I think it's about time...

Now that I've been open for four weeks I should probably share with you what the coffee house looks like with all the tools and sawdust cleaned out! Feast your eyes upon these pictures...

You may be wondering what this beautiful hunk of etched metal is. I should have taken a picture of the outside of the door as well, but this is the inside of the vault door. It was pretty grimy so I've been polishing it up in my spare moments. No other kitchen has as fancy a storage room door as I've got.

Wedded bliss...

'Tis the season of weddings, and alas, I was not immune to them this summer. And thank goodness, I needed a good excuse to get out of Dodge for a few days!

Here's some shots of the memorable occasion.

 

The bride's friends from law school diving right into the cake, if only by accident they got to taste the frosting...  They were getting a nice little bunch of white flowers to top the cake off.

 

 Getting Suzy all tied up for the main event.

 The brides and bridesmaids bouquets.

 Brother, John corralling the cute little flower girls. Although really fidgety, they did awesome through the ordeal. Apparently, the sister/bridesmaid in the flowery dress had a bug crawling up her thigh that she couldn't get rid of since she was in front of all the guests, but she did do her share of squirming.

 Announcing husband and wifey!!!

 First dance of the wedded couple, they have no idea what's in store for them, as they were laughing and talking through the whole dance...

 Groom and mother, bride and father.

King salmon brought down from Alaska by the bride's father for the next morning's family breakfast. AMAZING. In fact I took some home, and it's in the fridge right behind me.... I'm going to need to take a snack break now... 

The happy bride and groom sorting through the wedding loot.

And, as I've said before, the best gift they've received, my gift of antique blue goblets. They'll for sure be able to overcome any obstacle in their marriage if they just use these goblets often ...and preferably with each other.

 

A practical and very decorative gift of hand embellished kitchen towels from our aunt. It made me wonder if by chance I got married, would I make out with as nice of towels? I sure hope so :)

And would you believe, my 93 year old grandmother is still whipping up hand embroidered goodies for gifts? Seriously, I've got arthritis in my mid-thirties, that makes me complain about sewing on a button. She amazes me. I had better start taking care of my hands a little better or I'll need to move in with my grandma so she can take care of me.

And despite the hangover from too much "fun" the night before, the groom could still muster up the energy to display his enthusiasm over getting a George Foreman grill.

 

Finally, a vacation....

after being open for only two weeks. I was dying for some time off, after working four months straight to get this coffee house up and going. So, this last weekend my cousin, Susan, got married over in Seattle. Instead of driving the entire way over in one day, only a 5 1/2 hour drive really, I decided to stay in a bed and breakfast part way over to make the trip a little bit more relaxing.

I found this wonderful little place online, a little out of the way, but not by much. This is the Wine Country Inn, just north of Yakima in Selah, Washington. I would definitely give this place five stars, for decor, cleanliness, atmosphere (indoors and out), friendliness of the hostess and her husband, and for the extremely well done breakfast, that was delicious and plentiful. If you need a place to stay near Yakima, this is the place to go.

 

 

 I have not one complaint or wish that went unfulfilled by this place. I hope someday I'll be able to make it back there. If you'd like to check out what the rooms look like. Look HERE, as I forgot to take pictures of the rooms! You won't be disappointed.

Progress Report - The Blue Lantern Coffee House

You're probably wondering what I've been up to besides picnicking with the fam and playing at my new house up the river... Oh I haven't mentioned the new house yet, have I? I'll get to that next. So here's what's up with the coffee house I'm trying my darndest to get open. You'll see by the pictures, I've been working hard.... Or actually, I've been hiring too many people to work hard for me. You'd think I'm a slacker, but honestly, just coordinating all of this (plus moving out of town to a new house at the same time) is realllllly time consuming. Trust me. 

Have I shown you the old couch I bought off Craigslist a couple months ago? Well, here it is in it's dingy glory, partly tore down so we could refinish the wood. It had been finished in a fabulous faux "antique look" of the 70's where it was a medium stain, but then spattered in black paint. I'm sure everyone was fooled into thinking those black spatters were "age spots".

