph them with a contemporary piece and a traditional piece to better illustrate what I mean!

Okay... here they are with the contemporary pieces:

And with both:

And with traditional: