Hello all!

Things are buzzing at the store.  We are super excited about the September upholstery sale that starts today!

Through the month of September you can get 25% off any special order upholstered furniture.  Plus several of the floor samples will be on sale.  Bonus!

Let me tell you about Cisco Brother’s furniture.  This is not a mass produced, cookie cutter product.  These are not frames that were made overseas and then pulled down off a shelf to have fabric wrapped around them.  No.  Each piece starts as a big pile of FSC certified wood.  Then trained craftspeople build it by hand to your specifications.  That means it can be any size you like.  If you have a small rowhouse in Old Town or DC or you need to fill a big space in McLean, we can build it for you.  It’s a labor intensive process that doesn’t start until you tell them to.  That’s one reason this is such an amazing product.

Another reason is the design.  These sofas, chairs, ottomans and beds are chic and sophisticated in the most subtle ways.  They are designed to be comfortable yet they are still stylish.  For me, it’s the gentle roll of the arms or the slight curve of the back that make these upholstered pieces special.  No detail is overlooked.  This is quality construction and quality design.

My favorite reason why these are fantastic pieces is that they are all handcrafted in the United States.  Each piece is made from scratch in a production facility in South Central Los Angeles.  Cisco Pinedo, the founder and designer of Cisco Brother’s furninture, grew up here and returned to build his company and his community.  He treats his craftspeople like they are family.  He pays a fair wage and takes care of those that take care of us.  I love the mission of this company.  It is as powerful as their furniture is beautiful.

I hope you all will stop by this month to check out the magnificent craftsmanship and design of Cisco Brother’s furniture.  I am certain you will see what I see and be smitten with the entire package.  And, you will save a pretty penny if you buy that perfect piece in September!

See you soon!

PS – I feel I must mention that with any handcrafted product there is a longer than usual lead time.  Because these are made for you they don’t start production until they have your order.  That means it could take 8 to 12 weeks to get your furniture.  Even though that seems like a long time, I promise it is worth the wait!

If some of you don’t know, the City of Alexandria recently raised the parking meter from $1/hour to $1.75/hour. Ouch!

As a business owner that hurts. Many of us have seen a decrease in our business because of the raise in parking. Now, we understand that the City needs to make revenue so it can provide much needed services, but it’s unfortunate that there was not a solution in place to make it easy for folks to park on the streets in Old Town. Business leaders and the City are working on a new plan that we hope will be implemented sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, we want to offer a few solutions to the parking situation…

1. Please DO NOT hesitate to ask a business owner – even one with whom you do not plan to shop – for making change. We all make sure that we have a ton of quarters in our registers just for this reason. This is a common practice in Old Town. All the businesses are used to this request and are more than happy to oblige.

2. There are many parking garages in Old Town. If you are planning a day of shopping and dining, we suggest you park in one of the many garages. My favorite one is on South Pitt Street across from Restaurant Eve. On the weekends this one caps at $2 for the day (or at least it did the last time I needed to park there). Click here to get a map of all the parking garages in Old Town. This is the easiest way to enjoy the most time in Old Town without having to move your car or feed a meter.

3. On all of the residential streets, usually only a couple of blocks off of King Street, there is free two hour (and sometimes three hour) parking. Free on-street parking is indicated by green-on-white signs on many blocks. It is generally limited to two hours, from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. Sunday until 2 a.m. Monday.  Those spots are there for everyone, but please remember to move your car after two hours to make room for residents as well.

4. Finally, there are always the Green alternatives to driving and parking in Old Town: biking, walking and taking the Metro. The City has many bikeways that will get you to and around Old Town. And, the trolley is a great solution for quickly and easily getting from the Metro to virtually any corner in town. Click here for information on where to ride and park your bike in the City and here for the trolley schedule and route.

However you choose to park or travel to and around Old Town we hope you will continue to support your local businesses. Don’t forget the top ten reasons for shopping local particularly the one about how sales taxes from your purchases help to pay for City services. Perhaps if we keep shopping locally and increasing the tax revenue, then the City won’t have to raise revenue through parking meters again any time soon. Just a thought…

Alexandria is hosting it’s very first Sidewalk Sale on Saturday, August 14th.  How exciting!

This is exciting for many reasons, first being that the City of Alexandria has worked in conjunction with the business community to make this possible.  Thank you to the City for seeing how important this collective effort is to Alexandria and it’s businesses.  Thank you to the business leaders for lobbying for and leading this effort.  As a participating business I’m tremendously grateful.

The second exciting reason is sales, sales, sales!  Be it inside or on the actual sidewalks of Old Town there will be deals galore.  Your favorite boutiques all over Old Town will be offering deep discounts on summer and everyday merchandise. 

