Amber and Pearl Jewelry are featured this month. Valentine's Day is fast approaching. See the new jewelry page on our web page: http://www.charlotteelliottinc.com/#!jewelry/c14r2 The first thirty customers to purchase over $40 at our shop on February 13 will get a free gift of Valentine's Chocolate to keep for your self or give to your sweetheart.

African Tribal Art

At Charlotte Elliott our African Tribal Art is outstanding. Pieces from our shop are now parts of the permanent display in many private collections and Museums across the country. Our collection has been praised by curators from the Smithsonian Museum of African Art and a Curator from the Baltimore Museum of Art has purchased pieces from our collection for her personal collection which have been loaned to the rotating displays at the BMA. These are some lovely photographs of pieces of our collection here in the shop. (photographs by Courtney Gray of Hampden)

This is the season for setting a fine table and serving up some seasonal cheer. This is a photo of our family's Holiday meal. Sitting around the table with good friends and family has always been a happy time in our family and it never requires a holiday to do it. we gather around the table for dinner every chance we get. And we always use the china and the silver and the crystal, the linen, the center piece and the dining room. Through the tradition of gathering around the Dining Table we learn about the events and accomplishments of our troupe. we tell jokes and stories and tighten our bonds of friendship and love. So this is our wish for your New Year: don't save family time around the dinner table for "special occasions". Rather make every meal, and every opportunity a special occasion. Make your life a special occasion and make sure to bring out the good stuff for all those people that really matter: family and friends. Happy New Year to all of you.

Hats

Hats are an amazing accessory. They show character, flare and fearless fashion sense. They protect your head from the sun and they shade your eyes. But the most fabulous things about hats to me, a vintage stylist, is that there is no other singular item of clothing that encapsulates an era of style like a hat. A hat speaks to its own era: 20's cloche hat, 50's pill box hat, 40's broad brimmed sun hat, the golfer's cap of the 30s, the turban of the teens, the exuberant hats of the 80's, the floppy denim hat of the 60's.... A hat can identify and inspire your entire vintage look.

The classic men's 50's Fedora for the Mad Men look.

a broad brimmed felt hat from the 40's

Exuberant Orange hat from the 80's More hat's from my collection:

Summer Cleaning

Usually we have a Spring Cleaning but the weather was so nice and we had so much going on at the shop (did you swing by for HonFest?) that we forgot to do the Spring Cleaning and now, here it is the first day of Summer. So, Summer cleaning it is. we are digging through the store room and finding a ton of things we have been holding on to because they are neat and fun but not really worth giving floor space or merchandising. Thus we have formulated a plan:

On Saturday, June 23 from 11am - 6pm Charlotte Elliott and the Bookstore Next Door will be putting on our First (Annual) Dollar Sidewalk Sale.

There will be clothes, books, puzzles, glassware, fabric, whatsits, oddments, hats, shoes, "Bits of String too short to save" and stuff-that-you-won't-know-why-you-need-but-must-have-because-it-is-a-dollar.

The importance of real books

These Lovely old volumes are never going to be published on Kindle or Nook. These books will only ever be enjoyed as paper with boards, bound in buckram or leather. They have marvelous illustrations that were engraved especially for the volume. The print was made by printing press. The history behind these books is more than the story inside. Story has been printed in multiple editions and sure you can find Wind in The Willows in hard back and paperback and maybe even recorded to tape but this buckram early edition has see dozens of children grow up and had many fingers turn its pages. Owning a book is more than owning the story, it is owning the book that has passed through so much time before that the history of what it is makes it greater.

This gallery railing became an essential addition to the store when we expanded. Previously this space had been occupied by a very unattractive plywood box but when we started using the space upstairs we wanted to be able to see it, to open up the space above the stairs. This custom railing was designed and fabricated by Steve Baker of Wholly Terra, 3406 Chestnut Avenue, Baltimore, MD. He is a local artist and done many pieces of iron work and stained glass around Hampden. You see more of his work at: http://whollyterra.com/