Happy Birthday America!

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND THOSE THAT SERVE TO KEEP IT SAFE!

Hope everyone is celebrating and enjoying the weekend. We're grilling burgers with all the usual fare, homemade ice cream and strawberry shortcake. Sounds like a few pounds headed straight for my middle, which means I'll be pushing the mower next week instead of riding one and that's ok by me.

Its Been Awhile

It's been a few days since I last posted, more precisly a month and a half give or take, that I don't believe I'd like a replay of.  My mother-in-law in the emergency room - twice, then my mom in the emergency room to put stitches in her arm and then a fire. They are fine and the fire could have been so much worse ... a smaller outbuilding and then it had started on the big barn when the fire department arrived. We weren't at home and our son was at work. I am so thankful that we have great, watchful neighbors out here in the country. Our neighbor's grandson (they are about 1/4 mile from the crossroad) saw the smoke and alerted his grandmother. When we arrived home, nothing of the building or it contents and surroundings were left, just flat and black. Fortunately no one was hurt, it was just material things, some of which can be replaced, others can not. Our son had stored some things from his room when he left for school, and him and his dad had stored part of a 20 year collection of fly fishing rods, reels, lures and old boat motors.

Things can change in a heartbeat, in the blink of an eye, and when you aren't looking, what seems like a bad dream, with God's saving grace, turns into a blessing. He is amazing!

On a brighter note, in May we set up at "A Simpler Thyme Primitive Show" in Noblesvile, IN, just an hours drive from home. A good time was had catching up with friends. We opened without any rain and had a great, productive day and alot of laughter. Here is a peek at our booth and you can see more pictures of the show at Bev's picturetrail  here.

Last weekend, June 12 & 13, we set up at "A Country Gathering Show" in Elizabethtown, IN. Although it rained buckets and buckets and stormed every evening and morning, the sun managed to come out in the afternoon and made for some good sales. Here are a few peeks at that booth.

I'd like to think that I'll be posting more often, in fact I do have some finds I'll share here as soon as I get some pictures, but until then, stay dry and cool depending on what part of the country you're in. Here in Indiana we can't seem to get more than two days without rain and alot of it.

     And by the way, if you're here, leave a note so I don't

       feel like I'm the only one reading this.

Wishing ya'll a most joyous and blessed Easter!

Rooting Around in the Barn

We've been rooting around in the barn the past few days to see what we can come with for our room at The Vinton House and for a couple of shows we have coming up in May and June. Good auctions and estates sales have been few and far between this winter. A couple more weeks and they should be in full swing. I can't hardly wait.
David found an old wallpapering table with a galvanized top that will make a great gardening table after he reworks the bottom a bit. He also came up with a couple of very large old cutting boards that he'll use for tops on a table, one I'm hoping, may work as a small tilt top.
He needs to come across a nice old box that will work for a garden cart. Every spring he usually comes up with one and turns it into something wonderful. This one is from last spring and quickly found a new home. All the hardware is old and rusted including the nuts and bolts, otherwise they just don't look right. This one even had a removeable end in case you left the pumpkins in there to long and they had to be shoveled out. Not saying I've ever done that....

I came across a nice old big wood bowl that had been shellacked or polyurethaned, so I'll sand it and get it painted. Also working on some pillows and more shoulder bags like this one. I have a couple listed on my website and you can check them out here.

This will give you an idea of what we're working on and if I expect to get anything done today, I guess I'd better get at it.

Have a great day and I hope the sun is beaming where you are....It's a little gray and wet here today.

Outside The Lines

Well, never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would have a blog, but here I am. A bit out of my comfort zone and nervous. A natural progression I suppose from my picturetrail site, to facebook, a new website, and a new etsy site, mostly done in an effort to bring in income.

I wanted to start this year off looking forward to good times in a difficult economy and so I have entered into this technical world with high hopes. I have secretly followed many wonderful blogs and although I am not the writer, designer or decorator that they are, I figure I can give it shot.

The plan is for this to be another venue for selling the things that my husband, David and I make and we'll see where it goes from there.

Our love for antiques is primarily country painted primitives and folk art, although we also have a weakness for the old lodge style look of hickory furniture, camp blankets, antlers and all that it encompasses. We do a few primitve shows and have a room at The Vinton House Antiques which is an old brick hotel that is now an antique shop devoted to country primitive antiques. My first steps into the world wide web was a picturetrail site, then facebook to post updates for the picturetrail. Just recently I decided to take a huge leap and make a website and then I added etsy. All a work in progress

David is a wood carver and in the past was chosen as one of America's top 200 artists by Early American Life, a metal worker as well as my go to man for repairs and make-do's. I love the needle arts in the form of rug hooking and samplers and have been sewing since I was just a wee one thanks to my mother.

Between the two of us and the God given talents we were blessed with, we have weathered down turns in the economy and job layoffs over the past 30 years and we will continue forward with the faith that we will all weather this economic storm and come out the other side all the better for it.

So....here's to moving forward, to coloring outside the lines and thanking God for the crayons!