My favorite part of any party or celebration is cooking, baking, making food and drinks. Chad has become the neighborhood bartender, and I just love trying fun, new recipes.
Here are a few we used this weekend:
Firecracker Champagne Paloma - Halfbaked Harvest
Image credit: Halfbaked Harvest
We all agreed this was a perfect summer drink, especially while we were sitting outside in the 92 degree heat! It was refreshing, interesting, and delicious! Chad added a bit more sugar than the recipe calls for, but if you prefer the sour grapefruit zing, you can follow the recipe exactly.
Red, White and Blue Cheesecake Salad - The Slow Roasted Italian
Image credit: The Slow Roasted Italian
Probably one of the best things I've ever eaten - our neighbors asked us to leave some behind in a tupperware for them, it was so good. This was a bit more like a pudding than a "salad," even if you're used to jello salads at family functions. The sauce also made much more than was necessary for the dish - I poured it all in, and the fruit was buried, but no one complained. The sauce is definitely the best part. Lastly, I used vanilla instant pudding because my local store didn't have cheesecake-flavored pudding, but I imagine that would have made it even better!
Parmesan Dill Potato Salad - Will Cook for Smiles
Image credit: Will Cook for Smiles
Chad called this "fancy potato salad." There aren't many things I don't eat, but mustard is the top of my "despise it" list, so I always try to find potato salads without mustard. I broke my own rule for this one, because it does have 2t of dijon, but you can't really taste it. I cooked the potatoes the night before, and let them sit in the fridge uncovered overnight - which created a great texture & firmness. The shaved parm was a great touch, but when I make this again, I'll leave out the sour cream and do more mayo. It was lacking that kick from the mayo, and was a bit more bland than I'd hoped (even with some extra dill added). I'd definitely make it again with a few tweaks!
We got the easy end of the food deal this weekend. Our neighbor Samantha Lewis Photography and her husband smoked a pork roast, chicken wings, chicken lollipops and hosted us at their house. Their sweet boy broke his arm this past week, so we did a lot of activities that he could do with just one hand, like making bead bracelets, American flag painting kits, and playing hide and seek.
I hope you all had an amazing 4th as well - leave me your recipe links in comments if you have a favorite summer drink, appetizer, or dessert!
xoxo,
Brandy
]]>Feel free to save & use, and comment with any must-add items below - I'll update as comments are added!
Stay healthy, be kind, and make the best of this family time.
Love,
Chad, Brandy and Delainey
]]>Chad and I wanted to reach out with a note of tremendous thanks for your continued support of Carver Junk Company. We are blessed with the best customers, who have been such advocates for what we do, and the dozens of small businesses we represent, and we want to be the first to share some big news with you!
This summer we celebrate nearly five awesome years at our Minneapolis location. The next two months will be bittersweet, as we have made the decision to close our doors at this location while we focus on other areas of our business. Our CJC store at 4748 Chicago Ave will be open Saturdays and Sundays through May, with some fun events in mid-June before we close our doors.
We could say this was a difficult decision, or that we’re really sad to be closing this location. It would be easy to apologize or see this as a business failure, but the truth is that the market, economy, business and families change. All of those things are true in this case, and the thing of which we're most proud is the CJC team’s ability to continue adapting to changing markets, trends and business models. We’re relieved and excited about this decision, and what it means for all of us, so we’ll spend the rest of our time here celebrating this great run. Our Chaska store will remain open, and with more focus will be better than ever!
Our business revolves around small businesses and families. And our decision to close Minneapolis was made in support of those things. As Chad and I have grown our own family, and my career outside of CJC continues to grow, we realize that we are stretched too thin. For 7 years, we’ve been telling our friends & family that this year “we’ll have more time” for them. For 4 years, we’ve been balancing two locations, plus special events, plus our home lives. When you do too many things, you can’t possibly do them all well, which impacts not only the business, but our family and the families and businesses of our makers.
We’ve never been afraid to say “yes,” as we have continued to grow and create exciting new concepts in the refinished/handmade/local business market. We commit to learning with each endeavor, and as we grow as individuals, business partners, and a family, we’ve learned that we also must know when to say “no.”
As a business, our goal is to offer unique, creative, quality products and experiences to our customers, while supporting the families of our makers, our staff, and our own family. We have expanded our brick and mortar locations to an online shop. We ramped up our DIY workshop offerings, created innovative new events like CJC@HOME. We brought DIY Succulent Bars to Minnesota, created sweet fundraisers like Puppy Kissing Booths, and launched an Interior Design division; all with the goal of continuing to grow this incredible team and business.
