Finding Treasures with Amy Benton of Paris is Calling

Podcast Show Notes: Episode 7 - Finding Treasures with Amy Benton of Paris is Calling

Welcome back to another episode of The Empty Nest Kitchen! Today, we're delving into the  world of found treasures with my guest, Amy Benton, the founder of Paris is Calling. Amy is here to share her passion for discovering hidden gems and bringing the charm and vibe of Paris and beyond to local communities.

Amy, the creative force behind Paris is Calling, has dedicated herself to curating unique pop-up showcases that unveil the allure of Parisian culture. From vintage trinkets to timeless pieces, each item tells a story.

Listeners, mark your calendars! Paris is Calling is hosting a local pop-up event at Chartreuse in Frederick, MD, on April 18, 19, and 20. Join Amy and her partner Elin Ross and explore their curated collection of found treasures. Whether you're seeking a piece of history or simply craving a touch of elegance, this event will ignite your imagination.

In my conversation with Amy, we delve into her journey of uncovering hidden gems.. From vintage markets to secret boutiques and thrift stores, Amy's keen eye for beauty has led her to discover unique pieces, ready for new homes.

 Amy also hosts engaging classes, including one on creating captivating tablescapes. Learn the art of French-inspired decor and elevate your dining experience to new heights.

Thanks for tuning in to The Empty Nest Kitchen! Be sure to subscribe for more captivating conversations and inspiring stories. Until next time, au revoir!

Transcript

Christine Van Bloem: 0:21

Well, hey there. I am here today with someone who I just think is brilliant and we have known each other for what feels like a hundred million years, even though we're both fabulous. say hello to Amy Benton with me. Hi, Amy.

Amy Benton: 0:41

Hello everybody.

Christine Van Bloem: 0:42

So, we were doing our pre gave and we were talking and Amy's done a couple of podcasts, so she knows what's what. She's probably better at this than I am. But I wanted to invite Amy on because Amy is, the founder of Paris is Calling as well as having a full time gig and I love, I mean, I think side hustle simplifies it, But once the nest has emptied, I feel like you have this time to create and be, I don't even know the right words, but to really dive in and figure out the fun stuff that you want to do. And you did that and you did Paris Calling. So tell me a little about what that is.

Amy Benton: 1:31

So that's a really good question. I actually did a little vision quest, about four or five years ago. I did a class with Julie Gaver who many people may know in our area. She did something called third bloom and she kind of leads you through some exercises where you're thinking about what you want those next chapters to be, what you want that third bloom to look like. And the thing that came up for me a lot was travel, food, learning sharing experiences, wine

Christine Van Bloem: 2:07

These are all my favorite things. These are all my favorite things.

Amy Benton: 2:11

so, and I have a real affinity for Paris. I really love the city of Paris, I've been there a number of times. Paris Calling really came about that wonderlust. You could call it, you could call it, you know, Traveler's Calling, but that's not as fun as Paris Calling. And so for me it really is about creating, it was about creating a place to put that energy. And I didn't know what it would look like other than I knew it needed to revolve around those topics. And so that's kind of grown into a number of different things.

Christine Van Bloem: 2:44

Okay, well first of all, I'm so embarrassed to admit this do you know I've never been I've never been to Paris

Amy Benton: 2:52

it's really funny you should say so because next year I think I'm leaving my first group.

Christine Van Bloem: 2:56

Oh, really?

Amy Benton: 2:57

you may, you might want to come with, you might want to come, yeah, so I've had to really think about what that would look like and I think it's going to be a very small group, maybe six to eight people. So, because I, as I'm creating this, I'm realizing I want these to be really curated experiences for people. I want it to feel like it's really your trip. that I've helped you put together and I'm there to, to help in whatever way, but you get to explore Paris in a way that feels comfortable to

Christine Van Bloem: 3:25

that would be eating my way across the city. No doubt That is so cool. Okay, so tell me you You are a marketer, right? You and I both have a marketing background and I, I just love marketing. I really do. I just love it so much. And it's so marketing centric to have the name and then figure out what you're doing from there. So tell me a little about what it is you do. I know you're going to do a trip, which is amazing, but kind of, how are you finding your feet with it? What are you offering?

Amy Benton: 4:05

I just did my first winter series of classes. I

Christine Van Bloem: 4:09

Oh, fun. Oh, fun.

Amy Benton: 4:13

people to explore. We did a brushstroke lettering class. I did a meditative stitching class called Scrappy Balls. That's a great name.

