Shop Closed March 31, 2012

If you've noticed, I've been missing in action. The Little Shop of Arts and Antiques officially closed its doors on March 31, 2012. I am just now getting around to posting this information, but many of you already know this and helped me clean out most of the shop!

Thanks to all who visited my shop in both Old Town, Lilburn and historic downtown Lawrenceville. It was a blast while it lasted!

Girls Night Out with authors Ginger Emas and Lisa Baron, Feb. 7th

As Valentine's Day approaches, we think it's time for some self-love! Join "Girls Night Out" at The Little Shop Of Arts And Antiques, Tuesday, February 7th 7 - 9 pm.

  

Join the best girlfriend vibe in Atlanta as funny girls Lisa Baron  and Ginger Emas  entertain you with hilarious true stories of sex, scandals and trysts gone horribly wrong!

Stop by shop between 7 - 9 PM and enjoy Chocolate Me-Tinis, sinful snacks, book giveaways, readings from the authors, and the kind of laughter and story-swapping only women know how to do best.

Meet The Authors!

Ginger Emas

Ginger Emas, author of "Back On Top: Fearless Dating After Divorce". Ginger is the former national web editor for skirt! Magazine, an award-winning business writer, and the author of the hilarious and helpful book, Back on Top: Fearless Dating After Divorce (© Globe Pequot Press, May 2009). Previously a magazine editor for IBM in Charlotte, NC, Ginger left her corporate job to move to Atlanta, telling everyone she wanted to go out on her own, but the truth is she had dated all of the eligible men in the tri-city Mecklenburg area and needed a larger pool. ....read more on Huffington Post. Read more about "Back On Top" on Ginger's web.

Lisa Baron

Lisa Baron, author "Life of the Party; A Political Press Tart Bares All " . This book is a laugh-out loud coming of age tale of former campaign press secretary, Lisa Baron. An Amazon.com best seller, this book pulls back the curtain to reveal the most gritty and hilarious scenes of life as a political staffer on the campaign trail.

Lisa has appeared on MSNBC’s The Martin Bashir Show, The Dennis Miller Show, The Alan Colmes Show, Culture Shocks, On the Block with Tim, The Judith Regan show and participated in Vanity Fair’s acclaimed Writer’s Reading series. Lisa lives in Atlanta with her husband and son and dreams of one day having enough money to hire Rick Springfield to play a private concert at her home. Visit Lisa's web.

Come join the fun!

Hollywood Comes To Lawrencevile With Screenwriting Classes!

Elisa D. Bowman Screenwriting Workshops

Begin This Month!

At 

The Little Shop Of Arts And Antiques

Sign Up Now!

     Learn how to write a screenplay with writer/producer Elisa Bowman. Each workshop consists of 5 bi-weekly classes. Cost is $125, payable $25 each Saturday session.

     January 14 - Beginning of a 5 part bi-weekly screenplay writing workshop for beginners 10:00 am - noon  "Writing A Professional Screenplay". 

    January  21-  Beginning of 5 part bi-weekly intermediate screenplay writing workshop  10:00 am - noon.  "The Secrets To Refining Your Screenplay".  

    For more information or to register - call shop 404-326-7306 or

 e-mail. Reservations recommended.

Bio Info: Filmmaker. Producer: Dear Willie (2010); Production Resource Executive: V.I.P. (2002); Will & Grace (2001); What Lies Beneath (2000); The Sixth Day (2000); Space Cowboys (2000); Paramount Studio Backlot (1999); Runaway Bride (1999); Smart House (1999); Beverly Hills 90210 (1998); Striptease (1996); Multiplicity (1996); Nixon (1995); Basketball (1994); The Getaway (1994). Production Coordinator/Director's Assistant: Fashionably L.A. (1999)/Ringer (1996). Affiliations & Appointments: UCLA Producer's Program (1993)/Women in Film (1995-2002). 

 

Christmas At The Little Shop Of Arts And Antiques

A Very Happy Holiday Season To All! Open Until Midnight New Year's Eve. Come join the celebration in historic downtown Lawrenceville, Ga.!

Merry Christmas To All!



Third Friday Open Mic For Writers, Meet Jennie Helderman

    

     Jennie Helderman holds literary awards for long and short, fiction and nonfiction. As the Sycamore Grows, a 90,000-word nonfiction book, took its sixth literary award in November, while a 600-word flash fiction story earned a Pushcart Prize nomination in 2007.  

    $3.00 Admission, $5.00 if you would like to read something of your own. Limit six minutes, sixteen readers. 

     Tonight's Third Friday Open Mic hosted by playwright Evan Guilford-Blake.