With each of those new launches, we take time as a family and a business to evaluate what’s successful and where we need to adjust. We’ve had events & ideas that are incredible success, some that we chalk up to “it was worth a shot,” and we’ve had events that are great but not necessarily in alignment with what CJC really means to us and to you as customers. And as we grow, our definition of success continues to evolve as well.
This year, in 2019, success = Focus.
In order to focus on our core location in Chaska, we’ve made the decision to close our Minneapolis store. As our focus shifts to Chaska, and doing bigger, better things in what we consider our flagship location, we’re excited to continue and expand our events & offerings.
We’re looking forward to our best year ever in 2019, and we couldn’t be more thankful to have you all as our customers!
- Chad & Brandy, and the whole CJC team.
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*Free shipping excludes Chalk Paint and Annie Sloan products, which are always low, flat-rate shipping.
]]>Small Business Saturday is coming up this weekend! As a Small Business, we are so thankful that this has become a "thing." This year, we decided to share the love we receive this day, and donate a portion of our sales on November 24-25th to Sponsor A Family MN.
Sponsor A Family MN is a non-denominational nonprofit organization that matches families in need with Sponsors who anonymously shop for them for the holidays. All "in need" families are pre-approved by qualified case managers, and truly need your help. Two years ago we sponsored a particular family that was homeless and whose children had never had a new pair of shoes. I cried a lot when I heard their story, and realized the things we take for granted. We sponsored each family member with a gift card to Famous Footwear, so they could choose their own new shoes. The thank you letter we received made the entire season for our team.
Last year, and again this year, we're contributing to the Emergency Fund for SAFMN, which they have told us is critical to the program and provides for unmatched or late-added families. We'll provide grocery store gift cards that can be utilized for a variety of needs for these families.
How can you participate? This year, we created a Holiday Gift Guide filled with locally handmade gift ideas. In purchasing these items in particular, you're supporting local families that create our beautiful inventory. In turn, we're donating 10% of all sales from the Gift Guide items on November 26th to Sponsor A Family MN.
Shop at either Carver Junk Company location on Small Business Saturday, and 10% of the sales from our Holiday Gift Guide items will be donated to Sponsor a Family MN. We've created "events" on Facebook for each store. RSVP to see photos of some of the items we'll have in stock this Saturday! Gifts, decor, furniture and more.
I'm sure most of you have heard of Chalk Paint®, and it's founder Annie Sloan. The first piece of furniture I ever painted for Carver Junk Company was painted in Graphite Chalk Paint®, an empire-style dresser that I distressed heavily and sealed with wax. I wish I still had a photo! Here's a pic from Annie Sloan of a piece painted in Graphite, though - it's such a perfect soft black.
We're firm believers around here in taking smart risks, acting quickly, and jumping all-in when we make a decision. So while none of our other changes this year were made with Chalk Paint® in mind, they did all set the stage perfectly for becoming a stockist! In order to be approved to stock & sell Annie Sloan products, our store needed to be open 4 days every week, so customers have easy access to purchase products. Our move to Chaska enabled that, with the increased traffic & visibility of our new location! We also need to be able to offer consistent workshops for our customers, which we already had in place with our new workshop space and workshop coordinator, Brittany!
So when Chris from Denim Rose in Prior Lake stopped into our store one day to introduce herself, things just fell into place and we knew it was meant to be. Chris was in the process of closing her retail location to focus on her laser-cutting business, and her full-time job (she's a busy lady)! She was the very first Minnesota stockist of Chalk Paint®, and after chatting with us for a while, was generous enough to send a note to Unfolded (the U.S. Distributor for Annie Sloan) and recommend CJC as a stockist. We are so thankful to her for making the connection for us - and introducing us to the opportunity to carry this amazing paint and brand!
We submitted our application that day, and were quickly approved to stock Annie Sloan products in our Chaska location. The last step was for me to travel to New Orleans for formal training last week. We've been using Chalk Paint® for years, but even with that, I learned some awesome new tricks for using it as a stain and wash - creating an industrial-like look on raw wood. I'm excited to bring all of that back to our workshop space, for some upcoming Chalk Paint® workshops!
Chalk Paint will be on shelves starting November 24th, 2017 in Chaska. In the meantime, we've listed it in our online store, and orders will ship starting next week. We always encourage you to stop into the store - we'd love to help you with paint color selection, tips & tricks, and bonus: we love to see and share your finished pieces. Questions about Chalk Paint®? We've also created an online FAQ covering the basics of using both the paint and waxes.
