Monday, July 18, 2011

Loot's Grand Opening


We had a fun-filled weekend at our grand opening of Loot!  Nancy and I had been putting in long hours trying to finish projects and getting the shop ready for opening.  We could not believe it was finally time!  Here we are in front of Loot before the opening party on Friday.  Nancy had these cute, matching, black & white ticking stripe aprons.  They came in handy for holding our calculators, receipt books and cash.


We had a wonderful time at the party and had a great turnout.


We had food, music and fun!


My awesome neighbors came and brought these sunflowers that they grew themselves.  Aren't the colors amazing!?


Now, I want to give you a tour of our little flea market boutique.  As you can see, it is a small quonset hut and has so much character.  We had tons of people stop in for our opening weekend just to check out the inside of the hut!


Here is Teddy, Nancy's standard poodle to welcome us at the door.


We set up the front room as our showroom and it became our "dining room".  We put the farm table, buffets, chairs and chandelier in and then accessorized.



The back room was our work/storage space until a few days before our opening.  This is what it looked like before.


We turned it into this in a couple of days!  I hung two drop cloths over the framed wall and Mr. Rubbish draped lights across the ceiling.  Then, we moved in the furniture and lamps and that became our "bedroom" area.  




We still had the far end of the hut to deal with, but Nancy worked her magic again!  This is what the back of the shop looked like before.



...and after!


This area became our "kitchen".  Nancy is even selling her old fashioned oven at Loot.  Isn't her vintage oven cool?


The landlord stopped by and brought us baskets full of freshly cut lavender from her garden.  I love lavender and it filled the shop with its captivating scent.  We bundled them with twine and put them out for sale.  Who can resist fresh bundles of lavender?


Let's step out to the garden!


We were fortunate to have a very talented gardener, Jackie, come all the way from her nursery in Gilroy and sell her plants in the back of the shop.  She helped us set up our garden area and her "pop-up garden", as she calls it, made the space absolutely gorgeous!



Nancy's daughter, Janiece, was so much help getting everything set up for our sale.  We had a lot of fun and on Saturday Janiece barbecued hot dogs and sausages for us and our customers.  Isn't she the most glamorous barbecuer you have ever seen?


On Sunday, we had two talented sisters, Colleen and Jackie, set up booths in the back.  They brought stunning vintage items and jewelry and set up delightful vignettes.

I am now resting for a couple of days before I get back to work and start getting ready for next month!


14 comments:

{northern cottage} said...

congrats on your fabulous opening! I wish I were local so I could come buy everything! Your staging and displays turned out fantastic! well done!

Jenn said...

Congrats Amanda!! What a cute shop, I love the outside of it! Cant wait to see more pictures and your progress!! So happy for you! We have so many talented people in our family! Love ya!

Monica said...

Wow, Amanda, CONGRATULATIONS! Am so proud of you because you are an amazingly creative person... I do hope you do very well and loot grows and grows...

I love those lavender flowers. And those goodies look so wonderful. Glad that it was a good turn out.

xxx Monica

Drobiazgi domowe said...

Beautiful sunflowers and very, very nice photos!!

Greetings from Poland and congratulations :)

Ada

Tania said...

wow- I love everything about it- wish I could drop in!

Ruffles n Raspberries said...

Congratulations! I LOVE every step of your new shop!!
Sherri

Emily said...

Great job, Sister! I love it! I wish I could have been there for the opening. Maybe next month?

Jenni said...

Amanda, I am so happy for you! Congratulations on your beautiful new shop! I LOVE the way you have everything set up, and the name "Loot", too! It is just the kind of shop I love to haunt, too, so I am just sad I can't see it for myself! But truly, I am so proud of you! Way to go! :)

I hope you get some well deserved rest and relaxation in your days off! :)

Blessings,
Jenni

Leena Milligan Lanteigne said...

LOVE Loot! Congrats on a great grand opening! Everything looked wonderful! Enjoy yourselves!!~Leena~

Sherman Homes Construction said...

Love it, love it, love it. Wish I could have been there. :-)

Leena Milligan Lanteigne said...

Hi Amanda! For some reason, I haven't been able to respond to your nice comment via my blog. It keeps having me sign in, sign out, sign in, sign out, but never posts the comment. Anyway, I wanted to send it to you:

Thank you so so much Amanda! Your kind words mean a lot to me and I thank you for reading and commenting on my blog! I was just over at yours a few seconds ago - small world! LOL Take care and thank you again~Leena~

rachel said...

Hi Amanda! Just found your blog via the Primitive and Proper linky party! So glad I did! I'm loving your blog and Loot is so cute. You ladies did such an awesome job and what a charming space you found. I'll be following ;)

Rachel
xoxo

Sweet Bee Cottage said...

I am very late to your Grand Opening! I am so thrilled for you! It is all very charming and I know this is exactly the kind of shop I love to stumble upon. I will make a point of getting to Soquel now so I can see your beautiful store. I love the character of the quonset hut and how you have it all displayed. Am I gushing? Well, I am just so impressed and so inspired by what you have done. The colors! The areas! The vignettes! Again, I am so sorry I missed this before and I know this is going to be a wonderful venture for you and Nancy. I am charmed!

Linda Leyble said...

Hi - found your blog via Pinterest. I love your work - wish I lived in CA. Where did you find such a great place to open a store? I am looking for a store to show my work in. It's a little tough to find on Long Island - without having to pay a huge rent. Am now looking for a place where I can show my work in another's store - a bit of a challenge too.

I will be back to see more of your blog!

Linda

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