There are a couple of things I would like share. Our furniture business has been green for a long time and we support green practices. It is a philosophy that is in our lives. We are practical people who blend well with the eco philosophy.

Last December as I was contemplating what to do about Christmas gifts I started looking at the piles of scrap boards that were too small to build anything out of but that we hadn’t gotten rid of. Rosewood pieces and Zebra wood. Teak, Wenge, Walnut Jaboty and other small treasures. We hadn’t ditched them because they were precious to us. Well I started making bracelets and pendants from these pieces. Gorgeous reclaimed exotic wood jewelry. The idea has blossomed and I will be in Richland, WA at the Art in the Park juried show with a stock of these beauties on the 29th and 30th of this month. If you can’t make it in person, I can sell you a piece or make one for you. (http://www.barbofurniture.com/Barbo_Furniture/Exotic_Statements.html)
I’m in full production mode right now but will have updated photos and information on the page link above.

In late summer-early fall my first book will be published. It is part of a finished sci-fi series that takes place on a Green/Low Tech world. It is action packed- murder- suspense. (And they do quite well with out oil)

Recently we were contacted by a terrific group of film makers. They have produced films that have won awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Their latest “Freedom” looks at alternative fuels. On August 4th they will be in Bellingham with “Freedom” at the Pickford Theatre. Here is the trailer: http://youtu.be/71HAHe3_2dk

The reason I am grouping all of these seemingly different topics together is because they are truly related. We all do things the way we do because of philosophy, experiences and the knowledge we have… sort of a version of “You are what you believe.”

We are custom furniture designers. Two years ago, at market, we started looking for a domestic furniture line that would be a good fit for what we can create. We found that good fit and were in the early stages of negotiation when everything just stopped.

What this particular company is doing is typical of the industry at large. The economy has everyone turning very conservative. They are afraid to try to innovate. Their new line? They have taken their twenty year old pieces, tweaked them slightly and re-introduced them. They even stated that that was where their new introductions came from.

On one hand I totally understand. The economy has everybody looking for their crystal ball. Most all stores are carrying the tried-and-true low to mid range priced items that they have sold in the past. “If it ain’t broke.. don’t fix it!” But here is where I start to question.

Look at the trends. The “Baby-Boomers” are beginning to do their preliminary looking and research on-line. But the Re-Boomers, those Gen X and the Gen Y’ers, are there..doing 90% or more on line. It is second nature to them. The shear numbers of that market are to be discounted at our own peril. They don’t want what Grandma had or even what their parents had. They want fresh, new and something that will last.. a good investment. Show them something that will get them to pause and contemplate how it will look in their home.

Look at what they are buying! The number of iphones, etc, that are cool, cutting edge, do many things for them and make a statement! Why would their homes be any different? It doesn’t mean weird looking! But it should be look fresh!

I totally respect those that are looking for their own look. I am not one that wants a cookie-cutter home either. I don’t see why you should settle for less than the look you want. One special piece or the whole home. Let us help. We can assist you… sort of like your partner and personal shopper for your home…….. from the drywall to the housewarming we are there for you as should every furniture business be. If they aren’t listening to you or working with you to find your desired piece then they aren’t worth your time.

We have been bombarded with negative things in our 24 hour news cycle. If it isn’t fear it is scandal, quickly followed by another dose of scare tactics. The whole thing keeps us off balance and distracted. There is power in the concept of making us powerless. Roosevelt said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” ..A lot of wisdom in that statement.

A well known economist said that the economic downturn, that we are experiencing, will last until the people get tired of it. That seems simplistic but when you examine the statement it makes a lot of sense. We .. have.. the ..power. We can simply start thinking then acting differently. We can refuse to participate in the recession. We can vote. We can be frugal when we need to be without shutting down the economic flow.. by buying smart, buying quality and buying American.

The first is the rise in internet shopping. Whether it is because of the rising price of gasoline or simply due to the convenience and proliferation of computers, smart pads and smart phones- more people are doing their searches and shopping online. We have seen it personally but also article after article backs up our observations. Internet sales are up. Brick and mortar (the trade term for ‘stores’) sales are still struggling. The trends strongly indicate businesses that have a strong internet presence are in a better financial position and can offer their customers more.

