We Are Two Very Lucky Men - Part 2...

OK, Joe got home last night and had to talk me down...I lost hours of work due to Blogger issues. But I took several hundred very deep breathes and counted to 10,717. Now I am ready to tell the rest of the story...

Saturday was all about The Fab 4 Sale -- Tarte, Auntie Joy, Molly Mo and Vintage Trifles. BUT, there were also "The Others." The other three of us who snuck in the back door at Tarte: Barn House, Sparrow, and Annie, Fannie & Abigail!! Let me start with Natalie from The Vintage Sparrow, aka The Master Primitive Finder. She is also one of Joe's "enablers"...meaning she is one of the people he calls right after one of our shows (when he has a pocket full of $$$) to travel to far away places with him to shop for the next show. She is beautiful, lovely, funny and probably one of the most giving people we have ever met. AND she makes the most delicious baked treats...I still really haven't forgiven her for beating us at our own Bake-Off at last year's BH Flea Market. As much as I try not to like her for "stealing" all the best primitives and "stealing" our bake-off award, I secretly love her (Joe very openly loves her). But she is a married woman, so enough about her before her husband comes knocking at our door...

Goodness...then there are The Twins, Donna and Diana...The Legendary Annie, Fannie & Abigail...Being the BH Hermit that I am, I haven't had much "face-time" with Diana & Donna. I have seen their beautiful space at Expo which is always packed with people in a buying frenzy. But yesterday was the first time I got to really spend time with them. I am usually not immediately enamoured with folks (call it my L.A. "watch your back" up-bringing), BUT, Donna and Diana are something else! Genuine, Honest and Amazingly Talented. All day, I kept telling "The Crew" how much I really, really, REALLY liked them. Sometimes you don't know how the new ingredient in the recipe is going to taste...but The Twins were DEEEELICIOUS!!! ;o)
Then there was little ol us...in the company of soooo many remarkable women...trying to be on our best behavior. "Yes Ma'am. Thank You, Ma'am." Cindy told us that no wrestling was allowed, because if we knocked over any more of her delicate treasures we wouldn't be invited back. "Yes Ma'am, we promise to not wrestle. We would like to be invited back. Thank You, Ma'am."Joe really did Job Fantastico with the Barn House space!! I will even go as far to say he REALLY put his foot in it this time...When I am sitting on the porch alone...just me and my thoughts...I wonder how the universe has squeezed sooooo much talent into such a tiny-petite-little man. It's absolutely mind boggling!! And if there is any moonshine involved, I sometimes even draw myself a diagram of how this phenomenon just might have happened. I aspire to one day publish my series, "The Barn House Porch Drawings"...just putting it out there in case someone can help me with this...Needless to say, we had a magical day in The Land of Tarte!! We are very honored to be surrounded by so many inspiring women. Did I mention we are two very lucky men???

The Boys of Barn House

P.S. -- Tarte and Barn House are taking our shows on the road!! If you are anywhere near Seattle, please come by and visit us! We will be at the Sand Point Antique & Design Market on March 29th!!!

We Are Two Very Lucky Men - Part 1...

It was this time last year when Joe and I ventured out to the "3 Friends - 3 Sales - 3 Locations" Event. We were casually acquainted with Cindy, Joy and Diane back then, but didn't know them well. We are certainly not known for our stellar memories (by any means), but this day was VERY memorable for many (many) reasons. It was our "break-through" with these ladies...our "you don't really know us but you are going to like us whether you like it or not" moment with these ladies. It was one of the first times we really got to visit with them and tour their stores and homes. We were totally inspired by their talent!! And as it was a couple of months before our own "Grand Opening," it was a big kick in the butt that we had a LOT of work to do! These were grown-folks doing big things...Inspiration was upon us to say the least. Over the past year, they have become the kind of friends you get that warm and fuzzy feeling on the inside when you see them or even hear their names.
With that, I would like to dedicate our first ever photo collage to our Auntie Joy!!! It seems appropriate not only because we love her so much, but also because it's all her stuff in the photos. Well, some of it came home with Joe at the "Pre-Sale" so technically a little bit of it is ours now. The Pre-Sale (aka Party Bus) was a little tour that the 4 Friends orchestrated the night before the show. I didn't get to go (yes, I am still bitter). Basically, it was a shopping excursion for everyone. And apparently Joe found some wine at one (or maybe more) of the stops, resulting in the lack of pictures at Diane and Martha's. I wasn't there to make sure he was acting like he had some sense. I told Cindy to wrestle him down to the ground if he didn't act right, but I still don't have the pictures. ;o) Speaking of The Queen of Tarte...it goes without saying we have a very special love for The Tarte Familia - The ("Let Them Eat Cake") Queen, The King of Tarte, The Posh Princess of Tarte and The Dog of Tarte.
Our hearts might just explode talking too much about them...but we are so honored they invited us into The Land of Tarte -- it is an enchanting place to be! In This Land, there is Pate & Cornichons, Ship-Lap, Micro-Climates and French XY&Z (a separate post is needed for decoding what this really means to us).
We have a lot more to share, but I think Blogger is having some trouble. I keep making changes, adding more pictures and talking all about Natalie, Diana & Donna, and our next venture, BUT, it would not save and publish properly...I will save the rest for tomorrow before I throw this computer out in the rain...

