Sunday fun with family

Sunday after church Jim and I visited his sister and her husband in the Bay area. We had a wonderful lunch and relaxed all day. They just remodeled their home and of course she had several boxes of great treasures that she saved just for me. Their home was so beautiful and they are happy to be enjoying it again.



Today I worked on Christmas decorations in the front and side windows at the store. I also had some new arrivals come in. It is always like Christmas opening up the boxes. It is so exciting to see what is in them and put the new items out. I also took a few things home for myself... My son Jim was finishing up on the iron fence and gates around the store. While Scott my youngest son brought his dog Molly by to see us. Molly has not been feeling to well the last day or so. So she went to the vet today. Hopefully her new medicine will help her. Molly was happy to see all of us and visit with Barney(the shopkeeper). Molly was our dog until Scott got married and borrowed her and forgot to return her. Really, Molly is very happy living at Scott's home, she is a only dog now...she gets all of the treats and no more sharing. I hope to have some pictures soon and post them.

Giving my husband his work shop back!

I have been very busy for the last three weeks trying to get all of my projects out of Jim's work shop. He has been wonderful to help me finish them. After finishing some of the lager projects and bringing them into the store, we now have some room to work on the newer ones that just seem to come along my way!!! It is getting to the point that I don't have to go looking for treasures they are finding me!! People stop by the store with them or friends give them to me, of course I can hardly say no to anything. It is so much fun to give a new purpose to something old and retired. Next week is Thanksgiving and I hope everyone has much to be thankful for to God, I know I do. God's Blessings to all of you.

Project: tufting a padded headboard

As some of you may already know, I am in the Dallas-Fort Worth area visiting my daughter. Our goals for this short week were to spend a day shopping at the WTC for The Green Pea, catch up on some home projects at my daughter's home, attend BSF in Grapevine, pick out some fabric at a discount warehouse in Dallas, and hit the market in Canton on Friday. We were able to check everything off of our list except (regrettably) our day in Canton. I have to apologize to my new blogger friends as I was looking forward to meeting some of you! We had to forgo our day in Canton so that I could shop in the WTC one more day. Hang tight, though, as I promise that I will be back soon! I always plan my trips around Canton's First Trade Mondays!

I want to show you one of the neat projects that we worked on in my daughter Brandy's home. She wanted to create a tall, padded headboard for her guest bedroom upstairs. My husband built her the wooden frame. She applied foam to the front side of it---here is a picture of it leaning against the wall:

She picked out a lovely linen Chinoiserie fabric to apply to the headboard and to make a bedskirt out of. You can see the fabric on the bed. After applying the foam, she wrapped the headboard with the batting and brought it around the sides to the back.

And next went on the fabric! Voile!

And look what a beautiful job she did matching and seaming the fabric together:

Gorgeous! I thought the headboard was simply elegant the way that it was, but my daughter was insistent on tufting it to give it "a more posh look." And so this was the task that I was called in to help handle.

We penciled out a grid on the back of the headboard and drilled small holes into the back of the wood. My daughter placed a small screw beside each hole but did not tighten it down completely. She had her buttons already covered and prepped; she looped multiple strands of upholstery thread through each button, then pulled all the thread ends through a long upholstery needle through all the layers and out the designated holes. I stood at the front side of the headboard and pushed the button in as deep as I could into the foam while she tied it off in the back on the screw. What a job! My arms were tired from muscling in those buttons!

I tried to be as meticulous as I could about choosing and matching the perfect covered button for the toile. Look how fantastic this looks!

We got some good mother-daughter time in together. It took us a couple of hours to get it complete. My daughter is an animal lover (with 4 pets) and she brought her parrot upstairs with us while we worked. Titus kept us entertained with his non-stop chatter and added to our fun.

Here you can see the partially-completed headboard, Titus on his perch, and me on my cell calling in to The Green Pea.

My daughter Brandy loves to decorate and design and sew. She promised she would send me pictures of her room once she made the matching bedskirt and has the room put together.

Here is a photo of her with her latest acquisition, a rescue puppy from Hurricane Ike:

One of the other sewing projects that we started at my daughter's home was making cafe curtains for some of my display hutches back at the boutique. We picked up some pretty black-and-white striped fabric from Dallas---a la French style! I designed one with my daughter and am taking it back home with me to try out before she finishes the rest of them off for me.

Tonight, I am back in California---my Texas trip went by too fast! Texas is an incredibly hospitable state, but it always so nice to be back home again too.

Shopping in Texas

I am currently in Texas this week visiting family. I plan on doing lots of shopping for The Green Pea, meeting some of my blogging friends, and of course, attending the market at Canton. Stay tuned.... in the next week to follow I will have pictures to share.

Welcome to The Green Pea Boutique Blog!

I am located on 1802 Main Street in Escalon, California, population of 7,000, in the heart of the agricultural valley of our beautiful state. Geographically, our city is located on Highway 120 between the San Francisco Bay area and the historic Mother Lode leading to the famed Yosemite National Park. We are just minutes away from Modesto, Manteca, and Stockton.

I recently embarked on a dream of mine---owning an antique, fashion, and home decor store. After renting a space and selling antiques for a few years locally, I was blessed in being able to purchase my own building and expand my product lines. In 2006, my husband and I purchased a historical 1906 building that was once a livery stable, a post office, and a mercantile outpost on Main Street. For the next 18 months we renovated and exposed the beauty of our building's history and character---natural wood floors, dark brick hiding behind worn plaster, exposed beams and rafters, and unboarded individually-paned glass windows in their original frames. In August 2008, though we were still putting on the finishing touches, The Green Pea Boutique was opened for business.

I love meeting all the fascinating people that come through my store. Some are our friendly locals, some are Bay Area city folks on their way to the beautiful outdoors of Yosemite, and others are from out-of-state and have scratched me in on their California travels. But all share in the appreciation of individualizing their homes with warm antiques, beautiful gift items, or accessorizing themselves with unique fashions that one can only find in a boutique.

If you should be passing through my area, please stop by if just to say "hi!" I would love to meet you and give you an "open house" tour of the rich history of my building!

Here are some of my favorite, hand-selected items from my travels:






My trusty shopkeeper and "Labrasset Hound," Barney:

Thank you for looking!