     Third Friday Open Mic is held the third Friday of each month 7 - 9 PM. 

     Looking for authors who would like to read and/or host the meeting.

Posted on Patch.

Mystery Author Book Signing and Live Holiday Music

Meet author JoAnn Dunn from 1 to 4 pm. Dunn is the author of a series of mystery books written with two other authors under the name "Georgia Adams" as the LitChix. She is also a screen writer and will talk about the upcoming classes being offered at the shop after the first of the year. She has wonderful writing tips, so feel free to chat with her!

Live music, Christmas guitar, with Bruce Headrock. 1:30 to 4:00.

From Patch

For The Love Of Doll Houses

Published on Patch Nov 22, 2011

While the shop is now open in Lawrenceville, one event is taking place in Old Town in the final days of my lease there.

 

Local resident Mary Bentley shares her love of dollhouses!

 

 

A collection of tiny treasures by local resident, artist, and gardener, Mary Bentley, proves that childhood dreams never grow old. Mary Bentley loves dollhouses! She has been playing with dollhouses since Santa brought her one in the 1950’s. It is a beautiful blue Victorian gingerbread house with white windows and trim.  Mary kept that dollhouse, and in the 1990’s, decided it needed a facelift. 

“I renovated the house with new carpet, floors and wallpaper.” Mary smiled as she showed me her childhood toy. “But I’ve been remodeling it, and building furniture for it since the 1970’s, when my daughter, Susan, was old enough to play with it. Now Mary’s granddaughter, Haviland, is enjoying this family keepsake.

Mary makes most of the small items in her dollhouses. Her original dollhouse is filled with handmade treasures. The bed in the attic bedroom was made from a kit. The yo-yo quilt, bedding, and dust ruffle were handmade using fabrics Mary collects. Mary completed the needlepoint rug that her mother had started for the house’s sewing room. Visits to antique shops, thrift stores, and specialty dollhouse shops yield many treasures that Mary uses also. Her collection of vintage wallpaper and recycled fabrics turn each room into a one-of-a-kind fairyland. Mary decorates the inside and outside of her houses and adds windows, doors, porch rails and other architectural details.

Each house in Mary’s collection has a story and characters that live there. The blue Victorian house is home to Abigail, her Grand-mama and sister. Abigail spends most of her time in the attic bedroom dreaming, while Grand-mama and her sister put finishing touches on the gingerbread house they are making in the kitchen. The house has a sewing room, where Grand-mama is making a red Christmas dress for Abigail. 

Some of the dollhouses in Mary’s collection (which number ten plus, I lost count!) are for display only, while others are in the playroom upstairs, in the charming attic room, similar to the room Abigail dreams in, for Haviland and her friends to play with.

Another treasure of Mary’s is a dollhouse she entered in a contest during the “National Dollhouse Month” a few years ago. This one room was designed to honor Mary’s mother, Catherine Moye Hatcher, who had just passed away. She designed a yarn and notion shop, one that her mother might have owned, and called it “Kit’s Knits and Notions”. Her mother’s nickname was Kit. Mary used yarn and various items of her mother’s in the house. 

The 2006 Roombox Contest brought forth the “Haviland’s Teddy Bear Tea Room”, named for her Granddaughter. This contest called for constructing the entire house from a kit, including roof shingles. Pastries are handmade from Fimo Clay for the bakery cabinet. Mary has entered the Roombox Contest many times over the years. 

In 2009 her entry was “Driving Miss Daisy To A Special Place”. The “special place” was named “The Quilt Garden” where Miss Daisy went to pick up her fabric order of fabrics for the holiday season. This is the first house she wired for lights. 

Mary loves to share her collection. Recently, over Veteran’s Day weekend, she had a tea party in Old Town Lilburn with a display of her dollhouses in the grey house on Main Street. The Little Shop Of Arts And Antiques had just moved to its new location in Lawrenceville and this event had been scheduled before the location change. Mary, with the help of a few of her friends, held a mother-daughter princess tea and brought many of the doll houses from her collection to share with the local community.

The showpiece of the day was a tall dollhouse purchased by shop owner, Barbara Barth, at a local thrift store and given to Mary to turn into a dream house. For weeks Mary visited the shop and worked to turn the plain house into a storybook house with every room brimming with holiday cheer. The house is being donated by Mary to “The Butterfly House”. Her wish is that children will be able to play with the dollhouse over the holiday season. 

Mary’s spirit and love of life are infectious. Her dollhouses bring magic to everyone who seems them.  Enjoy the photos of the Princess Tea Party dollhouses and some of Mary's other creations.