Celebrating the past in the USA!

Last week I was back in the States to attend Iowa’s annual Junk Jubilee in the city of Des Moines. There’s quite a buzz around Des Moines, and I really didn’t know what to expect when I arrived. It was my first time in the Mid-West, so I was excited to visit a different America than what I was used to. It was so cool – lovely people and a great emerging arts scene. I’ve heard people say the vibe in Des Moines is similar to Brooklyn, New York, and I really saw what they meant. There are great cafes, an amazing sculpture park and I owe a big thank you to the lovely John Whaley from Junk Jubilee who squired us around, making sure we got to all the cool places – he even gave us tickets to see Graham Nash at a beautiful old theatre  – what a bonus!

I got to the city a couple of days before Junk Jubilee so that I could do some promotion and actually held a version of my Stockist workshops for a group of around 25 journalists – Meredith Corporation who publish some of America’s most popular magazines is based in the city - and I also did some television and radio appearances.  

Junk Jubilee itself was fabulous! It was Americana to the extreme. It’s interesting, in the UK these sorts of events are often a mixed bag – a little Victoriana, perhaps a stall with nothing but glassware, some mid-century modern pieces, and in France I’ve been to many vide greniers which literally translates as empty attic! Junk Jubilee was much more curated, with lots of really cool agricultural artefacts, which I suppose speaks of Iowa as a farming state: flags, plates, and metalware – chippy paintwork and sumptuous patina! There was a real sense of nostalgia but in many cases it wasn’t so much that the pieces were terribly old, but they were certainly treasured. Many things had been cleverly repurposed. In fact, I met this really sweet young man, called Zane Hehnke, who had a great stall selling repurposed pieces – he’d been doing this since he was 13 (and is only 17 now!). Very creative. I also loved, loved, loved the many cool examples of packaging and typography.

I stayed on an extra day after Junk Jubilee to run a stockists workshop at the very hip Des Moines Social Club. I think you know by now how much I adore seeing my stockists, and we had around 40 from all over the States. Don Short who runs the inspirational West End Salvage – four stories of architectural salvage in an incredible old warehouse– treated us all to lunch, so I also owe him a huge and heartfelt thank you!

From Des Moines I travelled on to New York to meet our new PR team and do more magazine interviews, including some one-on-one workshops with various editors. Whilst I was there, Country Living asked me to do a Q&A on Facebook at my stockist in the East Village, Verdigreen, run by the amazingly named Azie Shelhorse! I thought it would be a great time to demonstrate my new Black and White Chalk Paint Waxes and was thrilled to see the views whizzing up past 80,000 in the half hour that we were live. Just amazing.


To cap it off, that evening I went with my friend Mary Anne to an event at New York University. Mary Anne was in a band with me called The Moodies, back in the ‘70s and had made friends with a young man called Andrew Carpetta who is writing a PhD on the connections between the music scene and art schools in the 70s and 80s which I wrote about last time I visited New York. I mentioned then how much I wanted to see a film featuring The Moodies which Andrew had unearthed and my wish came true! The screening was part of a series called The Colloquium of Unpopular Culture (I love it!) and I hadn’t seen this film for 20 years. Afterwards he’d organised a Q&A afterwards – there were three of us from the band, me, Mary Anne and also Rod Melvin, joining Andrew on stage. Somehow the idea of the past being celebrated in a whole new way sums up the whole trip! 

Danish Delights

I’ve never been to Denmark so it was great to have the opportunity just this April to visit the country and meet up with some of my amazing stockists. I had excellent travelling companions in the guise of Cal Dagul and Jane Warnick – both of whom work with me, looking after stockists.

Karin’s Smukt & Brugt 

Open sandwich Danish-style

Denmark may not have the dramatic, eye-catching landscapes of Sweden (which I also visited for the first time this year) but is does have an amazing ‘other-world’ feel, underpinned by the sheer warmth of the people I met, and the fabulously crafted and designed boutiques and interiors I saw.

Simply stunning

I wasn’t prepared for just how pretty flat the simple, slightly windswept farm land is – much of it no more than 30 metres above sea level. In fact when Adriana Saenz (my Distributor for Denmark and owner of Cinteriors.dk) and her husband Lars told me the highest point in Denmark is 150 metres above sea level, I couldn’t believe it. So when I got back I checked: it wasn’t true!! The highest point is… 170 metres above sea level (!) – so we’re still talking hills here not mountains.

What really piqued (peaked?) my interest was the incredible décor stores my stockists ran – I know I’m prone to over-enthusiasm, but these were achingly gorgeous. I only visited 3 stockists' stores – although I met a lot more of my stockists via the workshops I did there – but each one I visited has created their own beautiful boutique concept.

Stockists’ surprises

My first port of call after Adriana's shop, was Karin’s superb showcase old farm Smukt & Brugt in Aulum, Jutland, in the North. It’s a fabulous place where her grandfather once worked, and Karin now lives. She has adapted the old buildings to showcase her collection of vintage goodies (below).

 

 

It’s a complete fantasy romance: every room is set designed so beautifully and often colour themed– you feel like you are walking onto a stage set; it was pure theatre.

Check out the ‘the boys room’ (above) for example, seemingly all vintage, but cleverly mixed with new items. And everything you see is for sale. Karin herself is warm and charismatic and offers her home-made cakes and coffee when you go there.

Next, it was off to an all-too-quick visit to Hønsehuset near Ølby run by a very creative couple Jette and Peter. I love this picture of them together (below left).

  

Hønsehuset means hen-house but they have made this coop into a wonderfully designed décor store in the middle of nowhere. Just look at this amazing ceiling which is around the side of the building in an incredible old barn –the exposed birch bark logs (above) look fantastic. Peter sells wonderful wines as well as balsamic vinegars and oils inside. 

The yellow in this interior (above left) is a colour you see a lot in Danish interiors and a browny-red too seem to be the old traditional colour too.

My final stop-off was Casa & Co in another completely different décor concept – a horseshoe shaped old farm, one side for clothes and food and the other side for furniture and paint. 

Morgan and Thomas’s Casa & Co (above) fabulous and very inspirational colour board in their shop. 



I did a workshop here for stockists. My stockists Morgan  (on my left) and Thomas have made Casa & Co very stylish.

Scrumptuous Smørrebrøds

And finally I must mention the food, which was essentially non-stop open Danish sandwiches – called Smørrebrød – which I think are best thing ever! Among my favourites were rye bread topped with crushed crispy roast pork fat (to replace butter, below) and the smoked cheese on radishes and chives (top of this post), but I also sampled roast beef, grated horseradish and crispy fried onion (below left) rollmop smoked herrings, capers (below right) as well as other combinations of commonplace Danish ingredients. These open sandwich were from the Casa & Co store but are everywhere. Seems there are rules about what goes where and when and it’s all placed according to a tradition. Yummy.

Tak og Skål Denmark!

Yours, Annie