Retreat @ Remnants

 {Retreat will be located in booth #12, on the grass}

Judy Watkins, proprietress of the marvelous Remnants of the Past show, has just 'introduced' us to her blog & Facebook readers. We'd like to thank Judy for such a gracious post about us and Retreat Style... {head over here if you'd like to read it}. We are looking forward to next weekend's event - in just one short week, we'll be arriving in Nipomo, California for the show!

Take Me Away...

We went to the beach today and took a friend along...

Bob's amazing Piano Bar creation 

photos on our Retreat Facebook Page

{Are you our Fan on Facebook yet?}

{Photo by Retreat}

Ok, then... you win!

Our favorite links have been restored to the sidebar!

{Sorry if you clicked in over the past hour or two and couldn't get on the blog -

I had to pull it down while working on this new format}

Here's a quick tour of the changes:

Everything about Retreat is on the left.

Friends, fans, followers, visitors and resources are on the right.

{By the way, if you need help with your blog, I'd love to help you. I've designed quite a few {Faded Elegance, Garden Party, Poppyseeds, and our blogs} and can fix things up fast & affordably for you. Email me at Debi.WardKennedy@gmail.com}

New Year Blessings

We'd like to wish you all a Happy and Blessed New Year!

2010 is going to be a banner year for everyone... We've been working on quite a few things behind the scenes, and are pleased to share them with you!

First up: our new web site, at www.RetreatStyle.com

Yep, that's a name adjustment:

'Retreat' is who we are.

'Retreat Style' is how we do what we do!

We'll be using our web site to connect with retailers and the press as we grow our business to the next level. We think of it as a 'resume' of sorts, able to share vital biz info at a glance. The site connects to our blog, our Facebook page, and our photo portfolios for a more in-depth look at Retreat.

Here on our blog, we've cleaned up a bit and made things easier to find. We'll continue to offer updated info about our products and shows, as well as decorating inspiration and ideas for green living. We know you love vintage style, junking, & thrifting, so we're dedicating ourselves to the task of providing you with more ideas for your creative decorating projects. Our blog links to our Facebook page to keep it updated, as well. If you have photos of Retreat products in your home,  post them on our Facebook wall or send them to us - we'd love to share them with others!

We've been a'flitterin', and now we're a-twitterin'...

Yep, you can keep up with our 'Retreat Tweets' here.  

A button on our sidebar will easily connect you. (I may regret adding one more online responsibility to my list, but like blogs and Facebook, Twitter is a viable business tool, so we need to jump into the pool!) We are just getting started with this, so bear with us... but please DO follow us. We'll follow you back, we promise!

What's up ahead for Retreat?

At the request of some of our customers, we are developing a wholesale line of furniture that we can replicate consistently and provide to retail stores as merchandise for sale - and also as their display fixtures. Based on the 'one of a kind' creations that we are known for, these basic pieces will also be available at retail prices in our show booths later in the year.

We have been honored with an invitation to participate in BarnHouse's upcoming Online Market, and are preparing some of our smaller signature products to be available there. Keep an eye on their site for more info about when Retreat will be featured this spring. (Yes, friends, this DOES include my original Junk Queen Crowns!)

Our schedule for 2010 includes our favorite shows (Farm Chicks, BarnHouse, Sand Point, plus more as we add them) and plans for some very special events, offers, discounts, gifts, and giveaways.

We'll unveil our own seasonal boutique, which we are calling ' Petite Retreat'! One of our small barns here on Retreat Farm will be open for one day each season, offering our wares and a party atmosphere in a setting close to our hearts. As we progress through the year, we'll be adding featured guests to the roster. Stay tuned - the first 'Petite Retreat' will be for Spring, in late March!
 