Christine Van Bloem: 4:21

It's like sweaty balls from

Amy Benton: 4:23

Yeah. Yeah. So that,

Christine Van Bloem: 4:25

me what a scrappy ball

Amy Benton: 4:26

so it's a meditative stitching. It, it is like a scrap. Like you take scraps of material and you basically create like a, an art form with it. And the woman who taught it had some that looked like Van Gogh paintings. So it's really kind of taking scraps of material. And they could be buttons, they could be. Rickrack, if anybody remembers what Rickrack is, I'm very dating myself by that one.

Christine Van Bloem: 4:51

That's okay. We're all in the same boat on this podcast

Amy Benton: 4:54

but I had brought back buttons from the Paris flea market on my last trip so I gave everybody a little button to put on their Scrappy Ball so they have a little bit of Paris's Calling on their, on their piece that they made. Yeah, and so, and then the last one was with my, My pop up my vintage flea market pop up on the All the Farms Frederick or Elin Ross many people will know her we did a tablescape so come and, and come and play with all of our stuff. So you got to set the table, you got part of your ticket price was a vintage tablecloth, so you got a tablecloth and you got to set the table. We did like two demos she did a brunch setup and then I did sort of a fun bright color picnic setup. And then people got to go through our stuff. It was like a first pass on all of our pop up stuff. And they got to play with it. We got to talk about setting the table. For me, setting the table is one of the most important things of a meal. Like, I know food is really important and cooking is really important.

Christine Van Bloem: 5:51

Thank you.

Amy Benton: 5:52

Soups, I mean, what you put in and the love that you put into it. To me, the table is like, this is your greeting to somebody. Like, you're important and I'm setting this table so you feel a sense of place around the table. And so, setting tables has always been my thing, ever since I've been a little kid. It was always my job. And I love the, I love the putting together of things. So, so that was a really fun. So that was my first first series. And I think I'll do a winter series as well. I don't know what that looks like yet. So educational things, like learning is really important to me. That's part of my DNA. And that's part of Paris calling. Like learning, growing, questioning things, exploring stuff. So that was the first foray into that. My pop ups that I do with all the farms is, are really fun. So we, we source, we curate again. Tablescapes, vintage barware you know, things to make your house feel better, things for outside. This kind of all started in COVID. We can talk a little bit about that. And then I think I'm going to do this trip next year. I think this is going to be my first time I'm going to take a group on a trip. So,

Christine Van Bloem: 7:02

that is phenomenal. I love this. Okay, I wanna go back to the whole Tablescape thing because this is one of my shortcomings.. I can make a kick tush meal, right? And I can have it be the greatest thing you'll ever have. But, hopefully. But, like, I just haven't, the plating, not my strong suit, and the whole tablescape thing, I see what people put together, and I'm always just blown away by the creativity. So, where are you guys sourcing things? Where are you finding things when you're doing this?

Amy Benton: 7:40

so I source when I travel mostly. So like I was just up for New Year's, I was up in the Finger Lakes. I was in Hammond's Port New York and there were some vintage stores. So I sourced there. So, and pretty much anytime I travel now, it's just.Part of what we do. I do a little, there's like a little flea market day. I was in Paris, I was back in the Paris flea and I brought home the most gorgeous ice bucket. It's like a little crystal ice bucket with like a wooden painted lid. I've never seen an ice bucket like this in my life. So I like to find things when I travel. That's actually how this whole thing got started. These pop ups, I should say that part of how I survived COVID was again My friend Elin at that time, not my pop up business partner, we would go to Chartreuse on Sunday mornings and

Christine Van Bloem: 8:28

Okay. And Chartreuse is a local, the kind of gathering of where lots of different vendors will have booths and things like that. My dining room table is from there and there you can get furniture or you can get I don't want to say tchotchkes because it's much more than that,

Amy Benton: 8:49

but you

Christine Van Bloem: 8:49

the bits and bobs.

Amy Benton: 8:50

you can find things to make your home look more beautiful inside and out, right? And so they have a big barn, they have lots of open spaces, so we would go early on a Sunday morning, they would open at 10, we'd get there like at 9 45, they were gracious enough to let us like wander about for a little while, so we thought, see and we'd go into the barn before anybody else would be there, and we'd be out before, like, the masses of people would be there. And not that there were a mass not that there were masses of people at that time, but There would be people that would start to, to wonder. So it was sort of how we kind of made our way through, you know, it was like something to look forward to. Because if you remember, there was not a lot to look forward to. You lived like home all week, right? And so you were not leaving your house, you're not seeing people, you're not, right. So we did that for a period of time and at some point we decided that we would go to Massachusetts. It's, it's called Brinfield. It's

Christine Van Bloem: 9:43

Oh, I've heard of Brimfield. Oh, I want to go there someday.

