Well, you may have seen this space before here on experienced Michiana, but there are some changes headed your way.

The Blue Moon Vintage market I have my lovely friends here.

And you guys have exciting news to share with everyone.

There's a big shift coming for you guys.

There is.

It's a big pivot.

It's happening in our space.

So we've been primarily retail for over ten years.

Relocated here from Three Oaks in 2020 and built the building.

And it's been retail this whole time.

And now we're kind of shifting into micro weddings and small events.

I love that.

I love that such great purpose.

There is still some stuff for people if they want to do some shopping while they're here.

Right?

There is.

Okay.

Okay, good.

Okay.

So big stuff is happening.

You have some Airbnbs and they're right here in this beautiful space.

Let's first, can we talk about the barn?

Sure.

Can we do that?

I mean, this your husband, like, built this from the ground up.

Is that right?

He's amazing.

Tell me about all the work that went into making this happen.

Well, he designed the building itself.

People are like, well, what kind of a kit is this?

And, like, it's a Rog design.

So he.

He designed it and he'd been in the industry for all of his life.

Would.

So he had a lot of nice connections with, metal building specialists and such.

And he just started working on it.

He set us up with some jigs outside to cut the beams.

And so you got your hands dirty, too?

I know where we went.

I love it.

Family project it is.

And this.

All of this space a family project.

And you guys work so well together.

What is it like working with your mother?

It's good.

We.

If we're lucky that we get along well, we do.

I moved to the farm temporarily ten years ago.

We're located here on our rescue farm with 80 acres.

So I moved in temporarily ten years ago.

Yeah.

And we're in Westville, Indiana.

Right?

And this is a great space because it is closely connected or close enough to the South Bend area, which works very well for the new Airbnb business.

Right.

It does.

We're a mile and a half off the toll road and I four miles off 94.

So we're kind of right in between two major road from Chicago to elsewhere and all that good stuff too.

Can we go check out one of the spaces?

Yeah, let's do that.

Okay.

I see it.

I mean, I thought it was an office up there, but you could actually sleep there.

It's inside of our retail store event space.

Yes, it's a loft that we put in.

Let's go check it out.

Okay, okay.

Okay.

This place is great.

Oh, my gosh, a nice king bed in here, too.

It is a king bed.

Okay, so how many people can stay in this?

Just the two.

We market it for two.

For two adults only.

No children.

Just being on the farm and being in our event space with the retail, we are more comfortable starting it off that way.

And this is a great.

It's I mean, it's so open it gives you that studio apartment kind of feel.

Right.

Yeah.

And it's secluded.

So you have access to the farm where they can go out and enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning, or come in here and just kind of check out from everything.

And we do have Wi-Fi, but so far the guests have chosen not to participate.

Oh, it's kind of social.

Yeah, I love it.

I mean, the original space here was kind of a man cave.

Yeah.

So my dad, again, Roger, built this as his man cave for himself.

And then we realize we've got almost 30 rescue animals here as a nonprofit.

So if we could make some money on the space to help us support that.

He can watch his TV shows at the house.

But we have renters come in and talk about your nonprofit that you have with the horses.

Yeah.

So Elsas Acres, we started that in 2023 as far as actually becoming a nonprofit.

So we have 30 rescue animals here, primarily horses.

We have goats.

I have the two really old nasty geese that I showed you.

Oh.

You're outside.

I won't say their name on on live on camera, but, they're pretty wretched and ungrateful and.

Oh, we just have lived longer than 19 years.

Is, you know, 16 years longer than we thought they would.

Yeah, that would be around.

So I know, but that's great that you guys do something like that.

And then also using the business to support that.

Yeah, they eat money.

I'm sure the horses eat money and they get rid of work on the back on the backside.

So.

Well this is a great space for somebody to just come up and relax.

And it is secluded back here too.

So I mean we've got to head outside too, so you can kind of hear what nature has to offer.

Yeah.

Let's show you the other Airbnb too.

All right.

Let's do that.

Okay, so before we head out to the next Airbnb space, as soon as I came down the stairs, I noticed all this beautiful table settings.

I mean, this is perfectly set up for an event, I'm assuming.

Yeah, we just had a surprise 50th anniversary renewal ceremony gourmet dinner party in here Saturday night.

So we strip all the tables down with merchandise, and then the guests can come in and have their meal here.

I love it and then mean can decorate in here too.

I mean, this is already just a fantastic backdrop as it is, right you it is now.

Okay, I have to ask you.

There are workshops that you guys do here too.

We do.

Do we do cooking workshops?

