Right after my eighth birthday in January, I began to long secretly for a bicycle. I watched with envy as the older kids whizzed about the neighborhood on their brightly colored beauties, with names emblazoned on the fork—Schwinn, Roadmaster, Raleigh. They were like thoroughbred horses, sleek and fast and beautiful.
When I was asked to create a spectacular room for the cover of Texoma Living!’s first Christmas issue, I wanted to design and share with the readers something entirely unexpected. Keeping my eye on the trends in elegant décor, I noticed that the home furnishings trends were flowing over into Christmas décor’ with clearer color, namely shades of blue and silver.
On September 25, 1941, Gasway followed her passion and opened her first shop in the newly renovated Binkley Hotel in Sherman. The lower floor of the hotel was subdivided into spaces for small shops with access to Travis Street. Gasway’s shop, Elinor’s, also had an entrance into the lobby of the hotel. This was an attractive feature, as husbands could pass the time in the hotel coffee shop or read the newspaper in the comfort of the lobby while their wives shopped.
Three recollections of Christmases past.
Six months ago a Starbucks barista told me sales were down. “Even the 2 and 3 cup-a-day drinkers are coming in just once a day now,” he said. More recently, last week in fact, that same barista said things were picking up. If we have money for a $4 cup of coffee and a $3 scone, things must be getting better, according to The Starbucks Indicator.
We are always attracted to anything that elevates ordinary to extraordinary while at the same time making sure that every recipe we put on these pages can actually be prepared in a typical home kitchen. And of course we love to add a bit of Texas flair to a menu.