Some of these special offers will be available only to our mailing list. If you have signed up at a show over this past year, don't worry, you're already on it! If you haven't done that, send an email to retreatstyle@gmail.com with 'mailing list' in the subject line, and we'll add you! We'll also offer some giveaway goodies to our blog Followers and Facebook fans, so even if you aren't one of our local show-going Retreat Peeps, you can still get in on the action. 

We want to thank each and every one of you for your friendship, encouragement, emotional & financial support, and time. We consider the fact that you share part of your busy lives and days with us an honor, and we appreciate you! We love what we do, and we love sharing it with you. May this year bring you an abundance of blessings, friends!

Blessings,
Bob & Deb

A Few Changes...

We really love all of the wonderful friends we've made in this business!
(BTW, a request: please keep our friends in this photo in your thoughts & prayers...)

We have so many friends to share with you that our sidebar's blog link list was getting completely out of hand, and causing our blog to load very slowly - so we've moved it to post form. If you click on the link buttons in the sidebar, you'll be able to access a list of our favorite blogs & web sites - we've even categorized it to make it easier to find certain types of sites! We regret that Blogger hasn't yet made it possible to embed the RSS version of the blog link list into a post - it only works on the sidebar. So blog links in that post do not refresh with new activity.

We've also moved our As Seen On - Press / Photo Portfolio / Past Shows / 2010 Show Schedule link lists to post form and linked them to buttons on our sidebar for easier navigation.

In the weeks to come, we've got more changes, some additions, and a fresh look coming to Retreat.... stay tuned!

Image Credit: Kimberly Taylor Images from Mimi Charmante blog

Last Minute Gifts & Decor from Retreat!

 

We may not be at a show this week, but local readers can still grab some great deals from us for your Holiday decorating, entertaining, and gift-giving! 

Make sure you take advantage of our 50% off coupon before it expires at the end of the day on Wednesday. (Note: Poppyseeds is CLOSED on Tuesdays)

 Check our last post for info and the image to print out to get your 'Blog Readers Only' discount on Retreat products currently at Poppyseeds in Stanwood*. If you need some last-minute hostess gifts, exchange gifts, or special tidbits for the mailman, daycare provider, and such, get in there and see what we have for you! (NOt to mention all of the goodies that the Poppyseeds girls have brought into the shop! Our discount doesn't apply to their products, however.)

In case you are still stymied on gift ideas for the special someone, we've got some last-minute solutions for you: Out at Retreat Farm, we still have a few large items in storage and are dealin' on them...

The 1930's electric stove above WORKS. Can you say 'Christmas Cookies'?! It's just $125.00. And the 80" long bench we featured a few posts back is still lookin' fine on our front porch - but I'd part with it if it was to be a perfect gift for someone special! Just $225.

On Craigslist, you can find ads for: 

The large FarmHouse Table 80" long X 38" wide, $325.

and the 36" tall X 58" long X 27" wide Metal Top Table (or work island) paired with the smaller metal top table (or bench). $265. for the pair. 

Go to Craigslist Seattle, choose 'furniture - all', then search 'Retreat', and all of our ads will come up.

Please contact us via email if you are interested in any of the large pieces shown here, to arrange for purchase: Kennedy2design@Gmail.com

*Note that our current 50% off coupon is applicable ONLY to purchases of our products that are currently at Poppyseeds, not to the items shown above or listed on Craigslist.  We've already marked those pieces down from our regular show prices.

Talk About A 'Hot Mess'.....

Theft is uncool, no matter how you spin it. Theft of ideas, concepts, credit, actual items or intellectual and creative property. It's wrong. Period.

I recently read a blog entry about a theft of an original idea and how it got lifted and then presented as an original idea by the lifter. In our industry. (Insert grimace here.) I've had my own recent experiences with other people taking credit for what I have contributed to a project, design, or product. (Insert snarling growl here.) And of course, we deal with the comments of 'I can do that' and the resulting copycat behavior from browsers at every single show we participate in. (Glad we inspire you with what we do - now get creative, don't freakin' COPY us!) Today, I discovered yet another instance of nasty underhanded behavior out there in the world...

