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Please comment and let me know what you think!

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Speaking of monumental tasks at hand the countdown has really begun for the Open House.  10 days and the clock is ticking.

Eric’s mantle is filled with color and shimmer. This kind of full and bountiful decor is not likely to be found in the most primitive of homes, but it sure fits well into the historic home he now lives in in Brookline.

Decorated for Halloween, the same mantle that was so formally decorated for Christmas is filled with fun and whimsy. The witches of Salem must be jealous of those shoes!

Thanks Eric for sharing your seasonal decor on your historic mantle. We look forward to future holidays!

Thanks Linda for sharing with us Lilly’s new home!

To participate, send your photos to web@bradfordmercantile.com and we will post them to the blog.

Photo ideas:

1. A decorative painting project - did you repaint a room, stencil your floors, or choose the perfect colonial color for the exterior of your home?
2. A vignette - whether it is an unused corner of a bathroom’s counter, shelves in a living room, or a dining table center piece, vignettes are wonderful collections of wares that show off our favorite styles, seasons, and things. Halloween, Christmas, Americana, Spring, or any other holiday themed displays show of your favorite season. Non-seasonal vignettes are perfect for sharing too!
3. A whole room - perhaps your decorating project started out as a piece or two, but it grew to include the whole room (or the whole house)… we would love to see it all!
4. A garden project - whether it is a primitive wooden birdhouse, a simple bench, or a recycled metal bird feeder that sets your garden off, we want to see it - and all of your plantings as well!

All that we ask is:

1. The photos are yours.
2. The decor is in keeping with Bradford Mercantile’s style or you inventively used a product we sell in a different type of decor. If you aren’t sure if your style is our style - send us the photos anyways - we will let you know.
3. You understand that the pictures become the property of Bradford Mercantile.
4. We will respect your privacy. Typically we will post the photos with the following heading format: Jane D. of Warren, RI. We will never use your last name. We can provide less information to the blog readers than this if you prefer.

We look forward to sharing your hard work and decorating passions with everyone who reads this blog. Happy decorating!

Completely customizable at no additional charge - choose from hundreds of paint combinations, several metal finishes, and dozens of different styles.

All of Timeless Lighting’s products are handcrafted in Vermont by a single family using centuries’ old tools and techniques. The family stands behind their lighting and offers a Lifetime Guarantee.

If you have a lighting project coming up, this is the perfect time to buy. Spruce up your dining room, bathroom, or over your kitchen sink and island.

Introductory Discount - 20% off entire catalog (order by May 31, 2009)

The average savings per fixture is $60. With the discount, wood spun maple and wrought iron chandeliers start at $167, solid maple painted table lamps start at $143, and sconces start at $143.

We have several example pieces in the shop. View the Timeless Lighting catalog here: Timeless Lighting Catalog

20% discount applies to orders only (custom fixture designs or catalog orders). All in-stock fixtures are discounted 10%. A non-refundable 50% deposit is required at time of order and remaining 50% is due when fixture is delivered.

All fixtures are UL rated. Chandeliers are rated for 75 watts per arm.

Unfortunately we didn’t get any pictures of this incident. My son and I cleared out the cabinet over the microwave, rigged a bed sheet and some other objects to direct the bird to the window of the sink (all while I am standing on a rickety stool) and slowly pulled the vent pipe apart. In the split second that the pipe separated (I was about to pee my pants!) the bird bolted for the open window and then it was gone.

So, if you showed up to the store right at 10am today, just know I was a bit preoccupied! Mornings like this remind me, we just aren’t along for the ride in our homes… they require constant love and care.

She doesn’t have a regularly set schedule as she also has a few other irons in the fire but she will be here helping throughout the holidays and hopefully beyond until she decides if she is going to move to Colorado in the spring. I am so happy to have her in the shop, and we have been having fun catching up. Rebekah went to high school with my son Jonathan.

We are raffling off a $200.00 gift certificate to the shop to be drawn on December 14. The proceeds from this raffle are to help send a group of nursing students to Africa in May to work at clinics, orphanages, and schools in Uganda. The nursing Students are from The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and my daughter Theresa is one of the students going on the trip. A check will be written to their student group, Service Nursing Abroad, to help defer the cost of the trip for the group, which is estimated to be approximately $60,000. The tickets are $1.00 each, or 6 for $5.00.

May all of you have a very Happy Thanksgiving, and I look forward to seeing you soon.

The comments and good wishes I have received from many of you have made me realize without a doubt I made the right decision to move my shop. While the previous location was not my first choice it did provide me with a place to start my shop and for that I am grateful, yet I must admit I am really happy in the new location. The improved visibility and the scenic presence of the barn, not to mention all the other advantages of this location over the previous one thus far have been very positive. If you haven’t been in since the move stop by soon to visit and remember the shop is stroller and wheelchair friendly.

