Country Living Fair 2009 {Story no. 1}

Did you know the Spangler Candy Company {since 1906} is located in Ohio? We offered the well-know Dum Dum lollipops as a treat for our customers. Oddly a family came in and told us Mary Spangler goes to their church. She is 90 years old and still runs the church's annual rummage sale and brings candy from the factory for events. We plan to take the kiddos to tour the factory. We grew up with these. Did you? The stories we gather at events across the country. Learning things from other people is a treat in itself.............
Karla, left and Beth next. Judith is missing in this photo, these adorable gals run Bloomsbury Loft in Powell, Ohio. They did an amazing job on their tent space. They have an amazing story of the hard work behind this business. We are keeping our fingers crossed they get to tell you their story in a national magazine. We met them at the first Country Living Women Entrepreneurs Event in Chicago. Since then we both have set up for 3 years at the Country Living Fair. We appreciate them a lot.
Findings---jewelry by Joanna and she is talented! Her work was just featured in Family Circle and will be in Country Living early next year along with home and shop. Her mother, Kathe is involved in gathering goodies for the shop.
Bracelets in a funky, vintage drawer thing-y.
Number bracelet, this is what McKell picked out to buy...........{Darcy's daughter}
Lovely display in Findings booth space...........
Oh, the fun paper goods.
Joanna's mom, Kathe brought lots of Ephemera, vintage goodies and a lot of delightful, petite treasures. They have a shop Summer House in New Jersey. Their style is very edited and museum like. Which we love as our booth is crammed..........so fun to enjoy every one's individuality!
Joanna's bracelets.........just yummy. We sold her bracelets in our shop last year.
Darcy admiring the bracelet that her daughter picked out to wear..........
Kasey from Lola B's Boutique, she has set up the last two years and this year headed to just shop at the Country Living fair. She posted on it here and her most recent post is celebrating her 300th post and is giving away great prizes. Anthro is involved so head over there to celebrate. Cheers to Kasey!

She is kind enough to give us support and called us right before the fair to cheer us on. She knows first-hand the hard work that is involved.

Tomorrow: Willow Nest

k&d

Celebrating 10 Years of Retail Ventures! A Contest!

{Celebrating 10 years of Creative Endeavors}

1999-2009

Marks the time between us, we have either had stores or have helped others in their retail ventures. So many stories, faces and memories. What a grand adventure! Yes, times flies when you're having fun.

Top ones

Kara: Crossing the Oakland Bay bridge to get to the Flower Market at 3:30am. Sharp. To beat rush hour traffic to bring back fresh garlands, wreaths {at Christmas}& plants. Then run the store all day. We lived 1.5 hours from San Fran.

Darcy & I: Getting stuck in the Chicago Gift market {at an off gift show} in the stair well soon after 9/11 and it was weird. Very weird.

Kara: Opening a store in CA with very little money and being incredibly blessed that first year. {man, those economic times were different!}

Darcy: Seeing her husband pound her store sign in the ground.

Kara & Darcy: Taking the BUS instead of the taxi from La Guardia to Manhattan. We still laugh at this one. Hey, it said 20 minutes on the Internet. Try 2.5 hours. OK, really don't laugh too hard at us.

Darcy & Kara: Schlepping on the "long blocks" in NYC in the rain. We literally were drowned rats when we arrived at the Javitz Center. {When people say "oh, it's just right up the way....it could mean a looooooooooong way!}

Kara: Hauling furniture out of the bay area......I used to know how to tie trucker's knots. Now that I'm almost 35 I would be scared to death to do what I used to do. Bizarre, hauling furniture out of warehouses in Oakland and going to San Fran with a trailer. eek. Good thing I never had to back a trailer ever. I would be in trouble. Big trouble.

Darcy & Kara: Granville........lots of coffee. Fun times. Amy Butler's home & studio.

Darcy: Sliding on a stack of tissue paper that Kara had left on the floor. She was carrying an cast iron urn and caught it and the item that flew out of the urn landed back into the urn. ---Somehow Darcy missed the glass topped coffee table and caught that urn. {she's a whiz}

Kara & Darcy: Driving to Atlanta and stopping at all these fun antique stores on the way home.

