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Commemoration/inspiration

by Thompson Lange

Just got back from Dallas.  In a deja vu all over again moment, Homescapes was once again nominated for an ARTS Award.   I wrote about it in 2006 and 2007 when last we made our appearance on the ballot, so I was expecting a similar “otherwordliness” about it this time, and again I wasn’t disappointed.

Arts Awards Dallas 2010As always, the Dallas Market Center did it big (even going as far as a stick-thin model coming out in a unitard and headdress before - BOOM- opening her cape, raising it up and becoming a ” peacock.”)

Arts Awards Dallas 2010

Other than her and the poster, the rest of the evening stayed peacock-free (though one winner had thought ahead and wore a peacock feather in his tux pocket…or maybe he just plucked the model.)  There was even a shortage of preening from the winners, which I found interesting.

Arts Awards Dallas 2010

Arts Awards Dallas 2010

The mood in the room was more thankful than joyous, it seemed to me.  Many of the speeches gave thanks to people who had perservered and put up with the winners through 2009, so the bright side was that I wasn’t the only one in a wistful, sorta shell-shocked mood.

Or at least it seemed that way to me.

But don’t get me wrong, the evening was fun and worth the trip, and not just ’cause we won again.  Over the years I’ve gotten to know a number of the people who were in the room not just from doing business with them but  from conferences, roundtables and panel-discussions, so it really did feel like being surrounded by friends.

My speech, I’m told, went fine (though I always sort of black out about that kind of thing), but I hear the hi-def 15 foot screen was a bit “harsh.”  I overheard a friend tell another friend of mine that he’d never realized she had so many freckles.  “You looked like you had leprosy,” he said.

Yikes!

I do NOT want to see the DVD.

Thompson Lange, Homescapes, Arts Awards Dallas 2010

On the Move

by Thompson Lange

If the cat ain’t out of the bag yet, it sure will be as soon as people drive by the building on 7th and Dolores and see that it once again resembles an old, empty bank.  Yup, after 10 years in the old Great Western Bank building, Homescapes Carmel is moving to Carmel Plaza.  But first we have some building to do.

Long-timers know Beau and I opened our first store in 1996 in an old, condemned laundry we rebuilt.

The Grove Laundry, Pacific GroveThe Grove Homescapes, Pacific Grove 1996-2001

We did the ol’ build-out trick again in 1999 when we opened in downtown Carmel.

Homescapes Carmel construction 1999

When we opened Homescapes Carmel, we had NO idea that we would be running a store in downtown Carmel for 10 years.  We thought that we were only opening a temporary store to test the foot-traffic of Carmel shoppers against business in Pacific Grove.  But then our “owners” sold the building and thus began a long, often arduous tenancy in a building that became increasingly controversial.

Homescapes Carmel and all its drama

Not to say that we aren’t thankful for our time in the building.  It’s led to some great opportunities for me and Beau, not least the new garden store we opened last May in the Barnyard.  But now the time has come to end the bank building chapter and open the Carmel Plaza chapter of Homescapes Carmel.

That’s right…those rumors you heard are true.  We’ve been approached by the Plaza to relocate to the 12,000 feet right below Anthropologie.  Perfect location for us and we are THRILLED with the neighbor…talk about stylish and in many ways similar (the buyer even has a television show, Man Shops World, that is a way-better version of what I’ve been doing on this blog for the last too-many years.)

The new space will have a Tasting Room Cafe where we’ll do wine pairings and classes, a specialty book-store with travel, decor and design books and magazines from around the world and an interior design studio.  In the long-term we also intend to partner with someone and bring the Flower Shop aspect back into play.  We’ve always credited the late Michael Weidner and the flower shop he created for us in The Grove Homescapes as the leading factor in our being so quickly embraced by  locals.

So if you drive by and see the empty bank building, don’t dispair!  We’re still open daily at the Barnyard and we’re working hard to transform yet another unattractive space into something beautiful that will make y’all proud.  Until then,  here’s a few pictures of the duckling before it becomes a swan.

The new Homescapes Carmel's facade "before"The new Homescapes Carmel interior Plaza facade "before"The new Homescapes Carmel showroom "before"The new Homescapes Carmel Tasting Room Cafe "before"Trust me, it’ll be beautiful.

‘Dis the Season

by Thompson Lange

This is the time of year when you’re supposed to feel all warm…

Peace on Earth

and cuddly…

Snowman, Snowflakes and Candy Canes

…but I’m not one who’s all that big on Christmas (evidenced by the fact that of ALL the Christmas”y” images I could have used to exemplify the season, I picked the ones that were on the tip envelopes I got this morning from my garbarge-men). [Read more →]