Uber cool and super sexy friends Kathleen and Ricky of the Hollywood Frame Gallery are hosting their annual Golden Retriever Rescue party! This is a great little party with lots of good food, drinks and entertainment. Come by this Saturday and help support rescuing those big silly yellow dogs!
When: - Saturday June 13th, 6PM to 9 PM
Where: The Hollywood Frame Gallery - 2427 Bissonnet
For more info see the flyer below.
A few months back I noticed a little shop down the street from us. The shop is called Impromptu and is probably one of the coolest little gift boutiques we have found in a while!
Impromptu is located right on the corner of Bissonet and Morningside. Denise stopped in one day and came out with some hilarious file folders that I used in a clown session. They would make a great coworker or boss's gift. After that I just had to go in there to see what else they had. That is when I had the pleasure of meeting the proprietors, Barbara Feig and Mollie Gremillion. These two ladies are the coolest and truly love what they have put together. If you were wondering where the name, Impromptu came from, it basically represents the nature of their spare of the moment decision to design an eclectic, distinct gift and accessory boutique.
Impromptu offers a number of items that are made by local artists, as well as a few out of town artists too. One hot item they carry is DePetra handmade jewelry.
They also carry a bunch of great pottery that is locally made by Ann the Potter.
Even our Houston dog lovers can find something to buy at Impromptu. I thought these collars were pretty slick.
In order to stay a little greener, there are these great recycled leather bags that are made in Italy. I thought they were joking when they said the leather was recycled.
If your looking for the perfect card, than this would be the place to shop. They have a huge selection of cards and stationary that will definitely keep you laughing.
Each item and artist has a unique story about their piece and how the ladies of Impromptu came to find them. Everything in the store is there because Barbara and Mollie see something special in the artist or the work. From the David Webb handmade block prints to these crazy little packs of tissue paper, Impromptu has everything an art lover needs.
If you are looking for a place to get a hostess gift, teacher gift or a unique item for the hard to buy person, Impromptu should be your destination. The art is beautiful but the hospitality and smiles of Barbara and Mollie are priceless. Be sure to tell them we sent you!
Impromptu is located at
2358 Bissonnet (at Morningside and Bissonnet)
Houston, TX 77005
713-807-9696
http://www.impromptuhouston.com/
In this month’s small business review we are featuring a great little boutique smack dab dilly in the middle of West University. If you are familiar with the late JMH Market (a little trivia for you…Danny used to work at JMH when we were in high school), you won’t have to look hard to find Hip Hop Lollipop.
Hip Hop Lollipop is the cutest little party place in town. If you have little girls ages 3 to 12, then this is the place to shop and party.
Diane Sizemore has owned and operated Hip Hop Lollipop for the last year and a half, specializing in full service girly parties, gifts and clothing. The customer service and attention to detail is what sets them apart from other similar shops in and around the Houston area. It’s also a huge plus that you can avoid mall madness!
They have a magical party room available for the ultimate girly girl parties.
Hip Hop Lollipop has six different party themes that any little girl would just love. If your princess likes to be pampered, than a Spa Day Party Package with mini facial and pedi/mani treatment is the thing to go for. There is a great little area for makeup, dress-up, and all the fixins.
I’m sure the imaginations run wild in the room during a party. Everything is decorated gracefully with plenty of room to sit and enjoy. Can’t you just hear the squeals of delight while they play dress up!
You can see all the different party packages here or just give them a call and they will be happy to go through the options with you. Whitney will be having her Hannah Montana party at Hip Hop Lollipop in August and she is beyond excited. Stay tuned for party pics in August.
Hip Hop Lollipop can also make your little girl’s party a hit with custom invitations, decorations, party favors, refreshments, cake and even a gift registry!
The front of the boutique is chalk full of great gifts and clothes for babies and hip little boys and girls. They haven’t forgotten mommies either. They have an entire line of fashionable clothing and gifts for us too.
They also have these great necklaces that are magnetic bottle caps to coordinate with any outfit. These are really popular and were invented by a 12 year old girl. Isn’t that cool? Our daughter Whitney saw these necklaces and just fell over in love with them.
Another great product for your girly girl or even the jet setting mom is these train cases. They come in many different coordinating colors and styles. This is the perfect accessory to anyone that needs essential items for that slumber party or camping trip.
The coolest of the cool were these jeans that have removable, interchangeable beaded designer cuffs.
