About Peggy Farabaugh
She is a CEO who brakes for salamanders, has bottle-fed rescued squirrels and spent her vacation building furniture for a rural school in Costa Rica. She believes in the future and in the people who will build it. A former distance-learning professor at Tulane University with a master’s in environmental health & safety, she turned an interest in forest conservation and endangered species into a growing, local business. She delivers rainforest statistics at breakneck speed, but knows how to slow down and appreciate the beauty of a newly finished piece of heirloom furniture.
Posts by Peggy
Shaker Furniture Sale: Last Chance to Save
This is our American Shaker Bedroom Furniture set, handmade in a small workshop just north of Montpelier, VT. It’s on sale this week until Thursday at midnight. You can find hundreds of other handmade Shaker furniture pieces also on sale– all 100% American made, right here in Vermont.
Just a quick note today to let customers know that our Shaker Furniture Sale ends Thursday of this week. It’s a “buy more–save more” event where you can save up to 20% on Shaker bedroom, dining room, living room, or home office furniture. Plus, receive free shipping and a lifetime guarantee.
Have a look at our Online Shaker Furniture Gallery and shop securely, easily, and conveniently from your dining table, office or back yard. Or give Liz or Sean a call at 888-390-5571 to order by phone or discuss your questions.
Our furniture is 100% American Made, solid wood furniture guaranteed for a lifetime of service to your family. Why settle for anything less?
Vermont Farmers Markets Are Open!
The Brattleboro Farmers Market is located on Rte 9 in West Brattleboro. It’s open rain or shine, every Saturday from 9am to 2pm. Farmers will have maple syrup, fresh greens, herbs, rhubarb, eggs and meats, garden plants and flowers, apples, root crops, preserves and jams. Artisans and bakers offer sourdough breads, pastries and treats, granola, fruit wines and sparkling juices, jewelry, pottery, fabric arts, and soaps.
Foodies throughout Vermont are celebrating this weekend because Saturday is opening day for many of our farmers markets, including our favorite one– in Brattleboro. I tag along with Chef Annette who visits the market religiously every week to fill her fridge with fresh, organic fruits and veggies. I haven’t been cooking much lately so I just go for the freshly baked breads, local gourmet cheeses and… oh yes… lunch!
Lunch is the best part of Bratt’s Farmers Market. Take your pick: Indian, Malian, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, wood-fired pizza– you name it. Wash it down with steamy country coffee or a glass of the world’s best freshly squeezed lemonade.
The Brattleboro Farmers Market is located on Rte 9 in West Brattleboro. It’s open rain or shine, every Saturday from 9am to 2pm. Farmers will have “springtime harvests of new maple syrup, fresh greens, herbs, rhubarb, eggs and meats, garden plants and flowers, plus well-stored apples, root crops, preserves and jams. Artisans and bakers offer sourdough breads, pastries and treats (many gluten-free choices), granola, fruit wines and sparkling juices, jewelry, pottery, fabric arts, and soaps.”
This Saturday on opening day, there will be music and Maypole dancing by Andy Davis. There’s something for everyone. Call 802-254-8885 for more information. Hope to see you there!
Vermont’s Citizen Scientists
The current issue of Vermont Nature, a publication of the Vermont Institute of Natural Science VINS is all about Citizen Scientists with ideas and links to projects all over the Green Mountain State.
Vermont Woods Studios was created with a mission of forest conservation. By introducing customers to our sustainable wood furniture we are able to raise awareness about all kinds of forest-related issues, from rainforest preservation to global warming.
You don’t have to be a citizen scientist to make the connection between healthy, sustainable forests and wood furniture but it doesn’t hurt. If you’re not already a CS, how about considering it?
The current issue of Vermont Nature, a publication of the Vermont Institute of Natural Science VINS is all about Citizen Scientists, with ideas and links to projects throughout the Green Mountain State. Online websites make it really easy to participate so if you love nature and are going to be outdoors enjoying it anyway, why not give Citizen Science a try?
