The Great Lucketts Adventure

It was the perfect setting for adventure. 5 of us, headed for the biggest barn sale fair in the region. Blogosphere celebs and local chalk painters and all the big barn-salers were going to be there to rub shoulders with. We started planning it months ago. I gave up all my pampering and presents on Mother's Day (this was MY choice and recommendation, not my husband's, and a mistake I will not be repeating) so my husband didn't mind me ditching him with the kids for an entire, activity filled Saturday.

Then all my friends but one bailed on me.

Ironically, Dana, the friend who did come, had been changing her mind on a daily basis for the previous two weeks about whether she was coming or not. Well, I am glad that she did, because she was the perfect companion on this little adventure. Dana's nesting instincts have honed in on redoing her dining room in Vintage Country Style and this is the best place in the world to find authentic pieces on a budget.

This is the view as we walked up to the show. Mind you, we weren't even in the gates yet.

Dana fell in love with this pretty little chalk painted dresser in a stall just outside the gates, but we kept walking.

We were women on a mission.

My secret weapon to get Dana to come with me was the discovery that clay tags made by Jami of Freckled Laundry (see her wonderful blog here) were being given away by Miss Mustard Seed herself. Dana can't pass up a good deal, and a freebie by two of her favorite bloggers was more than she could refuse. We didn't know how many she had and didn't want to miss out, so we headed straight for Miss Mustard Seed's booth.

I should have taken pics of the whole booth. (Look here for Miss Mustard Seed's photos and comments about the experience) It was so beautifully put together. So many great ideas like paper flowers made out of old patterns:

Using a full sized doorknob as the knob on a milk painted armoire

And filling a pair of old screen doors with chicken wire, instead of screening.

And then we saw her, Miss Mustard Seed herself! She was warm and open and so very pleasant. And her real name is Marian, with an "a", just like me.

It was such a delight to be able to meet someone else just a bit farther into their career who's personality and personal life is so similar to mine. In spite of her fame and media exposure, you could tell by her prices and her accessibility that she wanted her customers to have a pleasant experience for both their eyes and their wallets.  As I looked around, I was completely shocked to see that her whole pricing structure was very similar to mine. I was filled with this deep seated sense that I am doing things the right way, both with my business choices and my priorities in my personal life. It was an incredibly validating experience for me and one I will always treasure. Isn't it funny how five minutes talking to someone you've never met before can completely change something inside you?

And we found the tags waiting for us at the register. I almost burst out crying when I saw what they said:

Dana found a beautiful ironstone bowl and I just bought a t-shirt. But something about attaining our goal, awoke the shoppers within. From that point on, it was game on!

We fell in love with a booth run by "the junk man" and "the Junkman's wife". Fun stuff for cheap! cheap! cheap!

I got an old apple picking ladder for $15 and a set of mini printer's blocks,  a "C," an "M," and an "S," for $3 each. Dana went crazy and bought a stool, a chair, and some other stuff that I can't remember. But we both have a warm place in our hearts for the Junkman and his wife.

We were in the fervor of looking for a dining room table and a "family rules" sign when Dana announced in true pregnant fashion that she needed a restroom. Gotta love Lucketts. Formal gowns between the stalls:

There was a pretty long line, so being the good friend that I am, I ditched Dana and went looking for more good deals while she decided which gown she would wear to the prom. Here are a few things I found on my ramblings:

A life sized horse. Yours to take home for $1500.

The Easter shop. Just kidding, this was just a booth packed to the gills with chalk painted furniture. Doesn't it look so springy?

A shop that sold these gorgeous, hand sewn dresses made out of antique linen and French lace. Amazingly well made and beautiful, but a little too pricey for me. Besides, where would I wear it? But so much fun to see and touch:

I wandered back just in time to catch up with Dana and we were off. We found fabulous things.

So. Much. Stuff.

This is just a fraction of what we saw. I just couldn't shoot and shop at the same time. Sorry, but shopping won out this time.

And the most exciting part of all was Dana finding "The" table. It had a  gorgeous, 2" think reclaimed barn wood top and was being sold at a huge and charming booth called "the Beekeeper's Cottage. (Check out their very enticing web page here.) She didn't buy it, but she now is sure what she wants, which is kinda the reason I wanted her to come.

Here it is, except she wants the base to be white, and "shabbied up" a bit (just like this one). Don't you love the wood nail-like holes at the end? So nice.

We shopped until everything started to look the same. Finally, we had one more brush with local fame. We stopped by the booth of Christen Bensten of Blue Egg Brown Nest, but she was busy helping other people so we didn't have a chance to say hi. But Dana looked pretty hard at a pair of aqua colored shutters. Here she is in front of the booth.

It takes a much different woman than I to make being pregnant look so good.  Dana, you are the cutest.

It was about here that we looked at each other and decided we were pooped. So home we went, with a car full of stuff and minds full of ideas and lovely memories. Such a nice day.

