Building a Barn Sale

It's Barn Sale Season!!!!

 Which means my regularly scheduled life has left the building. Sharon and I have been feverishly "Gathering Branches " here in Burke, to bring you our best show yet! We are also being featured in The Burke/Fairfax/Springfield Connector Newspaper! So look on your driveways, before you back over our cute little faces.

We have a gorgeous venue, a house in Springfield, VA with high ceilings, 3 spaces open to each other and decent parking. I am always amazed that someone would let us come take over their life for a week, so please make sure to say thanks to Lauren (she's the cute lady on the far right) and buy her bears and aprons, if they suit you.

I know you guys are thinking, "Come on Marian, just get to the pictures."

So without further delay, here's the info you need:

Branches: the Barn Sale Without a Barn

When: Friday, Nov 2, 10am-8pm

           Saturday, Nov 3, 10am-5pm

So you wanna see what's gonna be in the show?

We have some much really great stuff this year! I am super excited.

The soap smells like heaven and is hand made by a woman and her mother in Sterling. The wallets and purses are made buy a guy who goes and buys old leather jackets at thrift shops and up cycles them into the delightful bags you see before you. You're gonna buy 4 when you see how reasonable the prices are.

And the wreath above is made of hand twisted paper. Here's a closer pic, so you can see it better:

Don't you love how she singed the edges?

And I almost forgot...We have Kelly of Stylish Patina selling Annie Sloan Chalk Paint at the show!!!!!!

source

OK, that's all I have for you today, but I'll come back soon with more unseen pics of cool, amazing things we have been gathering for you. And I'll tell you some more about our fantastic artists.

So go on. Write it down on your calendar. Branches barn sale. Can't miss. Nov 2-3.

Living with "before"

How do all these people have time to post all these pretty, stimulating blog entries everyday? And to make all these projects and tutorials and still have a "real" life? I try to post once a week, and sometimes even that gets derailed.

So, I have a new idea. After all this blog reading and"before and after"-ing, I have decided to do a "before" of my house. You all are just gonna have to wait for the "after". At least as long as I do. Because it's not done yet, not even close. I am totally living in the world of "before". Well actually, it's the world of "during".  So this public airing of my dirty laundry-literally, in some cases- is supposed to motivate me to get to the "after", sooner than later, just to save face.

(And yes, there really are giant googly eyes on my washer.)
 

So where did all this gumption to post ugly pictures of my house in its usual disarray come from? It came out of the blue after I read Shaunna West's post  about Thistlewood Farm's home tour (see the tour here).  Why this was the trigger for a panic attack when I look at shelter mags and design blogs all day, every day, I really have no idea. I think it may have been the perfectly staged butler's pantry. Never in my life will I have a pantry that looks like Martha Stewart just left. Isn't the purpose of a pantry to hold all that stuff that doesn't look so nice and that your kids are going to use up and then leave the empty box in the wrong place so you don't know you need to buy more when you go shopping?

Or it might have been the fact that every single room in the house was perfect. Like "cover of a magazine" perfect. All at the same time. I keep hoping that all those photos were taken on different days and weeks, when that particular room was looking it's best. But I doubt it. I get the feeling that on any given day you would walk in to that house and it would look like that, give or take some random clothing or object left by the children.

And this is by no means an attempt to bash or talk negatively about Thistlewood Farms. On the contrary, they are AMAZING over there. They are my heroes. And they have inspired me to take a harder look at the details in my own home. The things that matter, like "Is there a place for the kids to dump their backpacks that is not a walkway?" And "Where can I quickly stash all the kid's art crap that is always in huge piles on my dining room table right before my guests get here?"

In short, I realized that I do want a magazine-shoot looking house. Really badly. And I'd really love to be able to return it to that state without it taking a full, focused month to do so.

So what will it take to get my place to that "A designer and artist lives here" perfection that I am dreaming about? Polish mostly, and a good cleaning. I have a lot of good stuff to work with already, courtesy of buying and making for the barn sale and hand-me-downs from a mother with excellent taste. And I have been reorganizing in a major way all summer. Including buying storage pieces that I have needed for years to store things where they are used. This is key, I think to my second goal of being able to clean it all back up in a reasonable time frame.

There are a few things that I could actually consider "almost done."

 

My computer area has had a major face lift from this early 90's wall of a computer desk:

 

 

To this lighter, airier version composed of a vintage store display etagere I snagged when my friend moved recently and an old industrial art school desk that I found in the garbage pile in front of my neighbor's house (I don't think I will ever be too old or too proud to dumpster dive for vintage wood with great lines):

 

 

So much more light in my kitchen now. Just a few more tweaks, adding cute and functional storage, a new mouse pad, and sorting through all the computer stuff will get this part of the house officially crossed off The List. There's progress baby. And for free! (Well, I did have to buy a can of spray paint to do the top of the desk. But you all wouldn't begrudge me a measly $3.97 would you?)

 

What's that you say? More progress? OK, let's see what we've got....

