How much fun can a little BELLA have?

The answer is becoming clearer each day!   As the 3rd week of the new BELLA in La Grande begins, I can happily say that two BELLAs are better than one!  The crew in Baker City has been busy as spring attempts each and every day to begin.  There's been amazing hail storms, find-Toto-and-hide-in-the-cellar wind storms and more than what we consider normal in the way of rain, but today began with clear blue skies and the forecast says short sleeves.

Gilstrap Brothers Winery will be offering samples of their wines today in the new La Grande BELLA and I'm looking forward to another peek at their Viognier.  It's always been one of my favorite whites (although my favorites is NOT a short list but is heavy on the V wines, Vernaccia, Vermentino, Verdicchio!) and it's been fun to watch as many of the vintners in the Northwest take on this magical, heavenly scented and lush bodied wine.

I'm still a little sleep deprived although elated.  The remodel took longer than planned, which is c'est normale for 100 year old buildings, and it seemed there was barely 10 days to put the store together before we opened.   And then there was the opening....

Thank you La Grande (and all the Baker folks that have driven up to say 'hey' as well) for the most amazing welcome I could ever imagine.  We had over 350 people through the new store on the first Saturday and we couldn't stop grinning for a week.  Many thanks to my dear friend Colleen for jumping in and helping me throughout the entire process!!

The second week has been just as fun, filled with new faces and several that have become 'regulars' already.   I am absolutely thrilled with the reception and truthfully haven't had this much fun doing what I love to do in a while- merci beaucoup!

Pollianne Grover made a quilt for the new store inspired by the painting by Heidi Olser that hangs in the Baker City store.  It's beautiful and is sure to make you smile... come on in for a visit!