Amy Benton: 9:46

so somewhere along the line, the two of us decide we'd have this like, You know, Thelma and Louise thing. And we take off on a road trip and we get to Brimfield and we're, we're on the field and it's massive. It's just, it's huge. And we start like looking at stuff when we go, I think we could do a pop up. Well, I think we could do a popup. What would we put in our popup? Well, I think we'd put these things in our popup. Well, let's buy these things for our popup. I guess we're doing a popup.

Christine Van Bloem: 10:15

Yeah.

Amy Benton: 10:16

so, so it sort of just came about like in the middle of New York in July. Maybe we had heat stroke. I don't know. But we decide to do a popup and we start buying stuff. We bought beautiful wool blankets that we found. I mean, we just had this, I mean, we just both have like an eye. What's interesting is, we now shop, we always go once a year and shop collectively, we take a trip, like we're going to Massa, to New York this year, sorry, Brimfield's in Massachusetts, we're going to New York this year but we, we both have a good eye and we agree on stuff and the biggest point is, okay, if this stuff doesn't sell, we have to agree, will you have it in our house? So, I don't know. So we have to agree that we're going to keep it and we like it enough that we'll keep it. So that's how it all started. The next year we went back to Brimfield. We took we took a friend with us and I think she was there to monitor our behavior, but

Christine Van Bloem: 11:08

Yeah.

Amy Benton: 11:08

no. And that, and then last year we went to Balkville, New York which we'll go back to again. And we took a whole group. We took a whole gaggle of women with us, like six women. But we work real hard for two days and we source and we buy and we get ready for our show. So, in the meantime, we both are sourcing independently. I typically source when I travel. We do auctions from time to time. We haven't ventured into the estate sale thing yet. I think that really is where we need to head next is into estate sale. But we now have people reach out to both of us like, hey, I'd like to get rid of this, do you want it? So, it comes from a variety of places.

Christine Van Bloem: 11:48

That's so cool. I, you know, I have to say, I haven't been to an auction in years, but I find them so intimidating. I mean, it's a rush. It's totally a rush. But there are, there are. other fees and things you don't really if you are new at going to auctions like premium fees and there are all sorts of things and I find it so intimidating so having somebody that's curating it for me that's great but I'll tell you the estate sale thing I think you might be right.

Amy Benton: 12:22

Yeah, we, and we just haven't, we just haven't made that jump yet. We probably need to make that, we actually think that's one of our goals with the shares to go to a state sale. So we run this, so we, we navigate between it being a hobby and a business. So it, it, you know, it has to, it has to function like a business to some degree, but it really is a hobby for both of us because we both have full time jobs.

Christine Van Bloem: 12:45

Yeah. So, I mean, what's making you want to do this? What makes you want to have this thing on the side that you are devoting time and energy to it?

Amy Benton: 12:58

Well, I think for, for me, it really is, it's the love of being able to share things that I love with people. So I love learn, I love learning, I love travel I, I love the idea of helping people build things that are beautiful. You know, I had this whole crazy 52 blazer project last year that, that was, that went kind of nutso

Christine Van Bloem: 13:18

This is a very cool thing. Hold on. I want to definitely talk about this because I thought this was so, so clever. Tell everyone about the 52 Blazer project.

Amy Benton: 13:30

so I challenge myself to buy 52 blazers for the price of one new woman's blazer. And I find the women's blazer, I find women's clothing to be somewhat offensively expensive sometimes. I just was in a J crew recently and I looked at a blazer and it was like 475. I'm like, this is crazy.

Christine Van Bloem: 13:54

Oh my goodness.

Amy Benton: 13:56

but so I challenged myself to buy 52 blazers for the price of one new woman's blazer and I set that price point between 375 and 400. And I literally thrifted 52 blazers for, like, 391. But the cool part was I posted, I would post them as I'd find them and I'd, you know, My husband

Christine Van Bloem: 14:14

I loved it!

Amy Benton: 14:17

he just would take these, you know, silly pictures and then I would post and then people would make comments about like, that's like, that's a great outfit. And I would have like, seriously, I'd have men like go, is that one of your blazers? Like, I love how you put these things together. Like, how can you be so creative putting it together? So I think it's the putting together of things for me, right? It's the, it's like taking something old with something new and making it look like something. That's my creativity.

Christine Van Bloem: 14:44

It was I mean you always you've always looked great. I mean you have terrific style You just do you're welcome, but you totally do Always have always will and I thought the blazers you picked it was funny because as you were thrifting them Right, you're totally When you're thrifting, you get what you get, right? You have to be careful and, and all that. And you would say, I thought I'd like this one, but now I don't love it quite as much. Or, this one is amazing and I will be wearing this forever and ever. And I liked the honesty of it, but I did love the creative aspect of it. I thought that was just terrific.

