The Fannin County Chamber is AWESOME!!

Our Fannin County Chamber ROCKS! We were asked to participate in an event that was held this past Thursday night to host several travel writers from across the US and Canada. The media marketplace event was called "A Little Taste of the Georgia Mountains", and we were honored to be asked to participate! We were paired with a restaurant and ours happened to be one of our favorite's Blue Ridge Brewery (Woo Hoo!)

Shawn, Brenda, Becky and Chrissy had the store all spruced up for our guests! I have to say I think our little town looked awesome! All of the merchants had really stepped up and put in some hard work to get camera ready for our guests.

One off our favorite artists and friends Lynn Kemp came to hang out with us show off her fabulous "Made It!" jewelry line with our visitors. They raved about her wonderful collection, we even sold a few pieces that night!

Oh man- you would not believe the spread that Blue Ridge Brewery put out! Lamb chop lollipops with herbed couscous, spinach pizzas, hummus triangles, Polina's famous open face egg salad with pepperoncini, charcuterie samplers (one of my ultimate favorites), their outrageous chocolate pie and of course some of Pat's very special beers! Without question team BRB BROUGHT IT!! Our guests were blown away...I saw one of them taking a photo of the lamb chop plate!! Shawn, Becky and I were very polite until all of the visitors had been through but let's just say when the last guest left our store "we helped clean up!!" and it was pure heaven!! Pat, Polina, Sandy and Beverly we are proud to have been teamed up with you, thanks for all of the hard work, and fun time!

We also sampled Girl & Fig Mostarda and our newest gourmet goodie from Atlanta, Georgia Hot Squeeze...our guests loved them!! (If you haven't tried them yet you are missing out!)

We had these stickers made up! Because we love our town, and we love our Chamber! Great job Jan, Elaine, Jode, Donna and the volunteers that made this special event happen! You all did a great job shining a light on our corner of the world, the event was so professional yet casual and gracious! THANK YOU, we appreciate all that you do!

Gatewood Hall Gracious Home Featured in Home Accents Today Magazine

Gatewood Hall Gracious Home is in the press again! We are very honored to have been featured in the November 2010 issue of Home Accents Today Magazine. Yes, that is our Autumn table on the cover!!

The article from the magazine is above (not sure if it will be legible from the jpeg file, but once it is posted in their online magazine I'll include the link). The beautiful photo images were created by Chris Hefferen owner of Foundry Digital (Chris is so awesome, what that man can do with light is unbelievable! Thank you Chris for making us look so good!)

GH in the Big Canoe Newspaper Smoke Signals!

Gatewood Hall Gracious Home was recently featured in a special High Design section of the Big Canoe newspaper called Smoke Signals. Click on the above photo to read the article!

Gatewood Hall Named One Of 50 Retail Stars in the Nation

So this is our big news and we are SO EXCITED!!! Home Accents Today Magazine and AmericasMart released their annual list of Fifty Retail Stars for 2010, where they present 50 independent home accent retailers that are significant players in their respective markets throughout the nation and Gatewood Hall Gracious Home was named one of the Fifty selected!!!!

This is from the press release- "This list recognizes enterprising home accents retailers who are meeting the challenges of an increasingly competitive marketplace with innovative strategies and creative solutions. All 50 Retail Stars are creative in their merchandising, contribute to their communities and distinguish themselves from the competition. They excel at innovative marketing and advertising efforts, head-turning in-store displays and out-of-the-box business ideas. These retailers represent the best and the brightest."

We can't tell you how much we appreciate this honor! It is so exciting to be recognized within the professional community. Thank you for your support, because this recognition would be nothing without you and your support

Gatewood Hall and Blue Ridge, GA Featured in National Magazine

Some of you may remember that this time last year we had the folks from Southern Lady Magazine in our store taking photos and writing an article about Blue Ridge, Georgia...we are happy to say that we are in this months edition. They did a wonderful job introducing our town to the rest of the world. They visited our store along with a few others, they mentioned some of our great restaurants and of course our scenic railway. In another article they featured Mercier Orchards with some excellent photos. In our favorite article they feature some of our favorite customers and friends from Fair Hope, Alabama. They show Anita, Clay, Delana and Charlene enjoying the beautiful North Georgia fall beside a river near their cabins.

In yet another article they show a gorgeous Autumnal tablescape in Anita's cabin and they featured our pewter acorn stemware as well as our bear salt and pepper sets. It has been so fun to receive calls from around the country requesting info about our store or wanting to purchase these items!

In the photo above they show a very cozy shot of our Pine Cone Hill display bed dressed in the Riona quilt.

This issue of Southern Lady is really a keeper, it has some outstanding photos of our special corner of the world...and some delicious recipes. (Anita and Charlene said the S'mores on the cover are to die for...homemade marshmallows, who knew!!) Anyway pick up a copy, grab a cup of tea and enjoy!

Happy Labor Day! Come in and see us this weekend, we have some new arrivals, and some great specials!

New Holiday Merchandise

Many of you have asked when we would be putting out our new holiday merchandise and I want to let you know that it will be out soon. We held off because we are so excited to be featured in Southern Lady Magazine. One of our fabulous customers (who is also an outstanding Interior Designer) introduced the Editor of the publication to us. They are already working on their Fall 2009 issue featuring Blue Ridge. Guess what? They will also be featuring Gatewood Hall Gracious Home. Their only request was that they wanted "fall photos" and we were happy to oblige. The photo shoot was today and Shawn said that it went really well. Kelli and Rebecca arrived early to "fluff" and prepare vignettes. The photographer was wonderful and very complimentary of our store. Needless to say we are thrilled!! Thank you Anita for the introduction! We will keep all of you posted as publication date draws near. Oh, and we will get busy putting out our new holiday finds!!