Shop 'Till You Drop

Here I am again! We are getting geared up here at The Summer Kitchen for our last BIG Open House of the year! Shop 'Til You Drop will be here shortly! We have new things in and we will have last dibbs on our Christmas Clearance table. You will also receive a coupon this weekend for 25% off one regular priced item starting December 5th - December 31st. Not only will there be wonderful refreshments, but many of you will also have a chance to win a Christmas plate!

Shop 'Til You Drop
Friday, December 1st 10am - 8pm
Saturday, December 2nd 10am - 5pm
Sunday, December 3rd 1pm - 5pm




I'd like to talk about some of our things in the store. The clocks we chose for you this year are out of this world! I love them because they are so different than ones you see around this area. They all have something special about them. I really like the colors of this one in the picture. Be sure to check them out and let someone know about them - or surprise someone with an unusual gift!

Our pottery is pretty neat this year. New is the Christmas carol pottery. I think this is such a clever idea.
They made pottery specifically for Christmas carols. Of course, there is Hark The Harold Angel's Sing, but they have Jingle Bells, We Three Kings, and much more! I think that is such a fun conversation piece, but also a really unique gift - especially if you know that a person loves that song!



Karrie and I are really excited about our CD collection that we have acquired. The Summer Kitchen is known for the music we hand pick for the store, so we thought we'd bring it into the store so you could purchase it and take that wonderful sound with you! We love the everyday music: Happy Hour With the Rat Pack, The Diva's of Jazz, and The Men of Jazz. We then have three Christmas CD's to put you in the mood. These are so neat and we love the tins that they come in. If not for you, they would make a great stocking stuffer! Who wouldn't want to entertain and have this music on - decorate the tree singing to Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, and Ella Fitzgerald? That was the day! Bring some nostalgia into your, or someone else's Christmas this year!

Last of all, I want to take a little time to talk about our Christmas Tea. The Christmas Tea will be Sunday, December 10th, from 2pm-4pm. There is a $15 donation for the ticket for the Tea. This donation will go to the Liberty Center in Fremont, Ohio. For those of our out-of-town guests, the Liberty Center is Sandusky County's area for the homeless. We'd sure like to help all of those folks out at this time of the year! The Christmas Tea will be held in the store, and we will have plenty of food - so save your appetite. You will be able to taste 5 teas, if you'd like. A reminder, that the store will not be open to the public, so this will be your own private tea party, and shopping time. If you do purchase something during the Christmas Tea, we will be donating 15% of your purchase to The Liberty Center as well. This Tea is a nice time to share with your Mother, Sister and Friends. Karrie and I would love to serve you. If this is something that you would like to do, please give us a call at 419-638-4205, or email us at summerkitcheninteriors@sbcglobal.net, and we will reserve your spot!

Hope decorations are going up smoothly for you all at home! I've got a good start - we did get two trees this year instead of one- but, we'll fill them both up, I'm sure! The kids named them "Bob" and "George". The girl that was helping us out told us that this was the first time she saw a family name their tree.....obviously she hadn't met our family before! We almost had to get "James", my youngest insisted. So, when we left James there, I told the other two kids, that "Bob" must be called "James" in front of their little brother. Terrible Mother? Maybe, but it worked, and we didn't have a scene because we left "James". I will get some pictures to you of all of our trees, maybe we'll have a contest- which tree is Mom's, Karrie's and Karla's? (Let's plan on that!)

Oh - and by the way, everyone has been telling us how they love this blog, and how they love to read it, and I tell them, blog us back.....many of you guys don't know how. See the little "comment" button below here - click on that and you can respond that way. You don't need a blog to do it - go ahead and try it sometime!

Hey guys, looking forward to seeing you all soon!

