The Stillroom

Just want to mention one more time to note the new days and hours of operation for us.

Spring is almost here and it’s time to plant your live Easter Basket. A bit of plastic liner, a touch of potting soil and a smathering of rye seeds in a vintage basket and you will have a beautiful natural grass basket! A great precursor to Earth Day in April.

Nothing is more pleasant than these first few days of warm weather here in our town.
Neighbors popping out to inspect gutters, driveways and sidewalks, dusting off porches and bicycles…making sure bird feeders stay full as the birds make their return for the new year.

Here is what’s new in The Stillroom. We have added sweet & savory dip mixes from a small local business called Herbal Delights. From the Berry Lavender and Key Lime Coconut to the Horseradish dip, we could not be happier with this tasty addition to our shop. These are nice hostess gifts and with all of the Spring celebrations from Easter to Graduation parties, these dips are not only easy to make, they are absolutely delicious and equally as important, you are purchasing local. That’s pretty huge.

We have the new holiday teas from Stash coming in any day now and I will not reveal what the flavors are, you just have to come in and see for yourself! New springtime tea pots adorn the shelves in addition to the beautiful new line of stained glass picture frames and stained glass kaleidoscopes. (We still have the glitter scopes too)!

The Stillroom offers cute selections of old and new giftware, glassware, children’s classic books and DVD’s and Beatrix Potter onesies.
Mothers’ Bouquet tea tins, honey sticks, biscotti & and assorted candy and chocolate from Divani’s Chocolate Boutique.
We have a very nice selection of vintage gloves, teacups, teaware not to mention the extensive selection of Stash Teasand the most requested Harney teas.

We sell all of the ingredients that you need if you choose to brew your own chai tea which means we have fresh vanilla beans, green cardamom pods, nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, and really just about all of the fragrant items you would find in a still room including lavender and patchouli by the ounce and organically grown dried catnip too!
We have perfume oils for simmering and scent sticks for the people (like me) who don’t like scenting with flames!

Two Sisters locally made quilts are available here and soon you will be able to find their wonderful textiles at the Pittsburgh Sewing School. That new venue is located at The Red Barn Shops on Ekastown Road…where The Stillroom had it’s very first location!
They will be opening soon!

The Lovely Laurette still has a nice hodgepodge of vintage collectibles here at The Stillroom. She has very interesting taste and certainly has some real little gems in our “kitchen department”.

What’s old and new in our village? The Stillroom Annex has closed it’s doors (that’s old news at this point) at The Fresh Cup Cafe but not to worry, all that was in there is now over here at the main shop. What’s new is that Laura from The Fresh Cup is still around but in a different capacity that suits her space much better so if your are looking for catering and sweets to order, she’s not out of the game, she’s busier than ever churning out delicate apricot pastries for the fresh new season that is upon us in addition to what looked like mouth watering coconutty, chocolatey, sprinkly springy cookies and was as busy as a bee filling orders when I was chatting with her at the catering shop at the Fresh Cup. That is what we want to see as a community. Come here, explore the options, grow as a community of retailers and most importantly, stay here to serve where you are needed!

A Cake Above is not going any place either so when you need that wedding cake or quick pastry, they are open and are undergoing changes as well…want to know what they are? Well, you have to go in and see!

Welcome to the brand spanking new Lenora Moore on Main Street. I still have to get up there and check it out but I talked to Laura today and she said it’s awesome! Congrats Carol and we are so glad to have you here…just one more place for people to browse around in.

The Chandlery Gift Shoppe window is decked to the nine’s for Spring and the C. Matus Company window has really nice new Amish furniture featured and The Second Time Around is waiting to deck you out for spring at great prices and The Grey Wolf Gallery is here to deck your walls. The Saxonburg Area Artists Co op has a grand opening coming up mid may so keep a watch out for that.

Oh, one more thing. If you love great coffee don’t forget that we bring fresh beans from The Strip at unbelievable prices. Why? Because we can and it’s our pleasure!

If you see our open flag waving in the wind on a Monday or Tuesday, stop on in. That means I am here.

