next summer loves: Mamatoga Jenny

Recently Jenny at Mamatoga featured some of our custom Saratoga Springs pieces.  If you don't already follow her, you must start!  On her website and online magazine Jenny shares her experiences raising three kids under five while giving great resources for health and wellness, parenting, style, and cooking.  Even if you don't live in Saratoga Springs, you will find inspiration and helpful resources on her site.


Here are a few of the custom pieces from our store that she featured . . .

our Saratoga map pendant (we also sell earrings)

Saratoga needlepoint belt

Saratoga needlepoint coasters

We're so glad we opened a second location in Saratoga Springs.  It's an open and welcoming community with a lot of style.  Jenny is the epitome of that.  To see her full post click here.

Oh Deer!

Meet our newest friend at Next Summer.  He is a project we've wanted to do for quite some time. Here he is enjoying the sunset. 

We were so excited to start this project that we forgot to take any "before" pictures, but this is basically what he looked like, or at list this is what Google offers you when you do an image search for "twig deer"

We thought that since painted furniture is one of our hallmarks, a painted Adirondack twig deer would be a good mascot. What better way to symbolize "modirondack" style? We started with two coats of spray primer, we let it dry for over 24 hours, then gave it two generous coats of spray paint. We let that dry for nearly a  week, before finally giving two generous coats of clear coat. It's hard to see in these photographs, but the clear coat gives it a more contemporary sheen.

We love the way the orange flowers contrast with his new turquoise color. Any suggestions on a name? 

So much to say . . .

Recently these pillows have been flying out of our store.  Their graphic text makes them an unexpected element in any room and they're also excellent conversation starters.  They look great on their own . . .

and also make nice accent pillows if you mix them with graphic prints, stripes or even animal prints.

We're about to place another order, so tell us which ones you'd like to see in our store!

Happy Day After the 4th of July

Happy Day After the 4th of July!  Take it easy and enjoy yourself.

Geo/Metric Pillows

Have you been admiring our Geo/Metric Thomas Paul pillows but not sure how they would work in your house?  Apartment Therapy just posted a Dream Living Room using these pillows. Mixing this bold print with warm, organic elements gives the room a modern feeling.

You can read more about the post here.  (Note: You can compare our $74 price tag to the $80 one on Apartment Therapy.  We like that!)

One Year Anniversary

Matthew and I recently celebrated our one year anniversary (yay!), and like so many newly weds we wanted to follow tradition by freezing our cake topper and eating it on our first anniversary.  Almost everyone we talked to warned us that the cake would be a freezer burned, molded mess.  However we were pleasantly surprised by how good ours tasted.  We owe it all to the pastry chef who made our cake.  He gave us the following directions and we wanted to share them with you.


1. Place the cake in the freezer for a about three hours (just long enough for the icing to get hard.)  This prevents it from sticking to the saran wrap.
2. Take the cake out of the freezer and wrap it tightly in three layers of saran wrap.

3. Next, place the cake in two Ziploc bags, one packed inside the other.
4. Freeze until your one year anniversary.
5.  Allow it to thaw slowly by taking it out of the freezer 36 hours in advance and placing it in the refrigerator.
6. Enjoy!

Hint: Your enjoyment of the wedding cake is greatly heightened by your new spouse, and we suggest a nice bottle of champagne to go with it.

Also, if you enjoyed our post about the piano we painted florescent pink, you'll enjoy Apartment Therapy's post about painted pianos here.

Painted Furniture

We haven't posted in a while because we've been busy getting both stores ready for the summer season.

We converted the back of our store into a work space where we have been painting furniture.  One of our projects included painting an old piano and a beautiful little table.  We posted a few weeks ago about our plans to paint them florescent pink and kelly green, and we now have pictures of the finished products!

We love the contrast of the bright, crisp colors with our floors in the Bolton Landing store.

Putting a fresh coat of paint on an old piece of furniture is one of the easiest ways to update your space.  Here are some of our favorite paint jobs that we've done around the stores:

With our new work space there will be more to come!  Stayed tuned . . .