Necessity = Invention

When you’re in the mood, you’re in the mood. When you’re ready to paint and you don’t have the color you want – you invent. The invention of a new color is something I’ve never done. I feel so accomplished! Lol!!

So, now we took one super bright red and made a muted “blood plum”! Now I’m changing everything about this piece since I live the deep color. It’s sort of a Mardi Gras muted plum. It’s fun. It’s my first. Will I be as excited with my next? Hmm…

The Temps!

Whenever I come back from market, many of our customers ask, “What did you find?”  Quite often I say the best things I found were “in the temps”.  So, I thought I’d tell you about one discovery I made this year “IN THE TEMPS” which is the temporary showrooms.  These guys don’t have fancy showrooms with numerous reps helping and food and wine all around.  These guys are in a 10×10 booth crammed with merchandise and staff and hopefully customers.  (I always feel bad when I walk by an empty booth, they look so lonely.)

This time “in the temps” I found a great new company called Knollwood Lane where there were all sorts of new and different items.  From pillows to wall decor to a lazy susan out of an old tree to burb cloths featuring cute sayings.  Basically, my kind of place.  One stop shopping for all the areas of my two stores – Columbus and La Grange.  And, their booth was packed!  I love all of my traditional, showroom vendors and reps.  They know me, know the store, know what we carry so they don’t try to sell me crystal and chrome chandeliers in a Tuscan-Lodge rustic environment.  That is where the Temps can be a problem.  And, through the years I’ve seen some Temp vendors we’ve found move up to showrooms and find great success.  Nora Fleming and Mary Lake Thompson come to mind, and we’ve enjoyed watching and being a part of their growth.

But, there is something about finding that needle in a haystack that makes it all worth exploring the wonderful world of TEMPS.  So, when you explore our stores you will find those hidden gems as well, and we hope you feel the way we do when we find something very special.  That is our goal.  That is why we are here. That is why shopping independent is so important.  We all support independence and creativity in one form or another

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Shop Local – Support Local

For the last several years we have hosted a dinner at the Barn. We prepare the meal, some sort of activity and a discount on shopping. This dinner is a charity event for St. Anthony Catholic School donated as an auction item during their school carnival. In addition, we done another 10% of sales from the evening to the arts program at the school.
We all as independent retailers constantly ask customers to shop local, but what are you doing as a retailer to support local needs? We must be an active partner in our community if we expect the same from shoppers within the community. We are proud of our participation and get so much from it when kids tell us how much they do and learn in the art program at the school. We know we’ve helped in some small way to help them spread their wings and learn new things.
Don’t forget your customers and the community in which you both live. It does make a difference!

Who Inspires You?

We all have people who inspire us.  Some inspire our spiritual side.  Some inspire us with their creativity and ability to believe in their dreams and trust they will find their way.  We all hear about the people who are successful because they do what they love.  To me, that is the “build it and they will come” mentality.  NOTHING is that easy.  I find it takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice to “do what we love.”

So, who inspires me?  Well, I have a list of women who I have seen accomplish their dream, build successful businesses and still exhibit great humility and appreciation of employees and customers alike.

My first inspirational woman in the retail business is Frances Gravely of Vietri.  What she and her sister accomplished with their mother is amazing.  When they began over 25 years ago, they had a vision to bring back home to America a handcrafted dinnerware style that was not the norm at the time.  Think the perfection of fine bone china vs. the imperfection of hand perfected dinnerware.  Who would think something like that would work?  Who would defy the odds and become one of the leading tabletop collections?  Obviously, they did, and they worked hard for that “overnight success.”

Second, I find Conni Reed of Consuela.  Those handbags just keep kicking butt!  Why?  Because Conni does not sit on her laurels and say, “why, yes, I created the most popular tote, bag, etc. and now I’ll sit back and enjoy.”  No, she constantly “gets it” and keeps reaching for more.  Like me, she spent years in the corporate world.  It’s hard leaving a steady paycheck for a dream.  But, dream she did and now she and her incredible staff (I’m partial, they are as cool and hip as her collection) just keep creating and inventing a new path in the handbag venue.

Last, but not least, is Beatriz Ball of Beatriz Ball.  I so love this collection of tabletop serving pieces that I can’t imagine anything as magnificent in the industry today.  And, she has created this from a vision, an idea, a passion and she still loves getting ideas and suggestions from her customers.  I greatly admire her, even though she did tell me she has a love/hate relationship with neighborhood deer!

While these women represent what I think is the best of my industry, there are many other women who inspire me on a personal or spiritual level.  But, I hope any young woman with a dream will look at these women and see they CAN achieve and can accomplish, at any age, what they were meant to do to live a complete life with no regrets.  Enjoy your dreams, enjoy your accomplishments.  I do every day and these women remind me I can do even more with my dreams.

