I know it's been ages since we've added anything new to our on-line catalog, but don't think for a minute that this means we haven't gotten anything new in the store. Tons (and I mean literally) of new stuff has come in the door and we're just now getting it all sorted out.

As usual, the list below is far from complete - it's just a little taste of what's new.

In the way of furniture, we have a really cool rolling plant table with a zinc liner that is so watertight you could display aquatic plants, a funny vintage toy box in the shape of a delivery truck and a cute pair of little side chairs from Antigua made of Caribbean mahogany and painted black.

In the fireplace department we have a neoclassic French or Belgian "Rouge Brioche" marble surround, a "St. Anne's Gray" Regency style marble surround from England, a kind of "Arts and Crafts" style copper and iron log holder and a brass and iron arched fire screen with a central brass medallion mounted on it.

In the lighting area we not only have a bunch of new light fixtures, but we've had a huge chunk of our great older stock re-wired so they are now ready to take home and hang. The new stock includes: three vintage Italian chinoiserie chandeliers, a really neat vintage shell lamp, and a kind of Moravian star motif vintage hanging light.

In paintings and prints we have a nicely distressed old dog print in a round frame, two old framed child's butterfly collections, a pair of nice bird prints, two vintage nursery rhyme prints and a small oval watercolor of a Dutch farmer

In the garden area we've got a nice pair (mismatched paint) of window guards that Joe has made into gates, a pair of great early New Orleans looking balcony rails, bunches of decorative ironwork, a nicely aged cast stone shell basin and an old wrought iron flower shop display piece that would make a great plant stand or even a quirky bar.

We've also got a whole bunch of new decorative accessory pieces. A chinoiserie, tri-fold traveling mirror, a vintage wicker candy-store display tray, a miniature shell wishing well, lots of little vintage silver pieces and gillions of interesting little primitive and folk art pieces from Nancy's Mom's collection.

We thought hard about staying in Huatulco longer, but the idea of trying to home school Addy from a hotel room in Mexico didn't seem like that much fun to any of us.

Besides, it's a little difficult to juggle a grilled shrimp, a margarita and a math book all at the same time. One day we'd like to be able to stop trying to convince ourselves that several small trips are better than one long vacation.

I know it's always confusing this time of year because of our vacation, so here are our normal hours:

• Wednesday through Saturday 10 to 5
• Sunday 12 to 5
• Monday and Tuesday - Closed

Going on five years seems like a good time to shake things up a little. We think we have some great new ideas for this year and we plan on finally bringing some pretty good old ones to fruition. We'd really love to hear some of your ideas as well, so, drop us a line and tell us how you think we could bring a little more fun into everyone's year.

We hope all of you had a great holiday season and looking forward to spring as much as we are!

Happy New Year and Fond Regards,
Beau, Nancy & Addy