Tuesday, October 22, 2013

The Connecticut Home of Julie and Tom Murphy in Country Living

We were thrilled to see our dear friend's Julie and Tom Murphy's 18th century home in Country Living this month! Julie, a very talented stationery and fabric designer (and co-founder of Jack and Lulu) has a great sense of style and eye for antique shop finds. Her husband Tom, a Chief Creative Officer, also enjoys homes with that rough hewn character. They both have a beautiful ability to mix vintage and old world furniture with modern pieces. This amazing home was built sometime before 1780 in Kenyon, Rhode Island. It was luckily saved from demolition in the early 2000s by a preservation architect who disassembled the home plank by plank and then had it rebuilt in Darien, CT. It's truly a beautiful home! Sadly, the magazine didn't have the space to capture their backyard brood of chickens! Click here to see the whole story.


Thursday, October 17, 2013

Cody Foster and Co.

It came to our attention yesterday that one of our vendors, Cody Foster, may have "knocked-off" the designs of small, independent artists. Cody Foster has been a valued business partner for years and we wanted to speak to them before making a decision about their place in our store. We contacted the company today, but were unable to get any information related to these accusations.

In light of their reticence to respond, and the clear examples of copy-cat items that have popped up online, we have submitted a request to cancel our Holiday purchase order from Cody Foster. We don't yet know if this request will be honored. In the meantime, we have removed all of our existing Cody Foster inventory from our website. We are disappointed that Cody Foster has not issued a statement, apology or explanation in response to the numerous blog posts and stories that have been written about them in the last 48 hours.

We feel lousy about the whole situation. We need to recoup our investment in inventory, but don't want to do that on the backs of hard working, talented artists whose work has been stolen. We started this company in deference to my Grandparents who were extremely talented artists in their day. We cannot, in good conscience, continue to work with a company who steals designs from artisans. It's just not right. We hope that Cody Foster acknowledges their transgressions, apologizes and pays the artists a royalty for any past shipments.  If they do, we will consider restoring their products to our site and resume our business relationship with them.  For now, though, you won't find their products on Orange and Pear.

Jennifer Hassell
Owner
www.orangeandpear.com