Here are a couple opportunities:
- If you’re a bird watcher, check out The Great Backyard Bird Count run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society. Join bird lovers from 110 different countries by logging who’s flying around in your backyard, garden, farm or forest
- Love to hike? Learn about the pests that may be invading and jeopardizing the trees you’re passing by. The Vermont Forest Pest First Detector Program needs you to take a minute and report sightings of invasive pests online. You’ll be helping conservationists stop the spread of invasives before it’s too late.
Check out VINS’ website for more ideas. There’s something for everyone. You can change the world.
All Weather Outdoor Furniture = More Time to Relax
This All Weather Outdoor Furniture is maintenance free, giving you more time to relax and enjoy the summer. The Adirondack chairs shown are part of our Polywood South Beach Collection.
In Vermont, spring and summer slip by all too quickly so when winter finally rolls out of sight, we want to get outside and relax in the sunshine ASAP. And that’s where the beauty of Polywood all weather outdoor furniture comes in so handy. There’s no longer any need to go schlepping downstairs to the basement and dragging heavy outdoor furniture outside before you can relax on the patio in the warm sunshine.
Polywood is new type of American made, recycled plastic furniture that can be left outdoors all winter long! It’s basically impervious to harsh weather such as rain, snow, ice, and salt water. Made from recycled milk jugs, Polywood is a thick, heavy, dense plastic designed to replicate high quality tropical lumber like mahogany and teak. It’s maintenance free and insect, mold and mildew-proof. And Polywood is available in natural colors, plus white, black and a wide variety of vibrant contemporary colors. Best of all, polywood colors are infused throughout the recycled plastic lumber, rather than just on the surface so there’s no need to ever refinish. Hooray!
Now your Springtime routine of lugging furniture to the patio, scrubbing it clean, scraping old paint and applying new paint pretty much boils down to this: pour wine, sit on your Polywood with a book and relax in the sunshine.
Check out additional details about this all weather outdoor furniture, including our Polywood lifetime guarantee, low price guarantee and the Top 10 Reasons to Buy Polywood from Vermont Woods Studios.
Natural Cherry Furniture: Blossoming in Vermont
Vermont’s cherry trees are just starting to leaf out and will soon be blossoming this Spring. It’s hard to believe that these gangly trees covered with flakey gray, scales can be transformed into some of the world’s finest cherry furniture like the Cherry Moon Bed shown above.
Spring is the time of year when the (normally homely) black cherry tree gets to dress up and strut it’s stuff. Hard to believe isn’t it– that these gangly trees with rough, scaley bark will be transformed into beautiful flowering flora (and perhaps one day into natural cherry furniture like the Cherry Moon Bed above).
But it’s true. In a few short weeks they will be bursting with fragrant white and yellow blossoms which will give way to delicious black cherry fruit. These are the trees that provide a sustainable source of wood for over half of the furniture customers purchase from our store, Vermont Woods Studios.
Interested in learning more about cherry trees and natural cherry wood furniture for your home? We are the experts! Check out some of the many “cherry wood” articles we’ve written over the years and give us a call to let us know if you’ve got a question we’ve yet to answer. We’ll jump right on it!
- Cherry Wood Characteristics
- Natural Cherry Wood Furniture: What Color Is It… Really?
- Solid Cherry Wood Furniture: Is it Real?
- Cherry Wood Furniture: Where Does It come From?
- Solid Cherry Wood Furniture: 3 Ways To Tell If It’s Real
- Natural Cherry Wood Furniture Characteristics: Grain Variations
- Natural Cherry Wood Furniture Characteristics: Color
- Natural Cherry Wood Furniture Characteristics: Mineral Deposits
- Solid Cherry Furniture: 18 American Made Collections From Vermont
Recycling and Repurposing Stonehurst: Free Stuff!
What kind of free stuff is available at Stonehurst? Slate roofing tiles, old timbers, new windows and doors, old bricks, cement blocks, some rebar, insulation, a couple pieces of furniture and cabinetry and a few other odds and ends. Give us a call (802-275-5174), then stop by and check it out. Be sure to give us a call first so we can show you what’s free and what’s still being used for Stonehurst renovations (don’t get me into trouble with Ken).
