We’ve been waiting for Charley+May Co. to open up since we first reported on the new business last month. For those as curious as I, I have good news – the new gift gallery and modern design shop, located at 2225 Queen Anne Avenue N, will be opening to the public on Friday, March 4.
The store, formerly the home of Hilltop Yarn, is named after and inspired by owner Lauren Formicola’s grandparents, who she says both “had a flair for independence and life.”
The shop, according to Formicola, is made up of a collection of modern home décor and accessories for men and women. Smartly designed vases, clocks, mirrors, art, jewelry, wine vessels, candles, timepieces, wallets, iPad accessories, slab wood tables, handbags, stationary, soaps, and an owl shaped lamp are just a few of the items the shop will carry, she says.
Other items that will fill the shop windows include a bike from Ballard’s Dutch Bike Co., pieces from Seattle-based sustainable furniture company Slab Art, and other boutique shops both local and international.
If you’d like to get a sneak peek at Charley+May, swing by between 6 and 9 p.m. tonight for a preview party celebration and exhibition of oil paintings by neighborhood business owner Dan McCarthy, of McCarthy and Schiering. This will be the first exhibit of McCarthy’s work.
His love of life, wine, food and art makes McCarthy a bon-vivant, a connoisseur of fine and fun pleasures. His paintings are an expression of his driven creative energy, relationship with complex colors, movement and depth. This exhibition is a partial collection of his work and his first public showing.
Want to know more about Charley and May? From Formicola:
May Violet Mouat (Nana)
May’s life was full of independence and adventure. She was the youngest of six and early on, her father ran off with the circus. Charming, daring and funny she knew how to make do and find her own path in life. May loved the modern era and never looked back. She dressed impeccably and drove around the suburbs of Philadelphia in a mint condition baby blue mustang. As an entrepreneur, wife, mother, traveler, dancer and grandmother she lit up a room. Her motto was “everything turns out for the best”. She loved a lawn party and three legged races.
Charley-Pie Geraldo Formicola (Gran Pop Downtown)
Charley was a proud Italian man who lived his life in the hardscrabble South Philly neighborhood lined with brownstones and stoops. On Sundays, he sat at the head of the family dinner table laden with seafood, spaghetti and meatballs, gnocchi, veal, cheese and bread, prepared by his wife Tessie. Charley was known for his gray fedora, pressed white collared shirt and lit cigar. He drove a pie truck during the war, and later worked for Bond Bread Baking Co. Charley visited his favorite local saloon on the way home from work everyday. Everyone knew Charley.