As you can see, Hip Hop Lollipop has something for everyone with a bright and cheery environment. If you need help finding the perfect something for your littleone, Diane and her staff will be happy to help you. Be sure to go by and visit Hip Hop Lollipop in West University and tell them we sent you.
6207 Edloe
713-218-7800
While recently shopping for baby gifts for our children's God Mother we were lucky to discover a wonderful baby and children’s décor and gift boutique in the Rice Village named Nest & Cot. I never stick to baby registries because I like to find cute, memorable, one-of-a-kind gifts. I found just that when I walked into the Nest and Cot.
You can't help but say, “aww” and “oh how cute” as you look around at all the accessories, décor and sweet baby clothes. On top of that, the specialty products, such as baby slings, baby wipe covers, and diaper pads are designed for fashionable moms in cool contemporary fabrics and colors. You won’t find the traditional standard boy and girl cartoonish patterns here.
I was so excited about this little shop of sweetness that we just had to feature them in our Small Business Segment for our May newsletter (soon to come out.) Danny and I stopped by to visit and get some great sample images of the wonderful products that they carry. Lauren was such a great host and gave us the ultimate tour.
Whitney Janke (beautiful name by the way) and Ramsey Miller are the owners. Along with the store manager, Lauren and staff, they provide custom design services for baby's nurseries and children's rooms. They can assist with every detail from, the custom and designer bedding, the handcrafted cribs and furniture (Bratt Décor), all the way to the chandelier. The room designs can take your precious baby from sweet nursery to toddler-hood and into their young teens. Many of the cribs have conversions to toddler beds.
Like us, they pride themselves on customer service and attention to detail. These ladies will sit down with you and help create a beautiful room that fits your style and personality. They have lots of samples and example room displays to help you select specific design elements for your room.
In addition, they carry many of the well known designer bedding lines to choose from. But if that isn't enough, there is an endless selection of custom fabric options for custom bedding and window treatments that they exclusively design specific to your needs. This allows you to mix and match fabrics, textures, and patterns to pull together a one-of-a-kind room that will surely charm the little one in your family. (These colors just remind me of a bowl of yummy sherbert.) Whether you want the room to be traditional, contemporary or shabby chic, the girls at Nest & Cot can help you pull it all together.
The store has a great feel of comfy luxury from its beautiful bedding to the little antique details that help combine the elegance of things worn with things new.
Our son, James is now 3 years old going on 15 and although he is completely past the "baby feeding" stage, sometimes when we want him to eat more of his dinner (especially the veggies), we will do the tried and true "airplane" move. You know, you take a scoop of food on the spoon and mimic a plane flying into the mouth along with all the typical plane sounds. Well I found this Babyplane spoon (below). Isn't that just too cute? What a great gift idea. Any of my close friends will tell you that I love gift packaging as much as I enjoy finding the perfect gift. Imagine this Babyplane tied to a wrapped gift for a baby boy.
In the studio we see a lot of Christening gowns. These are a few samples of the elegant silk gowns and rompers they have to choose from. The Nest and Cot also sells an array of clothing including bibs, onesies, and dresses.
Everything in the store has been carefully selected all the way down to the absolutely adorable Mary Jane baby socks. They now even have little baby boy versions that look like cowboy boots. I am sure a mom came up with these. Have you ever tried to get a baby under the age of 6 months into a pair of shoes? The baby will curl their toes making it literally impossible to get their little feet into shoes...besides why do infants wear shoes? To look cute. So these little socks definitely accomplish that. As you can see, they also carry plenty of sparkle.
In the last year Nest & Cot relocated to it's current location on Rice (near Morningside) after being on Bissonnet. If you are expecting or have a friend or family member that will soon be welcoming their little one into this world, you need to stop into Nest & Cot to see what's new. They love what they do and that shows through their helpful customer interactions and ability to cater to each of their clients. Truly impeccable service is what separates successful businesses and Whitney and Ramsey have definitely accomplished this. When you go in be sure to tell them we said hello.
The store is located at 2402 Rice Boulevard (near Morningside) Check out their website at www.nestandcot.com
713-429-5246
I wanted to tell everyone about my hairstylist of 12 years now..(WOW)—Gerri Curtis at the Blue Mambo Salon, located at 8 Chelsea Street just off of Montrose near the Museum district. She not only is a highly skilled hairstylist, but she is an expert in color. I have her cut, color and highlight my hair and I would go to no one else (yes, I know I am high maintenance). She often travels to industry events to teach others, but also to learn about new ideas, techniques and products that she can bring back to her clients.