No kids. Pure bliss.

Kara: Paris & Brussels 2000. Time to go back. Darcy needs to go too. Hmmmmmm. It's been way to long. Vanves flea market. Fabric stores. Crossiants. Interesting people. Meeting a vendor for lunch. People taking pictures of my prayer covering. Not kidding, I had people turn me around and snap away.

Kara & Darcy: McMaster & Storm Brick & Mortar storefront.

Kara & Darcy: The countless vendors we have done business with for 10 years, this leads to something we're giving away. It's been a favorite of ours for 10 years and it's yours if you just post! BUT, we want feedback: a comment of what you would like to see us do, a complaint {we want to know} so have at it. OK, try to be somewhat nice.

We want to keep the giveaway a surprise. Yes, it will be at the Country Living Fair! We're keeping everything under wraps until after the fair and we'll post pics. Also, a lot of the products will be available online after the fair. It's time to update our website for sure. {yes, we know everyone's emailing about this}

Some of you will be traveling from far away to the show.........have a safe trip and we'll see you there. Tent space #108, same area as last year. Next week. YIKES!

Thanks for celebrating with us!

Kara + Darcy

Another Shout Out..........

Attention all Brick & Mortar Shop Girls {& guys too}

Abby of The Blissful has a unique thing going on.......

to show you how to "shopkeep"

Open to 100 shop owners, this private blog, A Boutique Industry, will be very helpful to those of you who need support

and want to learn.

She also is having a very fun "Indie Girl" event so check that out here.

She is an amazing writer & one bus-y shop girl!

Sweet Saturday Thoughts

One of our customers, Debby, who discovered us at the 2007
Country Living fair found a home for one of our favorite things-
this swan "floating on water".
Debby is a customer who understands the quirkiness of
McMaster & Storm. Her collection of purchases always
reflects what we are truly about, different things
that add a spark & a touch of uniqueness to a home.
Plus we always enjoy good conversation as well.
We hope to keep in touch with them
through the future going-ons of McMaster & Storm!

Gary & Debby brought us each a potted rose in a darling
pink pot----we hurried and did a collection of
Valentine-y colors at home with this plant!
Very inspirational and colorful during this ho-hum
time of winter in Ohio. Thank you also for
the very humbling note you tucked in our plants.
We appreciate your thoughtfulness!
K&D

Now this picture of these gals---the live, love scrap gals
has a story as well. They are retailers and we have enjoyed collaborating on
ideas about retail. They are moving to a
smaller building with character and I believe will become a very unique scrap booking boutique that will
inspire and not be a typical scrapbooking store. We hope to do some events with
them. They are always a lot of fun when they come in.
They also get our paper/vintage/odd things addiction!!!


Since we have announced our closing of the brick & mortar store
we have spoken across the country to retailers and the impact the retail
life has on us. We all want to do what we love, enjoy family, and lead a fulfilling life. Each of us works to find equilibrium and sometimes pull back when one
aspect is out of balance, (i.e. spending time with family).
There is always a solution and even if it means closing & finding other
ways to lead a fulfilling life. Believe me we can't wait for the next chapter of McMaster & Storm,
we'll keep you posted on the blog!

{icy weather, questionable road conditions. Store may or may not be open depending on the weather today, please call to verify, 10th of Jan sorry}

Display Pieces & Furniture; now with dimensions on most, {closing retail store}

Here are the display pieces for sale
pickup or arrange your own shipping
questions: call 937-548-2100
e-mail mcmasterandstorm@embarqmail.com



Antique, massive, very tall 4 doors from an Indiana Courthouse
{Metal stands, which hold the doors upright are included in the price}
Solid wood, painted. Two of the doors are 118" tall by 40" wide. The other 2 doors are 118" tall by 46" wide.
$1599.00 for the set of 4

SOLD



Apothecary Displays {includes glass sliding doors not shown}
2 for $2,600.00
Now $1,399.99 for the pair. Each cabinet consists of 2 pieces, a top and a bottom. The dimensions of which are 72"wide by 94" tall, the depth of the top piece is 12" and the depth of the bottom piece tapers from 24" down to 12".