Have you been accumulating exchange points? In July we implemented a customer appreciation program that has proven to be very popular amongst the regulars here at Bradford Mercantile. For every dollar you spend on non discounted items you accumulate points and when you get to 250 points you receive a $25.00 gift certificate or deduction from your sale total. When you purchase gift certificates for someone else you accumulate those points too!! Plus if you give someone else a gift certificate for their birthday and they redeem it within 7 days of their birthday they get a 20% discount. All they have to do is show their driver’s license. The birthday discount is valid even if you don’t have a gift certificate to redeem, it is just another way we show our appreciation to you!

The shop will have extended hours after Thanksgiving but as of now I am not sure what they will be. Feel free to call or check the website, which by the way is being revamped a little soon. Jonathan, (my son), has been very busy applying to graduate schools this fall and soon all those deadlines will be past and we will get it updated. He is a real blessing to me and this shop, and if he moves away from New England next summer to embark on a new journey he will be sorely missed. Not just because I will have to learn how to do a lot of things he now helps me with either!!

The time frame for this move as of now is to close here August 23 and reopen there no later than Tuesday, Sept 2. Hopefully we can have it open the Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend but for sure by Tuesday, Sept. 2. We will start moving items over the middle of August, but the big moving day for now is scheduled Sunday, August 24. Up until that time there are bargains to be had! I still have many of the items from the big sale 2 weeks ago out, and what is left on the “bargain tables” is getting marked down even further. Additional items are being added to the sale daily.

In closing I want you to know the new location will be laid out in such a way that it will be stroller and wheelchair friendly. Many of you comment that what you like about my current space is that you have room to move, not feel like you are going to knock stuff over, not have to go in a one way pattern around the shop etc… I will work hard to maintain a similar feel in the new space. It is a little bit smaller so there might not be as much open floor space, but it will be wheelchair and stroller friendly for sure.

The shop will be closed on Sunday’s this month but after we move will be open again on Sunday’s. I will try to send an update later in the month.

Thank you so very much for your business, your support, and your friendship.

With family flown in from as far as Florida and a rose presented to Terry by everyone she greeted it sure was a great way to celebrate turning 50.

Come join Bradford Mercantile for one of the best events of the year in Warren. A shopping, eating and music extravaganza, the Warren Walkabout showcases Warren at its best! Bradford Mercantile is located right next to a free trolley stop for the Warren Walkabout.

Discover Warren’s website says this about the Warren Walkabout: “Each October, Discover Warren hosts the Warren Walkabout, showcasing the town’s arts, antiques, shopping and great food. Artists and artisans open their studios, shopkeepers their doors and the streets are filled with visitors.” For additional information about the Warren Walkabout, visit Discover Warren’s website. Bradford Mercantile will be open 12-5pm. We are excited to open our doors for the festivities!

I asked her mother if I could give her a beanie baby from my stash of beanies I rescued from a bag my daughter was taking to the Salvation Army. The mom said yes, and that her daughter really likes bears, and cats. I looked through the basket and found a leopard beanie, and went to hand it to the little girl. Well she let out a holler and started backing up and shaking her head no, no. She was clearly terrified.

I asked the mom if she was afraid of the beanie I picked, and she said that her daughter had been taught “stranger danger” and that was what she was reacting to. Well, she did a good job of teaching her because she had me startled!! I gave the beanie to mom and the little girl still wouldn’t take it. Mom set it down and they shopped and made their purchase. As they were leaving mom asked if she could still have the beanie and I said certainly so she picked it up along with her daughter. Mom placed the beanie on her shoulder, and the little girl was trying to knock it to the ground!! I wonder if she ever did warm up to it.

Bradford Mercantile now has 1803 Candles, a wonderful soy line made from American grown soy beans in the heartland of America. They are clean burning, biodegradable, environmentally safe and made from a renewable resource that also supports American farmers. They are so wonderfully scented I find myself sniffing them throughout the day!

The jars are labeled with a scent name and story that reminds us of simpler days gone by. For example, Olde Dough Bowl- “On the farmhouse table sits my dough bowl filled with clove buds, nutmeg, cinnamon sticks & lots of rosehips!” Or Southern Welcome-” The ladies in town welcome new families with their best baked goods. Mom makes her marmalade cake.” Or the heavenly one called Salt Box Blossoms-” The perennial gardens surround the house with ever changing colors. Wisteria and lilac fills the air…” One good whiff of Salt Box Blossoms takes me back to the days I lived in Illinois and one of my neighbors had wonderful lilacs and wisteria that sweetly scented the neighborhood. Maybe it will remind you of Grandma’s yard, or of the days when you were little and would take flower cuttings to school for your favorite teacher. Do the children still do that?

