Wishing you a beautiful start to 2026 ~ and a recap of our best year yet!

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." - attributed to Dr. Seuss

Happy New Year!

We wish you a beautiful start to 2026, with love and gratitude for all the blessings of 2025 — and we thank YOU for being part of it. 🙏🏻

As with everyone, the turning of the calendar to a new year always causes me to reflect on the past 12 months.

And I am oh-so-grateful for what 2025 gave us!

From starting the year in London (complete with Chris and me taking communion in Westminster Abbey on January 1st) to bringing oodles of amazing people to Thomasville, this was a year of blessings upon blessings:

WINTER

A glorious snowfall in January, coupled with attending Chalk Paint stockist training with Annie Sloan in Atlanta, followed by my traveling to Sea Island for The Southern C summit ~ all of which kicked the year off with a bang.

SPRING

In spring, we reopened the Atelier at the back of the shop to host workshops of all kinds, from Art Journaling with Suzanne Conner to collage classes with Liz Snowden, and many Chalk Paint "open studio" sessions thrown in, too (all of which will continue ~ and be added to ~ this year)!

Witnessing the community and creativity thriving in this space has brought tears of joy to my eyes!

Spring also saw us hosting my talented business Mastermind Group at our home and in our shop in April. Members traveled from all over North America and we enjoyed spoiling them with Southern hospitality and connecting them with fellow shop owners here in Thomasville.

SUMMER

Summer arrived, and with it the designation of The Hare & The Hart as an Annie Sloan Flagship Store, one of only 44 worldwide, out of over 1,300 stockists ~ a true honor!

That was followed quickly by hosting Annie Sloan (herself!) and her brand ambassador, Tristan Merriam, for two amazing days of the Joy of Chalk Paint Masterclass and a sold-out book signing/book talk event.

What joy! What inspiration!

FALL

Autumn was ushered in with so many traditional Thomasville events and added to that, two new-to-us local fine artists' works debuting in the shop: Shawn Winship and Lucy White.

We were blessed to continue the tradition of Meet the Artisans with Sarah of The Tuckered Elephant and Jenny of Honey Bee Fabrications. We adore having them and their beautiful pieces as part of the fabric of The Hare & The Hart.

They truly make my heart happy.

Behind the scenes during these months (with Chris' and our son Charlie's help) our home studio was revamped, and I rolled up my sleeves in earnest, drawing and painting new original artwork for the shop.

As a result, in November, we debuted my new Thomasville Heritage collection, with a NEW Toile of Thomasville pattern! I was completely overwhelmed by the response. (And, we are now reordering fabric and other products to replenish that empty display ~ whew!)

The creativity and newness didn't stop there in 2025:

✨We revamped our website this summer, with easy-to-shop collections and links to our playlists and events.

✨Hannah debuted her crocheted pumpkins, making and selling over 90 of them this fall (she could hardly keep up)!

✨Maddie's newest addition to her Woodland Creatures collection was unveiled in the shop: the giant fox squirrel, and we were delighted by the response to products featuring this native, yet elusive, creature. (He'll be added to the website soon!)

✨We brought in a selection of new artisan product lines (like Bramley and General Knot & Co, to name a few), adding to our offerings of gifts and goods for the English at heart with a Southern sensibility & a French twist!

✨ A 2nd place win in the Holiday Window Decorating Contest was truly a surprise to us!

Sprinkled in with all of this, we were honored to be featured in a coffee table book (In Good Spirits by our friend, 1861 Distillery owner Jill Higgins) and to be mentioned in two magazines (Southern Living and Southern Lady), and to be guests on a podcast (Creative Shop Talk with Wendy Batten).

It was such a good year. And we were so pleased to enjoy all of this with YOU!

Thank you, truly, from the bottom of our hearts for being part of The Hare & The Hart.

You are the heart of all that we do and why we do it!

xo,