Shopping at Trade Secrets

Weaving my way in and out of the different vendors at Trade Secrets was super fun. I'm not going to show you ALL the goods, but just some of my faves...the highlights. Plus there are only so many rusty garden benches you can look at.

LOVE me some vintage watering cans. From Hunter Bee.

I actually saw a lot of mushrooms. At more than a few vendors. I thought these hand carved wooden ones from Hunter Bee were the most beautiful. Each one is different and they have an amazing handmade quality.

Botanicals! In an antique window frame! Hunter Bee has amazing pieces--especially that white chair.

I'm hoping that hats are going to make a big time comeback, you know, because of the royal wedding. Tracey Tooker Hats had the most gorgeous hats I'd seen in a while.

Aaaaaaaaaand I want this one.

Next I admired round industrial mirrors casually stacked up against each other softened by traditional textiles around it and reflected in it.

Susan Oostdyk had the most beautiful and fun linens. They're also amazing in quantity. See the next image.

A stack of fabulous faded linens...tied in a ribbon. YES.

SO I had a ton of fun people watching and dreaming of my converted farm house in the country that I would fill with distressed (real, not faux) benches in the front hall, and faded beautiful linens tied in ribbon. Up next I'll show you some favorite gardens! And some that were lame/a bit of a let-down. Which one will it be??!!



Alicia B.

Trade Secrets Book Signing

If you know me (you know me by now), you know I LOVE a good book signing. I love to have all my precious design books signed by the designers. It makes it special. Above are just a few of my signed books: Bunny, Bunny, Albert Hadley, Barry Dixon, Vicente Wolf, and Celerie Kemble. Anyway, enough about me. When I heard that there was going to be a book signing at Trade Secrets, I was SO JAZZED. There are EIGHT designers who are going to be there at the Johnnycake Books table (could that name be cuter??) between 10 and 1 to sign books. Besides Bunny Williams, I'm most excited about Carolyn Roehm because I've never met her and love her classic style. I own one of Florence de Dampierre's books as well and adore her. I can't wait to see the garden designers though as well. Gardens and landscape design is something I don't know a ton about but I find it totally fascinating. A beautiful landscaping job can make a home when you first approach it.

For more info about this, visit the Trade Secrets website. Okay, off I go to tour the gardens and see all the beautiful people!

Alicia B.

Trade Secrets Weekend!

This weekend I'll be doing what I do EVERY YEAR on this date...going to Trade Secrets! If you don't know, it's an annual garden tour and sale in beautiful Sharon, CT in which the proceeds go to Women's Support Services, a non profit organization to help victims of domestic violence. Design idols like Bunny Williams (who actually founded Trade Secrets) and Martha Stewart have been spotted there as well.

Bunny's house is on tour every year and her gardens are spectacular and incredibly charming. I'll give you an update after I see them! This year the new designer is Lynden Miller, a landscape designer who specializes in public gardens.

Intriguing, I know. If you live in NYC (of if you've been there), you've probably been to a park that she helped design or rehabilitate--Central Park is one of them. She heads up the Conservatory Garden of Central Park. Above is a shot of a garden at Battery Park City in lower Manhattan.

Who knew there was such a garden in NYC? Above is the British Garden at Hanover Square.

I'm excited to tour her garden home up in CT--don't worry I'll report back to you all! Have any of you been to Trade Secrets?


Alicia B.

Trade Secrets Weekend!

This weekend I'll be attending Trade Secrets in Lakeville, CT for my third time! It's an annual garden event with garden vendors and the more GLORIOUS garden/house tours.

The proceeds go to benefit Women's Support Services WSS for women who might be in trouble, so it's for a good cause.

The Bunny Williams garden tour is my favorite, but they've added Robert Couturier this year and I'm DYING to go.

Curious? See last years post about it or go up (or down or over) to Lakeville CT and experience it for yourself. You might run into Martha Stewart too because she goes every year.

Martha loves gardening.

Alicia B.

Bunny Williams Trade Secrets Garden Tour

The incredibly gracious host, Bunny Williams.

Over the weekend I had the IMMENSE pleasure of helping out at the Trade Secrets Event in Sharon CT. As an added bonus, I took all the garden tours offered over that weekend and my absolute favorite one was Bunny Williams. I've always loved her but my love has been re-ignited since her masterpiece at Kips Bay and it continues to...burn...even brighter since the weekend. Look how sweet she is!

The tour started at her famed Greek temple styled pool cabana. It's not your typical CT style Greek Temple though, she used bark, and pine cones so that it feels like a woodland creation.

She had a lovely and relaxed scene set with coffee tables and lots of seating looking out onto her gorgeous yet simple rectangular pool, and the rest of her property.

I DIED when I saw the chicken wire on the cabinets in her small kitchen in the pool house. The color those dishes add is so beautiful. A treat to the eye.

Obvi Bunny has a huge compost. Not just your every day run of the mill compost though--look at the sticks lining the sides arranged very artfully.

The entrance to the guest house was this amazing conservatory with plants galore and a farmhouse table in the center.

I fell in LOVE with this cabinet with so many drawers/compartments. This is in her guest house, which we had the pleasure of touring as well. Love the rooster, too. So charming.

Of course, she has a grocery list casually placed on top of some cookbooks and magazines for when guests come--she must be prepared! Yeah, I photographed her list--what of it?

A comfortable, relaxed and attractive place to kick back with one of the many classics she has in her bookcases. See the next pic.

I wish I had more bookcases so that I could do this (above).

Full bar. That's all.

One of my fave parts of this incredible tour was this area she seemed to be working on with 7 or 8 different bird houses. This one was my favorite because it looks like a old abandoned mansion. The bird houses which I've seen lots of may become a new trend. I'm just going to say it now.

The aspect that I loved the most, design wise, was that Bunny had a lot of stuff. Objects. I have SO many objects, things I've collected, and things that I treasure and everything looked great but not neurotically organized. It looked like she was okay with all her books being out of order, or not all the same height. Not all the soaps in her dishes in the bathrooms were the same color! She's been tagged as someone who has mastered "organized clutter," and while that is true, I don't know if it looks all that organized, all the time. It felt less calculated, and more lived in but not in a messy way. Thoughts? I know some people don't care for her...personally I adore her.

Alicia B.

Trade Secrets Weekend

This weekend I'm so excited to be volunteering at Trade Secrets. Trade Secrets is an annual Garden Tour and gardens/antiques show founded by Bunny Williams with all the benefits going to Women's Support Services. It is held in one of the most beautiful places in Connecticut, Sharon. I'll be helping out on Saturday and then stalking, I mean going on a garden tour at Bunny Williams house! What a treat!

OMG! Moss covered frogs!!?? This might be more than I can handle...

I'm so excited to see all the fun garden accessories: topiary, watering cans, garden furniture from Treillage, you name it! It is also rumored that Martha goes every year--maybe I can help her out! Has anybody been to this before? Planning on going?


Alicia B.