For the first time as sellers – we ventured to the Brimfield Antique Market this year in Massachusetts. Having been many times as buyers for the shop – this time we tried our hand as a vendor. If you’ve never heard of Brimfield  - it is THE market for antiques and collectibles. It is quite immense and intimidating with several fields and miles of walking. Shoppers and dealers come out early with flash lights in hand and many times equipped with their rain gear too.

This year was no different and it was a rainy one indeed. We set up for one day only  in the Heart-O-The-Mart field. Overall it was a great experience and we will definitely be doing it all again come this September. Thanks to everyone that came by!

We wanted to share with you an amazing new book just released by Chronicle Books called Mom, Inc. – written by two super creative moms, Meg Mateo Ilasco and Cat Seto. It is an excellent resource that highlights everything that comes with running your own business from how to choose the right business, find clients, write a business plan, launch a blog and a Web site. Mom, Inc. also includes interviews with entrepreneur moms that strive to make it work with insights into how they began their companies.

I was completely honored to be interviewed and included in this book. In these five years of Three Potato Four, I’ve struggled with being a good mom and being a good business owner and partner with Stu. It is truly difficult! But it IS possible and Mom, Inc. is a wonderful inspiring guide to help us along the way.

Happy Mother’s Day! -janet

Some of our instagram snapshots this spring. @3potato4

]]> http://threepotatofourshop.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=2865 0 http://threepotatofourshop.com/blog/?p=2865 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ThreePotatoFour/~3/c2KHskvGfw8/ http://threepotatofourshop.com/blog/?p=2858#comments Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:05:25 +0000 admin http://threepotatofourshop.com/blog/?p=2858

Another Barn Sale is here! We spent this week doing a overhaul and major reorganization of our mill space to get it ready for this weekend’s Spring Barn Sale. Our last event was in the winter for Outpost and we are excited to open up once again. We do not hold regular hours anymore in the shop and so when we have these special events we really do our best to pack the shop with new items that are not yet available on our website. We are stocked!

Hope you can make it out to Philly this weekend. It is sure to be some Barn Sale fun.

The nights are still cool and bug-free. Taking advantage of this and playing outside until it gets dark, and ending each day with that been outside all day smell.

“Boxer” by Lovers

Our Spring Barn Sale is just around the corner: April 21 + 22 . We have been collecting so much inventory for the event and thus traveling to some far out places to uncover finds. We recently returned from a trip that led us to a man who owned a former tobacco farm. His collections were housed in an old train depot station located on the property. He told us stories and let us peek into the old house he grew up in and the run down former general store that served the train depot. The most interesting buying trips are when we can meet folks like this and hear their stories – it makes what we buy for the shop that much more special and unique.

Although we are not diligent about constantly updating this blog of ours – it makes me happy that we’ve documented some moments of our life through the growth of our business and most especially the growth of our children. It’s annoying how life gets so busy and we are in a rush way too much.

Stu and I love our work and this business we’ve grown – we are slowly working hard to accomplish so much more with Three Potato Four. However, with all work – you get caught up in it, stressed, consumed and totally overwhelmed. Holly and Otis are a constant reminder for us to slow down and really enjoy life – if work has to be put on hold it will just have to be because the two of them will not be little too much more. We’ll probably never find the balance between work and life. But I’m pretty sure that the walk in the woods, trip to the orchard, ride on the steam train, and the fishing afternoon along the pond, those small adventures we take with H + O are what we’ll remember most.

We plan be on the road a lot the next coming weeks and this seems like the perfect song to play on a road trip. It’s about the pettiness and torture of high school. Glad that’s over.

Enjoy!

“Rill Rill” by Sleigh Bells
(thanks, nicole)

Not sure we could live in a place where the seasons didn’t change. It’s always a welcoming and refreshing change. And, wow does it feels great to get through the rough of winter and come out to discover it is spring.