The second trend is that there is more demand for customization and people are looking for quality in their purchases. I am not sure if this is because we are thirty to forty years into a trend of settling for a homogenized quality level. Perhaps it is because of so much of what we buy is made off shore and consumers are questioning the policy and quality of current furniture being offered.

This doesn’t mean that the personal customer service is out. It all depends upon the site. There are two that we deal with that are good examples. www.20besttwenty offers less per category than many sites but each item is carefully selected by them. Like a juried art show. They work hard to select the very best and have built their reputation for that. www.zecozi.com is green conscious. They have a following of loyal customers that interact with their site – sharing what their favorites are.

Customization and customer service are at our foundation. By doing things the way we do means we work in an eco-friendly manner. We listen carefully to the customer and build what they want specifically. www.barbofurniture.com has several pages dedicated to this theme.. yet still don’t show everything we have made or are capable of building. We are increasing our web presence and are carefully selecting sites we can work with.

Both trends are green. People are not as willing to settle for something that will.. get by. By taking this mindset they are doing their homework, purchasing once and throwing away less.

I want to share what we have begun. Until last October we had a “brick & mortar” (a store) downtown. The economy being what it is we decided to close it and pulled back to one location. That being the small showroom with our furniture making wood-shop. Since then we have been expanding our web presence.. reaching out to the world of clients we had never touched. It is slow but is beginning to grow.

The first step was to form a network of willing customers that we could concentrate on and offer our best deals- lavishing our expertise and talents for this group most willing to receive our knowledge and services.

Then we began to reach out to select marketplaces on the net. First we found www.zecozi.com. They have many of our accessory pieces left over from our brick & mortar days. Now we have our beautiful exotic wood bracelets on the fantastic site: www.20besttwenty.com. Wow what a treat! Look under the “jewels” category!

There is another site that will feature some of our custom furniture. When we get on that site I will let you know. This is a step into the world and into the future. The net is where Gen X and GenY are as well as a number of other age groups. That is where we are and will be!

Literary agents are beleaguered with queries and are dealing with a constricted market. Form rejection letters are often the norm. Publishers have lost capital with the economic crunch  and are not as willing to pick up the unknown entity (a new author) because they don’t know if they will get a good return on their investment. New authors are really facing an uphill battle to find representation and getting their baby launched. The process has been fun and interesting even if it has, so far, fallen short of being successful.

I have met and am networking with great people who are also querying. (See Luke’s blog:http://allyourstarsareout.com/) It is a fascinating process and more so if shared.

One of the interesting things I have learned is how little authors earn. It is fascinatingly logical. The publishers do the editing, printing, distributing as well as a myriad of other tasks. They take the lion’s share. They are also throwing much more of the marketing on the shoulders of the author.The agents also work hard for the authors: editing, charming the publishers and working on the legalities, to list a bit of their job, earn 15% of the net. That means the author will earn somewhere between 4 and 8%. If the book sells for $10 that means the author earns, maybe eighty cents per book.

I would really like to hear from any of you that have experience or information on this. Feel free to jump in. My next few posts will be on what I have learned about vanity press publishing and e-books.

I have been writing for sometime. I started writing articles in 2001 for local publications. Some were research oriented and others were opinion pieces. In 2007 I was asked to write guest columns for a wonderful trade magazine: Home Furnishings Business. But in April of 2009 I began to write fiction.

I started what turned out to be a series in the Science Fiction genre. I have four books completed in the series and others in draft or early chapters. The series is called: The Sage Seed Chronicles. I had an agent. She is a very nice local lady with a background in the literary field. Things were going fine until she had a whole series of accidents with the resulting health issues. She quickly reverted to a non communicative mode, canceling meetings, not returning my calls or faxes and generally avoiding me. In February I started querying for a new agent. It has been an interesting and educational experience.

This blog will be my forum for sharing what I have found. Feedback is welcome.

Somehow we manage to get done most things. But some just slip by. In the blur of our days we don’t realize it at first. The changes happens in a gradually insidious way. Bit by tiny bit that small thing that we have overlooked takes on a life of it’s own, growing slowly but steadily bigger. It may even be abetted by a member of our family… like our husband. (just for fun bring up the sinister music here)

Some of these oversights can be brought back under control by the re-emergence of the drill sergeant. The “stuff” piles can be controlled or organized out of existence. Kudos to you if that is all it takes!

