First Friday in Georgetown

Like lots of towns and city districts, Downtown Georgetown has one night a month, here it is the first Friday, when stores put out food and drink to create a party atmosphere for customers. It started as a special night for art exhibit openings but has grown to include most stores. Its always fun and relaxed. Here at Annarella Home we love having the chance to talk to old friends and meet new ones over a glass of wine or a plate of nibbles. If you haven't strolled the downtown on a First Friday, come to this one. We'd love to see you

Our next artist's opening will be Laurel Daniel on September 5. Take a sneak peek at her latest landscapes on her blog.

Scattered Showers by Laurel Daniel

Don't forget we're into the final days of out SALE. It ends Saturday at 6pm. The response has been very good. It seems that everyone really appreciated being able to get the 20% off on custom orders.

Ellie

Good news in a slow housing market

One of Annarella Homes' design projects has just resulted in a quick sale for the homeowner. Pamela worked on this house from the slab up picking wonderful colors in flooring, walls, and countertops. Notice the appealing lights and fixtures. Then she completed the project by choosing the timeless, comfortable, family friendly furniture and accessories. Feast your eyes on these photos which show how good design can create a liveable house that will show well when the time comes to sell it.

More pictures

Feast your eyes on these artists. Click on their names to go to their websites to see more.

Young artist, Dan Zinno, lives and works in Georgetown. His abtracts are vivid and energetic. I love his surfaces which can't fully be appreciated in photos. The top picture shows his pieces hanging in Annarella Home during his February show. The second photo is titled "Apologies to the Next Generation." He names his pieces in a variety of ways, including sometimes using an overheard comment while working on them. I always love hearing what his titles mean.

Another Georgetown artist, Don Snell, works with a sense of humor. This oil titled, "Staying Home from School," is whimsical and deceptively simple. Snell shows his childlike side here but many of his pieces are biting satire. He loves to make the viewer squirm a little. And yet his figurative work can be multi-layered and haunting. After 60 years of painting his subjects and paintings remain fresh and topical.

Enjoy looking at these artists. Let me know what you think.

Ellie

Pictures, pictures and more pictures or Frustration part 2

Today I'm learning how to add images to this blog. I'm sure that with practice the process will become easy, but for now I'm a little frustrated.

This painting is from the artist who will exhibit in Annarella Home during September. Her name is Laurel Daniel. Her landscapes of Austin and the surrounding hill country are serene but brimming with the intense colors found here. (Yes, our skies are really this blue.) Annarella will be showing her from Sept. 5 through the 30th.

Most of you know that I have a love of art and feel strongly that Annarella must support artists. The sharing of life's experiences through images and words is what sets humans apart from animals. If we are not the creators of life's expressions than we must be the audience for the creations. One of our functions here at Annarella Home is to have a space where artist and audience come together. Visit the websites, listed on the side, of some very talented painters we show and admire.

Tyson Skross brings his European childhood to his complex images - not quite real or impressionistic but with acid colors and deep shadows; not quite gloomy but an underlying restless energy. His work is intelligent and emotionally controlled. I love the contrasts in color and in light.

Whoops, I don't kn ow what's up but for now I can't seem to upload any more images. I'll continue on tomorrow with more artists and their websites.

Oh, and a disclaimer, I and I alone are responsible for the terrible typos, creative spelling and gross grammatical mistakes. My apologies to all my smart readers.

Ellie

Fellow Bloggers

As promised today I'm creating a blog list. The ones I'm drawn to fall into 4 categories. The order is really not important but I have put them more or less as I discovered them. When my business coach, Jon Schallert, first talked about a blog as a business tool, I was clueless. Sure I'd heard the word but didn't know what it really meant. I figured it was solely for the young. But always interested in any tool that would help Annarella Home gain a larger audience, I started reading blogs.

Since Annarella Home specializes in interior decor, I used key words design and blog. Up pops poppytalk. Love at first read. Casual converstional style about design trends with a love of fine crafts thrown in. Through her blog roll I found a community interesting artists/craftsmen. I'll start adding some their blogs tomorrow. But back to those who spot and share product design, room design and clothes design. Some I check often are decor8, "fresh finds for hip spaces," ruby press, design for mankind "beauty lies in the details of design," and design sponge. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what's out there. For a complete listing of design and style blogs go to creature comforts. On the left side of her site you'll see the links for design sites. Cruising through all these sites is a great way to find out why so many of us are part of the blogging world.

Annual Summer Sale

As the dog days of summer settle in over Georgetown, Annarella Home gets ready for the Annual Storewide Summer Sale. Its time to clear out space for new arrivals. This is always fun. We love working with customers who are so happy to be getting great bargains. This year we're even including custom orders for furniture and window treatments. There is nothing off limits except some of the art on the walls. Sale starts tomorrow, Friday July 25 and runs through Saturday, August 2. Can't wait to see everyone!

Why Blob or (subtitle) Frustration

So I'm trying to blog. Why? Well, I started several months ago exploring the blogging world. There are some excellent bloggers out there. I am in awe of them. The one that really hooked me in was poppytalk. Out of Canada and posting multiple times in a day about interesting new products, artist interviews, and hosting a monthly marketplace for crafters, this is always a fun blog to visit. She stays current and works hard to let her audience know the latest in design and craft. There are a whole host of blogs out there with a similar theme as poppytalk, but she seems to be consistently the best. When I create my blog list which is next on my to-do list, I'll add the rest of the design blogs that I like.

Then I found the blog of a children's author right here in nearby Austin, Liz Garton Scanlon. Her blog talks about her writing process and her family. I love the mix of personal insights, joys and frustrations. This is a great example of the type of blogs that are a personal sharing that touch on the universals of family, creativity and womanhood. There are a ton of this type out there, so when I create my list I'll share some of my favorites.

My frustration comes from reading these wonderful blogs and then having my moments of doubt whether I have anything worthwhile to add to the increasingly crowded world of blogs. But for now I'll turn off my inner voice and flow. If someone listens, great. I am entering the on ramp of the information highway.

The story of Annarella

This is a story of a dream. After many years as a corporate wife (complete with pearls and pumps), the harried but happy mother of three and a homemaker in many different locales , I retired to my dream - a retail boutigue. I knew I could never live my dream without a lot of help. And that's where Pamela, my son's wife, stepped in. She said let's go for it and we did. Her expertise in interiors, furniture and accessories melded with my love of art and fine crafts to create Annarella.


Now 8 years later this mother-in-law and daughter-in-law team is going strong running a design and gift store called Annarella Home http://www.annarellaonline.com in the small town of Georgetown, Texas. We love meeting and helping people. We have fun finding great items to create comfortable and stylish homes for all our central Texas clients. Distinctive style combined with practical function is our passion whether it is in art work, furniture, kitchenware or stationery. We buy what is well-made and timeless. Our philosophy is that our customers deserve fine goods in their lives, and we search tirelessly to find the unusual at a good price. It all makes for an eclectic mix of casual elegance and intelligent design.


This blog will be the continuing story of our dream. A little bit of our personal history, stories from our store, some design tips, product highlights, and dreams of our future. Come along with us as we explore and explain life in a small town as a small business owner with a big dream.


Ellie