The Decorating Process

Thanksgiving is over, hope you are all not too stuffed! We had a really nice time this year visiting with families and, of course, eating lots of really good food! Now that Thanksgiving is over, I'm starting to see peeks of Christmas lights around the neighborhood. I don't think there is as much up now as there was last year at this time. The weather has been super - so it surprises me! I think that my family will go get our tree after church today. The kids are getting anxious! But that will happen! People always come into the store and ask if Karrie and I have gotten our decorations up yet, and "OH you must have your house decorated so beautiful!" Well, I'll let you on a little secret: most times our houses don't get completely decorated until two weeks, if we are lucky, before Christmas!
For example, say there is some new items in the store that either Karrie or I want very badly to take home....we wait until after the "Sister Sale" to buy it. We usually give you guys all the chance in the world to grab it before we do! So, I could wait for weeks not finishing a display in my own home,because I'm waiting for a piece from the store, that may or may not be there! This is really bad, when we are really counting on something that is an everyday item. We ordered pictures for ourselves, and put them out on the floor. Well, Karrie had these two picked out specifically to put in her dining room, and guess what - they sold. Yes, we can get more in, however, this company takes 5 weeks to get things from. Although I was in big trouble for selling them (not really) I promised Karrie to order two more! I guess that's the fun of this business. We order things that we love, that we have in mind for somewhere in our home, or that we love, but have no place to put in our home. I guess that is how we get our mix of things in the store. Karrie has a great love of country things, Mom loves Victorian things, and is now going thru a Williamsburg look, and I am a little bit of everything ~ oh-so eclectic! I love nothing more that going to "junk stores" as my son calls them, to find some treasure that will put some quirk into the decor. I tell everyone that decorating your house is not a science, it is a feeling that you would like to create. I tell my girls in my classes, that "no rules can be broken" so do what you like! Some people think that their house has to look like so-n-so's down the road, but I insist that you decorate it around you, your family and your things! A lot of times I will go over to someone's home, and they will apologize about something or other. Hey, we all have periods of dust (going thru that all the time at my house lately), construction and banged up furniture. It's a process. You can't, and shouldn't decorate your whole home within a matter of months, you have to live with the space, and it will come.
The decorating process evolves, over time. Yes, you can have the "bones" of the room together, but for heavens sake (I say this all the time) do not buy something, just to fill a hole because the hole is bugging you! If you do, I will bet you big bucks, you will, down the road, find the most wonderful thing that would have been perfect, but, you've got second best hanging on the wall, or sitting on the floor. I hear it all of the time, and have experienced it too many times myself! I've learned, and hope you take this advice to heart!
Well, I'm going to end this blog today, because tonight I'll have to write to you about Shop 'Till You Drop, what I really intended to tell you about, but, we needed to talk about this first, I guess! Hey ladies, keep decorating, and keep looking for the perfect piece - it IS a treasure hunt indeed!

A Time to Thank...

Hello everyone! Karrie and I are wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. We both want to take a little time to thank all of you for all of your support, and your wonderful friendships! We are amazed, so often, how a little shop in Helena, Ohio can draw such a customer radius, and we are very humbled by that - Thank you ALL!
We hope that you all have many blessings fall upon you and your family during this time of thanks!

Well, the snow is back! Last Thursday afternoon we got a whole bunch in - so, after the Turkey has been put away (or packaged into smaller containers for everyone to take home), get out those decorations and see where you might be able to put it. This snow is so much fun - if you haven't seen it yet, you need to just get out here to check it out!
We also had 14 boxes of every day items come in last week. New lamps, new wall grills and a new mirror that made it on the floor for 3 hours before someone snatched it up! From this point on, we will be getting more of our everyday things in - just in time for Christmas gift-giving.
This brings me to our "Men Buying Gifts" program we have here at the Summer Kitchen. Ladies, we all know that there are things that we want for Christmas. We also know that men usually have no clue what we really would like. This is our second year of this program, and this is what you do: Come into the store and fill out a gift registry. Give us the addresses for those you'd like us to send a "BIG HINT" sheet to. We send this off, and those who would like to get you something are very happy to know what it is that is your hearts desire! Let us know, and we'll act as Santa's little helpers - helping you get what you'd like under the tree!




I'm adding some more pictures for you all to gaze upon. There's lots of gift ideas out there. I have a lot of our Maggie B purse line to show you, these have been trickling in here and there. I'm sure you can think of someone, besides yourself, that might need one, or two.....


















A reminder that The Ghosts of Christmas Past Sale is going on now thru December 3rd. There are lots of things on sale from Christmas' long ago, and recently at The Summer Kitchen (I found a box up in the attic from several years back that had been forgotten about!). Lot's of gift items, ornaments, and some non-holiday items as well. These things are great for Teacher's gifts, and gift exchanges between family and friends. At 40-80% off things won't be here long!


