Art in the Attic, the gallery upstairs at Lovely Manors

We're getting arty here at Lovely Manors! We have a great, light and sunny space upstairs (we call it our attic - it's the kind of attic you'd find some lovely treasure rather than the dark and cobwebby kind) so we decided to fill it with fabulous local art.

Each show runs for 8 weeks, with different artists or themes each time. It's been an interesting journey....running a gallery is time consuming and complicated! We've made a few mistakes along the way, but we're getting there!

At the moment we have a photography exhibit, with five local artists, each with their own unique style. Liz Brasser, Joyce Marino, Teresa Griffith, PattiCarol Smith and, last but not least, Tom Bowman have put on a fantastic show for us - with photographs from here in Maryland, to the Northern Lights in Alaska and even the canals of Amsterdam. This show ends on Sunday 27th May so come and see it!

Quite a few customers have come to the gallery and remarked what  a stunning makeover our attic has undergone. The space is light, full of character and just great for showing art! We're very happy with how it has turned out.

The next show opens on Saturday June 2nd, with the title 'Maryland in the Mirror'.  We have been lucky to secure artists David Sutphen, of Butler Originals (see a sneak peek of one of his paintings below, click on the photo to go to the Butler Originals Facebook page).

Also scheduled to show is renowned artist and teacher, Jill Dodson.

We are looking forward to hosting these fantastic artists, whose work reflects what we love most about Maryland.

Join us for the opening party on Saturday June 2nd, 7-10pm, with live music in the garden from live band Steam Theory. It's going to be a great night!

Christmas is coming...

...and we've been so busy 'Holidifying' the store that we haven't had time to tell you all about it on our Blog!

They say that time flies when you're having fun (is it December already? It was October last time we looked!), and we've certainly been enjoying decorating the cabin, turning it into a little winter holiday wonderland.

The transition from Fall decor to Christmas is a hectic one. If you've been in the store (we sure hope so!), then you'll know how many nooks and crannies there are...all filled with something wonderful. Sometimes we discover (or rediscover) something which has been hidden behind another item, just waiting for the perfect new home. It takes some time to get everything looking festive, especially as we are open every day. We have to clamber, climb, drill, drape, hammer and hang, around our lovely customers, who don't seem to mind a bit! We're thankful for your patience.

Last month we were also busy clearing the Attic (our upstairs shopping area) as we are hosting 'Art in the Attic'. A group of artists from Towson, Studio Thursday Painters, are showing and selling their beautiful artwork until Christmas....stop by and have a look, and sign their guest book - the work is all limited edition or original...if you like an artist, you could even get a piece commissioned. The space looks great, and it's surprising how large the room is....it was always so full it was hard to imagine it empty.  We had to stop imagining and get cleaning, and this was the result...

Art in the Attic with Studio Thursday Painters here at Lovely Manors

We are hoping to have other artists show their work in the Attic through the Spring.

Since the gallery opening we have been in full-time Christmas mode. The Christmas Trees were delivered the weekend after Thanksgiving, and the staff were charged with naming each tree. We like to name the trees to give the kids something fun to look at when choosing. Coming up with 150 fun names is NOT as easy as it sounds (last year we resorted to looking at a baby names website). This year we racked our brains and drew from popular sources....Harry Potter, The Hunger Games books, our own names (very creative!!), our pets names, our friends names. Oh, my head hurts just thinking about it again! We were very proud of our names, until the kids came along...

Kids, they just have a way with words don't they?! They pull no punches when it comes to saying what they think. One of our imaginatively names trees, Pattie (we though it was a great name; actually, any name will do when you're on number 125, 126, 127 etc), was purchased by a customer. The child who had chosen the tree told us she was renaming it 'Moose', because "Pattie is NOT a tree name, it's a HAMBURGER name". I suppose she had a point....! It certainly put a smile on our faces!

Now is the time of frantic wreath making...the greenhouse is a hub of activity, and our walkie talkies are getting a lot of use (yes, we've finally learned how to use them). The only drawback is that we seem to be operating on the same frequency as some other business (maybe a school, we're not sure, we're monitoring their correspondence in case of a terrorist threat!). We frequently hear 'I'm sending Micheal down to use the bathroom', or 'Janice needs milk'; which, unless they're using a pretty lame code, is probably not any form of espionage. We like to entertain ourselves by suggesting it might be something 'cloak and dagger'.

The best moment of the week so far has to be two of our beloved staff members attempting to 'bag' a pretty large and unwieldy Christmas Tree. We put all our trees through a netting machine (machine might be too fancy a word; it's all manual and brute force based...) to make it easier for the customers to transport them. Staff member #1 one was on one side of the bagging table pushing the tree into the machine; staff member #2 was on the other side of the table, pulling the tree into the net. The tree was not co-operating, so staff member #2 was lying flat on her back HAULING the tree through. It really looked more like a difficult birthing than a tree wrapping. Perhaps I should have stepped in to help rather than taking notes for our blog?! It was rather a comic scene! Anyway, we're all getting a good workout, those trees are HEAVY!

So, the Cabin is ready, the Garden is ready, we have wreaths galore, swags and more...we hope you're ready too!

Happy Holidays!