We've got a hat burning class coming up.

That's so cool.

It's so much fun.

The girls have so much fun doing that.

And some artists come in with some things that they can offer, and.

And what else have we had?

We've had just kind of an arrangement of different classes.

The cooking classes have been the most popular though.

Sound very interesting.

Now, how can people sign up for any of the workshop or events like that that you're having?

It's all on our website.

Okay, so Blue Moon Vintage market.com under events and it's also on our Facebook under events.

And I'm assuming they'll probably sell out to you.

So you want to make sure that you check it out because it'll sound like great events.

And just to be in this space I think is really just it's cool.

Yeah.

And a lot of fans, when they're coming here, they don't know where they're coming.

So they're going down this big country, windy gravel road and not sure where I am.

Exactly.

So for the people who are coming and want to do an event, how many people can you have here?

For our events, we've posted up to 40 for cooking classes, but I think we're more comfortable.

Yeah, for micro weddings and that sort of thing.

We're doing 50 50.

That's our comfortable number.

We've stretched a little past that on occasion.

We were using my dad.

Yes.

And we're easing my dad into everything where he's like, no more than 20 people.

And we're like, okay, okay, you send him off to menards and comes back in there, 60 people in there.

So in the outdoor space that you have for Airbnb too is great for perhaps a couple who wants to come and maybe spend the night after their event.

They don't have to leave the area.

They can just rest.

Let's go check that out next.

Okay.

All right.

Sounds great.

Okay, Jen, this is the space to be.

It is so relaxing.

We're out here.

I feel like we're one with nature outside.

It's just so quiet and peaceful.

And it is.

You're on 80 acres, so it's just kind of there.

700 acres to the south of us, and I think 75 to the north.

And oh my gosh, it's just kind of nice and quiet.

You don't expect it.

So we're in front of the Airbnb.

But I mean, this is unique in itself, right?

Yeah.

So this is a 1971 Airstream that we've restored.

And made more like what we would call a modern tiny house.

Yeah.

So it was not in the best of shape when we got it.

And I know you have another Airstream just a side that you're working on too.

So that's where you started from essentially.

Yeah, we started with this one.

And then my dad's friend found the other one locally and we didn't think we needed two, but we got it for a really good price.

So yeah, we decided we'll do two and see.

And your dad did all the restoration?

Yeah.

We have, we got to check that.

I did the, the buffing in the polishing on the outside.

Oh, I'm sure that was about 200 hours.

Yeah.

If you want to know how long it takes.

Yeah, it took a minute.

Let's head in.

So how many people can be in this one two market?

This one also for 2.

It can sleep four.

Okay.

But we market it as comfortable for two.

Oh look at this space.

It's got kind of a modern rustic feel.

Yeah.

Would you say that.

Yeah.

Like modern tiny home.

We got rid of the septic tank underneath.

So it's not okay.

I'm sorry.

The bladder tank.

So it's actually connected to septic.

Awesome.

So again this is great for somebody who wants to come and do a micro wedding here.

Stay here overnight so they don't have to worry about a long drive back home.

Anything like that, or just folks who are coming on their way through Chicago or to Chicago or or just living there.

I just need a night away.

Yeah, yeah, we've got a couple coming in from Ireland this weekend.

Right.

Okay.

So if you're coming in from Ireland, this is also the place to be.

So random.

But it's been fun to meet just the different guests that find us through Airbnb in vivo.

And yeah, our website also there's one from that too.

Okay.

That's always great to be able to find that.

I can hear the crickets outside.

Yeah, we've got a bald eagle right now too.

That flies over.

Really?

Yeah.

On occasion.

So it's and you guys are going have a pond out here.

We do.

Can we fish in it?

You can bring some of the locals just showed up to fish fry.

We were in between takes.

So.

Yeah, they're they're out there enjoying the quiet today as well I love it okay.

So great space for people to come and rent.

You have a couple options.

But really I mean you guys are doing these event spaces and outdoors here in the garden.

That's going to be the space that we want to talk about next, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

The micro wedding make micro garden.

Yes.

Let's do it because it's beautiful.

God.

Okay.

If you don't want to have your wedding indoors I mean the outdoor space is where it's at.

Yeah.

This has been our big project this year where we just kind of started saving plants from the local wholesalers as they were doing, discounts at the end of the year.

Started that last year.

And now we're rescuing animals and plants and just flowers.

And I have to ask you, I mean, you beautiful floral work, are you doing a lot of the gardening here?

Yeah, I, I do primarily most of the gardening with a lot of help with, weeding is like the biggest thing that we have to do here.

