Happy Holidays

From all of us here at Revival Home & Garden, may your holiday season and coming year be filled with light. Thanks for brightening our 2009!

Back in Business (or, Stephen Drucker Made Me Do This)

Followers of our little blog will recognize a few things about us:

1. We love design magazines as if they were our own children...okay, more than that. A LOT. And we are down to a select few that we actually open the day they arrive: Elle Decor and House Beautiful. (And then there were two.)

2. We try not to devote too much attention to projects featured in said magazines....there are lots of other blogs who do a much better job at this than we are likely to. But the last time we did, it was of that insane House Beautiful cover spread with the pink chairs and the discontinued Kravet Ikat pattern everywhere. You know the one. And can we discuss the recent red, red, red Miles Redd HB cover project???? When can Miles Redd have his own magazine, full of nothing but Miles Redd projects? Who's with me?

3. I have been ridiculously infrequent in my blog postings as of late.

Until today. Because something happened to bring all of these factors together into a single unifying force that compelled me--nay, DEMANDED me--to crank out a new post. What happened was this:

Stephen Drucker, editor-in-chief of House Beautiful magazine, former editor of Martha Stewart Living magazine, and former something at basically every publication serving as an arbiter of style in modern society, walked into my shop.

Thankfully, I was wrapping up a transaction with a customer (good to look busy and somewhat successful, yes?) when he entered. I immediately recognized him as familiar but couldn't quite place him until he approached me and said, "Hi, my name is Stephen and..." He had me at "Stephen." Stephen Drucker! House Beautiful! Can't. Breathe.

I'm happy to report that he couldn't have been more charming. I immediately begged him not to go under for fear of depriving me of one of my few remaining reasons to get out of bed every morning, to which he replied that House Beautiful isn't going anywhere.

(Collective sigh of relief.)

I inquired as to what brought him to Seattle, to which he replied that he had never visited before and wanted to see what it was like. Isn't that a wonderful way to spend a weekend? I think I may have a new life goal.

He spoke highly of his time in Seattle thus far; let's hope he returns with cameras in hand. Stephen, I'm ready for my close up.

Waking the Dead

If anyone is left out there reading this sad, neglected blog, let me be the first to applaud your perseverance! With more than a month since my last posting, I'm shocked that you may be out there, still checking in now and then for a pulse.

Well, today your persistence pays off: a faint pulse beats on!

Since opening in our new location a few months ago, we have been a bit...well...overwhelmed. As you know, one of the primary motivations for relocating was to scale back while shifting our focus to our true passion: interior design. Not that we don't love lacquer boxes and classic children's books as much as--heck, probably more than!--the next person, but what wakes us up at night are thoughts of lacquering 18th-century oak chairs (gasp) and reupholstering womb chairs in Trina Turk indoor/outdoor fabric. Not so much the boxes.

The good news? Our plan is working! Lots of new clients and projects. So much fun. So many great people. So many great finds.

The bad news? Our plan is working! So few hours in the day. So many kids waiting at home. So much laundry. (Seriously, where does all the laundry come from? I really want to know. Is my family screwing with me?)

We're not complaining, mind you. Just trying to rationalize our absence from the blogosphere. If it's any consolation, I have written some AMAZING posts in my mind. Here's hoping they will be transferred to reality soon. One of them even mentions *you*. Yes, you.

In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at some our new inventory soon to be hitting the Web site as part of our New Year's Resolution. Almost none of our new store inventory is on the site (kind of the point of a Web site, right?), so obviously we are excited to mark this one off our to-do lists.

Thanks again for bearing with us through our growing pains. We promise not to be such a fair-weather friend in the future.

*Images courtesy of the fabulous Dorothee Brand, of Belathee Photography (gratuitous fame-dropping: she photographed the wedding of design*sponge's Grace Bonney)