Birch + Bird Vintage Home Interiors

Another busy weekend accomplished! Rachel and I spent Saturday afternoon taking pictures of new inventory for the shop….brrr! We take our photos outside as the lighting inside each of our homes isn’t ideal but this past session was by far the coldest we’ve attempted…it even started snowing! Our husbands were away on a dudes dirt biking extravaganza to Oregon’s sand dunes so we figured it would be the perfect weekend to tackle some shop business. It was and, despite the temperatures, we managed to make a dent in photographing our latest finds (we hadn’t taken pics since before Christmas and our stockpiling was starting to get out of hand!) and the kids played peacefully inside  while we worked. We spent the evening planning our next big project but I’ll talk about that a bit later. The entire weekend could have taken a disastrous turn but thankfully my parents saved the day! My son started complaining of a bad stomach ache Saturday morning (the last thing I wanted to hear at the start of a busy day, after 2 weeks of sniffly sick kids) so I called my mom to see if he could hang out with them for the afternoon and evening. He ended up with the stomach flu and slept over there, sparing the rest of us from contamination! Crisis averted, he seems great today, and I am so thankful that my wonderful family lives so close and loves us so much!

Here’s a little sneak peak of some new items ready to be listed in the shop…

So, the big project that Rachel and I spent the weekend (and the last couple of weeks) planning is…drumroll, please…The Old School Market! We will be hosting our first ever vintage and handmade market at the end of May and we are so excited! We were vendors at The Ivory Vintage Market in White Rock, BC twice last summer and loved the experience. It was so wonderful to interact with our customers face-to-face and to network with other sellers. Our hometown of Abbotsford is dubbed “The City in the Country” yet, despite it’s country ways, it seems to be a little behind when it comes to markets and craft fairs. We do have a good farmer’s market in the warmer months and big craft shows do come to the huge convention centre, but we thought it would be great to showcase vendors of specifically handmade and vintage goods. The last big craft show I went to felt like a giant informercial and was very disappointing, to say the least.

Alec Vanderboom via Mary Ruffle

Rachel and I are both lucky to know of so many talented local craftspeople, several of whom are also on Etsy, and just knew we had to move forward when we found the perfect venue. The Clayburn Schoolhouse is in a little heritage village on the outskirts of town and the one room schoolhouse has been restored and turned into a rental hall. It is absolutely adorable inside and we fell in love at first sight! We have a number of amazing vendors lined up already and are looking for more. If you live in the Lower Mainland area and are interested, please contact us for details. We set up a quick little blog here, that we’ll be updating regularly with market information.

The Schoolhouse, Clayburn Village, BC.

With the market on my mind and a display of our own to plan, I set out in search of other great market tables and inspiration. Here are a few lovely examples of the overall esthetic we’re going for…

Seabold Vintage Market

Hitched via The Found Blog. Photo by Amelia Lyon.

Hitched via The Found Blog. Photo by Amelia Lyon.

Hello, Friend

Barn House

If you’ve hosted or been a part of a market like this in the past, we’d love to hear any tips….once again, we’ll be learning as we go! We’ll be keeping you posted here and on our market blog with vendor updates and more so stay tuned…