I'm sure making sure everything's watered and clipped and it's my happy place.

And how did it all come together?

I mean, tell me about that experience.

The garden itself.

Yeah.

This used to be my riding arena.

really?

so.

Yeah.

Okay, so this is your family space.

You're right.

It is.

Okay.

So then one year we just thought, well the riding arena was in demise and we don't write anymore.

So we had a big bucket full of zinnias seeds and just threw them out.

That's where they lived.

And it was the most beautiful thing and we enjoyed it so, so very much.

So every year we just kind of get a little bit better.

I like we plan a little bit more structure.

Yeah.

More formality.

There's more formality.

That is can we start walking for sure.

And I mean you have so many different beautiful species here.

What goes into making the decision on what you're going to bring in each year or just kind of what's available.

Yeah.

Well, and what thrived last year in gardening, everything is about what thrives.

What what gives us the most for, what we're looking for.

So.

And there's some years things just don't thrive.

So you just don't go back to that.

But the seniors are just fabulous.

The bees are loving it.

Well, you're throwing in the support wonderfully.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Jen did this this year.

So she got a little little heavy handed.

But it's so pretty.

This was supposed to be enough to cover 6500ft², which is bigger than our building.

Oh, and it didn't look like that many seeds.

So I just kept stuffing them in.

And now it's a little how I garden tune, a little overdone.

Yeah.

That happens.

Right.

And then we'll we'll trim the heads as they die and pull the seeds for next year.

Oh, great.

We can reseed.

Oh I love that.

All right.

These are happy.

Now we have this beautiful arch here.

So is this kind of the set up for your micro weddings here too.

Yeah.

So we started this last year.

So last year we basically had the fence, the concrete troughs and this arch where we were like, let's just see what happens.

And it really had no like true rhyme or reason to it.

So now we've got these vines that have gone crazy and it's everything is a little bit more structured this year where we had our first event over the weekend with a the surprise wedding anniversary, renewal ceremony, which was fun.

And then we have our first official micro wedding a week from Saturday.

When you say micro, that's like that's like 50 people for us, for our micro number is 50 people.

Okay.

It's gone, give or take a little from that.

But our structured goal is 50.

And then so what other options could somebody have like a wedding shower out here.

This might be a beautiful setting for something like that.

They can.

So we've done wedding showers and baby showers for the last four years.

Surprise parties, dinner parties, corporate events and things.

And then we have access to do inside as well.

Okay, so there was a rain issue or anything like that, or.

I mean, winter.

Winter?

Yeah.

You guys still have that space in there that you could do something.

So you guys are really making it an all year?

Yeah.

Event space.

It's a year round.

It's year round work, right?

Nonstop.

And then we have, the gazebo at the end.

Oh, a gazebo too.

Okay, we have to go check that out.

See, this is great for my height I know Kelsey is like.

Yeah, they're filming a little bit.

Oh, these sunflowers are some of my favorites I love those.

This little chunk here was actually one of our guests for a wedding shower.

They handed out packets to their guests as a thank you and they gave us the leftovers.

So we just stuffed them in here this spring to see what actually came up.

And oh, that's we've got all these clever little sunflowers and I love it.

It's been kind of.

Yeah.

So is this a space where someone could get married at.

Right.

Here it is.

Okay.

So we built the gazebo with a lot of salvaged items.

Back in May.

So the pavers are fire brick, 300 year old fire brick that we were able to salvage.

Look how that reclaimed stuff, too.

That's great.

I know your husband is just so talented.

I have to.

I know he's not here with us right now.

We all do.

He's so talented.

We couldn't do any of this without him.

So you guys have so much to offer here.

Between event space, the market that still has a little bit left in it.

For anybody who's coming out for your events here or the Airbnb rentals.

I could see some senior pictures happening out yesterday when the garden wouldn't be a bad idea and all that stuff.

How can people best get a hold of you?

Our website is, Blue Moon Vintage market.com, and we're shifting from Blue Moon Vintage Market to Blue Moon Barn.

Okay, so we're kind of doing our that name that.

Yeah.

So our socials are Blue Moon Barn and Vintage Market right now okay.

And then eventually maybe we'll drop off the vintage market and just keep it as Blue Moon Barn.

So as long as we're still doing some retail and maybe some pop ups and things, different markets coming up.

So awesome.

Well, thank you ladies so much for sharing your your homestead, your space with us and all that you guys do here.

It's just a wonderful space.

I hope everyone has a chance to come out and visit.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

Thank you.