At Red Barn Mercantile we will be offering an additional 20% off all sale merchandise!  That means the recycled Boylan Glasses that you have been coveting went from $10.25 to $7.67 to $6.15.  That’s almost half off!  And, that’s not all.  There are many other great deals to be had like great covelets from Pamela Kline, wonderful globes that are great for back to school, picture frames for school pictures, blocks for kids of all ages, and the list goes on.

I do have to admit that we are big wimps.  We will not be on the actual sidewalk, but rather in the air conditioned comfort of our store.  I hope you will stop by, enjoy the cool air, grab a bottle of water and get a good deal. Remember, be there early or be sorry later…

See you this weekend!

If you’ve dived very deep into RedBarnMercantile.com over the past few days you may have noticed that things aren’t working quite right.

We are in the process of making some security upgrades to our e-commerce system that we hope will lead to future improvements. However, these upgrades are taking much longer than we anticipated.

If you see something online you would like to purchase, please call our store at 703-838-0355 during normal opperating hours (Monday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday noon to 5 p.m.) and one of our friendly staff members would be happy to take your order.

We hope to resolve these technical issues soon and will keep you up to date on our progress.

Thanks for your patience.

UPDATE, 8/20: Just a quick note to let you know tech support is still working on this issue. Shoppers can now order from our department pages — Furniture, Home Decor, etc. — but links to pages for more information on each product are still broken. You can reach the more information pages by entering a “store/” between the .com/ and the page filename, which ends in .html. For example, the link to more information for our Oops! Eraser should be: http://www.redbarnmercantile.com/store/eraser_oops.html

Oops! Of course we have nearly 500 products and these URLs are all written automatically. So making this kind of change takes a little time.

Our shopping cart remains 100% secure so your information is safe with us. But if you have any questions or would prefer to place your order over the phone, please call the number above.

We hope to be back up and running 100% soon and thank you for your patience. 

UPDATE, 8/31: We are still having problems getting our shopping cart to see our correct SSL certificate. This may cause your browser to warn you about security certificate errors. Our Web host’s tech support team is continuing to work on this problem and we hope to have this matter resolved soon.

Hello all!

I hope you will allow me a little begging, pleading and blatant self-promotion.  It’s that time of year when the Washington Post’s Express paper seeks nominations for the Best of Washington 2010.  We were thrilled to nominated last year (it really is an honor to be nominated, don’t be jaded by the Hollywood establishment) and even more thrilled to come in second place behind the venerable HomeRule.

We would be sooooo grateful if you would help to get us nominate again this year.  It’s easy to do!  To make nominations just click here.  We are in the Best Local Home Store.  And, don’t forget about all your other faves – particularly those in the Old Town Boutique District! 

Many many many thanks!

Everyone who knows me will tell you that I’m an unorganized mess.  It’s true.  For the most part I get by with a lot of luck.  With my organization skills there really is no reason I should be running a business. 

Not sure if you’re like me, but I’m one of those people where out of sight means out of mind.  That’s why I don’t put anything away.  My house and my office are a ridiculous mess of clutter.  If it’s important it has to be out because if it gets put away it will never get used or addressed.  Although, some would argue that’s the point.  If you don’t use it, then you don’t need it.  And if you don’t do it right away then it wasn’t important to begin with.  I suppose they’re right.

On June 24th there was a great article in the Washington Post by Jura Koncius on how to organize your home.  They tackled your hall closet, photographs, junk drawer and my favorite, kid papers.  I took care of the junk drawer last year.  Finally got rid of everything that I didn’t use – which was most of the drawer.  The hall closet will get addressed come winter time when I’m pulling out coats to see what still fits and what can be donated to charity.  As for photographs, those are all still on the camera safe and sound.  For now, they are fine.  I will get to them when I can find the time – which may be never. 

Finally, the kid papers.  I have virtually all of my children’s paintings and drawings since they were 2.  What do I do with them?  Do I ask them to choose their favorites?  Do I just pick a few?  If anyone has any helpful hints, I’m all ears!

I’d like to say that it’s going to be my summer mission to get organized, that while the kids are at camp I will clean out every room and file away all the detritus that is my life.  But, that’s not going to happen, at least not on a grand scale.  Instead, I’m going to take things one step at a time.  I’m going to start by labeling my files and transferring them from the old file cabinet to the new pretty vintage oak one that I added to my office three months ago.  I’m going to file away all my recipes in this wonderful Russell & Hazel recipe binder that we have at the store.  I’m going to file all those papers on my desk and come up with a system to keep them from piling up again.  I’m going to take baby steps.

