Anticipation...

Little by little our garden turns into a magical gallery of treasures. Not all of them are fancy or elegant. Some are odd, simple, rustic, but to us they are all beautiful. A bee hive, an egg sizer, or an olive colander can suddenly become part of a home's decor. When I see someone picking up an odd item, I always like to ask them how they will use it. Some of our customers sometimes send us photos of how they used an item or how they integrated it in their design. I'd love to do a posting on this one day: photos of our items in your homes or gardens.

We love watching Johan do his magic as he begins to spread out our finds and like the artist he is, uses our garden as a canvas and selects items as though they were his paint. He gets a look in his eyes as he visualizes and "grabs" his brushes in his brain and begins his careful brush strokes, moving this chair here, placing a plant there.

I used to have to do all this before on my own and always felt stressed because I just don't have the gift for designing as he does, so when he is here, he is "The Man." We step aside and do the menial work as he sets it all up. Martin has been a great help this time and took some time from his busy schedule to help out. He feels especially good this time as he spots items that he found in our buying trip. He will be serving wine and helping out tomorrow also.

It is not easy to arrange everything as we don't have a large garden and area for displaying what comes out the 40 ft. container. Each time we say, "Next time, we will plan more, and then something happens that throws us off. We still have a few things to do tomorrow morning. Our friend Cathy from Chico came today and was also great help. She brought a bottle of wine and one of champagne and rolled up her sleeves to help out. Thank you Cathy!

We are now sitting in our living room working, but we wanted to post one more entry in our blog to remind you of the event that begins tomorrow Saturday 17 and ends on Sunday 18. We have gotten several phone calls and are excited to see some of you again and meet some of you for the first time. We are sure you will have a good time, and hopefully you will find something to take home with you.

Enjoy the images!

Trinidad