I was able to find a local lady who was retired from upholstery work, but still did it in her garage! So I got a screaming deal on getting this beauty re-covered. I LOVE the fuchsia colored fabric I found. And as a bonus, it's commercial fabric that's lined with plastic so it won't absorb drink spills and it's totally washable with soap and water. Awesome!

 

Here are the antique 1920's light fixtures I found on Etsy, then had rewired. They are the perfect style for my art nouveau styling.

 

This is an old buffet out of the McCall Lodge, if I have my story right. It's my boyfriend's but he's graciously letting me borrow it for my coffee house to set sugar and creamers on for coffee. What a good man.

Bar construction progress. I'm wrapping it in coffee bags for now, with a cheap laminate top. I'll be switching it out with Italian Cararra white marble as soon as I can afford to. Then it will match the marble wainscoting that's in the entryway staircase and on one wall inside the coffee house too! Fancy pants.

This corner will have the big pink couch and a few comfy chairs for a sitting area right next to the giant curved glass window. Apparently this window is insured for $500,000 as it'll be near to impossible to replace. I think I heard there's only one glass shop in the world that can make a curved glass window it's size. I better be careful with the ladder around it.... Yikes.

And what I should be doing right now instead of posting  blogs? Painting the business sign that will hang outside. I ran drastically short on money (Isn't that always how it goes?) and even though I wanted sheet copper to face my sign with, it was far out of my budget, so I've improvised. I had gold leaf left over from my senior show in college (I was an art major and really liked to over achieve). So since there was plenty, I gold leafed the plywood the sign was made out of. It seems pretty funny to be gold leafing such cheap wood, but I think the texture of the wood makes it pretty, in an unexpected way. And maybe I'll like it even better than the sheet copper when I'm done.

 

And here's what the place looked like as I was walking out the door tonight. The espresso machine is plumbed in and ready to pull shots, and the drip coffee maker is standing at the ready to drip away as soon as I am ready.... maybe I'll be ready to start selling to the masses next week??? I just have some last minute details to take care of.... About a thousand details, but it's coming together fast!

A One-Eyed Memorial Day...

Princess Rebekah had her outfit picked out a month ahead of time, for when she got to ride One-Eyed Scout at grandpa's house. She was very excited. She's going to be rodeo queen someday I'm pretty sure.

 Dwight on the other hand, wasn't sure that he wanted to ride at all. He clutched the saddle horn like his life depended on it. Like father, like son.

 

All your basic back-woods fare, hot dogs, potato salad, cheese puffs, and watermelon. The kids were in heaven.

 

 

And your parting nature shot. A bumble bee so big he fell off every blossom he tried to land on. Very entertaining to watch.

Getting a handle...

   I need to get a handle on this new format that blogger has. I'm all over the place.... So here's what's going on with the coffee house. I'm working on a logo, which will be a decorative font I'm going to hand draw. I know what I have right now is a little girly. I just have a hard time denying my nature. I took the monogram that is inlaid into the entrance tile (see the images below) and copied some of the features of the letters so that they might close to the same font used when the building was built. I know my lettering is much more loose and loopy. I need to cut down the loops a little bit, and add a little bit of manliness to it. According to Joe, the only people that will be frequenting my coffee house will be women if I leave the logo like that... We'll see.

So, this was the monogram for the Commercial Trust Company Bank (CTCo). All this tile work was done when the building was constructed in 1905. Too bad that work like this is no longer done. Where have all the craftsmen gone?









Mosaic designs out off the sidewalk to the entrance stairs...











The gigantic round glass window. It's soooo cool. I'm not sure why, it just is. And beautiful marble wainscoting too.

Refinished wood floors, ceiling patched and painted copper.

My mom and I have been refinishing the wood on a couple of old couches and they're getting re-upholstered in really sweet fabric. Just wait, it's going to knock your socks off.








 

Ugh, I'm going to have to fiddle around with the knobs on this new blog format... I can't get my text in where I want it! It'll look better next time... but no promises.