I'm excited & overwhelmed with all of the possibilities with this paint - it's been downright painful to keep this quiet for the last two months as we planned, trained, and moved through the process! What I'm most excited about? At training, I could not stop saying "the coverage on this paint is incredible!" I'm pretty sure our trainer, Jane, has heard it a million times, but it truly is incredible. Second behind the coverage in excitement level are the Annie Sloan "flat" brushes...they help to create a beautiful, smooth, modern finish with this thick paint. They hold a lot of paint, so coverage is still great, and the price point for the quality of the brushes is ah.mazing.
I apologize in advance for all of the amazing furniture I'm about to pin, post, and promote....#sorrynotsorry.
We will also continue to stock Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint, and General Finishes stains and top coats at both locations!
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It was, hands-down, my favorite home and event we've ever done. The prep work for these events takes 3-4 months, from working with the builder, to creating the design, and gathering, finishing, and setting up all of the furniture & decor. Seeing the finished product, and our customers' reactions, really validates all of the late nights, long days, and hard work of our team.
The main floor, especially, just blew me away. Our team created the perfect staging complement to the detail Gonyea had in the home. The best reaction, though, came from the Realtor that works out of the Gonyea model next door. He'd been in and out throughout the week of setup, but he was talking to me with his back to the living room on the final day of staging. He turned around and stopped dead in his tracks, and just said "WHOA!" Coming from a guy who spends his days in gorgeous homes, showing clients around, I can't imagine a bigger compliment than leaving him speechless.
Our friends over at J Fuerst Photography have been partnering with us on these events right from the start, and not only do they take amazing real estate photos, they always send us a photographer that really focuses on the details our team adds to the home. [this is not a sponsored post, and we get zero kick-backs for recommending them, but seriously - if you need a real estate photographer, their turnaround is like 24 hours, their quality is amazing, and their prices are the best in the Twin Cities]
Here's a look around the main floor, and we'll be back next week with another post showing you around the rest of the house, in Part 2.
Can you see why it was my favorite? Every single detail came together beautifully! I'm always so impressed with the vision our design & vendor team has when they see the empty, clean slate of a home beforehand - and it always turns out better than I could ever imagine. The details in this Gonyea home were outstanding - I mean, who doesn't love a good shiplap wall detail, and marble tile on the fireplace...
I'm excited to show you the mix of styles we brought into the bedrooms upstairs! What was your favorite part??
]]>Chad has been working with Marian for a few months to set up this workshop. We'd originally been discussing having her fly in for a weekend a teach a full-day session combined with one of our other events. After their initial conversation, Marian asked Chad to sit tight on planning, because her family was in the process of moving for her husband's job. Turns out, they were working on their move...to MINNESOTA! We couldn't be more thrilled to have Marian right in our own backyard. For 4 years, we've been carrying her paint line in our stores, and communicating with her virtually, but never in person.
Needless to say, we're thrilled to meet her, and we know you will be, too. The workshops are scheduled for October 21st: 8 am - Noon and 1 pm - 5 pm. Each one is limited to 48 people, which means plenty of quality time with Marian and the CJC team, talking all things Milk Paint. Marian will speak, instruct, and do a Q&A throughout the day, and we'll provide snacks, drinks, additional instructors, and a beautiful project. Due to the size, they'll be held off-site but just down the street from our Chaska location, in the historic Chaska Mill building.
Here's the scoop, and link to registration for the events.
Our team has created a project that will allow you to learn a variety of techniques using a variety of Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint products, and at the end we'll assemble it into a gorgeous finished piece of art for your home! Choose between welcome, home or family as the word art on your piece. The finished projects are approximately 18" x 24," and are perfect for placement in a gallery wall (imagine "family" surrounded by family photos) or entryway as a "welcome."
]]>CJC@Home launched just over a year ago, as a unique way for our customers to see Carver Junk Company's furniture and decor in a real home setting. Seeing our refinished, antique and vintage furniture in the warehouse setting of our store locations can make it tough to envision them in an actual home. So, we partnered with local builders to bring our stuff into a new construction home, and CJC at HOME was born.
It's a fun event to tour, and the bonus is that everything in the home is available for purchase while you're there. We stock the whole house, plus the garage, so there are a ton of options from which to choose. The main level of the home has a single, cohesive style design, and the upstairs bedrooms feature a variety of styles.View previous event photos & updates: Spring 2016, Fall 2016
We're excited to announce our Spring 2017 CJC@HOME event, running April 21-23 in the South Metro! The housing market is hot right now [congrats to those of you selling homes!] so the exact location is subject to change up to two weeks before the event [in case one of our Builder's homes sells]. Tickets will be mailed one week before the event, and the exact address will be included on the tickets as well as posted online.