(Happy belated Mother's Day to me.)

Success! And Gratitude

It is always amazing to me that this little show of mine actually works. My friends and I make the stuff, send out emails, put out the chalkboard door signs, and cross our fingers that people will actually show up. And they do. I am always surprised when the first customer walks in on the day of the show, especially if they aren't someone I know.

I was super thrilled that about a third of our customers were new to us. They were mostly people who saw the street signs and came by to check us out. It was also exciting that many were repeat customers. Thanks for coming back. And there will always be a special place in my heart for my friends who put up with listening to me talk ad nauseum about all this show and art stuff and then are sweet enough to come to the show and see it for real as well. Thank you all so much! You have no idea how validating your presence and interest is.

Thank you! thank you! thank you!

Here are some pics just before the show opened (You'll have to pardon the unattractive flash. It was overcast and I only have lamps for light in the first room:

So that should give you a feel for what we do here at Branches. Thanks for popping in!

Almost there.....

I have been shooting pictures all day. I know I was going to do a "before" and "after" picture post, but I am just too creatively depleted right now. You all will just have to wait until after the show to see how your stuff started out.

I just finished inventory and I actually made over 50 items for this show. No wonder I can't decide what to make for dinner.

Ok, enough chatting. I am a big fan of the "a picture is worth 100o words" theory, so here are a bunch of pictures from the show:

So......Are you gonna come see it for real? I promise it will be fun.

The Tale of Jasper

I have been feverishly preparing for the Branches spring show this week. I had the luxury of having 2 days of extended "child free" time on Thursday and Friday last week to finish things. There is just such freedom in done. (You can read a great post about this, along with a shamefully kind promo of yours truly, written by my friend Erica here on her blog, the Shady Elm) Sadly, while many things for the show are done, everything is not. So today I am shooting pictures and sending emails and rearranging furniture. But in honor of all the things that are finished, this post is all about a little friend of mine named Jasper.

Jasper has been with us since my sister moved back to AZ about 10 years ago. She loved him, but he just couldn't fit in her car with all the other stuff she was taking. And we have loved him. He's a trusty little modern lined side table with a cherry finish. My dearly beloved resin frog, King Rupert, the Fat and Happy, has called Jasper home for about 5 years.

Things for Jasper really started to change this January, when I got on a "I'm going to finish this, if it's the last thing I do" kick. I decided to finish stripping a side table that had been sitting in my studio for about 2 years under a shower curtain. And I actually succeeded. I know. Shock, right? Poor Jasper though. He lost his home and was relegated to the dining room, where he was really just kind of in the way.

So he sat there for a few months in the shadows, until I started to chalk paint. My sister is one of my better sounding boards and she and I had been talking Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. One thing she kept bringing up as we talked about color and technique was what the Antibes Green and Barcelona Orange would look like layered. Now, this is a girl who lives in Portland, Oregon and never met a green she didn't love. Seriously. I have never met anyone with more green striped t-shirts than my sister. I think she must have one for every day of the month. So it would follow suit that she would fantasize about green and orange tables. Plus the Portland aesthetic can totally take a green and orange table. That would be a much harder sell here in Northern Virginia. But I digress..... anyway, I was driving somewhere one day, thinking about painting stuff and it hit me! I could redo Jasper in the orange and green she had been talking about and ship it to her for her birthday in May!

So I set to work. Here is a picture approximating what Jasper looked like before I started. Please disregard the poor lighting. I forgot to take a before pic, so I just used the back lighting to give you guys a feel for where our story starts, with the dark cherry finish. Lame, I know, but I just get so excited to transform this stuff.....you understand, right?

So I wanted a green table with orange showing through the paint. So in the beginning, Jasper was orange with green accents. I purposely broke up the strokes and built a grain, so that when I sanded, I would get a lot of texture, preferably in a kind of fire stich pattern.

Here's what he looked like with the second coat of orange:

Coat number three is the actual look, with the green on the top and legs and a few coats of orange on the neck.

And I thought I'd add a few hits of Emperor's Silk, a flaming hot Chinese red, just for a little...um...pizazz.

At this point, Jasper was looking a little "party in Tijuana". Thank heavens for wax.

Wax. It really IS the secret ingredient to ASCP (Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, for those of you just tuning in). It just makes everything look so much chic-er. Less country. More expensive. Love that!

Ok, enough dilly-dally-ing. You all want to see the "after" pics? Here you go:

Major transformation, right? That last one kills me. I had wanted a more industrial look, and I just walked into my studio to see the light just right. Love it when that happens.

So for those of you that thought that ASCP couldn't go modern, here's Jasper, on his way to Portland, land of the industrial look. I hope he enjoys his new, green home.

BTW, the @ in the above photo is part of the Branches spring show. Come see it in person, along with a bunch more stuff including all this moss

BRANCHES:

the Barn Sale Without a Barn