Ahhhh, Spring. (almost)! Pretty soon we will be listening for the peepers. I like that more that Christmas.

The Stillroom Gift & Tea shop will now be open one less day a week, but we will be open later! The new hours are Wednesday & Thursday 10-6, Friday 10-4 Saturday 10-2.

If you are passing through on a sunny spring Monday or Tuesday and you see the open/gifts flag waving in the breeze, that means I am here so stop in! (Old habits die hard)!

Not quite but we are slowly inching our way towards March 20th. Ugh! Inching is not the word any longer, it’s more like feet as in of snow. The only saving grace here is that we are almost halfway through February…sort of…wishful thinking.

I would love for you to visit The Stillroom this week but I really am not sure where you could park your snowmobile. I figured I would send out a new post as I await the joyful coming of another cumulative snowfall. I love/hate these moments of anticipation of the quiet beauty of another snow event but it is, after all, winter. I am grateful that this all did not come in December because we would of been looking at these blinding piles of snow all winter long. On that note, let us bide our time with hot tea, a good bowl of soup and pray that the power holds out.!

My brother, who lives in South Park, has been without power since this past Friday night and things are not looking good for it to be turned on before the week is out. Fortunately, he and his wife and dogs Buster and Dexter have found refuge at their son’s home not too far from where they live.

As for The Stillroom, I will flip the open sign in the door. I can’t get to the flag post to put the open flag out because it has been buried under a giant snowpile.

We are also in the process of winding down The Stillroom Annex on Main Street at the rear of The Fresh Cup Cafe. The Annex will be closed permanently at the end of February, but not to fear, all of the goodies in there, will be moved to here! (the main shop on State St.) I committed to a six month lease and the time is nearing the end of that six month period already! I have come to the conclusion that while my intention was to give people just one more place to browse around in, most of the people coming into the cafe for breakfast or lunch, were not necessarily shopping for gifts.

So, to those who took advantage of the cute little space, I thank you very much!
We are not gone, we are just around the corner where you will still be able to shop for locally made quilts, fragrances, cooking herbs and spices and a smathering of collectibles. I hope you stop in when the weather straightens out!

This is so nice…by the end of this posting our friend, neighbor and local landscape architect John Temoshenko came by unexpectedly with a piece of snow removal equipment and moved some piles of snow to help widen the parking pad to the shop. It made me and Mike very, very happy! So thank you John, it was much appreciated. By the way, John and his wife Jenny own and operate Jenny’s Guest Room on Main Street. It is a private suite in a smaller restored Victorian house and is absolutely lovely with all of the amenities you would expect in a private suite!

We have fresh coffee beans from The Strip, fresh biscotti from the Penn Hills biscotti bakery and fresh Divani milk chocolate tortoises and their most excellent dark chocolate bars. There are only a couple of tins of our Valentine Tea left and oh, now you have a place to park your snowmobile!

January brings the quiet of winter to our village. The snow is finally here and I am taking my annual three week staycation. I order in the Valentine’s Day Chocolate tea with rose petals, sweets for the sweet and peruse gifty possibilities for the new year.

It is the time of year when our cat sits on top of two remaining floor registers in this old house and blocks a pretty fair amount of heat. That is appreciated in the one small room where ALL of the heat goes and not so much in our tiny cold kitchen where we have to turn on an extra heater to blow heat on us when the first pot of water gets onto the stove when it’s still dark and very early. It’s much like the old west when people froze inside of their habitats.

It is picture perfect outside of my window which looks onto the side of St. Lukes church and parking lot. The snow is like in “A Christmas Story” when Ralphie opens the window Christmas morning and with the harp playing, the camera pans around the snow covered neighborhood and the snow is so thick on the trees and the sight is beautiful and peaceful and quiet and ethereal and then I snap out of it and realize it is going to be a good soup day!

The Stillroom will re-open and resume the regular daily business hours of Wednesday and Thursday 10-6 Friday 10-4 and Saturday 10-2.
You might also catch me here by chance on Monday and Tuesday so call first!

