S is for "Special Studio Sale"

Studio Sale!

What: A medley of this & that from props, things we thought we were going to do stuff with and never did, household goodies, lighting, and really, really fun things. Lots of ribbon too! Treasures for all! Calling all bargain hunters!

When: Oct 16 & 17, Friday & Saturday 8:00am-3:00pm

Where: Kara's shed {please email me for directions}

Special note *no public restrooms & no house tours as we are starting construction.

Yes, gals we will post stories on the CL fair & tell who won our giveaway. We are still staring at the wall from the fair. I told someone we could sleep until Christmas.
Yes, you will need to excuse my yard {since end of July planning & working on CL fair}
Concrete work not finished.......all in due time getting old stone to finish sides of steps and picking out brick for joint seams and end of arched walk. Flurrying around figuring out flooring for back room/mudroom/laundry and kitchen.

We have old wood floors in the rest of house and want different texture in these places. Any ideas? Help!
Yes, our boxwoods need trimmed!

See you there!

Kara & Darcy

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

Christmas List.....

Wm. Mills & Co.

Sailmakers

since 1880

{classic}

These bags our added to both of our Christmas lists.............have you started yours yet?

As soon as October arrives we'll start shopping. This year we can decorate our houses instead of a store! Usually Darcy & I would be flurrying around on Christmas Eve day wrapping gifts, not joking. We have so much fun with wrapping that this year want to enjoy our work.

Now folks about a McMaster & Storm pop-up-shop.............more on this later.............

Oh, Hello!

We're here somewhere we keep losing ourselves as that is how much we're flurrying around. "Losing ourselves?" Now that doesn't make any sense , but hey, it did when I was writing it! Warning: I didn't edit these photos, I have misspelled words in two previous posts and I'm not even worried about it.

Judith from Bloomsburry Loft called and knew why we hadn't posted in forever as she knew that we were going crazy too. Shop girls are so understanding! Oh, and hello new neighbors word has it on the street that our tents are close to each other. Fun, fun!

Kasey from Lola B has been diligent in calling to cheer us on and we'll be staying in the same hotel and having a great dinner together one evening. Anyone interested shoot us an e-mail and we'll give you the details.

Thanks to those who have been great support: both our moms, & a great big shout out to my mom-in-law for surprising me and getting my kidlets yesterday. Thank you for kind words, e-mails, calls to everyone----thank you.

It takes a village to raise a child {can't remember who quoted that please google and get back to me, I'm too lazy at the moment} AND it takes a village to get ready for the 2009 Country Living Fair! I can't believe the crazy things we've pulled off in the last week! Oh, the last minute inspiration, why is it always last minute?

We've been calling, pricing, pricing, pricing, pricing---you get the picture! We're slowly getting to the finish line and we're sprinting not jogging! Can't wait to see everyone there..........

Now about the Midwest weather that weekend............well, we're both praying about that one.............

See you there!

Kara & Darcy too

Parties, Picnics & Fairy Rings

Darcy's picnic for her family {& no, this was not staged for a blog post. she is just that inspiring}
Pink lemonade perfect in every way.........
Fairy ring a nature phenomenon made by God, a ring of toad stools popped up in Darcy's yard.......
Stand in the circle and make a wish..............
close up of perfect toad stools.......aren't they cute...........
Party ahead! Teague and McKell's Circus party................
Prizes.............
Kid Tatoos..........a sweet client..........
Happy Birthday Teague & McKell..............

Loved Ones

Before I head to Savannah in the morning, here is Happy Birthday wishes to a darling soon to be 12, McKell. I will be gone and will miss the big bash on Friday. Darcy throws the loveliest of parties and she promised to take lots of pics for the blog. I ordered her present and she asked me what is was and of course I told her my lips are sealed. I did give her a hint....

it's not any Apple products, ----- maybe for Christmas missy..............
AND it's not any thrift store or antique finds.............
she sighed in relief as she doesn't understand our infatuation with the hunt and old, wierd, bizarre things..........
She'll understand someday, maybe when she's 25 and realizes her mother and auntie Kara were right after all..............BUT, really isn't the collection of shirts organized by color in the thrift store just peachy. We found inspiration just looking at them. Oh, Darcy found a homemade garment there {very Anthro} that McKell just rolled her eyes at. {Oh, to be 12 again} Happy Birthday girlie!

My cousin Rita, her mother and kiddos came to spend some time with us on Monday. This is the first time I have seen Rita in about 8 or so years. We have the same great-grandparents, she stood up in my wedding and we reunited on Monday. Terrible how this happens! Time does not stop and afterwards made myself promise to keep in touch. Of course I need to after seeing her darling kids! Look at baby Gabriella, isn't she a sweetie. {oh, and Rita is fun and lovely inside and out!}
Rita's boys: Petey, C.J. & Gabriella, the chubba wubba on the left is mine! Oh, I do hope they come again to the middle of nowhere! When they live in a place like Palo Alto this is very rural in comparison. Hopefully Darcy and I will see Rita next February and head to the gift show.
One of Zach's 6 month old pics........ Did I tell you he has reddish hair?

Don't you love to be surrounded by people you love!

Sign us Up and Away.........

Two exciting things to mention! Above photo is story board made by our friend "down South" Liz Demos. She is taking the plunge and doing events and weddings. This story board made us swa-woon with delight! She will have a website up soon for her details on all things good & lovely.

Kara will be seeing her next week as she is taking a trip to see Savannah. Read an old post here on what hilarious Darcy wrote about her. It's been since 2003 that Kara was there so she's looking forward to sa-weet tea! Kara promises everyone waves to anyone down there, truly, really it is so!

Now, TA-DA........
We scouted this event last evening on French General's blog and "whew" this event makes us dizzy just thinking about it! You should see the lineup of instructors: Kaari Meng, Amy Butler,

Wendy Addison, Marcia Ceppos, Charlotte Lyons, Matthew Mead and more. Sign up is September 1st and we truly believe it will be sold out in minutes. We hope we can make this ball of an event.

We have enjoyed working with Kaari, Amy & Wendy, Marcia but the others will be {oh, we hope we can go} new to us. The added benefit is it's in St. Louis and that's only a 5 hour drive from us. Road trip= antiquing on the way, laughs, fun, creativit-y, eating {of course}, coffee and ME studio will be open for tours. How fun is that! OK, girls let's go!

Can't wait! Who plans to go???

Meanwhile, we are plowing through pricing things for the CL fair. Please say a prayer for us; our piles of work are not dwindling very fast. Yesterday Kara was so distracted that she gave her 6 month old a Dum-Dum lollipop instead of her 3.5 year old! True Story. Zach loved it, he had it sucked down to almost nothing. He started squealing because it fell out of his mouth and he couldn't get that sweetness. No wonder he was quiet and happy for 10 minutes! Please don't tell the National Academy of Pediatrics, Kara would be on their billboard in short order on the dangers of giving sugar to babies......... that's all folks!

Have a lovel-y, beautiful weekend gals!

Kara + Darcy