Mulberry...Oh how we've grown!!!! it's been a fun ride!!!

It's hard for me to believe that I've owned Mulberry Heights Antiques for 11 years...besides the fact that I was an Interior Decorator for many years before that with my dear friend! I can remember hiring someone to design our logos....I can remember thinking it would be "fun" to be open at 9:30 and close at 4:30! Who does that???? I really thought that the mom's of young children would shop early and stop early!!! LOL!!! That was my thinking then because I WAS that mom!!! I lived for Mother's Day Out....I lived for babysitter's and time alone....Now....I live to come home...to spend time with my last child that was only in kindergarten when I opened my shop...I don't regret opening it...I do regret the times that I thought and still do think that the shop is more important than my family! I think I've done a pretty good job at balancing everything...don't know what my precious husband would say! or what Miller would say!! Mitch and Holly were old enough for me to do this...not so sure about Miller but he's a great kid!! A wonderful son, brother, uncle, cousin, grandson, friend....I don't hear anything but great things from the people I know and love about Miller...and I have to trust their judgement...especially when I beat myself up for doing this while he was too young!!!

We certainly did our best to advertise!!! Southern Accents Magazine, Veranda Magazine, Birmingham Home and Garden, Over the Mountain Journal...you name it!! We did anything for advertising!!! to the point of embarrasment sometimes!!! But I guess it was worth it!!!

We were "Invited" to be the Showcase Booth for the Junior League Antiques Show in Birmingham right after we opened!!! It was our first experience at setting up a booth, etc... We sold everything!!! It was great!!!

We had a WONDERFUL AND FUN first year in our cute little renovated house in Cahaba Heights....Then we decided to move to Mountain Brook Village just to have the "foot traffic" so to speak!

It was a great move on our part...even though I miss that little off white house that I poured myself into and "renovated"!!! 

My greatest pleasure now is knowing that one of my very dearest friends is now in that space with her fabulous clothing line....Nations Outfitters!!!! Please check out her website!!!! 

Nations --- the worldwide beginning

It’s funny what motivates us to act on things that have been on our heart for years. I would say that the story of Nations Outfitters really started back in the 1980's --- but that’s another story.

My name is Lisa Ann Muir-Taylor. I am a wife to Alastair and mother to Tom, Georgia, Genie and Sophie, ranging in age from 47 to 10. Well, Alastair and I are both 47. We met at the University of Alabama and, through many of life’s ups and downs, we are more in love today than we were 23 years ago. Without Alastair’s belief and support, I could never have begun to dream of Nations becoming reality.  “Thank you,” Alastair for your belief in this vision and in me. I also want to thank my children who have embraced this project as if we’ve adopted another child.

As a stay-at-home mother of 16 years, I explained early on that Nations would demand a lot of my time. I knew how to “do babies” but had no clue how to start a company. My kids have witnessed me organizing numerous birthday parties and carpools for every sporting event, dance and recital that comes with raising four kids. And while their belief in me was strong, I knew I was outmatched for the task ahead, short of God bringing the exact right people across my path to partner with me. He is faithful.

And so I thank all the moms, dads, kids, friends, pray-ers, doers, shakers, sketchers, cutters, pattern makers, fabric reps, photographers, web builders and most of all Jesus Christ who really is the author of this unfolding story.

January 2008 

As I ran, I prayed which I often do but on that particular day my heart was heavy for a sweet family who had just lost their beautiful baby boy in a horrible accident. How in the midst of unbelievable sadness do you continue to point people to a belief in God’s sovereign plan? How do you sustain your own trust in God when a child is taken at the tender age of two? Yet that is exactly what I witnessed at the funeral of young Bronner Burgess. As Rick Burgess, father of Bronner, gave the eulogy, he challenged all believers to take a stand for their faith. He shared a compelling statistic that 93% of Christians never share their faith with anyone. In the midst of unimaginable grief, his focus was not on his loss or the “why’s” of the accident but on a resolve that lives count for purpose of the Kingdom.

With tears running down my face, I began to ask God to use me like never before to make a difference in His kingdom. It was the kind of prayer you pray while already anticipating the answer. Surely it would be for me to become more involved in inner-city work that I had already begun with women fresh out of jail. At first, I did not recognize God’s answer to my heart felt prayer. To my utter surprise, God gave me a vision that would point teenagers to something bigger than themselves. The thought was so clear, but yet so distant from my usual realm of thinking. It struck me as very strange but nothing I would take seriously – a clothing company???

March 2008

As days and weeks passed, creative ideas for starting a clothing company continued to bombard my mind. Let me be the first to say, I know nothing about clothes. I mean, I wear clothes, but I’m not really a clothes horse or taken with fashion. Thus, I often ignore these random thoughts. Give me my vegetable garden…my pottery studio…my exercise class --- these were my “loves,” but not clothes!  Yet my mind dreamed on with images of positive ways to affect teens through the fashion industry.

It was about this time, that my eight-year-old daughter asked me about a skimpily clad girl plastered on the wall of a popular teen clothing store. “What is she selling?” innocently questioned Sophie.

“Good question, Sophie and you’re only eight.” In fact, the beautiful girl in the picture was selling sex and the clothing industry knows it well. As I left the store, I heard a little voice in my head telling me to start a clothing company for teens that would send a different message. But still, “Who am I”?

  

May 2008 

It’s a beautiful spring day and, with most of the housework done, I decided to take a run. Little did I know that this day would be a turning point in my very nonchalant attitude toward the future of what is now Nations Outfitters. After all, I was way too busy for such dreams. My previous work outside the home was in nursing and pharmaceutical sales --- never had I designed clothing.

While I pondered these thoughts, I sat down in my closet to put on my running shoes. It was then that I noticed a book.................

Nations Outfitters

P.O. Box 383007
Birmingham, AL 35238
Phone: 205.980.7201

To see more of Nations Outfitters and Lisa Ann's wonderful clothing line please visit www.nationsoutfitters.com
To see more of Mulberry Heights Antiques please visit www.mulberryheightsantiques.com


by the way..... decorating your home and your heart do coincide!!! I never realized that at first...it took me a while!!! but...your insides do reflect themselves on  your "outsides" whether or not it's the way you dress or the way you adorn your house...it's all ultimately a reflection on our Lord....