The Stillroom

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 for the year at 10:00 on Tuesday, January 19th and resume the regular daily business hours of Tuesday through Friday from 10-4 and Saturday from 10-2.
The Stillroom Annex at the back of The Fresh Cup Cafe on Main Street was slated to re-open this past Wednesday which was an error on my part and it will now have a scheduled re-opening on Wednesday, January 20th with regular hours starting up again which are Wednesday-Saturday from 11-3.

Stop into The Fresh Cup Cafe for something hot and while you’re in there, go and check out all of the super cozy, warm quilts that are locally made, the growing selection of cooking herbs, spices, fragrances, gifts and the cool hodgepodge of vintage collectibles waiting for new homes!

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 and The Stillroom Annex are 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.

For updated calendar of events go to www.historicsaxonburg.com and you can see everything that is fun to do this coming fall!

What’s new in town, you ask?  The Stillroom Annex is a cute little shop that is located in the back of  The Fresh Cup Cafe.   

If you need a special spice for cooking (we carry fair trade, organic and great prices) or a quick gift to give and don’t have the time to run to a big store, stop in at The Stillroom Annex located in the back of The Fresh Cup Cafe on Main Street. 

So, in a pinch for chipotle, need a vanilla bean? If you need housewarming gift or just need a minute to relax , stop into The Fresh Cup Cafe and  look for the shop in the back that is out of the way! The Stillroom Annex hours
are Wednesday – Saturday 11-3.

Our 111 State Street Shop is still open the same days and time as we have been for the past eight years now.  Tuesday through Friday 10-4 and Saturday 10-2.

You know,when Laura first opened The Fresh Cup Cafe, it was quite lovely with white table cloths and pastel colored walls with waiters and waitresses on hand to take orders.

Then one day there was a write up in the local news paper that reviews food and then writes about it.  The review was super! 

Well, of course when a new place opens and then gets a write up in the paper, they are then swarmed many days in a row with unbelievable amounts of people who want to come in and try everything out. This can be a “double edged sword.”

Well, here we are a little over one year later and The Fresh Cup Cafe has done some morphing!  Now when you walk through the door you are greeted with beautiful Tuscon colors on the walls with subdued lighting and great music in the background.   The most important change that took place was adding really great espresso machines! 

The menu has been tightened  up with the best quiche choices.  This little cafe makes the most delicious quiche I have ever had along with a  nice tender spring green salad with a touch of cucumber &  feta if you like with  a choice of light and airy vinagrette dressings.  I opted for the honey mustard vinagrette that has just the right amount of kick.  This was accompanied by a couple of Italian sodas which tasted like sunshine!

The one thing that is different also is that now, instead of waiters and waitresses tripping over each other, you order your food at the counter and pick it up when it’s ready.  If Nathan, Laura or Steph aren’t super busy, they will bring your lunch out.  This is a change that some folks don’t care for though most patrons really don’t mind not being served.  There are two types in my book, those who want to be served, and the more casual easygoing customer who really is not put out by walking five feet to get a lovely plate of heaven!  They also have a little area where you pick up your silver, napkins and a place to fix your coffee or tea just the way you like it.  A very efficient set up!

My husband Mike, had the chicken salad on a large croissant and it was very substantial  and filling for a man sized appetite!  For dessert we shared a giant chocolate chip cookie that I swore had a hint of ginger but Nathan said “oh no it didint”.  (he didn’t really say that). It was big enough to satisfy our sweet tooth before we head back to our afternoon grind.  Did someone say “grind?”  Well, after this mid day respite, the grind seemed less so.

So, if you have not experienced The Fresh Cup Cafe lately, you really need to make the time to come and enjoy the extended hours and the casual atmosphere and the really great food and the excellent coffee!

Visit The Stillroom Annex Gift Shop at the back of The Fresh Cup Cafe.  Now open Wednesday through Saturday from 11-3.

It had been brought to my attention that my usual happy and upbeat posts took a downward turn last week.  o.k.  Pollyanna temporarily left the building and now she’s back.  (Thanks @bfbcping).  I just needed a reality check.

In spite of a very quiet August, I shall commit to remaining upbeat, positive and I will go to sleep counting my blessings.  I will continue moving forward with my plans to open The Stillroom Spice & Scent Shop at The Fresh Cup Cafe for September 1st.  The new shop, in addition to the herbs, spices and scents will also feature local quilt makers Rose and Patty’s beautiful, beautiful handmade quilts and accessories as well as small antique and collectible pieces from the lovely and funny Laurette.  The plans should tighten up in the next few days…just one more place for Saxonburger’s and out of towners to visit.   The signs  will be in place within The Fresh Cup Cafe in the next week to signify that we are ready to get down to the business of doing business!