Welcome to Cottage Caboodle

Hello all! This marks the first entry in Cottage Caboodle: The Blog, which will be all about cottage style and all about Cottage Caboodle: The Store. The store is under construction as we speak, and will open in a few months. I'm shooting for September, so cross your fingers, please. It is located at 11 North Main Street in beautiful Eureka Springs, Arkansas in a wonderful old building we bought a few months ago.

The building has a rather colorful past. Built around 1885, the charming stone basement originally housed a swimming pool, the first floor was a saloon, and the top floor hosted...ahem...a brothel.

But we've cleaned up the old girl's act, and now half the basement is my husband's workshop, where he'll build wonderful goodies for the store; the first floor and the other half of the basement will be Cottage Caboodle; and we are living "above the shop" on the second floor. We moved from Dallas about a month ago and have finally fine-tuned the apartment to my satisfaction ... and now we're working on the store. In the meantime, I'll keep you updated on the store's progress as the days and weeks go by until our grand opening. And once we open, I'll fill you in on what's going on in the store, in Eureka Springs, and in the cottage world.

Cottage Caboodle will feature new and vintage accents and accessories, furniture and fittings, fashion and finds, all chosen to enhance the cottage lifestyle. What is cottage style? Warm, cosy, homey. Sometimes a little shabby and worn. Sometimes new but reminiscent of vintage. Lovely smells and tastes, gentle textures and serene surroundings. A tad funky but always tasteful.

Stay tuned!