A Blog "Blip" to the Williamsburg Glass

Do you see It? The glass? There on the table???? Looks French to Moi! This great picture was on "the Bedlam of Beefy" blog. He is articulate and a great writer.

The Williamsburg Glass

I am a firm believer of beautiful stemware, I also have special glasses that I love and a very special one I use all the time, you know, like a good pair of jeans. It is the Williamsburg glass. I don't know if it actually originated from Williamsburg, Pa., but the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia (above)made me love it. It is a simple, Colonial styled glass (Oops! did I say Colonial???)I'm a Francophile, for crying out loud.....! What am I saying? The glass I speak of is simple in design, looks like old glass, not overly embellished, & footed. Wine and champagne look great in it and it serves as a beautiful bud vase.

When we opened Beadboard UpCountry I had these glasses in the shop and I thought EVERYONE would just love them!!!! Well, they sat on a shelf next to fancier more embellished glasses and no one "GOT' them or purchased them either, so I pulled them off the floor of the shop and thought "ok, I certainly missed that call, so much for self indulgency...." The next night I stumbled on one of my all time favorite movies "The Philadelphia Story". The movie stars Katherine Hepburn, as Main Line Philadelpha heiress, Tracy Lord, who's getting married for the second time to a rich social moron when she still loves Cary Grant who lives close by. James Stewart is a reporter covering the wedding and is falling for her too.....


At one point the night before the wedding Hepburn and Stewart go swimming and get a little "untidy" on champagne. Here you see Stewart carrying a sloshed Tracy Lord, with hubby to be on the left looking like his cumberbund is too tight.




The next morning, after the party the previous night, everyone, especially Hepburn and Stewart were suffering from colossal hangovers. The cure????? Mimosas of course! Served in the Williamsburg glass!!!! I about fell out of my chair!!!!!!



I couldn't get the bottom in this one but that glass is in the movie. This is why I think this is funny. Are you ready for this???????



Since I couldn't sell them I thought I can SERVE in them so we keep some in the back of the store and if someone comes in around closing time, if we have it, we'll offer wine or an apperitif in those glasses. NOW, everybody says:" Where did you get these glasses? " They love them! I have sold them by the dozens, to the tune of about 140 or more!!!!!!!!

Here it is again as a vase, so simple, so elegant.

But this is how we like them the most, filled up!!!!!!! Preferably with Lillet Blonde...

A Votre Sante!

In the beginning

In the beginning Beadboard UpCountry opened on October third 2006, on a shoestring budget in Brenham, Tx. halfway between Houston and Austin. This old bank, the Farmers National Bank, had been completely and lovingly renovated by a local attorney Mr. Ted Dinkins, who had the good sense to write the checks and let the architects (Upchurch Architects) and builders do their stuff without too much trauma and drama from him.

Built in 1870, this is the original bank floor, the teller area was where the black part is and the "lobby"floor is the white octagonal with the black Greek Key like detail. The cement trench going down the center is where they dug up the floor to install electricity in 1920. The building is now on the National Historic Register. The ceiling is the actual floor from the upstairs....

Hey what's the matter here???? This shop doesn't really have much stuff in it!!!!! Where's all the merchandise???!!!! We thought we had tons of stuff to peddle but when I look back at these pictures, how in the blazes did we ever make any money being this "lean"?


And I do mean LEAN!!!!!




Fortunately we were able to add more things and get some reupholstery jobs, and some orders for our custom chairs, headboards and tableskirts , and after the original plants went south on us we found some sexy Zinc like planters and made it look more Euro Country.....





Hey Look! Now we have furniture, antiques, a sofa, hey we have stuff!!!!!

We have Aidan Gray, Juliska, Arte Italica! This is really good stuff.!!!





And Juliska is great stuff....



And pretty good looking stuff at that! If I may say so... Evidently some other people thought so too, as the next year we were awarded the President's Award for the Best Commercial Interior in the whole state by the Texas Downtown Association.....






We have Peacock Alley, and Papillion Linens and Libeco Lagae from Belgium. We love Linen and are not wrinkle phobic......




This is how we are today, after almost three years, and could not have lasted this long without the wonderful, talented bloggers that "got" the shop and appreciated the fact that we aren't located in the big city... Citing in particular Joni Webb of Cote de Texas, Terri Symington of the Countrypolitan, Annie Sitton of the Bunny Bungalow, and Ann Williams of Hill Country House. I would also like to issue kudos to Jennifer Eckermann who heads up community development in Brenham for her support and for the city grant who sprung for the sexy Beverly Hills awning.



Also I would like to thank Casey Cease / with Transform Media Group for teaching me this blogging thing in a half hour something short of a miracle after I bought "Blogging for dummies" and couldn't make heads nor tails........



And finally, my husband Peter.....who in answer to the question we get all the time..."What made you choose this place????" He always replies "This is where the bus broke down!"