Amy Benton: 15:23

Oh yeah, I had this one that was a Banana Republic one. It was like a kimono style. I hate that blazer. It just doesn't, it doesn't, I just hated it. It just didn't work on me. It's not that it was a Banana Republic. It's just the style. And I think that was the other thing. It really taught me about my style. Like

Christine Van Bloem: 15:40

Oh, okay.

Amy Benton: 15:42

works for me on my body shape, what doesn't. And I do, people say that to me, like, Oh, you kind of know what works. I'm like, yeah, well, I tested. I, I, I really. I kind of do feel like I know, and it got easier to buy the blazers because of that. Like I'm like, Oh, that one will work. No, that color doesn't work. Oh no, that, I like that fabric. I hate that fabric. I tended to always find lean if there was a vintage feel to something. I wear a lot of black and white, so I had to be cautious that I wasn't buying too much black and white, but I did, I did branch out on certain occasions, but yeah, it was a fun project. But I think, again, it's that putting that old and new together, and I think that's how the tablescape thing works for me, or a barscape works. I love to entertain. I love having people over and, enjoy having people over, so, but I like it to feel like something. So, you

Christine Van Bloem: 16:36

still have that Banana Republic blazer or did you

Amy Benton: 16:39

I, I do, I'm, I'm, I have a non profit in our area that is thinking about doing an event with them. So, I'm hopeful

Christine Van Bloem: 16:48

With all of your blazers?

Amy Benton: 16:50

so I'm hopeful that the, yeah, so I'm hopeful that it will turn into a fundraiser.

Christine Van Bloem: 16:55

So you have to keep it?

Amy Benton: 16:57

Yeah, I have them. I have all 52.

Christine Van Bloem: 16:59

Oh my gosh, now if it's a fundraiser, are there any you would hold back?

Amy Benton: 17:04

wouldn't. I'd probably supplement. I'd probably find some new ones

Christine Van Bloem: 17:07

Yeah.

Amy Benton: 17:07

yeah. There are a couple that I don't want to let go of. There's, there's one that I bought in a vintage store up, um, we were in Rhode Island. Just Schwenke Town in Rhode Island. One, with all the, ones with all the houses. What is that, Newport?

Christine Van Bloem: 17:22

Newport.

Amy Benton: 17:23

yeah, I found one in Newport. Yeah, I found one, it's the most expensive one I bought. It's 30. But I love it. And I probably would not part with it. The only one that was like the most expensive one

Christine Van Bloem: 17:34

at 30.

Amy Benton: 17:35

30.

Christine Van Bloem: 17:36

You have good luck thrifting.

Amy Benton: 17:39

you just have to work at it. And part of it for me was I get distracted easily. So I have to have purpose and direction. So having like a, like having like focus somewhere helps me like, cause I could get lost in the first store. Like, Oh, look at that. Oh, look at that. That's awesome. That's beautiful. You know, it like I, I could just get lost.

Christine Van Bloem: 18:01

I'm the same way. I need a clear focus or else I'm dead in the water.

Amy Benton: 18:06

Right. And I think that's what happens with this project with, with Baskin and when we wanted to talk a little bit about Baskin and Board. So when I shop, I have real focus. Like I'm looking for a bar where I look for small dishes or I look for glassware. I'm big into champagne and to coupes right now.

Christine Van Bloem: 18:22

Oh, okay.

Amy Benton: 18:23

if anybody out there has coupes that they want to get rid of, let me know. But you know, so it's, and that kind of ties in obviously with the Paris is calling thing. So I tend to try to find pieces that are made in France or I try to make that connection.

Christine Van Bloem: 18:36

Oh, yeah,

Amy Benton: 18:37

yeah. Paintings right now. I bought a lot of paintings when I was in Paris this time. So little small pieces of artwork. So

Christine Van Bloem: 18:45

I, so my husband's mother and my mother both passed recently and we had to clean things out and I took all of the oil paintings that they had. It's really funny. I have one that my grandfather did for my grandmother back before I was born of a dog they have, we call it dog and bucket because that's basically what it is. And then we have. of my mother in law with one of her sisters from way back in the day when they were kids. And there, there are a couple one or two from my mom's house, another one from my mother in law, and I'm trying to figure out how to display them all because they all have a personal touch. They are worth approximately 0. 00, but I'm, I'm super into it. So I love that the little oil paintings are a thing for you.

Amy Benton: 19:40

yeah, I know. I, I think they do a value. They hit you somewhere in your heart.

Christine Van Bloem: 19:44

They do!

Amy Benton: 19:45

That's a lot. That's value. That's, that's, that's. That's value right there.

Christine Van Bloem: 19:50

Yeah, I remember Dog and Bucket hanging in my grandmother's dining room for years and years and now it's in my dining room,

Amy Benton: 19:58

feel like you almost need like little like museum carts underneath of them. Dug and bucket.

