Oct 28, 20237 min read

Only Just Beginning

The first frost came last night. Leaving our garden depleted. Winter though long and cold does have a beauty about it, like white frost blanketed mornings.

(Image by Pine House Photo)

Feeling nostalgic today, as I remember our journey this last decade. We have recently been featured in the 2023 holiday issue of @countryhomemagazine as well as a feature with @425magazine, and we have seen a lot of new faces online and in store.

First, thank you for joining us. It’s been a long winding road to get to this point. We still have much of a journey ahead. Life has been hard for many lately, many we know, many we love, many in this world. My heart has been heavy, prayerful and aching. I’ve been so blessed by such an uplifting community and friends who bring so much joy into my life. Leaning into those connections like never before. I hope that you, being here, get a glimpse of that for yourself. Feeling connected, it matters friends. Community is vital.

The Maple House Collective started very small, years ago. It really started as just me crafting what I could to make ends meet from an industrial sewing machine I purchased from my previous job working for a local designer.

(Our first home we restored, an abandoned 1920 Bungalow on Maple Street)

We didn’t have much, but I did what I could with my hands and what was available to me at the time.

I began thrifting, frequenting estate sales to find cheap but unique treasures that spoke to me. I flipped these items for not much more at vintage markets and my booths at local antique shops. After years of this cycle I was able to then open my online Etsy shop. Which began to really grow. As time went on I was afforded the luxury of honing in my taste and being more selective of the items we sourced. Discovering more unique treasures that are hard to find. All along embracing this new found vintage community, and all the joy of salvaging old treasures, learning things I never knew I would want to.

As the Etsy shop was budding, we dreamed of something a little more special. A shop, that people could visit, reflecting the old world lifestyle that we so loved. Items new and old, all made to last. Focusing on craftsmanship, quality, and timelessness. Working with other small businesses and local farms and makers.

In 2019 we began making a plan for this long time vision. After a cross country antiquing trip, we came up with the name, The Maple House Collective, which is reflective of our first home that we restored, which was on Maple Street.

Later that year, I became pregnant with our daughter, Eloise. And soon after 2020 hit us all. I spent a good portion of that year sick in bed, pregnant, brainstorming and researching out this dream. I collected dozens of resources and ideas for this little shop.

My pregnancy during quarantine had moments of difficulty as you can imagine, however for the most part it was a peaceful time of focusing on my growing baby, spending quality time with my husband in our simple old home that we had previously revived, and learning to rest in whatever life was going to look like for us during that time. We missed seeing family and friends during this special time in our lives.

On the evening of my 31st birthday, my water broke (during my belly shaking laughter as we watched a Jim Gaffigan comedy skit from the comfort of our sofa). After 24 hours of natural labor, ending in an emergency c-section, our beautiful girl came into the world. Holding our precious little baby girl was the most fulfilling experience of my life. I cherish that season of togetherness in the midst of so much unknown.

(July 26th, 2020)

Soon after Eloise was born, fall of 2020, we launched The Maple House Co. officially. Opening our online shop while so many were cooped up, I wanted it to feel like they were not just shopping online but experiencing it all. So we transformed our carriage house into a studio that I displayed like an old general store. The shop took off. We were not prepared for how much we would grow over those next few months.

In the midst of it all, I was postpartum, weak, breastfeeding, and not sleeping. Importing wares, sourcing antiques, staging, photographing, shipping, emailing, maintaining it all with some much needed help from friends and family. It was a challenging season, as a new mom. Though I was able to be home and present, I was very tired, even more so, and needed all the help I could get.

As time went on, we had many who wanted to come shop in person, and we hadn’t let go of our big dream of opening a storefront someday. Though, this wasn’t the right time for it yet, as I was still recovering and Eloise was still so very little.

After scrolling the fb marketplace, I came across a barn for rent. This wasn’t just any barn, but the barn I had driven by for fifteen years, the one I had been so drawn to. I had always felt a pull to this place, never knowing what our future might hold.

I immediately reached out, and shared my crazy idea with the owner. If we opened for a weekend a month, it would give me all month to prepare. If we saw a few local shoppers that would be so great! He seemed just as excited as I was and months later we began the next chapter in our journey, markets at the barn.

(Image by Pine House Photo)

There is a bit more to this part of the story, as the barn wasn't quite ready for visitors at this time. There was no electricity, the floors were in varying conditions, and both barn doors were open to the elements allowing all sorts of critters to come and go freely. Not to mention there was still lots of junk strewn about, broken windows, gapping holes in the walls, and the list goes on. We worked along side the owners, who have become close friends, to restore the barn.

(Before)

(After)

(Before)

(After)

(Before)

(After)

The barn almost instantly became something so much more than we anticipated. Soon after launching the markets, we invited local creative friends to join us. And our community began to grow in ways I never expected. We were blown away as hundreds, then thousands of visitors would come from all over the country to visit our big barn, in our little town. This season of our lives which lasted about two years was truly magical.

While I wished we could have continued the barn markets, doors opened in the right time and we stepped into our long time dream of opening a storefront. Allowing for a more sustainable lifestyle for us as family long term, and a place for people to come and visit regularly. We wanted to be a part of our local community, that my husband had known his entire life and that I had come to know about fifteen years ago.

We have so many memories here in Snohomish, from when we started dating to getting married and raising our little one. The barn is no longer being used for monthly markets, however it is still a gathering place for workshops, photoshoots, and private gatherings. You can book the barn hourly, or collaborate with us in offering a workshop (for more information about booking, email info@themaplehouseco.com).

(Image by Pine House Photo)

All this to say, it has been a journey. A few paragraphs don’t truly explain or express all that we have experience this last decade. But I hope at least, it helps to paint a picture for you of what we are about and some of where we have come from. We are still very much a small business. I still have dreams of doing more, but find I am pacing myself as I focus on being a mom, taking better care of myself, and being present as much as I am able. Our storefront has been open now for one whole month, we are just getting started.

Taking risks in difficult seasons can be so scary. But there is something about it that seems like the right time. After a season of what felt like being shadowed in darkness… I finally feel this sense that we are only just beginning. A sense of newness.

(Image by Pine House Photo)

A true grasp of hope filled living. Leaning into friends and loved ones whose arms have been opened wide ready for embrace. Listening to the stories and testimonies of others who have gone before us. Learning and gathering courage from those who inspire us. Knowing life isn’t an easy road, but we are called and ready to walk this narrow path.

After years of dreaming, and then delving into those dreams and feeling the weight of all the unexpected compiling on my chest… I am finally looking at the open road ahead with wonder and hope for all the good in store.

We can’t always see the light, even when it is shining brightly into our dark places. Sometimes the light is shinning from within, and we have to have the courage to let it burn brightly for others to see as well.

(Image by Pine House Photo)

I am so incredibly grateful to every soul who has come along side us in our journey. We are not a lone, and we are truly not meant to be a lone. If there is one thing I have learned over these last few years, even months… it is how incredibly crucial it is to have community. We are not meant to do this thing a lone. To not take for granted those around us, and to invest in good, honest relationships.

To be raw and real in safe spaces. To take chances even when we hurt one another, to forgive. To grasp hands and move forward into the unknown. To break bread, to cry freely, to laugh fearlessly and to see wholly. And to do it all imperfectly with an understanding we were never going to do it all completely well all of the time. Because there are certain times when we are meant to lean on others.

To remember that we never know until we try, and life is too short to not taste and see the goodness.

If you have been here with us for a while, and watched some of our journey, I am so thankful for you. If you are new and just joining in, I want you to know that your presence matters and means the world to us.