Our inspiration for Spring 2017 is Bohemian Farmhouse. An interesting mix, for sure, and we're excited to show you how to pull it off! The style includes a ton of textures, natural elements like greenery, wood tones, rattan, mixed metals and soft textiles. Antique rugs (turkish, oriental, etc) in bold colors will be featured, along with a mix of mid-century modern, industrial, and antique furniture.
Take a peek at our Inspiration images from Pinterest, and follow us on Instagram at @cjcathome for photos of the actual items heading to the event! Tickets are available for purchase at http://www.cjcathome.com. We hope you'll join us! ]]>Lemonade Event. October 19th, 5 - 6 pm {cjc@home Sunday ticket holders only}. 6 - 8 pm {everyone!}
CJC Fall Vintage & Handmade Market October 20th - 23rd, 10 am - 4 pm each day. Food truck on Saturday, and we restock the store daily! RSVP on Facebook to see photos as we bring in new stock.
CJC November Holiday Market - One Day Only! November 5th, 10 am - 4 pm. Hunting season opener just happens to be our busiest in-store event every year. Probably not a coincidence, but we suggest you line up early {we'll provide the coffee}!
We're still working on creating the official "events" on Facebook for the remainder of the year, but we'll be open a full weekend in November, Small Business Saturday, and two full weekends in December as well!]]>This home, to be exact. And a shout out to J Fuerst Real Estate Photography. The sod wasn't yet installed for our event, and they rocked the photo editing {and photo-taking...all photos on this post are by them}.
Our team brought in all the inventory, and then Aimee from The Vintage Estate and Gabe from Cotton Seed Designs staged the hell out of it. {That's the actual text they sent me when they were done on Thursday.} And they were right - we promised Modern Fall Farmhouse for this event, and I'm in love with how it was executed. I debated just moving right into the living room & never leaving, but Chad thought it might not look good if I was sitting in my yoga pants on the couch eating ice cream when customers showed up... J Fuerst took these photos Friday morning, and Friday night was the Early Bird event. We restocked & restaged Saturday morning & throughout the day Saturday, so while some of the furniture pieces were different depending on when you shopped, it was still really full throughout the event. If you saw our Facebook posts this past week, you probably know what happened next. To say "we were robbed" doesn't quite explain it. Even the Carver County Sheriff who originally responded said "wow, this is a big..." when he saw the house, and how much was missing...and then called in the crime lab guys, who worked on the house for a few hours gathering evidence. Unfortunately, we haven't gotten much in the way of leads yet. Fortunately, we have insurance. We pray that it'll be enough to cover the losses. But despite that, it's such a violating feeling. Someone we don't know thought they had a right to take our stuff. They spent 45 minutes destroying what we worked for 4 months to create. Worst day ever in our business, and we spent a little bit of time feeling bad for ourselves {and, let's be honest...a lot of time swearing.} We couldn't have a pity party for too long, because the second we started calling customers to let them know Sunday's event was cancelled, and posted on Facebook to catch the folks coming for at-the-door tickets, we got the most amazing response. We had gals who drove from St. Cloud to be there when we opened at 10 am. They didn't get the message that we'd cancelled, and had driven over an hour. And their response was to ask how they could help. Others showed up with donuts, and offers of coffee. It was a long day of moving everything out of the house, because it couldn't be secured, and there was no way we could re-open there. We literally got hundreds of messages from customers and people in our community, and every couple of hours, we took a break & read them. Our normal Carver store event is coming up October 20-23. Our team suggested that we take the goodwill, good thoughts, and graciousness we've received from our customers & neighbors, and return the favor. Literally, someone said, let's make some f'ing lemonade {because...when life hands you lemons}. We've still got quite a bit of furniture & decor left from the home; the a-holes didn't get everything, so the stores are full, and so are our trailers. We're doing a special event Wednesday night, October 19th from 5-8 pm. A "Lemonade Event" :) We'll have a food truck or two, some lemonade drinks, and a store stocked full of the best selection we've had this year. From 5-6 pm, we're having a private event for the folks that had tickets to the Sunday portion of the CJC@HOME event, since we had to cancel on them. From 6-8 pm, we'd love to see everyone else! We just want to say a big thank you for the kind thoughts, good vibes, and offers of help & support. We have the best customers ever! ]]>[socialpoll id="2346455"]
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Check out the first two rounds here!
Want more Milk Paint inspiration? Check out our Pinterest board: Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint Inspiration.