If you are having a tea /coffee emergency, email or call because it HAS been known to happen and I WILL open up IF I am awake, showered, dressed, caught up on weather and top of the news, have ingested copious amounts of Nicaraguan coffee or tea, go to the post office, catch up on emails, shop orders, look at piles of papers that need to be addressed and sorted, attempt inventory between two shops…no I jest. Give a call, we are here working all three weeks except for when we went to see Avatar which I decided forty minutes into it that I can wait for the DVD and went shopping for a couple of hours which was awesome!

Just because The Stillroom closes for a hiatus, don’t let that stop you from coming into the village because I am pretty sure the other retail shops are open for business as are the bed and breakfasts and the local eateries!

It’s a neat little village and is postcard perfect in the winter so bring a camera!

The Saxonburg Area Artist’s Co-op is in the process of gearing up for the late winter/early spring with classes and lectures in different mediums of art which is very cool for art education in the immediate area.

I look forward to all of the things coming our way. I don’t know what we would do without special days set aside just to remind people how much they are loved, birthday’s of presidents which mean car clearance sales,white sales and cherry pie filling sales…has that day evolved into something weird or what? I doubt that was the original intention. Anyhow, Ash Wednesday is on my birthday and I look forward to both of those things every year. Lent brings specialities to the local restaraunts and churches and pretty soon we will be smelling hycacinths. I actually spotted those in a local grocery chain a week after Christmas which at first I thought was rushing things along but when I caught that sweet flower fragrance I remembered how much I love hyacinths and went home to meditate and watch the sun set and suddenly realized the daylight hours are growing longer. Hey, it’s still light out at ten after five!

One week and counting~it comes and goes just like any other day so try not to be too stressed out.
The Divani chocolates and biscotti are just about sold out and that will be it until I reopen in mid-January, the holiday teas are being snatched up quickly and pancake mixes are almost gone. The word on the cinnamon apple pancake mix was two thumbs way up which was nice to hear and I am in total agreement!

If you need help shopping, The Stillroom Gift & Tea Shop is in place to help you pull together anything from a gift basket full of goodies to warm, cozy beautifully crafted flannel quilts to vanilla beans for your holiday baking. We have fresh nutmeg for topping your eggnog and a vintage hodgepodge of cool collectibles looking for new homes too!

Cool shopping, hot tea in a most wonderful atmosphere plus help when you need it!

Looking for great sales? You really might want to stop into the Main shop on State Street and check out the unannounced sales…they are really pretty good!

Don’t forget we are open Christmas Eve until two, after that, we are closed for a couple of weeks to regroup for….SPRING!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanza, Happy Holidays, joyous winter solstice, Happy New Year and many thanks to everyone who passed through our doors this past year.

That’s all folks…catch you in 2010.

Light Up Night has come and gone and the Saxonburg Carole Sing is just about here!

On Friday, December 11 at 6:00 p.m. on Main Street, please join the village in the
second annual Saxonburg Carole Sing! The main activity will be in front of the library
garden and will feature carolers from Knoch High School, The Cranberry Bogmeisters,
The Butler Tabernacle Choir and much more. Free carriage rides up our picturesque
Main Street were postcard perfect last year and I expect that will be the case again
this year too! Register to have late afternoon tea with Mrs. Claus at The Fresh Cup
Cafe and stroll the village and enjoy Christmas shopping at it’s small town finest!

The Stillroom Gift & Tea Shop will be open from 10:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. so don’t
forget to come around the corner and enjoy all of the delights that our shop has to
offer! Hope to see you Friday! Oh, we have two new spots for you to enjoy as well. Visit the “A Little Bit of Christmas” shop before they fold up and go south for the
winter and the really super cool Saxonburg Area Artists Co-op on Main Street.

