Happy Belated Birthday Mr Brown

Last October marked the first birthday of our new company, Mr Brown. It's been quite a ride, starting with the company launch just a few months after Ryan's pre-mature birth. THAT was fun. Working 100 hour weeks with a newborn is something I wouldn't mind not repeating.

It's a fun collection. This is one of my favorite chairs (I would change the upholstery on it), but don't you LOVE that wrap-around arm?!

Looking at the pictures is a bit overwhelming with stuff (yes, stuff!) everywhere you look. Thee line has also done amazingly well. We have customers telling us all the time that it's inspiring. See, in the high(ish) side of the furniture world, there was a "look" that was taking over the industry. That look was introduced by a company called Bobo's Intriguing Objects and was soon seen just about every where you turned in a furniture tradeshow. Which, as you know, makes something not as special. That look can now be seen at Restoration Hardware.

Enter Mr Brown. And if I do say so myself, it looks marvelous!

High Point Furniture Market

To keep with my tradition of blogging about a month or so after events take place, here are some photos from our Julian Chichester showroom at the October Furniture Market in High Point. My favorite new piece of the show is below - the Jane Churchill Curved Desk in Black Vellum. LOVED this!

This was a long trip - I was there for about 10 days - a very long time to be away from Ryan! This time though, Tony came out for the weekend. I loved having him there. Between the two companies, I was often busy, but I didn't have to worry about entertaining Tony at all. In fact, I would often walk into the showroom and find him talking to a customer! Tony was also able to meet Mr. Julian himself which is always delightful.

The show ended up being a big success. We had a great response from the press and customers alike. It was a LOT of work - I often put in 15-20 hours days. Not much sleep either. It's a good thing I LOVE my job!

Halloween before Thanksgiving

Just after Halloween, I saw hundreds (or so it seemed) of Halloween photos of all my friends' kids on Facebook. It was fun seeing all the cute and clever costumes. And the kids...so adorable! I wanted to squeeze everyone of them!

And as I looked at picture after picture, I mentally made a goal (I thought facetiously) to post Ryan's Halloween pictures SOMETIME before Thanksgiving.

Well, here we are. Thanksgiving Eve.

So to reach my lofty goal....may I present Ryan: our little panda bear:

Last Halloween, I waited until a week before to go buy his costume and found out that that was entirely too late. We ended up being a banana. But he was a cute banana!

This time, I was determined to buy a costume early. I shopped online and found a great deal on a cute little panda costume back in September. September! That has to be some kind of record for me.

But when it arrived, it didn't look anything like the cute little panda I saw on-line. You can't see the eyes (which, believe me, is a very good thing), but they are scary. I thought about returning it, but knew I wouldn't find the time so I decided to make a note for Ryan to wear that said "my mom thought this was cute on the internet".

When Halloween finally came around, I abondoned the note idea. By that time I was used to the idea that my little boy would be a darling little panda with buggy eyes.

So with that, Happy Thanksgiving from our buggy-eyed, cute little panda bear!