Stonehurst construction is nearing completion. In a month or so we should be able to move out of our cramped quarters next to the Vernon Post Office into the 200 year old farmhouse we’ve been renovating for use as a showroom, art gallery and office space. Woohoo!
Unfortunately, before the move we have lots of work ahead in wrapping up renovation activities, cleaning up the construction zone, doing landscaping and making the place worthy of your visit. In light of that, Dennis and Douglas have joined forces in a concerted effort to persuade (coerce?) Ken and me to let go of the “construction debris” (or valuable building blocks for undefined future projects, according to Ken) and get Stonehurst ready for visitors asap.
If you can put these timbers and slate roofing tiles to good use, they’re yours. Help us salvage what we can and while you’re here, have a look into the future of this 200 year old farmhouse.
So with that in mind, I offer these pieces of Stonehurst to you for recycling, upcycling, re-using or re-purposing. Come and get ‘em! If you or someone you know is interested, just give us a call (802-275-5174) and plan to meet us at Stonehurst (538 Huckle Hill Rd, Vernon, VT) after work at 5:30 almost any night for the next week or so.
What’s available? Slate roofing tiles, old timbers, new windows and doors, old bricks, cement blocks, some rebar, insulation, a couple pieces of furniture and cabinetry and a few other odds and ends. Stop by and check it out. Help us salvage what we can from Stonehurst’s former days and while you’re here, have a look into it’s future.
Happy Earth Day!
The earth is beginning to thaw at Stonehurst, our soon to be Fine Furniture Showroom in Vernon, Vermont. Join us and celebrate all the things each of us can do to honor nature and protect the earth’s flora and fauna today — Earth Day.
Greetings from Southern Vermont on Earth Day! We hope you’re celebrating — perhaps with some local organic food or by joining a community gardening project or cleaning up the roadside or whatever. Last year at Vermont Woods Studios we launched the Green Up Your Workplace Challenge where we used Facebook, our blog and some other physical and virtual venues to promote sustainability at work.
This year we’re swamped with our Stonehurst Fine Furniture Showroom project and haven’t had a chance to launch a 2013 Earth Day campaign. But in lieu of that, I can report that we’ve been very careful to use local lumber and building materials for Stonehurst and we’ve re-used, re-purposed and recycled as much of the original design and structure whenever possible. Stonehurst will truly be a green workplace.
We do have a couple modest Earth Day activities on tap today. We’ll be installing the bluebird nesting boxes we made last month out of a Norway Spruce tree that had to be taken down from Stonehurst in the Fall (because it was leaning on the top of the building). And we’ll be indulging in some local fare for lunch today… maybe from The Blue Moose Cafe or The Works in downtown Brattleboro. If you’re in the Southern Vermont area you know we’re lucky to have many fine farm to plate local eateries to choose from on Earth Day and every day. Maybe we’ll see you at one of them. Bon appetite and Happy Earth Day!
Is Your Wood Furniture Brought to You by Organized Crime?
Organized crime is currently responsible for an unprecedented rate of rainforest destruction. Unchecked illegal logging is rampant in tropical countries too poor to effectively monitor and enforce conservation regulations. You can help save the rainforest by avoiding the purchase of imported forest products like wood furniture and flooring.
Forest conservation is at the heart of our mission at Vermont Woods Studios and we’re always trying to raise awareness about where your wood furniture comes from. If you’re committed to buying American made furniture– no worries. Chances are it’s made from legal wood, sustainably harvested from well-managed forests right here in North America.
But if you’re buying imported wood furniture (and according to a Washington Post article 70% of furniture sold in America is imported) then: Houston, we have a problem.