Christine Van Bloem: 20:02

Dog and Bucket.

Amy Benton: 20:03

Yeah.

Christine Van Bloem: 20:05

It's really funny., I think it was their dog Nipper, I'm not sure, but I love that you have a specific focus. And then you were talking about you do pop ups with your friend Elin and you call that Basket and

Amy Benton: 20:20

and board. Right. So when

Christine Van Bloem: 20:21

which is a great name.

Amy Benton: 20:23

so when we come together we become a whole other thing which is basket and board and people are like, who are you guys? I'm like, well, I'm this, Elin's this, and we're this. And so we're basket and board, and we just actually had our first email, we have a new email for basket and board, so that's been a little slower to develop than all of our individual things those have kind of come together a little faster, but we have a logo for basket and board now and we'll, we, we do Chartreuse pop ups, we're there we'll be there in the spring and in the fall. We're getting ready to do there's a Distillers event at the Old Visitation Academy in Frederick, Maryland, I think, on May 18th. I'll be there. Elin won't be able to be there, but that'll be a combined stuff. I'll represent us both. We're gonna probably do our own Makers Market at Give Rise Studio this fall. We're thinking about bringing together a group of people, curating our own Christmas market, or holiday market.

Christine Van Bloem: 21:17

fantastic, and that's in downtown Frederick, here in Maryland.

Amy Benton: 21:20

Yeah, and so we're kind of exploring new things and testing new things. We did it last year. We tested we tested doing 14 holiday markets last year. That was insane. We were crazy. It was breathtaking. We were exhausted and we just, and we, now we know that's not our thing to do 14 holiday markets. And we're still friends. We're still very good friends, which is all, which is really good. But, you know, that, that was, that was really hard. That was, we bit off more than we, I think we, we both did not realize how intense that was going to be. So we learned. We, we're learning about it, but now we're in our fourth year, which is kind of hard to believe. So next year will be our fifth year anniversary. But it's been a lot of fun. It's been a really great way to spend time with your friend that's, you know, not going to, not going out to eat or, I mean, we have a purpose when we get together. And we've had, and we've had to have conversations where we can be, we don't have to talk about work, not work stuff, but we talk about other stuff too, so we've had to like, have those boundary conversations, like, like, okay, we're talking, like, okay, you have to ask me how I'm doing now. You have to be my, you have to be my girlfriend now,

Christine Van Bloem: 22:29

Yeah.

Amy Benton: 22:29

and, you know, you have to be my friend, and, and, cause it, cause it can be a lot. We have, there's a lot, there's a lot, we have a lot of inventory, we have a lot of stuff.

Christine Van Bloem: 22:38

Where do you keep your inventory?

Amy Benton: 22:40

My, well, we both respectively in our homes and I keep basket and board in my home.

Christine Van Bloem: 22:45

Okay. So it's a lot of inventory.

Amy Benton: 22:48

of

Christine Van Bloem: 22:48

So thank goodness those kids have moved

Amy Benton: 22:51

Thank goodness. We've got

Christine Van Bloem: 22:52

goodness. Yes! Ha ha ha!

Amy Benton: 22:55

We've had a no furniture rule for a really long time We wouldn't buy furniture, but we break that every once in a while And then when we break it we remind ourselves that we had a no furniture rule But we don't typically buy big pieces like we don't we don't jump into some big stuff. So

Christine Van Bloem: 23:11

That's smart.

Amy Benton: 23:12

it has to fit in our, in our respective vehicles. We're not towing anything.

Christine Van Bloem: 23:18

oh, see, that's good. That's a good, like, that's a good rule of thumb right there. I still have half a cooking school in my garage and in my basement, and I had to close that down, what, four years ago, almost four years ago. So I, I feel you on this space. Every time I move stuff out. The house feels a little lighter though. Do you feel that after your events?

Amy Benton: 23:44

for sure. For sure. There was a point though, during the holiday events that I felt like we were running out of inventory because we were selling a lot of glassware. So we had to, like, both of us were like, okay, wait, we gotta go find more inventory. So we had to. Scurrier about but but again, we won't ever do 14 pop ups like that in like a five week period. That was That was crazy. I don't even know I don't even know what we were thinking. It was a little it was a little aggressive even for us

Christine Van Bloem: 24:11

what made you go so aggressive?

Amy Benton: 24:13

I think we just wanted to test it. I think we we found an opportunity Yeah, I think we just found an opportunity. We thought let's try it and see what will happen and It happened for sure it happened

Christine Van Bloem: 24:26

Was it, was it profitable for you?