Beatriz Ball & Yours Truly

Baby, Oh Baby

Back in 1999 kids 12-16 were a trend. Why? Because the were the off spring of the Baby Boomers, the largest concentrated demographic ever. These babies were the next largest controlling demographic since that time. How do I know that? I was the Marketing Director at Claires Accessories and we watched these babies like a hawk!!!

15 years later reports indicate we are in the midst of a new baby boom. Ironic since I now own a store and have been noticing baby sales steadily increasing over the last couple of years. Now, I go to the Winter Gift Market and I see lots of new products for this emerging baby boomlet.

Funny how 15 years ago I was marketing the latest earrings and headbands to a group I’m now promoting Sophie the Giraffe! Can’t wait to see where these kids take me next.

To Market, To Market We Go!

Whenever I go to the Gift Market lots of friends and customers ask, “what did you see?” Well, I don’t know how to explain what all I see but I can say – “It’s a lot!”
W
That doesn’t satisfy!
So, what DID I see worth noting?
• Colors starting to emerge again. The year of everything in some shade of tan, fawn or brown is fading.
• Burlap in everything is getting old
• Baby biz is getting stronger
• Holiday 2015 will see dusty colors a little more muted than the pales of 2014
• Get ready for dinosaurs. The new Jurassic Park movie this summer has vendors sowing dinosaurs all over the place!

Well, Hello There……

When you live in the country, Internet is sometimes as attainable as flying to space for lunch.  NOT happening.  Without Internet it makes it hard to find the time to post blog reports.  So, the Silver Barn blog fell by the wayside while we focused on Facebook and Instagram which are a bit faster when all you need to do is post a picture versus a little info.

So, now here we go again.  We have loaded the spaceship, we have so much to share….and lunch on Mars is great!  The Martians gave me rabbit ears, we should be good to go with Internet in the country!

Tomorrow we will fill you in on Spring Market 2015 trends – as seen through the eyes of this little barn owner.

Are You Ready?

Tomorrow begins the tour of the south with my comrades, Jackie and Heidi.  What an adventure we are Iooking forward to.  From dumpster diving for trash that can be a treasure once more, to hitting the AmericasMart in Atlanta for the summer market (a first time visit for us all), I plan to share every detail.  Well, I might leave a few things out…..just to protect the innocent/guilty.

I had likened us to Thelma & Louise, well their trip didn’t end so well, and there are three, not two.  Then, there was Charlie’s Angels….hmm, I think they ended up in a Louisiana prison gang and sold into slavery.  Not my cup of tea.  So, I have now taken to comparing us to the gals of “Petticoat Junction.”  Yes, Bobbie Jo, Mary Jo & Billie Jo are about to depart from our own Hooterville and hit the dusty trail.  The worst we can get in to is falling in the railroad water tank!  So, here’s to a trip full of fun and interesting sites.  I hope you will join us and let us know how we are doing!  See y’all

Facebook & The Barn

Facebook is an interesting source for friends, but even more interesting for small businesses like The Silver Barn.  Yesterday we did what we call a Facebook Frenzy contest where fans share pics with other friends to then win the item featured.  This is the second time we have done this as a fast way to spread the word about our store.  It does generate buzz and new followers.  But, what I get out of it more than I ever expected is the constant interaction throughout the day with the folks that follow our store and our page.  When folks are in the store we constantly hear how much they like the store, like what we carry, enjoy the people who work here, but that is hard to get through the Internet.  Yesterday we were able to “feel” the energy as our fans played, congratulated others who won, commented on items we were showing and basically told us what fun they had.

Today, a fan and customer told me she had such fun following the contest yesterday even though she didn’t win.  There is a sense of community out there in Facebook land, you just sometimes have to rattle the keyboard to feel it.

Back In The Saddle Again

Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is “Guinness”. No, the Silver Barn blog has not gone to the deer.   I am here on behalf of Cynthia, owner of Silver Barn who apologizes for being so remiss in updating her fans of late.  She has been a tad busy getting the store ready to celebrate birthday number four, helping the most brides in one season find just the right items, and helping me find all my babies.  I must say, the spots just don’t help at times!

So now, she is about to head out on an adventure across the south, looking for goodies for the store.  The trip culminates with a visit to what I hear is a buyers Mecca, the AmericasMart in Atlanta.  I’m confident she will find lots of things I have no use for, but I’m sure you’ll be happy to see them.

Today she is creating a fan frenzy on her Facebook page, so go over and see what all the fuss is about.  I hear it is like when she brings us a bunch of apples.  These gals go crazy I tell you, crazy.  I offered to step forward and get you started on the updates…so, stay tuned!