4 Friends Sale...

Some of our favorite folks are having a "4 Friends / 4 Locations" sale this weekend!!

Aunties 859 Railway, Silverton

Molly Mo's 440 NE Cherry St., Sublimity

Tarte 20131 South End Rd., Oregon City

Vintage Trifles 5020 Daniel St., S. Salem


A few of us (Barn House, Sparrow and The Twins) are crashing the party and have brought tons of stuff over to Tarte...but, she doesn't know so don't say anything!!

Hope to see you Saturday!!!

J & J

For the Love of Yakima...

Last weekend, Joe and I decided to head out on a little road trip to The Yakima Valley in search of treasures and inspiration. Also, as the BH Season Opening is only two months away, we really needed to do a lot of planning, prioritizing and strategizing on how we are going to get everything done in time. And there is nothing like locking yourself in a car with someone for many, many, many hours to talk about things that neither party is really quite ready to talk about. We invite you to try this experiment! You will either end up having really productive and fruitful discussions that result in a solid plan of attack...OR, you will end up just about killing each other. Can you guess what happened on our trip???? (for the answer, please see "the conclusion" below)

Let me start by saying that Yakima has some gorgeous places to shop! I don't know if we hit them all, but the shops we visited were Fantastique! We started our little adventure at The French Hen.
Kaye's store is one of the few located in Yakima's Historic Opera House and it is absolutely stunning!
We met Kaye last year at Leslee & Mark's Clayson Farm's American Primitives Show (another great reason to visit Yakima).
We have heard so many wonderful things about her store over the past year and visiting it was certainly a great way to kick off our Yakima tour.
Next we were off to visit the Garden Girl's shop...also located in the Opera House.
The minute we walked in, I was hit by one of my favorite smells...Jasmine vines in full bloom all over the store. THEN, everywhere we looked there were the most beautiful flowers in bloom...
We don't know how Lenette did it, but she had somehow orchestrated the most beautiful Spring displays throughout the shop...it was VERY magical...
and something tells us she must put on this show daily because her store was packed from the minute we walked in until the time we left.We have to admit, being there gave us a bit of anxiety about all of the work we need to do in our gardens over the next couple of months. Lenette, we may be calling to borrow that magic wand of yours!
After leaving the Garden Girl, we decided to find our way over to visit the Flutterby girls...where I fell in love with a Duck...
See, it's giving me "that look." I don't think I realized it when we were there, but when I saw the picture I knew this duck was meant for the BH Home Collection. And now I want to kick myself in the a$$ for leaving MY duck sitting there on that VERY cute rusty-iron-chippy-white rack. I will refrain from saying anything else about this very pretty duck because it may sound wierd...
BUT, I bet "my" duck loves this display as much as I do. ;o)
At every turn, there were beautiful vignettes...
We probably overstayed our welcome chatting with Denise, snapping pictures and asking a ton of questions about where to eat/shop/sleep in Yakima.
She eventually pushed us out the door so she could tend to her many real customers. Leaving us no choice but to finally find our way over to Pam's shop...There were so many beautiful things to see!!
Sylvi is probably going to kill us for not bringing this pink treasure back for her. No Duck for me, no Pink treasures for you, Sylvi!!
Like everywhere else we visited that day in Yakima, we found ourselves in the midst of many customers on the hunt.
It was a great pleasure chatting with Pam and taking in all that her store had to offer...
After all of that shopping and visiting, we found a place to stay and caused a little havoc on the Yakima night life!! HEE HAW! Well, I should really say the Yakima "late-afternoon life" because we called it quits by about 9pm. The older we get, the more more we realize..."It don't shake quite like it used to" (to say the least).

The conclusion: When the pressure is on, lock yourself in the car with your best friend and go on a road trip. We had several hours to discuss and process "The Purple Elephant" in the room (our seaon opening event). And yes, our discussions were very positive and productive! We only had to pull over and wrestle one time...and that was about the new "big elaborate structureS" Joe plans on having us build in AND around the barn. BUT, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY (Jermonne)so I would prefer not to discuss who won the road-side wrestling match!

More to come on what's next for BH...

J & J