Amy Benton: 24:29

yeah, I think it was, but it was a lot of time and a hard time of year to be away from family, right? Because there's a lot of other stuff

Christine Van Bloem: 24:38

Sure.

Amy Benton: 24:38

So there were a lot of competing interests at that time but I, I'm, I'm not sad that we tried. I'm never sad that we try anything. I just am always glad that we try it and we step back and then we'd like take a breath and we're like, well, did, what do you think? And we have really good conversations like, did it work? Did it not work? You know? Elin and I have done a number of projects together. We did many, many years ago, we did a run in the Frederick Market called Cupcakes for it was the Cupcake Run. So literally, you ran and got a cupcake at the end of it. And we did that, yeah, we did that for a number of years. We did a pop up for in a farmer's market once called Pickles and Biscuits. I think you actually came and test tasted those biscuits,

Christine Van Bloem: 25:17

I did and let me just say that there was a darn tasty pimento cheese biscuit in there. I've come up with my own. I do a pimento cheese drop biscuit

Amy Benton: 25:29

Ooh, ooh.

Christine Van Bloem: 25:30

I do that because you guys did a pimento cheese biscuit at that. Tasting and I was so swept away by it. It was so good that I developed my own drop biscuit to go with it.

Amy Benton: 25:45

Yeah. So, I think we have a lot of fun working on projects together. You know? I think it's kind of our, it's kind of one of our, this, the pieces of our friendship is that we, that we work on projects together. And this is just, this has been a lot of fun. I think we both really like, we both use vintage in our own decorating in our home. I mean, I don't think anybody can see, obviously it's a podcast right now, but yeah. Yeah. If you were to, I know Chris, you can see it. So there's this, there's this basket on the shelf behind me. And this bath, this basket was so beaten up. Elin's like, I can't believe you're buying this basket. Well, I happen to know somebody who's a basket weaver. So she repaired it for me. And it's like, and it's like one of my, it's like one of my favorite pieces. And I like, I keep all my journaling stuff in it. But yeah, so I think we just like, and that's the treasure hunt, right? It's a lot of that treasure hunting.

Christine Van Bloem: 26:36

yeah. Well, I'll tell you focus for me right now is female friendships after 50 because I think they are so vital and, you know, I find I go out to dinner with people or I'll go out and have a drink and I don't do it very often because post COVID I am a real homebody. Yeah, I'm like married to the house, baby. I, I can go all day and John will come home. I'll go, what's the weather like out there? Because I haven't gone anywhere. And the female relationships. have become so important, and I think it's a place where a lot of us lack. And I went out to dinner with someone last night, my friend Kelly, and she had said something to me about, I'm really craving some connection with people. I'm like, I'm your girl. But I love that you're doing it outside of food, right? Outside of food or wine or anything like that. You're not eating, you're, you know, not food focused, even though you're doing the tablescapes and whatnot. And for me, I'm always trying to look at things I can do that are not focused on food. Because, I just really need those connections, but I don't need to go out all the time.

Amy Benton: 28:03

Well, and I love that pieces that we find make another connection to somebody and now they're in somebody's home and somebody else is loving them. I love that somebody else will find something that we have found that we think is pretty or useful or pretty and useful and that they're now taking it and incorporating it into their style. And they're going to bring that into their home and they're entertaining and they're good at it. Their family's going to gather around the table and there's going to be this bowl that they, that they bought, that they're going to fill with their favorite thing, and they're going to, you know, think about that memory. And typically, again, a lot of my stuff has a story to it. So I get to include that little story like, Oh, Hey, I found that here. I'm so glad you're taking that home with you and,

Christine Van Bloem: 28:46

That's so cool. I just think that's fantastic.

Amy Benton: 28:49

yeah. So, yeah.

Christine Van Bloem: 28:51

You have a lasting impact.

Amy Benton: 28:53

Oh, well, I don't know if it's a lasting impact, but

Christine Van Bloem: 28:56

No, it

Amy Benton: 28:56

I, but I'm really glad that people find, find joy in the things we find. And you know, we, the first time we went to Brinfield, there was a there was French fabric that I fell in love with. And Elin indulged me and we bought, we bought it, we bought jointly, because we do buy jointly, basket and board, but it's a combined effort, so we, we bought, but I bought this beautiful French ticking and I made, we made some beautiful pillows with it. And I, I love that somebody loved them and took them in their home and now has that, you know, has that in their home and they're enjoying those pillows. and sees the beauty in that, that

Christine Van Bloem: 29:32

that's a, that's an impact. I think every time I look at something that I got from Chartreuse, which has lots of if you are not from the Frederick, Maryland area and you are listening to this, you should look this up because they've been in Southern Living and all sorts of things, but I can look at pieces in my house and I think about that came from there and that had a story before that and, and I love that. I think that's super cool.