As with every bad habit it takes 30 days of consistently doing the good habit to get rid of the bad.  I’m going to pick one thing, one really bad habit, and spend 30 days trying to reverse it.  Not sure what it will be but am taking suggestions for it too.  I’ll keep you posted.  Wish me luck!

Before you think I’m crazy, I meant to spell it that way.  : )

As an independent business owner, I’d like to take this Independence Day to thank you for all that you do to support businesses like ours.  Small independent business owners are part of the fabric that makes a community, (if you will indulge me a little self-importance!).  It is the local dry cleaner, the well-edited boutiques, the mom and pop restaurant, the general hardware store on the corner that make a community unique. 

Could you imagine Del Ray without St. Elmo’s or the Dairy Godmother?  Could you imagine Old Town without La Cuisine or The Christmas Attic?  These are institutions in our communities.  These are examples of businesses that make Alexandria special.  That make it more than a tourist destination or historical landmark.  That make it the home in which we live.

So, today and every day, we thank you for supporting Red Barn Mercantile and our fellow independent business owners.

Happy Independence Day!

Amy

PS:  Preston will be at the store today so stop by between the BBQ and fireworks!

PPS:  Check out this blog on shoplocalalexandria.com.  It’s great!

Hello all!

I wanted to share with you my chic new find for the summer – our family’s new beach bag…

I am NOT even close to being a hunter, but I do love me some camouflage!  The LL Bean tote is nylon on the outside and rubber on the inside, making it the perfect tote for wet bathing suits and beach towels.  It’s easy to clean out all the sand and grass after a long day at the pool or beach.  We got the Large size and it fits everything nicely.  And, for only $24 it couldn’t be better – or more chic!

Wonder Woman 2010: new feminist icon or not.  Discuss.

Baked goods.

I’ll admit it, my sweet tooth is larger than Texas – make that Alaska!  Dessert is a given in my house and we have it after lunch and dinner.  If I have dinner out with friends I always get dessert.  If I’m having a bad day, I go straight to the baked goods.  My staff knows that I’m stressed if I come back from lunch with a box full of pastries (enough to share, of course!).  Cake in it’s many forms and cookies are by far my biggest vice.

Now, as with every vice there are conditions (see Vice #1).  My baked goods must be simple.  No fruit involved, so you can keep your fruit tarts and lemon bars.  ABSOLUTELY NO COCONUT!  This is my hard and fast rule.  Can’t stand the stuff.  Nuts are for squirrels and not for me.  Keep it simple and you will keep me happy.

My favorite cake is one that my mom makes – because no one bakes like Mom, especially mine!  It’s a Texas Sheet Cake (hold the nuts, of course).  This cake is like no other chocolate cake.  It is so moist that it leaves no crumbs.  It is so delicious that I can’t eat just one piece.  It is so magnificent that it should be sainted, if cakes could be canonized. 

When I can’t have my fix for Texas Sheet Cake, as is often the case because it’s a lot of work to make, I opt for a closer option.  The good ole fashion cupcake.  Now, I’m sure you have noticed the phenomenon that is the cupcakery.  Washington, DC and Alexandria have them aplenty.  DC can have their Georgetown Cupcake, I’ll take what Alexandria has to offer.  Here is just a list of some of the best cupcakes in town.

Alexandria Cupcake, 1022 King Street:  This is the newest entrant in the cupcake biz.  It’s yummy and very simple, just the way I like it.  Try the good ole yellow with chocolate frosting.

Bittersweet, 823 King Street:  My daughter calls Bittersweet the cupcake store.  She LOVES their mini-cupcakes as do I since they are the perfect size for a four-year-old.

Buzz Bakery, 901 Slaters Lane: What’s not to love about a bakery that is open until midnight seven days a week?!  Their Red Velvet is my fav.

Lavendar Moon Cupcakery, 116 South Royal Street: If you want exotic flavors and gourmet tastes then this is the place for you!

Nickell’s & Scheffler, 1028 King Street: Although technically not a big supplier of cupcakes or baked goods for that matter, this is one of my fav go-to places for baked goods.  I will break my no fruit rule for their strawberry cupcakes.  They are delish!  And, if you want a brownie, try their espresso brownie.  It’s crunchy on the outside and sooo moist on the inside.  Incredible!

I’m sure I’m forgetting someone.  If you have a favorite cupcake or baked good (fruit, coconut and nuts included), tell us all about it.  I’m always in the market for a good sweet treat.  : )

Being a business owner can be very stressful, so don’t be surprised if you see me walking down the street with pastry box in hand!

(This is the third in a series of shoplocalalexandria.com posts)