high point in review

via High Point Market

I have been back from High Point Market for a week so I better blog about it before I forget all the amazing things I saw. High Point Market is in High Point, North Carolina which is roughly an hour and half from both Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham. It is the world's largest furniture trade show bringing over 75,000 people every 6 months to its massive showing of furnishings. Imagine a mini city of roughly 180 buildings encompassing 11.5 million square feet of showroom space....not the easiest thing to do I realize.

Trams and shuttles run people building to building in a very Disney-esque manner while inside the larger of the buildings you lose a concept of time and direction. The show was much bigger than I had imagined and I left Market wondering how such a huge event had come to a seemingly small town in the South (insert Wikipedia knowledge). High Point Market, originally Southern Furniture Market, began in 1909 and became a fixture in the furniture industry when it opened its first large showroom building in 1921. Minus a lull during the World Wars, the Market has continued to grow with each passing year drawing a larger crowd and more vendors with each bi-annual event. 

We left St. Louis on Saturday morning and arrived to Market in the early afternoon. Luckily, we had prepared a list of vendors to visit or else I have no idea how you would know where to start. We tackled one of the largest buildings first - the International Home Furnishing Center commonly called IHFC. I think we spent four hours or so traversing the building's 11 floors and by the end were quite tired. We exited and spent a short time in another one of the larger but much more manageable buildings - the Suites at Market Square. By 8pm, when the market closes, we were exhausted. We found a yummy, local pizza place with a large tap menu and ended the day trying to get our heads around all that we had seen. 

Sunday started at 8am with a plan to do all the smaller vendors which we would have to walk to outside. Storms were forecasted for Monday so we knew we needed to cover a lot of ground or else be forced to do it in the rain. We started back at the Suites at Market Square and then jumped vendor to vendor until 7pm when basically we could no longer walk another step. If I get a chance to go back, I am definitely getting one of those step readers as I don't think I have walked further in 2.5 days in all of my life. 

Monday was our last day and much like we anticipated it was cold, rainy and generally miserable out. We again started at the Suites at Market Square (did I mention this is where the Starbucks was?). This time we took our time touring the antique vendors before making our way to some of the more outlying showrooms and antique stores on our way out of town. Highlight of the day might have been a trip to Biscuitville. I usually won't set foot in a fast food restaurant but I am a sucker for Biscuits and let me tell you I was not disappointed. 

We arrived back in St. Louis late Monday night totally exhausted. It was amazing trip and like I have said I saw so many beautiful pieces of art, furniture, lighting and accessories. I am going to take my time featuring my favorite vendors as there is so much to share from each one. In the meantime, here are a few teaser pictures.

american dream builders episode 5

Last night, I watched American Dream Builders live! It is a rare occurrence that we are done with dinner or the day's happening to be able to watch TV episodes as they air especially one that is on at 7pm so this was quite the feat. This week the contestants were broken up into teams of two and were given three days to finish modular homes. As per usual, I wish they would have given more information namely about the square footage of the homes and who designed them but no such luck. There was no client and all the teams were given the exact same units to work with creating an even playing field for them to be judged against one another. Overall, I liked this format as it was easier to draw comparisons although without a site or a client there isn't much reality or substance to the designs.

There were notable elements from each team this week which was nice to see especially after the disaster of the last week's episode. Darren and Elaine won with a design that used the space wisely and was very approachable for the neighborhood counsel (the local group of people who determines the winning team). I thought their unit was good not great but I get why they won. 

Both my personal and Nate Berkus' favorite team, however, was Lukas and Erinn. I thought their design was interesting, showed a creative use of space and was really leaps and bounds above the other contestants work. My favorite elements of the space include the dining room light and table selection, the creation of the day bed and the bathroom. 

I think Lukas is the clear leader at this point but I think Erinn might give him a run for his money. Guess I am getting sort of hooked...

animal, vegetable, miracle: a year of food life

As I mentioned in this spring gardening post, I have been reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. I finished the book yesterday and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in food, planting or just wants to read a well written and informative piece of non-fiction. The book begins and ends in the spring so it was the perfect time to get inspired about starting our garden, shopping at the farmer's market and gearing up to have more locally grown and harvested food sources.

To summarize, the book traces Kingsolver's family journey to eat locally for one year. Much of their food source comes from their own Virginia farm with some additional items coming from surrounding local purveyors. The book is packed with information about why they chose to set on this path, how they accomplished it and ultimately what they learned. The why covers topics like the industrialization of the US food system, the current condition of small farming and a general sentiment about food as a sort of religion. The how, which included my favorite parts of the book, gets into the specifics of what they planted, how they did it and what they made from it (recipes included). I don't want to reveal the big take aways but I will say that it left me feeling inspired and ready to make some changes in the way we eat. Below is a short list of things I am thinking about/planning on doing after reading this book. 

- Rely as much as possible on the food we can get from the farmer's market - We already sort of do this but I want to make it a priority for this season. Menu planning will start at the farmer's market instead of going in with a predetermined list.

- Become even more conscious about where our meat is coming from - Again, we already are pretty good about this in that we primarily eat organic meat and try to limit our consumption of it but there is always room for improvement. I pretty much plan on only eating meat from Live Springs Farm from here on out (see this post to learn more).

- Eat locally and seasonally - This is something I don't think about enough. I would say I do the local part pretty well during the warmer months but the seasonal thing is more of an adjustment. There is this part in the book about bananas and how the family gives them up as they are not local (nor ever seasonal) and now I can't help but look at bananas or mangoes or any tropical fruit differently. 

- Stock up for winter - Since it can be harder to eat locally in the winter (no farmers markets and no crops really) I want to stock our pantry and freezer with the items that we can enjoy and feel good about eating even when it turns cold.

Check out Kingsolver's website to learn more about the book, get recipes and to see images of her farm - I want my own flock of sheep! Have a great weekend!