There is a web site that is stealing our posts from our blog, plus my Retail Design blog. The slimy perpetrators are re-broadcasting our original content on their site without our knowledge (up until this morning) or permission. They are not writing their own post and providing a link to ours - they are duplicating our posts. They are probably subscribed to our RSS feeds - which is a great way to find new ideas. But it was never intended to be a lazy way to fill up your own blog or site with content. 'Intellectual Property Copyright' sound familiar, guys? Not to mention our legalese disclaimer that states any reproduction of our blog content is prohibited.

Over on their sidebar, they have a list of 'Contributors' and we are listed for both of our blogs that they are stealing from. So are a lot of other blog writers who, I'd guess, have no idea that they are 'contributing' to this web site. For Free. There are photographers whose images are being replicated. There are original ideas and tutorials and words being reposted - plagiarized. It is made to appear that these posts were written by us for this particular site. Nope.

Something that they obviously haven't considered is not only are we hoppin' mad, but all of the dealers and vendors and artisans and businesses that we get permission from to use photos & info in OUR original posts have NOT given permission for use in other places by other people. So these web site owners have got a hot mess of ugly just waiting for them. I can imagine that the winery whose photos I have on my design blog would have a legal department field day with these creeps.

Thing is, they appear to be in the UK, have no contact info, moderate all comments, and so contacting them is a bit of a dilemma. I'm slamming them with a comment on every last post they've stolen from us, telling them to immediately remove the post. We'll see how that works. If you have any advice about this issue, please share. If you'd like to add to the growing pile of comments awaiting moderation, please do! Their web address is http://hrantiques.com/2009/06/ Scroll down that page to view four of my original blog posts just on that page. You can see content from us from May through September in their archives.

And I have to add this: If you have ever even thought about stealing, borrowing, snagging, lifting, or otherwise perpetrating a theft of any idea, product design, concept, content, writing, or image from an online or offline source - DON'T!

Received a reply this morning and am sharing it on my design blog: http://decodivadebi.blogspot.com/2009/09/ongoing.html
I am sharing all of the emails back & forth between the site designer and I on that blog. Turns out he is only the template designer and has nothing to do with the site. So I have apologized to him both privately and publicly for accusing him of stealing my content. I do, however, now know who the site owner/admin is, and am pursuing that person with guns blazing. ;0)

Update Monday, September 14: The site is down!

I Spy!

I was perusing Tamara's blog (Tamara reads my design blog) and ran across her lovely post about a romantic a day in Victoria, B.C. (It's a very romantic place!) She mentioned a shop that she had discovered there, and showed a few photos. I'm sharing it here because of that photo above ^.... that's one of Bob's original creations, and it's sitting outside of French Vanilla in Victoria, B.C.!
Owner Sheila came down to the lower 48 to shop at the Farm Chicks show, and that's where we met her. She purchased the bench, which Bob made from two Hitchcock chairs, and a few other items from us. It's nice to see where our creations end up!
Visit the French Vanilla shop blog at: http://frenchvanillahome.blogspot.com/
Thank you to Tamara at Greenhouse Diaries for permission to use her photos here...

Find Retreat Here, There, and Everywhere!

Retreat now has a Page on Facebook!

You can find us the easy way, using our Memorable Web Address: http://companies.to/retreat/ or click on our right sidebar link with the Facebook logo...

You can also see a bit more about us and the custom lighting we create on Kimberly's Mimi Charmante blog...she's written a lovely post today! Thank You, Kimberly!

Chickfest

While I was yammering on in my post earlier today about our plans for the upcoming Farm Chicks show, I had no idea that the girls had posted on their blog about the video series I filmed at their show last June! (Thanks for the heads-up, 'Shopgirl'!) For some great decorating & display tips, plus a chance to hear from the Chicks and three other amazing women in business, check out the videos.