I have a love for beautiful art and I think it comes from years of watching my parents collecting old prints and paintings. At some point in my teens, they fell in love with Architectural Digest and were so inspired by the homes they saw that they decided to paint our cabin’s walls white, which was a huge ordeal because our walls were all wood. In fact, much of the wood was hand-milled by my dad from trees on our property. And they did all of the painting with brushes, because a roller would never get into the slats. And when they were finished, they loved it because all of their artwork really stood out against the white. “That’s so AD”, they’d say (Architectural Digest) and would say that about most beautiful things after that. And I’d mentally roll my eyes.
One day, they brought home a huge beautiful old print of a mother, father and child and squeezed it onto the wall above the wood stove. “That’s for you, Serena”, they told me. “It reminds us of when you were born”. And I imagined it really did, since I was born in a tiny little cabin in the woods, delivered by my dad.
A few years ago, when my dad came to stay with us for a while, he brought my print and I was excited to hang it over my bed. It was such a sweet and peaceful addition to the room. But I kept thinking something wasn’t just quite right, and eventually painted the walls all white – with a roller, not a brush. And when one of the boys saw the white walls and my print standing out like never before, he said, “That is so FC. You know, Farm Chicky!”
IT'S ME, SERENA!
In 2002, I was dreaming of creating a fun and happy little event to sell my vintage and handmade goods. In 2002, I held my first event in my neighbor's barn along with a handful of friends. The sale became wildly popular and began attracting visitors from across the country and recognition in national magazines. Today The Farm Chicks Vintage & Handmade Fair fills the Spokane County Fairgrounds and features hundreds of creatively and carefully curated spaces packed with vintage and handmade goods. Many describe it as a bucket list event, magical, inspirational, and the best event of its kind in the USA. I describe it as the best weekend of the year!
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