A recent Washington Post article by Brad Plumer entitled Organized Crime is Getting Rich Cutting Down the Rainforest describes how the illegal logging trade has become just as lucrative (and far more destructive) than the drug-trafficking industry. 50 to 90 percent of forestry in tropical areas is now controlled by criminal groups! “A great deal of logging simply takes place illegally — much of it in tropical areas such as the Amazon Basin, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia.” (ref: United Nations and Interpol)
The U.N. estimates that illicit logging is now worth between $30 billion to $100 billion, or up to 30 percent of the global wood trade. That illegal wood is often shipped from pristine rainforests to China, Vietnam and other third world countries where it’s fabricated into low quality furniture which is sold to US consumers. We’ve written quite a bit about the links between rainforest destruction, global warming and the furniture and flooring you choose for your home:
- Blog posts on rainforest conservation and protection of endangered species of the forest
- Tiger Conservation, Rainforest Preservation and Your Furniture
- Forest Conservation is About More than Trees
- Saving The Rainforest: Why Green Consumerism Is Key
- And lots more
If you’re considering buying furniture at IKEA, Home Depot or any big box store… ask where the lumber originates and let us know what you find on our Facebook or in the comments section below. Then re-discover sustainable, American made wood furniture and join us in feeling good about your furniture and your green home.
Fiber Art by Karen Kamenetzky
This is a screen shot I took of a Google image search for Karen Kamenetzky’s fiber art. The google collage is just my random sampling of Karen’s body of work but look how coherent it is! If you’re a fine art lover, subscribe to Karen’s blog and get the latest on exhibitions of her work in Vermont, New England and beyond. You have to see it to believe it.
I don’t know how to describe for you how beautiful Karen Kamenetzky’s fiber art is. It really has to be seen to be appreciated, but I thought I’d make an attempt by posting this screen shot I derived from a Google image search for “Karen Kamenetzky”. Wow. The image above is just my random sampling of Karen’s body of work but look how coherent it is! How can dozens of works, over years (maybe decades?) of time be placed together so randomly and look so integrated? I love Karen’s choice of colors and shapes and the illusion of movement. It’s remarkable, don’t you think?
You don’t see that much fiber art anymore. I’m so happy it’s making a comeback in the vibrant, contemporary works of Karen Kamenetzky. A little bit about the artist:
Karen works out of a typical Southern Vermont studio tucked into the woods of West Brattleboro. “I dye, paint and stitch cottons and silks to create boldly colored wallhangings inspired by microscopic/cellular imagery – a kind of visual invented biology with textiles. I find this imagery metaphorically rich since all change fundamentally happens on this infinitesimal level.” Karen shares information and inside scoops about her work, techniques, philosophy, inspiration and gallery exhibits on her fiber arts blog and on her Facebook.
If you love it as much as I do, you might want to consider attending the Brattleboro Museum and Arts Center Apple Blossom Gala on May 10th at 7pm at Alyson’s Orchard in Walpole, NH where Karen’s “Cellscape II” is up for auction. You could be the lucky bidder and end up taking this piece of fine art home. But even if you’re not you’ll still find “lots of wonderful, innovative art for auction, a good cause, great people, delicious food and a raucous wine tasting!” Hope to see you there.
Our American Made Furniture Featured in USA Today
Journalist, Nina Patel came across this page of our website about American Made Furniture and decided to feature our work in USA Today. Fellow American furniture makers from El Greco, Ernest Thompson Furniture and Sittin’ Easy were also featured.
Back in January we got a phone call from a journalist, Nina Patel who was writing an article about American made furniture for USA Today’s Home magazine. Nina had come across our website while researching USA made furniture and home decor. She become interested in our green mission as well as our promotion of American made products through the Christmas Shopping Challenge we’ve been sponsoring the last couple years. We chatted back and forth for a week or so and Nina gathered lots of information about Vermont Woods Studios. I wasn’t sure which aspects would fit into her article, so we’ve been eagerly awaiting it’s publication to see what she found most newsworthy.
We were excited to see a preview of Nina’s “American Made” story in yesterday’s USA Today Weekend edition of their national newspaper. The full length article is in the Spring 2013 edition of USA Today Home Magazine which you can find at your news stand or online.
It turns out that Nina did highlight information about our sustainable forestry mission as well as our efforts to raise awareness about where your furniture comes from. We are grateful to her for discussing the value of American made, high quality, sustainable furniture in such a high visibility venue. The movement is catching on!
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