A View from the Coop: Barn House

Showing posts with label Barn House. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Favorite Things at Home

Recently my daughter Chelsea and I took a photography class from professional photographer Lara Blair.

This morning I spent some time trying out my new skills by shooting a few of my favorite things around the house.

Love, love, love this cow! She was painted by artist Leah Anderson and hangs proudly above our mantel. The heavy finial with it's beautiful zinc gray and rusty patina was a Barn House splurge. Antlers are a constant favorite around here.

Next up is this cool industrial floor lamp purchased at a garage sale for $1.00! It's been re-wired and put to work as a reading lamp.

So very cool...

This old wooden rake speaks to me. Useful and beautiful. Hand crafted around 1914.

A big fatty service bell is a must have for any respectable household. Many children disguised as adults have enjoyed slamming their hand down on this thing!


Purchased from my sweet friends Kari and Kathryn of Manor Bourne

An old White House Cook Book is perfect with hand written notes scrawled inside the beautifully worn pages. It's a fascinating browse. Stewed Pigeon and Gooseberry Catsup are among the more interesting recipes.

Who knew plain old ivory soap could look so good?

Believe it or not this is a Goodwill find. Not one but two, yes a pair. A pair of gorgeous, vintage, mercury glass lamps for $25.

For. The. Pair.

Crazy!

We love our pond. Winter is it's best season. The water is full and clear making it possible to see all the way to the bottom. After a morning run we cruise by the pond and look for fish.

We have lived in our home for nearly 17 years. Many country cats have called this place home too. The photo below is one of my very favorite things. If you look very closely you will see a narrow trail in the grass. For some feline reason beyond human understanding our country cats have carved this permanent path. Some are no longer with us but the path they created remains.

What stories do your favorite things have to tell?

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Final Show for the Season

Life has been busy and rewarding with so many shows this summer! Show season is drawing to an end for Worthy Goods and we are looking forward to the mundane... cleaning house, grocery shopping, baking...

If you need a Worthy Goods fix before next Spring, you can find us year round at Monticello Antique Market Place ~ 8600 SE Stark Street ~ Portland, OR.

Our final show for the season is the Fall Premier Show at Monticello. The show runs through October 2nd. Participating vendors are restocking daily. Come by for a shopping fix!

Worthy Goods pulled out all the stops with fantastic vintage treasures, handcrafted textiles and more...

On another note...

The premier issue of Folk Magazine is hot off the press! Barn House is one of the featured articles with a spotlight on the Summer Country Vintage Marketplace hosted by the boys in July. Congrats to Joe and Jermonne you guys are the best!

Debbie and I (aka Worthy Goods) are pictured in the article along with many vendor friends and wonderful customers! The article and photos were done by the very talented miss Kimberly Taylor...

Looking forward to the gorgeous days of fall!
Laurie

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Behind the Scenes

At times I struggle about posting for the business my sister and law and I share, Worthy Goods, on this blog. I don't want to be redundant... so if you want to hear all about how fantastic the Barn House Vintage Market was last weekend... pop on over to our Worthy Goods blog and check it out! Click right HERE and off you go!

Today I'm taking you behind the scenes for a look at what happens when prepping for a show...

Often the purchase of some cool antique or vintage item will drive the theme for an event such as Barn House.

This year it was a pair of gorgeous turn-of-the-century iron canopy beds.

Yes, I said a PAIR!

The beds were painted yellow and our original idea was to paint them white. There were two compelling reasons to keep them yellow. First, all the gorgeous patina would be lost. Second, do you know how long it would take to paint canopy beds?!

After a color brainstorming session Debbie and I chose white, yellow and gray as the perfect color story for our space at Barn House.

Part of the design was to have our space chock full of gorgeous items made with linen in all three shades. But there was one little obstacle. We couldn't find gray linen anywhere! We finally found the perfect gray and they were out of stock until mid July (too late)!

What's a girl to do? Dye her own! We had a Worthy Goods work day at my house and taught ourselves how to dye linen. After a few set backs and phone calls to the dye help line, Debbie and I had several yards of lovely gray linen.

We are both easily excited and easily distracted. So after successfully dying a few yards of fabric we had to see what everything would look like together. We set up one of the beds in the yard and added a ticking mattress, a feather bed, two different options for curtains and the gray fabric.

Time to try things out. The feather bed was cushy heaven...

After much planning and sewing, Worthy Goods ended up with several sets of gorgeous linen pillow cases, twin sheets, linen covered feather beds, pillows and table runners.

The results of all that hard work...

Our space at Barn House...

There you have it. One small peek into what happens behind the scenes! Thanks for coming along...

~Laurie

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Let me introduce you...

to my beautiful niece Kelly...

Kelly is the youngest daughter of my Worthy Goods partner Debbie.
Which makes Debbie my sister-in-law in case you were wondering...
Kelly lives in the Pacific NW with her husband and two gorgeous children, Annabelle and Sawyer Berkeley.

Kelly is also an amazing children's pastor.
She has a positive spirit and an infectious joy!

Not only is she a hard worker but crazy, creative too!
When Worthy Goods first started Kelly was our merchandising guru, coming to our Barn House events and teaching us a trick or two. I have learned much from this beautiful young woman!

Kelly & Aunt Laurie Barn House Flea 2010

Kelly has recently added a new passion to her life...

She is a proponent of a healthy lifestyle but feels that everyone should be able to have a treat and enjoy it! Thus, a line of fabulous bite sized cupcakes was born. They are small, full of flavor and oh so satisfying!

Guilt free bites of heaven!

Nothing but the finest ingredients go into these little gems.