Tag: Joanna Gaines

More High Point High Jinks

Banana Bread Recipe

img_7203Keith and I are huge fans of the show, Fixer Upper.  I confess to having spent countless evenings mesmerized watching to see what a hundred grand could do in Waco Texas–where we live in NJ that’s basically a master bath.

So sadly when we visited the Magnolia Homes Showroom at the High Point Furniture Market it was a bit disappointing.  Overall we were not overwhelmed by the furniture; it all seemed a little underbuilt.  We kept looking for a Clint Harp kind of table but instead most everything was like the coffee table in the photo above, flimsy with a kind of post-modern vibe so I didn’t even bother to take many pictures.

One exception was the beds.  I thought quite a few of them had that romantic,  je ne sais quoi that makes furniture exciting.  This vignette to me reflects the Joanna Gaines we have come to love:  romantic, country style that is surprisingly sophisticated.
img_7208-907x1024I have a vendor who makes a bed like this and now I just might get it.  I just love the iron canopy, the dark hue and the dreamy styling.

And I thought the beds for little girls were both sweet and charming.img_7207-854x1024All the bedding was lovely and from a company called Bella Notte Linens. I had just purchased similar bedding for the store from a company called Amity Home so it is nice to know Joanna and I are on the same page.

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One thing I totally loved in the Magnolia Homes showroom was the kitchen; it was classic Joanna with subway tile, a farmhouse sink and a massive island topped with zinc.  With freestanding shelving instead of upper cabinets, wide-planked flooring, and an industrial-style chandelier, it was inviting and practical. (Although not so sure about the galvanized garbage can.)

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Banana Bread Recipe

What I am sure about is that this kitchen looks like a fun place to whip up a loaf of homemade Banana Bread; here’s Joanna’s recipe and boy is it delicious!

Click image for larger view
Homemade Banana Bread – Click image for larger view

High Point High Jinks

Salami Roll Up Recipe

Keith and Joanna GainesMaybe one of the more famous people we did not meet at High Point, but certainly it felt like Joanna Gaines was everywhere!

Twice a year thousands of vendors and buyers gather in High Point, North Carolina to preview the coming season’s latest introductions to the furniture industry.  Although Keith and I design most of the items we sell it is always instructive and illuminating to see what the trends are, and it’s also terrific fun to purchase items that complement the British Cottage Collection.  After all how many people get to pay themselves to shop?

Along the way we also pick up words of wisdom and design ideas from some of the leading designers and innovators in the trade.  Here is Windsor Smith— a leading force in the Los Angeles design industry whose elegant interiors are a masterful mix of elegance, modernity, tradition–and yes–comfort.  Next to her is Carl Dellatore, editor of “Interior Design Mater Class: 100 Lessons from America’s Finest Designers on the Art of Decoration” published by Rizzoli this October.  If you buy only one book on design this season–this is it.
img_7235-2 Down a few flights of stairs were Barclay Butera and Kathy Ireland–also powerhouses in the California design world. We have always loved how Barclay manages to meld beach house cool with an English manor house sensibility, and we all know that anything former model, Warren Buffet confident, and entrepreneur Kathy Ireland touches is sheer gold.  When she says color is making a comeback; we listen.
img_7248-2 Fortunately we are so on trend, because we had already purchased this fabulous couch and chair at Hickory White.

img_7030-3Not sure you will see a salmon pink wall anytime soon at British Cottage, (and I will source the Benjamin Moore color for those of you who have asked), but the couch and two chairs should arrive in a few weeks.  We like to buy the Hickory White floor models.  Why not take advantage of their professional design savvy and add to our inventory at the same time?

And in for a penny, in for a pound as the pundits say, we also bought this couch and chair, again in a rosy hue.

img_6994But fear not, we did not go completely pink, we also purchased this lovely, royal blue velvet sofa and two complementary armchairs.

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Usually it is all work and no play for us at Market.   Cocktails are free and flowing throughout the showrooms, but we have found drinking and shopping is a volatile combination that results in expensive mistakes.  And while there is always fabulous entertainment in the evenings, we never get to go; we are simply too tired from walking at least ten hours a day at the show to venture out in the evenings.  Fortunately for us, on a late sunny Saturday afternoon Maggie Rose was practicing for her upcoming performance, and we got an advance preview.

Fabulous!img_7253

I like to end my blogs with a recipe, but food is beside the point at the High Point Furniture Market and largely forgettable except for one item:

Salami Roll Ups

It was late in the day, actually early evening, and we were trying to squeeze in one last show room before we went back to our hotel.  We watched as a 70+ year-old woman, with hair like all Keith’s aunties in England had back in the days when a perm meant tight curls in an unnatural color, walked slowly up the stairs with a plate of appetizers.

Perhaps she had some connection with the staff and was delivering a special treat welcoming them to High Point, rewarding them for a good days work?  I have no idea.  But we were starving, and offered a sample we were thrilled to say yes.

Cue the flashback!  The last time I remember having a salami roll up was back in 1969 when a friend’s mom hired a bunch of us to prep and serve hors d’oeuvres at a cocktail party she was hosting on Chappaquiddick.  My mother was more the Wispride on a Triscuit kind of gal so I thought these roll ups were just about the most wonderful things in the world–and very exotic.

Fast forward to today, and I can say while a Salami Roll Up is not the chicest of treats,  they sure do taste good.

Here’s the recipe:

Take a quarter of a pound of good hard salami thinly sliced.  Put a small wedge of cheddar cheese and a sweet pickle on top of each piece of salami. Roll and secure with a toothpick.  Serve.