Rose. Rabbit. Lie.

Do you remember, back in November or so, me saying that I might be working on a project that would keep me super busy through the end of the year and that I had a meeting with some VIP's?

Well, the project has come and gone and it did keep me busy and my house looking like a shipping and receiving center.   It was a little mysterious and a little hush hush but the cat's now out of the bag.

Do you think you know what a contortionist acrobat,

© Erik Kabik

and five thousand dollar Caviar,

© Erik Kabik

have anything to do with brothers tap dancing on a bar?

© Erik Kabik

You'll  have to step behind the doors that lie behind the doors of this venue,

To see what is offered on this wax sealed menu.

You might find delicacies like Beef Wellington in a pastry puffed atrium

and edible plants and edible dirt which are dessert; aka a terrarium.

You might take in champagne poured by celebrities,

© Erik Kabik

or perhaps Ben Franklin's Armonica will appease?

                                                                                                                  © Erik Kabik

From room to room you can wander and be entertained with flare,

All the while wining and dining on vintage, English transferware!

© Erik Kabik

About 1700 pieces of transferware were provided by yours truly to The Cosmopolitan's newest adventure, Rose. Rabbit. Lie. that "blurs the lines between a club, restaurant, nightclub and show."

Recently, within about a 6-8 hour window I received several messages via phone, email and my Facebook page from Brook and Andrew Bradbury.   Andrew is one of the world's best known Master Sommeliers who ran the wine program at Aureole at Mandalay Bay and created the world's first electronic wine list  which he launched with Bill Gates and Microsoft.   Together he and his wife Brook have opened some of the nicest wine bars around the world including 55 Degrees, Clo Wine & Design and Amo Eno in Hong Kong.  For the life of me, I could not even fathom what they wanted to speak to me about.  Nervously, I returned their phone call and Brook and Andrew explained to me that they were involved in a $40 million project going into one of the nicest luxury destinations in the world, a new venue at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.  Only a couple of months before the grand opening a decision was made to use vintage English transferware in this new concept.   Their partners at Coastal Luxury Management and they both had concerns about finding anyone that could handle a project this big and in such a short amount of time.  After some googling they said they found me, did some research on my blog and my transferware collection and wallah… these two were on a plane and the next thing you know were inside my garage! 

                                             (Brook perusing the purple transferware section)

Hence the picture below that I shared a few weeks back of the two of them with Shawn and me.  Together we selected not only the 550 salad plates shown on the kitchen table, but another 650 plates, platters, tureens, pitchers, salt dips and etc. that were scattered in piles ALL OVER my house! 

I then got busy sourcing another six hundred or so pieces for the project and THEN my house became a shipping and receiving station.  This is what it looked like for a few weeks.  

(Rolls of packing materials stacked behind the sofa)

                                  (Shawn packed every single dish in the equivalent of about 3 days time)

At one point we had a little maze of boxes through the upstairs and mind you, this was how our house looked at Christmas time.  

There weren't any sleigh bells ringing around here, and no glistening snow…only a bunch of plates I was ready to see go!   While working on this project which was truly a blessing, I was also experiencing something really devastating to me personally (haven't written about that here) and I was in the midst of moving to my own website (which I have written about here).  I was a little stressed at times, well more than a little stressed actually.  I told Shawn that I would have had a nervous breakdown…if only I could afford one!  lol  Our family loves nicknames and I earned a new one from my husband which our kids quickly endorsed.  I am now referred to as  'mecha corta'.  Spanish translation: short fuse.  We're not Spanish, Shawn just likes the pronunciation.

I have to say that this felt really good to know that I can handle a project of this size, with the help of one person, my hubby.  It was by far the biggest thing I have been a part of business wise and there is some talk and possibilities of some other exciting things happening as a result of this.  We'll see =)

p/s Please visit Delores at Vignette Design.  She is hosting a giveaway to my shop so be sure to enter.  I will be posting more about this tomorrow along with sharing some pics of her beautiful transferware collection and home.

Joining:

Mod Mix Monday

The Dedicated House

A Stroll Thru Life

Cozy Little House

Common Ground

Savvy Southern Style

Metamorphosis Monday

Ivy & Elephants

Romantic Home

Stone Gable