Gerri annually goes to New York to attend international hair shows and has been trained at the Deva Salon in New York to follow the principles of caring for and styling curly hair. In fact, she has clients that come from all over the state of Texas to have her style and care for their hair and she is now considered one of Houston’s Top Curly Hair experts. In addition to her busy schedule at the Blue Mambo, Gerri is also a mother of 4. So she understands how little time we mommies give ourselves to take care of our hair in the morning. It is true that your hair always looks best right after you leave the salon, but Gerri believes in giving you the tools and understanding to help you make it look that good when you style it yourself. She is absolutely fun to work with and truly the best hairstylist I have ever had. Most of my close friends and anyone I know with curly hair, I refer to Gerri.
Two years ago Gerri helped me discover how to fix my "hair problem" or at least what I thought it was a problem, until she showed me the truth. Here's a little background: I have always thought that my hair was straight. I used to describe it as "naturally frizzy” because unless I blow dried my hair, it never looked good. It wasn’t quite straight and not quite curly and definitely never smooth. A few years ago Gerri gave me a great book that I intended on giving to a good friend that has beautiful curly hair, called “Curly Girls” by Lorraine Massey.
I started to read it before giving it to my friend and realized, what I thought was my “hair problem”, was curly hair that needed taming. I am not the only one. According to the book, 65% of women have curly hair and most don’t know it or have been at a loss on how to care for it. Gerri has showed me the best way to manage my hair; from the right way to let it dry naturally to bring out the true curls to the best “curl friendly” products, with Deva. She sells the full line of Deva products as well as Chi, and others.
I was recently at the salon to get my hair done and asked Danny to come along to get some pictures. The cool hair dryer with the hand is also by Deva and is designed specifically for curly hair.
A few years back my cousin Chad introduced me to Kathleen and Ricky over at the Hollywood Frame Gallery. Ever since we first met these guys, we felt like family. With big smiles and open arms they have helped us with crunch time framing, art displays and community awareness.
Kathleen and Ricky hail from New Orleans where Kathleen (who did not want her photo taken) managed Animation Sensation, an art gallery specializing in animated art. After New Orleans, they moved to Houston where the Hollywood Frame Gallery was born. Over the last 12 years these proprietors have developed a unique market for creative custom framing.
As you walk in the front door you are wowed by the creativity in the room. They have hundreds of unique frames and styles to choose from.
Some of my favorite frames are these wildly cool and colorful frames.
In addition, they offer fabric wrapped mats that really set artwork off with texture and color. Ricky is the craft genius that has everything correctly organized.
The Gallery also specializes in photo restoration and practice conservation quality techniques when framing artwork or prints. Additional stylized techniques such as object mounting are available as well. Recently they were framing pieces of Mardi Gras art where they mounted the matching coins in the mat. These pieces were some of the coolest we have laid our eyes on. (Or at least the coolest until we see them next time)
Along with great framing they also sell great art. They specialize in selling pet art like my very own pop art, Jim Tweedy's Friendly Doggies, Movie Poster Collections and Disney Collectors' Addition giclee' on canvas prints.
Most of the Pet Pop artwork displayed by us is in Paraflex frames. These frames can be fully customized to suit your decor and style. Each frame is a hard acrylic that you can mix colors such as purple with pink polka dots or sleek black and grey stripes. Like everything else at the gallery, the choices are endless.
Small businesses in the area work hard for their customers and their community. Ricky and Kathleen are the kings of giving and have spent plenty of time and money helping our furry community of pets. Each year they help raise money for the Houston Humane Society in many different ways. Currently they are one of the sponsors for the society's annual K-9 Fun Run.
They also host events in their gallery for the Homeless Pet Placement League and the Golden Beginnings Golden Retriever Rescue. Both of these organizations are great resources for finding a pet that needs a home.
So if your in the neighborhood and want to see some top notch art or meet some of Houston's greatest business owners stop by the Hollywood Frame Gallery and tell them Danny sent you. I'm sure they will make you laugh and inspire your art.
The Hollywood Frame Gallery is located at 2427 Bissonnet between Kirby and Greenbriar. Or give them a call at 713-942-8885.