The Stillroom is filled to the brim with wonderful holiday teas from Stash and Harney & Sons, holiday coffee from LaPrima, our famous soft peppermint sticks, Jelly Belly sugarplums and stocking stuffers galore! Children’s DVD’s, baby gifts, teapots, accessories, new and vintage teapots, vintage hats, Divani Chocolates from Foxburg and much, much, much more!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…if you’re like eight. No, I kid. It’s time for
shop windows and houses to glow, santa and snow. I enjoy this time of year because I like to watch the count down to Christmas that the Hallmark channel or one of those channels has. I have become addicted to these movies after I close the shop for the weekend. I finally got to watch Nanny McPhee and I loved it.
Anyhow, it’s Light Up Night in Saxonburg this Friday night and it looks like the weather
is going to take just enough of a dive to make you know your alive! Shops will be open,
Santa is at the Library, Mrs. Claus is taking reservation for tea at The Fresh Cup for
the afternoon and The Stillroom will be quietly open. It’s always a toss up as to
be open or not. The shop is so small that it’s not really a comfortable place to be in
during an event like this but we will do our best to accomodate. If you’re around, stop
in, if not, we are open Tuesday through Friday from 10-6 and Saturday 10-2 and
I’ll be here Christmas Eve until 2! See you around and Happy Thanksgiving too!

Halloween is always fun for our little street. Over the years as communities have come together for the annual parade, nothing beats having kids come to your door for candy. On our street, (which in this neck of the woods is a rather
main thoroughfare for trucks delivering to the local very small chain grocer and alot of high school kids driving usually over the speed limit) we have some great parents who
organize a little walkabout before dark. It was a perfect night. It always is. Weather the leaves are shiny and damp and slippery layers with winds whipping or as it was this past week, a very seasonal evening. Just cold enough but dry with threatening dark skies as daylight waned. This year, I fixed twenty treat bags and started to worry if I was going to have to hand out strands of dental floss but we made it! That tells me next year to prepare more bags. I can’t think of anything worse that having to be the lame house /shop that ran out of candy and had to turn the porch lights off and hide in
a box in the attic. You know, like the balloon kid.

The coolest costume was the last kid who had on the mask from “Scream” and as he walked away, he stopped and quietly turned his head back towards us (I guess he had a
button that he could push or something) and made fake blood stream down his mask.
He was about ten. It was great.

I celebrated All Souls Day. It is always such a thoughtful day. I actually celebrate it
everyday. I never forget people who I have loved and are gone. I really feel their
spirits in my everyday life.

Now here we are trying not to decorate for Christmas too soon as we watch the last
of the leaves drop along with the weather channel because we KNOW we don’t want to be
out there in subzero temperatures pissing around with lights. And with the shop, I have
to be really careful not to scrub out Thanksgiving. It’s still autumn and it’s autumn
until what, like December or something? I LOVE Thanksgiving and everything that goes
along with it including the delicate balance of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

On that note let me say this as a mom and pop shopkeep. Buying trends have changed
in the last year and a half. Dollar General, which is about 500 yards from my shop, is my sort of enemy but not really. I believe they are what the kids would call, my frienemey. They have forced me to shift alot of what I do for the holiday season. Especially knickknacky things and ornaments and seasonal goods. I suppose in the end that’s not a bad thing because weather you come into The Stillroom
on State Street, or The Stillroom Annex at the back of The Fresh Cup Cafe on Main
Street, you will find extra special things that are local, high quality and super neat.

Also, I hear occasionally that when people come to our town, they complain that
there is nothing here. That can’t be. We, the shop owners, while not
great in number, (there are seven) are here and our town has history, architecture, beautiful bed and breakfast establishments (three on Main Street) places to dine (there
are five) and we are all different from each other which is great because then you
have choices! Seriously.

Now, on that note, I have to go untangle Christmas Lights and blow the dust off of
both Thanksgiving decorations.

Today, check out the Halloween Car Cruise on Main Street from 3-8.
Most shops will be open for business.
The other biggie is the German Buffet at St. Lukes at the corner of
Main and State Street from 3-7. Fun stuff, great food, great little town!
Go to www.historicsaxonburg.com for information on fall and winter
gatherings! Or, www.stillroomgifts.com for our gift and tea shop info.