When you look at the gallery photos, if you see a random picture of a rose from time to time there is an explanation for that. Ever since my 49th birthday in December I have received a rose of some kind every day from my husband. It started with a few fresh roses that I thought were multiplying in the vase, and then one day it was a magazine photo of a rose put under the windshield wiper, or a card with a rose on it slid under the door at the store. I never know how or when a rose will appear in my day.

Anyway, after my son posted the first batch of photos on the website the next day there was a picture of a rose there also. When I started getting the roses I thought it was maybe a 12 days of Christmas kind of thing, but there are more than 12 days between my birthday and Christmas, and the roses kept appearing. Almost 4 months later the roses still randomly appear in my life, (one day on the best banana cake I ever had from Cater to You Bakery on Child Street in Warren).

Now I think it is associated with the fact my next birthday is the big 50, and maybe he is going to do it until then. I have jokingly said that if that is the case keep it up a few weeks longer and end it with a big bang by having a float for me in the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena on New Year’s Day 2008! (I did get an autographed picture from this year’s Tournament of Roses Queen.) So from time to time I may blog a little about my roses, especially the more creative ones, and I won’t be surprised if a few more show up somewhere on this website.

I really don’t have a clue when or where the next one will come from, sometimes they are staring me in the face, or should I say jumping in my face, as was the case a week or two ago when I was getting ready for bed and sadly said to my husband that “maybe the rose thing is over, because I didn’t get one today, or is it staring me in the face and I just don’t see it?” Well, it had been jumping in my face, on a new bandana on my dog’s neck! He jumps a lot when he is happy and sure enough he had been jumping up and down all evening and I just didn’t get it! My family loves to tease me when I am so clueless.

The moral of this story is if you want to open your own little shop be sure you have very understanding and supportive people behind you. Add many months to whatever timing you think it will take, hey, if you get open on schedule great, but be prepared for multiple pitfalls and delays along the way. If it is really your dream hang in there, and try not to take up drinking, because you would have plenty of reason to have one or two, which might turn into three or four.

No, I didn’t have three or four, but I sure wanted to a few times!! Don’t let all the red tape get to you, most likely it will all work out and when you are finally open, you will be glad you toughed it out and hung in there. Just remember it isn’t all about doing cute little displays and chatting with customers, there are a lot of other things that come at you from every angle when you least expect it.

My husband gave me a card the day I finally was able to open with a note that said how proud he was of me because I hung in there and didn’t throw in the towel. During those many months I kept saying to him “God is trying to tell me something” and he kept saying “God is trying to make sure you really want to do this”.

I had a lot of behind the scenes help getting this shop up and running. My son designed the cash register counter and display unit to be reminiscent of something you would see at an old fashioned general store. What took him a short time on the computer to design (he is just shy of finishing his architecture degree) took my husband weeks and weeks to build. Fortunately the landlord let us build it on site, we sure didn’t have room at home to build it! We couldn’t have got one more thing in or out of that garage.

My husband Andy is frequently at the shop on weekends attending to his “honey do” list, whether it be hanging pictures with the exact precision one would expect from a registered professional engineer, or hauling out the large amount of cardboard boxes that quickly overtake the back room. He is fondly referred to as the “VP of fixing and toting”. My son Jonathan devoted way to many hours to the cause, from designing the counter, teaching me how to use the computer, and designing this website.

Teaching me the computer has been a monumental, ongoing task which he should be awarded a medal for. He has turned most aspects of keeping the website current over to me, but somehow I think he will still be involved. His phone number is on speed dial that is for sure. While my daughter Theresa didn’t play as much of a daily role in getting the shop open, she did keep her father and I fed last summer. She also did a lot of dishes and laundry for me so that I could receive product, enter data, paint the massive counter and display unit, and a thousand other things. She lives in Boston full time now, so we are on our own as far as feeding ourselves is concerned. If you went through our recycling bin you would see lots of those black frozen dinner trays, and way to much Coke Zero.

In the fall of 2005 when I decided to bite the big bullet and open my own shop I had a plan I will refer to as Plan A. Plan A was a spot in Bristol that was being renovated and would be many months before it was ready. No problem I thought because I am many months from being ready to open. I have to come up with a name, get a tax permit, go the gift shows, shop the antique places for display pieces, etc…

Many months is no problem. Plus that took the pressure off of trying to be open before Christmas, since the major gift shows weren’t until after the holidays. In February I spent 5 days shopping at a show in Pennsylvania, ordering thousands and thousands of dollars of merchandise. Since Plan A wasn’t ready I had everything shipped to my house. Before I even got home from the show I got wind that the landlord was getting cold feet, I suspect because he had many people interested in his spot, and he was running way behind his original schedule to have it done in February.

