Bethany Lowe Inspiration and the Target Decorating Generation

One day a few years ago I was perusing one of my favorite haunts, The Troutdale General Store (http://troutdalegeneralstore.com/) . It is a place to  waste  spend my "alone time". They do an amazing job gussying the store up for holidays and have an extensive inventory of beautiful decorations. The store is newer, but was built in the fashion of an old time general store complete with an soda fountain (the bar is authentic), ornate ceiling fans and new and old fixtures. One half of the store boasts an excellent candy counter (where my daughter can pick up her $3.00 Godiva chocolate mice...good taste for a six-year-old), vintage inspired toys and of course decorations. The enormous basement is well stocked with holiday decorations year-round. Halloween in March anyone?  I digress.
While in the store I found myself gravitating towards a certain style of decorations. They were "old" looking and had so much charm. I loved them, but I didn't like the price tag. I soon learned about an amazing artist, Ms.Bethany Lowe. Lowe has a cadre of artists working with her to create scrumptious decor. I admit to purchasing a few pieces here and there, but most of the time I have to pinch my pennies because these items are spendy.
This brings me to my point. People my age love Target. I love Target, my sister loves Target and a lot of my friends love Target. However, I don't find most of my holiday decorations at Target. Over the last few years I have started to invest in one nice piece each year. I am mainly talking about Christmas decorations here, but it applies to all the other holidays as well. I realized that I wanted timeless, classy pieces that would could be used year after year and weren't trendy. I wanted pieces I could pass on to my kids or perhaps enjoy for a few years and resell. You can't do that with most Target decorations (insert fight with my husband here over my holiday decorating ADD). I realize this is making me sound like a snob, but I have been called worse.
Recently one of my favorite home decorating stores went out of business. The owners, in their early sixties, shared that one of their biggest struggles was attracting the Target decorating generation (ahem that would be my peers). They felt women in their mid-forties to sixties were now done shopping for holiday decorations and this left them without customers because the  younger set wanted a new style each year (so that is why I grew to dislike my penguin decorations). I agree with them. Their store was lovely and had new things each season, but it just didn't have the lure of Target.
Now my friends know I am cheap. I have champagne taste on a beer budget (Actually, I have beer taste I'm not a fan of champagne). My dream day consists of looking in expensive shops on trendy streets.  and then going home to make what I saw. As with most of the home decorating/crafting/lifestyle blogs I stalk I know most of the people that write them are of the same mindset. While I love Bethany, I just can't spend $35 on a box, with a glitter putz house and a catchy phrase. I can make it though and now I present the reason I wrote this entry:

The Chapel of Love. I used a Christmas decoration I purchased for 75% off at Wal-Mart (didn't talk about that place), a box I had on hand was painted a pale pink, my Wal-Mart mini-alphabet stamps, and various buttons and baubles I had laying around. I think it is cute...do you think the Chapel on the steeple is a little much?

This is my Queen of Hearts plaque. It looks very short and sqautty in this picture, but it is actually pretty large. The crepe paper edge looks weird too, but I promise it is adorable.

Another chapel with a different twist.

Headed to a Blazers game tomorrow night with Mr.Dickey and then I am supervising two games on Thursday night so I don't think I will get my other projects done until this weekend. I have two or three fun projects to share and of course I will do my Valentine decorating. Maybe I can share that soon!