Antique Department Store Dress Shirt Display
Drawers pull out in back
$1,600.00
Now $899.99. Dimensions: 96" wide by 36" tall and 28" deep.

Store Counter Display on wood base
$499.00
Now $299.99. Dimensions (including base) 59.5" wide by 41.75" tall by 29" deep.
SOLD

Long store display counter 12' long with one shelf
$895.00
Now $499.99. Dimensions: 144"wide by 34" tall by 28" deep.

Huge Oak Antique file Cabinet
$1,900.00
Now $999.00. Dimensions: 69"wide by 72" tall by 12" deep.

Reproduction style European Island w/ drawer
$1484.00
Now
$749.99

SOLD

Antique grocery store display
wood & metal on wheels
$699.99
Now $449.00.
Dimensions: 50.5" wide by 40" tall by 24-12" deep (depth tapers in at top).

Antique Cabinet Made in Bradford, Ohio
Picture of man who made it in the drawer with his name!
$2,499
Now
$1,699.00

Huge Antique White Cabinet w/ 2 glass doors above included
{ glass doors not shown as we took them
off to display}
SOLD!

QUINTER, KANSAS

Aqua 2 drawer chest {nice for entryway, bigger size}
Reproduction
$1,050.00
Now
$599.99

Vintage Birdcage on Stand
$440
Now $269.99

SOLD

Modern Style
Butcher Block Table w/ stainless steel legs
Vintage

40.5" High, 23.5" Depth, 71.5 wide
SOLD!
ST. LOUIS

"Going Postal"

{"good morning, darcy, this is your wake up call!"}


{"goofing off at a warehouse"}

Yesterday our usually-handy-dandy-click-n-ship decided to act up and as we would print labels it would decide to charge our credit card a few times too many. I'm worried that by this evening we'll have a million air miles too many. We had our first lost package and our shipments are not coming in fast enough. Glitches, yes lovely glitches and since we don't have an employee that has a title "troubleshooter" we get to figure out all this "un-creative stuff" out! The USPS sent us an e-mail a few weeks with technical questions for us to answer, needless to say they went unanswered as to technical for us! Matt, {kara's husband} will need to come in and figure this out for us. AND, our air conditioner quit yesterday as the filter has not been changed for 3 years! When we rented the building this was never discussed and the basement is not a place we like to hang out. It never crossed our minds, there again we don't have an employee with the title "maintenance". As shopkeepers we wear many hats sometimes too many at once! It's a delicate balancing act and easy to stress out over too "many little things"!

{"sometimes you just need to have a good laugh"}

We now have decided to devote one entire day to only internet as keeping track of inventory from the actual physical shop and updating inventory levels when we sell something "out front". We have two stores now with internet. We still have new product to photograph and need to re-load pictures so customers can look at a larger picture. One day at a time.........."inch by inch life's a cinch, yard by yard life is hard"!

Thank you patient, kind & understanding customers, you keep us going! Also, to our lovely shopkeeper friends far & near your support means a lot! Life is about cheering each other on!!!

Preserve Me, O GOD,
For in THEE do I put my Trust.
Psalm 16-1

Warm Saturday Greetings!

We are make headway! We have about 10 more items to upload, then onto working on working on.....
Soon we need the techie guy to make sure all this "clicks" together. Then we should be rolling and finally online. Wow, we now have established another part of our brain to recognize the two stores we'll be running: brick-and-morter and e-commerce. It's been a crazy, dizzy ride.

We know you have all been very patient for this, thank you for the encouragement and the cheering us on. There is a lot to this venture, more than we thought and when it's all said and done it will be an exciting addition to the storefront location in our "middle of nowhere" city of Greenville.

I think today we'll take a antiquing jaunt, Sara offered to help today at the store {thank you} and it's a much needed break for both of us shop girls.
K&D

It's Snowing

Our Storefront the Morning of December 5th.
This picture was taken by Amber, she is the head of
our Main Street Program in Greenville.
Seems so quiet, unaware of the world's hustle & bustle