 

 

No...no progress there. That's the "make a mess" portion of "during." Let's try again.

 

Ah yes, the children's bookcase. We started with this. Cute, pretty functional, but not what I needed for the space.

 

 

 

Now I totally have to give my guy snaps for this one. He didn't even ask me what I was thinking when I told him this was going in my friend's garage sale. He just helped me load the "perfectly good" bookcase into my van. Gotta love a man that knows when to back away slowly from the crazed, design frenzied wife.

 

After a lot of thought about function and color, and an unpleasantly long search on Craigslist, I ended up with this beauty, a solid maple corner cabinet with glass doors on top and closed storage below:

 

 

Look at the order! It makes me giddy every single time I see it. (Oh wait. That may just be the unicorn bookends, still. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check this post). Alas, the fantastic organization before you will temporarily have to fall into disarray, as I am going to paint this sucker a creamy white, to blend into the walls more. And yes I am aware that the walls are not white. I promise there IS a plan here. So once again, mostly done.

 

 

I put away my china about 20 min after shooting this picture.

Does that count as progress?

 

 

And please tell me you all "temporarily" store your canvases and art supplies in the dining room....

 

OK, just for my own personal accountability, here are a few more rooms that are still on The List. Those of you will a neat streak, or a weak constitution might want to avert your eyes...

 

 

The cluttered entry way

 

 

the messy mudroom/hall/laundry room

 

 

Wow! I think this one takes the cake. Stash-all sofa table.

 

 

Lovely corner of shtuff

 

 

Oh. This one makes me sad. Beautiful, beloved hammered copper table covered with protective and wrongly shaped clear vinyl and vintage Spanish chairs in saggy, filthy slip covers. ''sigh''  I'll get there.....

 



 

recycling counter?

 

 

Family room bookcase

 

I had a really terrible one of the whole family room, but I couldn't get it to load, so I will spare you all and stop here.

 

The funny thing is, as I was prepping these pictures, I started seeing these rooms as a realtor or decorator would. Positives, along with negatives. Objectively, instead of a heart and mind full of shame about my poor house keeping skills. Now I am thinking of things in zones. I can see where to start and how to keep moving forward without getting overwhelmed and burned out. Taking pictures of your filth! Who knew that was the answer to adding "polish?"

 

Anyway....this is totally a "To Be Continued......" thing. Just like

 

 

via



 

We'll see if I make it three installments or not.







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!

Can't Even Process It Success

I have been meaning to post ever since Nov 13th (the day after the barn sale closed) but I was just so overwhelmed with the response to the show, that language kinda failed me. I just haven't been able to find the right expression to describe how I feel. Volcanically successful? Insanely successful? Exceeded my wildest dreams successful? In any case, I realized that all I needed to say about the show was "WOW!" and "Thanks so much for coming!"

 I am beyond grateful to all the people who were willing to come to someone's house to check out a new little business. And people did come. And they bought many things with delighted looks on their faces. They hung out and ate the samples from our fantastic caterer, Amy Palmer and brought their friends back to show, They enjoyed the environment and appreciated all the work that went into putting the show on. So thanks so much!

I think my favorite part about the show was being able to sell things for budding artists that have no other venue. My reluctant but fabulously talented photographer, Carol Edgell,  sold everything. So exciting! My Twigs (the show is called Branches, so I refer to my youth artists as Twigs) also did extremely well. All three of them sold almost everything. I was particularly pleased that the 12 year old who made the hair bows and plans on donating everything she makes to Heifer International (http://www.heifer.com/) gave me 24 bows and sold all but three. She will be able to make an $88 donation. Not too shabby!

Overall, the show's artists donated close to $250, enough to buy a water buffalo in Thailand or the Phillipines. That's super exciting, as that was the little mental goal I had set for the donation level for this show. And who wouldn't want to buy a water buffalo, given the chance?

I know this post is getting kinda long and you want to see the pictures, but I have to give a HUGE shout out to the one person who made the show possible, my admin assistant, Liisa Erickson. This girl worked her tail off behind the scenes. She's a recent college grad who is currently substitute teaching for Fairfax County Schools. She came over once a week for a while and kept me from freaking out- I mean came and did all the data entry and designed all the merchandise tags and did anything else I asked her to, without complaining no matter how boring or onerous the task was. Do you have any idea how wonderful it is to hire someone and just have them come in and do the job right, every single time, no matter what the job is? Liisa's future employer, if you are reading this YOU WANT THIS GIRL TO WORK FOR YOU. Anyway, there is no way I would have been successful pulling things together without her. And she cashiered both days as well. Liisa, you are my hero, girl! Thank you, thank you, thank you, a thousand times, thank you.

And thank you all for coming. For believing in me and my friends. For being curious and asking questions and being excited about our little creations. It really is a scary thing to make something and put it out there at the mercy of the world. So your smiles and warm compliments did us all a mountain of good. And yes......we WILL be doing this again next year. But I won't think about that until March.

And last, but not least, I'd like to thank Zoe for being our unoffical mascot.