Before I go, I thought I'd share another tradition of our family with you. Last year Mom got a big quilt to put on her table for Thanksgiving. Any kind of quilt will do, hers, I think has fall colors in it. Anyhow, before we all ate last Thanksgiving, we had to write on the quilt with permanent marker what we were thankful for that year. This year we will do the same. The "Thankful Quilt" can then be passed on and shared. Isn't that beautiful? This year we will have one less at the table, but her memory will live on, because Grandma was there last year, and we are so blessed by her life and the memories of her. I know Mom will treasure the quilt, not only for the little note of thankfulness that Grandma left, but of all the memories we have all made, last Thanksgiving, this Thanksgiving, and many more Thanksgiving's to come!
Thanks again ladies! Remember to take the time to enjoy your families tomorrow and especially thank God for all the wonderful things he gives us each day!

Ho Ho Holy Cow!

Ok ladies, I know it's Friday night and all, but we DO have two more days of Open House!! For those of you who came this morning and bought the packs of "instant" snow - it's gone. At two o'clock I called our rep and said "send out more ASAP, please!" So, if you need more, it will be here Wednesday or Thursday! Our bicycling snowmen are gone, and we've been hit hard in the crystal ornament area! Not to worry, if you haven't made it out, we still have plenty of things, with lots more surprises on their way!
I want to say a big hello to our lovely customers from the Dayton area! (They were one of the first to purchase the snow) I was telling Kathy and Joan how my husband (who is really a dear!) takes care of entering addresses and printing off labels for us. He couldn't understand why we would send mailings out to people so far out of town.........well, I explained that we do have customers, that love us so much they come up occasionally and see us! So, they got to stay on the list - yippee!! We love all of our customers, and are so happy when you come visit!
Another exciting visitor to the store was my best buddy Mikki's father, Jim. Well, I don't know what other store's customer's come pulling up in, but Jim came in style........in his school bus! After his last stop, he saw that we had an open house and paid us a BIG visit! Thanks for the visit "Dad"! Tell the Grandkids you made it online! I snapped a picture of him for you all!
What fun - how often does a school bus pull into your driveway?? After he left, I had a customer come up and tell me that she pulled in because, she figured, this place was so awesome, they brought people out by the busload! Mom suggested that we put "Buses Welcome" out on the sign next week..........we just might do that! Speaking of Mother....this year she topped it off. The cookie count is 14. FOURTEEN different types of cookies, BESIDES the Cookie Lady Cookies. How about that! I took a picture for you all.
(Hey Krystal in Pennsylvania - this picture is for you! Krystal is a college student that visited ALL of our Open Houses when she was younger........and she tried ALL of the cookies, but that was when Mom only made like 5 or 6 kinds!)



Well, ladies, I've got to go get some rest, we've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow!
See ya!

It's Begining to Look Like Christmas

Good morning Ladies! The title is true, and we are looking presentable - finally!(after a couple of weeks of moving displays, changing the seasons and all!) We have an actual pathway for you to walk thru this week! I should have taken pictures of the process~ YIKES! It was truly scary! Well, I've snapped pictures for you all to get a sneak peak at what you'll see. I'm happy to say, we've got "something going on" here! The past few weeks I've shopped around, and we've got Christmas items and home decor you won't find just anywhere - I guess all that hard work payed off! There are some lovely things you'll find at the open house this weekend. For those of you who are not on the mailing list:

Christmas Open House
Friday, Novemember 10th 10am-8pm
Saturday, November 11th 10am-5pm
Sunday, November 12th 1pm-5pm


Karrie and I are looking forward to seeing you all and can't wait to show you all there is to see! As you can see in some of the pictures, our clocks came in - oh they are lovely! The ornaments are so unique this year - from the rustic chocolate molds to the flocked snowflakes, they will make a neat addition to the tree!
I don't know if any of you get ornaments every year, but we have a neat tradition in our family where, as kids, we got one new ornament a year. This was so cool, because, when we left home and had a tree with our own family, we had cherished ornaments, not some meaningless ornaments that looked nice, and cost a mint because you had to fill a whole tree! What was really cool is that my husband's family had the same tradition. Now, I'm getting to the point here - bear with me, I have a plethora of ornaments, and I have started this tradition with our children.....here's the problem - I can't just buy three ornaments this year - I can't decide. .
I think I need another tree in the house to put these ornaments on! Well, I don't know if I'll go that far....but then again...! Well, this is a fun thing, and if it isn't something you do in your family, it might be a nice little tradition to start
Well, I'm going to let you guys check out all of the pictures, there is more to look at - but I can't show you all of our suprises, can I???? Hope to see all of you at the open house! Take care now!