“It’s the tingle, you know, finding something really beautiful that speaks to you and calls to you … bringing it home for me makes my home be the story of my life.” — Justina Blakeney, Artist, Designer, New York Times best-selling author
Earlier this year, as we do each January, we met to decide our focus for 2025. From new products we wanted to partner on, to the ways we can make the holidays run more smoothly, to how to get the darn ceiling tiles to stop hovering when the wind blows through the open front door … we threw things at the wall to see what would stick. (What does not stick is the ceiling tiles. We’ve made peace with our little wind ghosts, and anyone who’s walked into the store during a storm knows that their arrival will be announced by the whoosh and slap of the tiles saying a blustery hellllooooooooo.)
We agreed on the importance of looking for inspiration outside the walls of the store: artists, nature, music, food. Thankfully, where we live, it’s not hard to find someone or somewhere that, as Justina Blakeney describes in the quote above, gives us the tingle, that little spark of joy or curiosity that lights us up, each of us in different ways. Things that make our team tingle currently include:
- Hand-drawn illustrations of sharply dressed forest animals in Paris — flowers tumbling out of a vase shaped like a cowboy boot
- Tig Notaro’s “Handsome” podcast
- Bon Iver’s new song “Everything is Peaceful Love”
- Home Thrown’s cream-colored Kindred Bowls, made just for us, each its own design and shape
- The view from the top of Valencia Peak, and the smell of wild fennel — planning a garden by a pink front door (it’s so happy!!)
- Breakfast burritos from Finca
- Hungry Blackberry chocolate bars from Maeve
We are finding so much delight in the small, good things that can turn our homes into the story of our lives. You’ll see more art prints this year on our shelves, and ceramics by small makers, and the most gorgeous hand-strung straw flower garlands (so sweet
hanging from a few nails above the kitchen sink, or strung above a table for a baby shower or dinner outside.)
May you find the things that make you curious and joyful! And if we can help with that, even better : )
— Your Neighbors at General Store Paso Robles
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