Amy Benton: 30:01

Well, and Virginia who owns shirt, Virginia Crum who owns Shirt Trace has got a beautiful eye. She's been doing this for a really long time. She's been so encouraging to Elin and I. And so, such a, such, such a supporter. I mean, talk about somebody who's supporting another, you know, woman business and, and lifting somebody up. She's always encouraging. Loves our stuff and so funny, I had gone to the Chelsea Flea Market last year and I brought back this awesome double headed Italian espresso maker. It was gorgeous. It was like a mid century piece. And she was like, and she came by once and she's like, I think I gotta come by. Well, somebody snapped it up. She's like, Oh my God, I missed it. But you know, it's good whenever like another person's like, that was an awesome piece. But I, yeah, but again, so again, when I travel I typically try to make sure I scoot by a flea market or a vintage store of some sort.

Christine Van Bloem: 30:52

And what kind of events do you have coming up this spring?

Amy Benton: 30:56

So we'll be at Chartreuse for their spring market days, which is the 18th and 19th 17th, 18th, 19th of April. So it's Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Make sure I have those days right. Pretty sure that that's right. And. It's the third weekend. And then we'll be at Visitation. We'll be at the Visitation Distillers Market May 18th. And that's it. And then we'll hit the road in August and do our, do our buying trip in August. And then September we'll pop back up at Chartreuse.

Christine Van Bloem: 31:26

That's fantastic. Well, I'll put your events in the show notes so that, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, of course for the 12 listeners that I have. But I'll put that in for you. And if somebody is looking for you online, where can they find you?

Amy Benton: 31:42

so you can, I actually have a website. It's, it's more that has more of my writing stuff on it, but you can find me on Instagram. Instagram. Paris is calling, or you can find me on Facebook. So,

Christine Van Bloem: 31:52

it. Fantastic. All right. Now, I can't ever end without talking about food just a little bit. And I know you are very well traveled. What is the most memorable thing you've ever had in your travels, food wise?

Amy Benton: 32:14

Okay, so it's interesting you're asking this question right now. I just got back from a trip to to Reykjavik, Dublin, and Paris. And I've had some of the best food I've ever had in my life in Reykjavik. It was,

Christine Van Bloem: 32:26

Reykjavík's crazy good.

Amy Benton: 32:27

I mean, the, the ice, the food in Iceland, if you would've told me that, I would've just like told you, shut up, no way. But I had, I had, well first of all, I had cocktails and food that were delicious in Reykjavik. I had this cocktail, it was called a Grand Manhattan. It was under a smoked glass. It was like cinnamon smoke. It was so good I had to go back the second night to make sure that it was as good as I thought it was the first night. And that was amazing. And just like the freshness of the food and the fish. Reykjavik by far had some of the best food I've ever had.

Christine Van Bloem: 33:04

Yeah, I did a food tour. We did a, we did a Reykjavik to London to Scotland thing a couple years ago because our son was studying abroad in Scotland. And I was like, well, let's, you know, let's hit a couple of places because I've never been. Let's go. And we did a food tour. Through Reykjavik. And we had we had some really great stuff. I mean, if you go to Reykjavik, you have to get the hot dog from that famous hot dog stand. You're like, no,

Amy Benton: 33:35

I would say no. I would say no.

Christine Van Bloem: 33:37

oh, I'm like, they took us and I, you know, I am not actually a lamb fan, but we did that and we had a rye bread ice cream.

Amy Benton: 33:47

Yes. I think it was on the same food tour that you were on, because you had a rye, yeah, and you had pickled shark.

Christine Van Bloem: 33:53

No, we didn't do the shark. We didn't do the shark because the shark is supposed to be like super nasty.

Amy Benton: 33:59

It was like a salt gummy.

Christine Van Bloem: 34:02

Oh, okay. That's a good way to describe it. Did we did a lobster stew, but it's with langoustines. We did a horse carpaccio.

Amy Benton: 34:14

Yeah. I, my husband would have fainted at that point, because you know, he's a big horse guy.

Christine Van Bloem: 34:18

Well, and I have to tell you that I, I struggled because that is, I'm an adventurous eater, but I just don't want to be a jerk. Like it's kind of my theme in life right now. Just maybe don't be a jerk. And they were so proud of it in the place we were. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I think that's basically raw

Amy Benton: 34:38

Mm.

Christine Van Bloem: 34:39

And then when we were driving around the next day and saw the horses, I'm like, are those Pasture

Amy Benton: 34:45

Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm.

Christine Van Bloem: 34:48

But yeah, that one was a little tricky, but you know what else we had that was wild? We had whale.

Amy Benton: 34:55

Oh,

Christine Van Bloem: 34:56

And I, they went through a whole thing on why it was okay that we had it. And it tasted like steak.