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The winners of Round Two will advance to the next round; voting starts March 26th! {and yes, one of them will get a "bye" week...because making brackets is clearly not my business strength...whoops. The Round Two piece with the most votes will get a "bye."} If you're feeling inspired, but still a bit nervous about milk paint, we have a Bring Your Own Piece workshop coming up mid-April. We teach you the basics, then help you paint a small piece of your own from start to finish.
Happy voting! Brandy
]]>On Feb 6th, CJC partnered with Lennar home builders to fill a new construction home with professionally refinished furniture and home decor, for a one day, unprecedented shopping event. CJC@HOME showcased how Carver Junk Company's vintage, refinished, and handmade inventory fit perfectly into a new, modern home - and just like our retail stores, EVERYTHING was available for purchase!
Our first CJC@HOME event sold out, and was toured & shopped by over 300 people in one day! Fifty tickets were offered for each 2-hr timeslot from 8 am - 8 pm on February 6th. If you follow us on Instagram or Facebook, you know that we only posted sneak peek photos - never showing a full reveal of any furniture pieces, nor photos of the styled home prior to the event! Just before we opened the doors, we had a real estate photographer come out to capture the beautifully-staged home. [gallery columns="5" link="none" ids="2572,2574,2575,2576,2583,2578,2588,2580,2581,2582,2579,2585,2586,2587,2589,2590,2591,2584,2592,2593"] Keep in mind, this home was empty when we started. Every single piece of furniture & decor was brought in just for this event - and it was ALL available to purchase! The Industrial Farmhouse concept for this home was designed by Aimee from The Vintage Estate, and executed by over 30 different vendors from across Minnesota. DINING ROOM | The Vintage Estate | Carver Junk Company | ReclaimedMPLS | ENTRY | The Vintage Estate | Rubbish Reborne | Vintage Pyro | Cotton Seed Designs | Carver Junk Company | STUDY | OFFICE | Cotton Seed Designs | Carver Junk Company | The Vintage Estate | ReclaimedMPLS | LIVING ROOM | The Vintage Estate | Carver Junk Company | Cotton Seed Designs | Anthurium | Bee's Knees | Yetzer's Furnishings | ReclaimedMPLS KITCHEN | The Vintage Estate | Rubbish Reborne | Carver Junk Company | ReclaimedMPLS | Carver Flowers | The Vintage Studio | Cotton Seed Designs MUD ROOM | The Vintage Estate | Anthurium | Fab Rehab Designs | Studio Blue | Carver Junk Company | Bee's Knees | ReclaimedMPLS MASTER BEDROOM | Carver Junk Company | Rubbish Reborne | Cotton Seed Designs | CLOSETS | Wild Ruffle | HALLWAY | Fab Rehab Designs | The Vintage Estate | ReclaimedMPLS | Carver Junk Company | Sakatah Colors | Bee's Knees | ReclaimedMPLS PLAY ROOM | Fab Rehab Designs | Hagen & Oats | ReclaimedMPLS | Carver Junk Company | Cotton Seed Designs | ReclaimedMPLS | Yetzer's Furnishings | Finch Designs BOY ROOM | Rubbish Reborn | The Vintage Estate | ReclaimedMPLS | Carver Junk Company | Sakatah Colors | ReclaimedMPLS BATHROOMS | Bee's Knees | ReclaimedMPLS | Carver Junk Company GIRL ROOM | Fab Rehab Designs | The Vintage Estate | ReclaimedMPLS | Carver Junk Company | Cotton Seed Designs | Bee's Knees | ReclaimedMPLS | Sakatah Colors About Our Partners Carver Junk Company was honored to partner with Lennar Corporation, a local builder, for CJC@HOME. Since 1954, Lennar has helped hundreds of thousands of families across America move into the next stage of their lives with a new home. They build homes in some of the most desirable cities in the nation and for all stages of your life: first home, move-up home, or a multigenerational home to accommodate your changing family needs. Lennar communities cater to all lifestyles and include urban, suburban, active adult and golf course living. School of the Wise is a locally-owned Bistro & Cafe, serving fresh-made sandwiches, paninis, salads and more; plus a bunch of local MN brews on tap! They supplied scones, muffins, brownies, cookies and coffee for the event - and received RAVE reviews from customers! Schram Vineyards offered each ticket holder a complimentary tasting of their Chocolate Stout Beer or Raspberry Honey Wine, as well as a free glass with purchase of a full tasting. Schram is located 7 miles from the CJC@HOME event in Waconia, MN. Yetzer's Furniture supplied CJC@HOME with upholstered couches to round out the living room & play room spaces! Yetzer's is celebrating their 75th anniversary as a local, family-owned business in Waconia, MN.]]>