So when I got home I realized maybe I better have Plan B. There was a lovely little spot down on the water in Bristol, key word being LITTLE! The price was reasonable, but the spot was so tiny that I quickly realized I wouldn’t be able to squeeze all the stuff I had ordered into that little spot, no matter what a wonderful location it was. Plus Plan B’s landlord was getting lots of other people wanting to sign on the dotted line when they heard I was going to take it. So, as my home is continuing to fill with all the merchandise that was arriving, I knew I needed to do something. Giving up was not an option unless I had one really, really big garage sale to get rid of all the stuff that was quickly filling my house!

So in the middle of the night I was on Craig’s List looking for anything that might be out there. I think it was about 3:30 a.m. when I came across a spot in Warren that just might work. The next day I drove by, and called the owners to set up an appointment to see the property. It was a big old barn that was being divided into 2 first floor spaces, and a loft space. Across the street was the new Market at Cutler Mills that was going to open in May, and behind the Market was the future location for the Basically British Tea Room. Add to that mix a gym, a fencing academy, an art gallery, and numerous other nearby businesses I thought this might just be where I am supposed to be. It isn’t downtown, but there is a lot to draw people and it is far easier to park than on Main Street. I signed a lease in the middle of March and was told it would be ready to occupy by May 1.

Well little did I know the fun had just begun, so to speak.. When I went down to town hall to get a business license I was told that that property wasn’t zoned retail. Being hit by a falling meteorite might be a way to describe how I felt at that exact moment. The town officials informed me all was not lost but it would involve getting the property rezoned which would require special meetings, and since the property was considered a change of use it would also require numerous other changes the landlord didn’t know he was going to have to do before he could rent the space.

The waiting game began, March, April, and May turned into June, July, and August. Remember I said the merchandise was all being sent to my home? I attended several more gift shows during those months. It’s now been 6 months of the UPS and FedEx guys visiting my house on a regular basis. The neighbors that didn’t know I was opening a shop must have thought I had a huge shopping addiction!! It is very fortunate that I have a rather large home because as the months wore on merchandise and furniture for the shop occupied not only my living and dining rooms, but also my family room, kitchen, foyer, laundry room, first floor bedroom, and 2 car garage. Not only did I have spring and summer merchandise but also fall and Christmas. Everything needed to supply a shop for an entire year was on the first floor of my house.

It got so crowded that at night I would make sure there was at least a single width passageway down the steps and out the front door in case of fire. The cats loved it, they had so many places to hide and things to jump on. My poor dogs it was a little more difficult on. They never knew which way to go, getting to the back yard was like navigating the corn mazes at Halloween! It was a good excuse not to vacuum or dust because you couldn’t see the floor and all the furniture was covered in product.

Finally in very late August I was told I could start moving stuff over, but I couldn’t open because there were still items the building inspector needed done before I could let customers in, the fire alarms being highest priority. In mid October he gave me his approval to open with a temporary occupancy, a parking lot still needs to be installed in the back.

(For now there is plenty of on street parking, ignore the yellow markings on the sidewalk in front of the building. They are left over from the days when this building stored antique cars and maybe a dump truck or two and the owner needed to make sure he could get them out of the building.)

My furniture shipment arrived today. I have several pieces that are perfect for the dining room, or kitchen if you have a big one. The man that designs this furniture lives in Alabama and he gives the furniture names. For instance I now have a Talladega Towel Cupboard which is a great cobblestone color. It is perfect for the bathroom, with cubbies for towels, and other bathroom necessities. Toys in the kids room, sewing projects, it would also be great in the home office.

I am guessing my furniture guy likes the car races at the Talladega Speedway. I also have a large piece called the Madison Hutch. It is 84” high and 72” wide, with great display shelves for dishes, books, or other treasures. It also has drawers and a large shelf on the bottom for display. It is done in a great red color and really makes a statement. After my husband helps me get them moved into place I will post pictures. There are also new pantry type pieces, old fashioned pie cupboards. One with tin inserts in the doors.

Pour yourself a glass of bubbly, and join us in celebrating the launching of our website! My son Jonathan has worked tirelessly (and is now very tired, note time this entry is posted )to have a very unique site for you to visit. He stresses that it is not completely finished but everything is in place and will continue to evolve. I invite you to browse through it and check out the different features. There are four sections to the website.

There is a store gallery, featured products, a blog called The Mercantile Register, and an events and announcements section. Under the events and announcements section any special sales, open houses, town wide events and other events you might be interested in attending, will be listed. Also, if the shop will be closed for any special reason, such as to attend the gift show, vacation, or in the event of illness, it will be noted here. From time to time when a really neat shipment of new product arrives I will mention it so that you will know there is a large selection of new arrivals. Occasionally there will also be special sales that will only be advertised on the website. Please be sure to check back soon as it is my intent to keep the content fresh.