The more complex home projects, that have slipped your leash, can be laid out on paper then delegated for a coordinated approach, to a professional. I stress the word coordinated. This is your home you are talking about. It has to be a reflection of you not a mishmash of a series of experts! What you want is an organized team effort, working with you, that moves through the project like a professionally choreographed dance troop, not like a ballet recital for three year olds! (Play a few measures of Swan Lake, here)

Believe me it happens to all of us, regardless of how competent we are as individuals! For me it started innocently enough. Eleven years ago we opened the downtown store and I stopped keeping up the order and organization of the wood shop/manufacturing side of the business. I left it to my husband. (Cue up the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”) To be fair, by losing me as a worker in that side of the business, he had less time to keep up on anything but the most critical of organization. Over time, insidiously, the mess increased. Now we have moved the retail side of our business back to the manufacturing site. Moving is always a chaotic event, anyway. But now.. oh what a mess! And I AM the professional I referred to in the last paragraph!

It will take some time. (Snow White’s dwarf friends are singing “Whistle While You Work” in the background) Renovation or organizational projects do. Particularly if done correctly. We will take one step at a time and will not falter, ponder, process or dither. Progress is always in a forward direction. The end result will be extraordinary! Whirling dervishes..get out of my way! I’m coming through!

The Do-It-Ourselves among us will hit the “big box” chain stores to find the tools, necessary components and advice to complete their project. The results can be a mixed bag of: “Is that really how it is suppose to work or look?”, “Well, I guess it looks better.”, “This is harder than the guy said it was!”

Others will exhaust their time and patience running between the six flooring stores, ten furniture stores, the paint store and three plumbing stores to choose the elements for their home. They start their quest with energy and a determined “Let’s get this done!” attitude. By the time they are at the third or fourth store they are dragging around a bag of samples in their effort to coordinate their color palette and their look and their mind is going numb. Frustration and confusion, from mixed messages, is beginning to replace the optimistic determination. At this moment one of two things will most likely happen. They will find a smaller store that has two or three elements (flooring, paint and perhaps drapery) throw up their hands in relief and give themselves over to the tender mercies of the sales staff with more expertise but at a higher price. The other possibility is that they will see somethings they like but will put the entire project on hold because they just can’t deal with it right now!

The third set of us will hit the internet and peruse the offerings on several sites. Some will go to the Craig’s list type of sites to look for bargains or local professionals that can do the job for us. You may get lucky, but you can also get really taken. It is a mixed bag. Others will examine the plumbing sites or the furniture sites and decide to order on line. It is a real connivence! Saves on gas and all of that running around. Again, for smaller items this can really work but larger items, like furniture, can be problematic. Unless you know the brand and how it is made, you are buying a “pig-in-a-poke”, as my mother used to say. Then there is shipping for larger items. If it is cheap, you may receive a box full of toothpick sized pieces by the time it gets to you. Normal UPS and FedEx shipping is processed through hubs with large conveyor belts. The box can go through a thirty foot drop. Your purchase may need to be crated and shipped on a freight truck. That will be more expensive but you have a greater chance to having it arrive in one piece.

There is a fourth method emerging which we have opted to shift our business model to. We have become the one stop source for,flooring, tile, closets, countertops, top of the counter sinks, color consultation and design coordination services, furniture restoration and custom building and manufactured furniture lines of furniture. Everything we offer is prescreened for quality. We won’t sell you junk while telling you that this will be satisfactory. What’s the difference from what I have mentioned before? There is a couple of key differences. We offer 75 years of experience and expertise. We work with other businesses and professionals to fill in any expertise area that we lack.Though our offerings, selection and experience is great, our showroom is small. What this allows us to do is to keep our prices down because we are not having the added expense of high overhead. Those businesses that are following this model can work with you and coordinate your project from floor through the furnishings. The pre shopping can be done on the companies website. Look through our website! Everything is there. Then contact us. Let us help you with your home. We work with contractors or “Do-It-Yourself-ers”. Our prices are very competitive and our customer service is exemplary. This is the best solution for consumers, of all of the choices that have emerged from this changing market of the paradigm shift. Check us out. Look us up. Let us help.