Did ya catch that banner placement?

Camera shy?

Seriously, every time I have tried to take her picture since she arrived, Monica ducks and yells "Paparazzi Blogger!". This is the best one I shot so far....I might have to take a picture of her when she is sleeping. Oh well, I have 2 more days left to get a good photo.

Monica and Caleb at the Llano River

John and "Blowgum" Vaughn sit backstage

Blues Festival on Main Street

John and I worked backstage this week-end at the Blues Festival. We did our gig during the performance by Homemade Jamz - two brothers (15 and 13) and their sister on drums (she is 9). They were very talented and put on a great show. Monica and Caleb opted for a movie instead of listening to Omar & the Howlers. Today is the last day of the Festival and next week-end is the Fine Arts & Wine Festival. Man, this town is hoppin'

John helps promote CD sales

Yes - the guitar is made out of a muffler

Little sister on the drums...she's 9

This guy is 13 years old

The best looking Taco Bell is in Marble Falls, Texas

Notice the banner placement on the main stage at Blues Festival

Jim and Rob hang the wall fountain

Progress is being made on the sign

Our first Trunk Show next Friday

Boarding a plane in Minneapolis......

I am very excited......My daughter, Monica, and her boyfriend, Caleb, are arriving in Austin tonight at 10:00 PM and will stay through Tuesday. This is the first visit by one of our children (one down and four to go!) This week-end is the Blues Festival in Marble Falls and the weather is 80 and sunny, so I think Monica and Caleb should enjoy their time here. I will keep you posted.

Shandon Camarillo-Whitson

We found this artist by happenstance - her husband, Brett, poured the cement for our cashwrap/counter/bar and mentioned that his wife made jewelry. He wasn't kidding! We actually met Shandon and Brett at Taco Bell while we were under construction. (Did I mention this is the best looking Taco Bell I have ever seen?) Anyway, Shandon showed us her jewelry while her 2 boys napped in the car outside the window by our table. My sister, Monica, was in town and also got to meet Shandon and Brett. Monica is now sporting one of Shandon's signature pieces.

Her work is exquisite - check out her website: www.saddlebaroncollection.com and also: www.mygodtags.com and www.visiblefaithjewelry.com. Shandon's work is sold by Patina!!

Our first Trunk Show will be April 4th from 4-8 PM

Suzie Ogg, our landlord, catered our Grand Opening

No progress on the sign as of 5 pm...

Fashion is getting a buzz

Jewlery from local jeweler, Shandon Camillo-Whitson

Temporary banner

First week

We spent this first week cleaning, pricing, tweaking and talking on the phone with Tech Support. We also had a few customers and made a few sales. Still waiting for our exterior sign (water monument) to be installed.......

We are in the paper - click on it to make it readable

Page 2 - scroll down for the rest of the story

WOW

This week has been wonderfully hectic watching the store transform into our vision. Our new friends worked side-by-side with our old friends late into the nights as we watched our Minnesota/Wisconsin world meld with our Marble Falls/Burnet world. We received beautiful plants, flowers, cards and phone calls from friends and family who couldn't be here.

We missed sharing this excitement "live" with you and we love the fact that you track it through this blog. We felt the absence of our (combined) five children scattered between Minnesota, Iowa and New Mexico. Patina is also our "baby" and we can't wait to share it with each of them. So much of our dream in relocating here and building a business in the Hill Country involved the vision of reconnecting with what is REALLY important in life - with Kaitlin, Sean, Taylor, Monica and Chandler on the top of that list. As parents, we love the fact that they are all happy and living their own busy lives, but we miss them terribly on a day-to-day basis. An empty nest is a mixed blessing in so many ways!

Our Grand Opening party was fabulous. The live music was great, the catering was exquisite and the feedback we received was very affirming. The store is absolutely gorgeous. We still have construction work to be done on the water monument sign (hopefully this week), a few construction punchlist items to clean up and some merchandising tweaks left to be done. We will spend today cleaning and tweaking before we start the cash register tomorrow at 10:00 am.

We absolutely mean it when we say "Come visit anytime - we'd love to see you!"

Marnie and John

Grand Opening was a great success!

Dawn Williams came to our opening!

Facelift almost complete

Merchandise continues to arrive

Joe chairs a meeting of the Thursday night club

Thursday

Wow - what a day! Joe and Donna worked their fingers to the bone helping out. We also had help from Kimberley, Chris, Rochelle, Anthony, Scott, Jim, etc. Things are really starting to take shape. We're headed home and will be back at it in the AM.......

Concrete has been stained to the color of "cola"

Crystal sent the first skull piece