So you’re wondering how the heck we pull off finding & refinishing & making all those handmade items each month? We don’t do it alone, that’s for sure. We are so proud to have an amazing, incredible, talented team of people behind the Carver Junk Company brand. They each have a different style, personality, and strength that they bring to the team, and we want to let you get to know them all a little better! We’re writing up a series of Dealer Spotlights. The first few that we share will be focused on our “dealers”  -the folks that regularly and religiously fill space in our stores, re-stock new pieces as things sell, support our crazy ideas, expansions, and who have become our friends through the journey that has been CJC. We’ll also feature the artisans that bring in a few perfect pieces here and there, and that make all of those one-of-a-kind handmade-in-MN items for which we’ve become known. There are over 40 different individuals and businesses that come together behind the scenes to create Carver Junk Company. Let's meet Aimee. She was one of our very first dealers, taking on a large open space in our previous Carver store {the back half of the big back room, for those of you who visited us in our old home}. Aimee's got such a great style {she describes it well, below} and she's not only a fabulous hunter, picker, sign maker and furniture refinisher, she's an amazing decorator. She's got a great eye for staging, putting the right pieces together, and achieving "the look."

Tell us about yourself: I am a mom to two boys, 7 and 5.  I like gardening, traveling, spinning, and mostly hunting for vintage treasures! How did The Vintage Estate Start: I guess I have always been a scavenger at heart, before my husband and I were married, we would make weekly trips to the Banks store (a store like Petters) in Mankato to see what we could find.  We would bring home the best stuff and our families would just laugh!!  Fast forward a whole bunch of years after our kids weren't babies anymore, I had some more time to fill and I said to my husband one day, "Wouldn't it be fun to find all kinds of vintage stuff that people like to decorate with and sell it?"  Our first "pick" was in the grove of our family's farm that has been in my family for over a hundred years!!  I kept some of the old glass medicine bottles as I knew they were from my great grandparents!  I have been selling in occasional stores ever since and it is truly the perfect fit for me! Where do you find your inspiration?: I find lots of inspiration from the internet, like most people do, but I find most of my inspiration from Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware and the way I feel when I am there... I walk into those stores and I want to move right in!!  It has become one of my passions to create that "look" without breaking the bank!

What is your favorite thing to collect?: Right now, it is anything to do with deer antlers.  My husband about fell over when I told him he could put a deer mount above the basement fireplace...under the condition that when I was sick of it, I could take it down!!  I definitely go through phases, so wait a few months and ask me that question again and the answer will probably be different!! Do you have a photo/story of a favorite piece you've ever done? My favorites are usually the things I am currently working on, I feel like I learn something after each piece I do and each piece is just a little better than the one before it.   Right now, I am LOVING collaborating with my dad making some restoration hardware inspired tables out of iron frames that he welds for me and reclaimed barn wood.   I also really enjoy making signs and have lots of favorites of those!

Find Aimee and The Vintage Estate on the Internets:

http://www.thevintageestate.com

http://www.facebook.com/thevintageestate

http://www.pinterest.com/acbuss/