We have been busy building a great showroom team. Come in and meet us! Our team: boutique director Kirsten Merrill (me); the fabulous Reika McCracken, who hails from San Francisco with a degree in Interior Design, and boutique experience from the big city; the beautiful Vaima Philpotts, with the strength of four men and the accent of a French movie star, originally from Tahiti; the tiny, mighty and lovely Kristin Meehan, who is Mary's right-hand woman, and is sometimes, to our great delight, accompanied by her adorable assistant Sophia; and lastly, special guest appearances by Kelly McMahon, who radiates sunshine and is everybody's favorite smiling face. We've had containers arrive from Bali and India, and a new furniture showroom is in progress, with construction underway.
And now we are back to the blog! Mary Philpotts McGrath, the heart, soul and creative genius that is "PLACE" has been the constant, and for the past year while we have been quiet on the blog front she has been traveling to far off destinations (India! Bali! Thailand!), hunting down amazing pieces for the store: furniture, jewelry, exotic textiles, the tunics we are known for and more (but all that is for another blog entry altogether...).
In addition to those far off places, Mary has secret spots all over the islands that she runs away to every so often when the mood strikes her. One of her favorite haunts is in our own backyard, Honolulu's unique Chinatown, home to world renowned crazy First Fridays, both established and up-and-coming art galleries, buzzed-about restaurants, hip bars, quirky shops, and cultural spots known only to locals & inside-insiders.
On a recent afternoon she took me to lunch at Little Village in the heart of Chinatown along with her eldest son McD (craftsman, woodworker and furniture designer extraordinaire, yes, creativity and talent runs deep in the family!) and friends Ed, Susie, and Sarah. Afterwards she was ready to give us a tour of her "secret Chinatown" and disclose a few of her sources. My favorite reveal?
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| 1017 Maunakea St # A Honolulu, HI 96817 |
Lin's Lei Shop, because there she shared her simple yet brilliant trick for having a fresh gardenia on the nightstand all week long without making daily stops at the florist.
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| A very worthy investment, $3.50 never smelled so good! |
Mary treated each of us to a bunch of gardenias, along with her tip. Handing out the flowers, she instructed us to take them home and select the most open blossom in the bunch to put in a vase on the nightstand, and to put the rest of them in a glass jar with water and stick them in the refrigerator. She said, "Just switch out a fresh gardenia from the jar in the fridge when the one in the vase starts to look sad."
I did, and now have a new weekly ritual. My bedroom smells like gardenias all the time. We haven't tried this with other types of flowers yet, but it will probably work with most.
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| My gardenias mid-week looking like they just came from the florist's |
Come by the store and meet the new faces, see the treasures from Mary's travels and pick up a vase for your gardenias now that you know Mary's trick!
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| Gorgeous glass vases available at Place starting at $13 |
Stay tuned for additional installments of "Mary's Secret Chinatown" and other fun tales.
See you soon!
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