Amy Benton: 35:04

interesting.

Christine Van Bloem: 35:05

tasted like, like flank steak. It was really rich. And again, you know, food tour. I love food

Amy Benton: 35:12

Me too. Me

Christine Van Bloem: 35:13

I think when you go somewhere new, I think a food tour and also going to a grocery store. I absolutely love going to grocery stores. Heck, even in the United States, I like just going to a grocery store wherever I am to see what's different. Do you do

Amy Benton: 35:31

oh, 100%. I, I, I love, actually when we were in Paris this past time we had an Airbnb, so we were in the grocery store all the time, and I love finding all the little things that you can't. These are new. Absolutely. And food tours are phenomenal. We did a food tour with I had some girlfriends. We went to Paris about five years ago, and we did a market tour. And so it was different. We went to the market, but we also, oysters were involved. There's a wine bar involved. It was like one of the best food tours I've ever done.

Christine Van Bloem: 36:02

What are you drinking now?

Amy Benton: 36:05

what am I drinking now? Probably bourbon. I'm like into the bourbons now. Yeah. Yeah. Wine, wine is, I love wine. But it's not. Yeah.

Christine Van Bloem: 36:16

yeah, I'm, I'm drinking Sancerre,

Amy Benton: 36:20

Oh. Which is lovely.

Christine Van Bloem: 36:22

lovely, it's so yummy and this is gonna sound totally ridiculous, but when my mother in law passed last year, and we went out after the funeral. We had a whole restaurant to ourselves and somebody had said, Oh, do you have a sancerre? And I was like, well, that sounds amazing. So now I always think of my mother in law. When I have the sancerre, she was not there, but it makes me think of her. And I don't know why, but I, it's hard to find.

Amy Benton: 36:54

it

Christine Van Bloem: 36:54

hard to find Sancerre.

Amy Benton: 36:56

it is. It's, but it's a love, it's a lovely white one. And so I, and that would probably be one of my husband's choices too. He would drink, he would have a sair, but Yeah. I

Christine Van Bloem: 37:05

warmer weather starts coming, I like my wines to be very crisp and not oaked at all. I don't go for, like, I'll do a buttery chard, but I don't really love an oaky chard in the winter, but give me all the bright, minerally sort of things once the weather warms

Amy Benton: 37:25

Yeah. There's nothing like a good seven y blanc on a really, really crisp, on a hot day. I agree with you. Or, or a nice rose. So,

Christine Van Bloem: 37:33

your what's your bourbon of choice right now?

Amy Benton: 37:36

oh, I, you know, that's a really good question. Probably whatever is in the house. It usually gets mixed with something. So I'm not usually drinking it, drinking it straight up. Although I also really like a good Manhattan. Like there just sometimes I need a Manhattan. I need, I need a Manhattan.

Christine Van Bloem: 37:54

Love to hear it.

Amy Benton: 37:55

need a

Christine Van Bloem: 37:56

Yeah. I just call it all brown liquor. It's all the same to me. I'm just not a brown liquor

Amy Benton: 38:02

I guess We used to have bullet in the house a lot, but I don't think that Maker's Mark is always a good choice. I mean, it's kind of, it's reliable.

Christine Van Bloem: 38:10

Yeah, good and reliable. That's awesome. Amy, thank you so much for taking time out of your excruciatingly busy

Amy Benton: 38:17

Well, thank you for, for inviting me. What a pleasure to chat and catch up today. And thank you everybody for listening. And I'll look forward to, to seeing you. I hope.

Christine Van Bloem: 38:28

Excellent. And I'm gonna put Amy's contact info so you can follow her on Instagram. She always posts such cool stuff, so give her a follow along with locations and dates for where she will have her basket and board posted. Pop ups this spring and then when you follow her, you'll be able to keep on track for the fall, but not 14 make or mark. Yeah. So.

Amy Benton: 38:57

Thanks. And thanks, Chris. Good, good talking with you today.

Christine Van Bloem: 39:00

Oh my gosh. Thank you, Amy. I so appreciate it.

39:04

And I want to remind everyone that you can find any classes that I'm doing. At Empty Nest Kitchen dot com. And I have a really fun artisan pizza class coming up on April 21st. I show you how to make a really tasty, yummy. Pizza that that's the real deal. Out of your own home oven, you don't need a pizza oven. I don't have one. But it's a great time. And I really hope you'll join me. I mean, heck invite a friend over and let's do it together. We're cooking connected. and finding the joy in cooking with each other. And that's it for this week, feel free to drop a review or rating and tell everybody, you know, and maybe some that you don't. to give us a listen here. Thank you so much, everyone. I'll see in the kitchen.