before and after

Here are a few pictures of some things I have been working on for the Fall Barn Sale.

I love reupholstering things. Here is a set of chairs I have been working on. I love the new script fabric.

Another thing I collect through out the year is wonderful ephemera. I love old handwriting, quirky vintage papers, old school paperwork and vintage photographs.

I love to use them in my collage work. Here is

a sample of a screen I have been working on. Come to the Fall Barn Sale to see more!

jen and jason's wedding

Earlier this summer we had the pleasure of having Jen and Jason's wedding at the farm. I must say, this was probably one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever attended. She didn't miss a detail. It was a lovely day.

Brian and Alison from Grogan Studios (groganstudios.com) shot some wonderful pictures that I want to share with you. The wedding took place here at French Hen Farm.

Congratulations Jen and Jason!

Sweet Corn Season!

Home from vacation!

Always good to leave, but always good to be home!

I was afraid we were going to miss sweet corn season. But thank goodness there is still a lot of sweet corn out there. The first thing I did when I got home was find a local farm stand and got 7 dozen ears of corn.

I remember when I was little, my grandma and mom would plan a weekend of "putting up" corn.

They would get dozens and dozens of sweet corn and work together, husking, blanching and cutting the corn off the cob and putting into containers that went into the freezer to pull out during the winter to have that wonderful fresh sweet corn!

When they were done cutting it off the cob, I would always grab the cobs and nibble off whatever corn was left on the ends. Sweet corn is still my favorite food to this day!

If you want to "put up" some sweet corn this summer , it's easy.

Get your corn fresh - ask the farmers market if was picked today. Its always better to put up fresh corn rather than store bought.

Shuck the corn - get your family to help in this process!

Put into boiling water - let it cook about 5 mins.

I usually have a pot of cold water to plop the corn in to to get it to cool down quicker.

Using a knife - cut the corn as close to the cob as possible. When you are done take the knife over the cob to get all the sweet juices out.

Give cob to your daughter (or son) to nibble off the rest of the corn on the end!

Put into freezer bags and wait until the winter and pull out the wonderful taste of fresh summer sweet corn! It is especially nice on Thanksgiving day to serve garden sweet corn!

I got about 30 bags from this batch of corn- that's thirty dinners with fresh sweet corn!

enjoy!

Longest yard sale.... Part five (lifesaver)

While on our trip, mamma planned a little surprise for the kids.

I had been saving for a new ipad and I got it right before the trip. (I am an Apple addict) I hid it and planned to surprise them the first time they started whining "are we there yet?"

When the whining started, I asked them if they wanted to play roadside bingo (an app that I had previously downloaded.)

They said yes and I asked my son to get my "bingo case" out of the bag....

I think this picture says more than words can say and captures their excitement!

And it was a lifesaver for the whole family.

We downloaded books to read along the way. We had some math games to keep my daughter in practice (and to make fractions fun!) and it helped us when the car broke down to find help.

Loads of fun, highly recommend!

longest yard sale... part four

We were heading down 127 in southern Tennessee and I found what I had been looking for the whole trip - a vintage greeting card holder. I want to use it to display my jewelry on. I really thought I wasn't going to find one. I had challenged the kids to be on the look out for one . If one of them found one, they would be given the reward of an extra $10 to shop with (so far my son had bought traps and and my daughter had bought a remote car!)

We were north of Chattanooga and traffic was going really slow. All the cars drive slowly by each yard sale deciding if they are worthy of pulling over and getting out in this extreme (100 degree) heat.

I saw it and literally jumped out of the (slow) moving car, my husband proceeded to find a place to park.

My day was complete...

And it was a good thing.

As we headed up the next mountain towards Chattanooga I turned to my husband and said " the car sounds like it is working too hard". No sooner than the words came out of my mouth, the air conditioner went dead and the temperature of the van went sky high. My husband said we had to pull over right away. The lord was watching over us, because the chances of there being a pull off on this monster mountain were slim, but there was one right there before us.

We made several calls trying to get a hold of a Honda dealership to no avail. Thankfully my husband (who works for Honda) knew enough about cars to get the car to to start and work again. At least to get us to his dads house hopefully. However, we couldn't use the air conditioner... Do you realize how much we take air conditioning for granted??? I do.

Now, I am old enough to remember life, and family vacations, without air conditioning. But living through this leg of our trip (in 100 degree weather) was almost more than I could bare. How did we do this way back when, I wondered??

Well after several long, hot, sweaty hours we made it to Aiken to my in-laws lovely home. It is absolutely beautiful here. And we are so thankful to have made it here!

longest yard sale...part three

On through Tennesee we went.

Another find I love were these darling chalkware dogs.

The gentleman had bought them a long time ago from a carnival.

"Long before the modern-day amusement park, the carnival was summer’s go-to place for a good time.

Carnivals had a single goal: Get customers inside the tent. The games of “skill” that lined the midway did their best to entice passersby. Barkers shouted out challenges—“Step right up and win a prize!” More often than not, the prizes were chalkware figures—dogs were particularly popular. Lads eager to impress their gals or to one-up the competition stepped up to the counter to test their skills and win one of the molded

plaster of Paris figures. The better the performance, the bigger the prize.

Once won, the coveted prizes often met ignominious ends. Not only were they easily broken, many became targets for slingshot practice, and young girls used the broken pieces to make sidewalk hopscotch games. By the 1960s, chalkware had been replaced by stuffed animals, which were less expensive and didn’t break."

(source: www.thebark.com/content/carnival-chalkware-dogs)

I think they are soo cute!!

a few more of my finds...

longest yard sale ...part two

So, we continued down route 127, stopping when we saw a sale that looked good. Some sales are just in someones front yard, some are in open fields where lots of dealers come together.

Some were off the road. We ventured off the road a few times but for the most part stayed on route 127.

Onward...

The scenery still continued to amaze me. The cows here are beautiful, so different from ours back home. I am obsessed with

taking pictures of the cows in the field...

Another obsession I have lately is with blue ball jars and we found a dealer that had a boatload for sale - I bought half of them and

another man bought the other half as I was buying. (Wish I would have gotten them all!)

Crossville Tennesee was probably one of the best stops on the way for interesting antiques.

HGTV Camera crews were there filming.

Traffic was crazy there. This is the craziness you see on HGTV, but for the most part, traffic was OK the rest of the trip.

And you can find just about

anything on this trip...

lunch boxes, salt and peppers,

boots, chandeliers, lots of junk...

and of course....giant underwear!

the longest yard sale...part one

My husband and I have wanted to visit his dad in Aiken, South Carolina for 3 years.

He asked me if I would like to go this summer and mentioned that we could start our vacation by doing the Longest Yard Sale on the way down.

I have wanted to do the Longest Yard sale for many years now. It starts up in Michigan and winds down through Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. I had seen TV specials on HGTV about it and talked to several customers that told us how great it was. I was soooo excited!

We left Wednesday night and headed for Covington Kentucky.

We got up early and headed down through Kentucky. Some of the most beautiful scenery we have ever seen. The hills, trees, horses and cattle. Beautiful!!

Northern Kentucky was really great and in the first couple hours we had spent less than $25 and had bought 13 things. I was excited!!

I had read that Kentucky is mostly garage sales and Tennessee is more antiques dealers.

The prices were a lot higher than I had expected.

The number of Yard sale signs is staggering, if only we had the time to hit them all!

We had planned on doing about a hundred miles a day and I thought we for sure would cover that much ground. I was mistaken!

A couple of tips – make sure you have made reservations for hotels along the way – you can usually cancel them if you call before 6 – and what we found out

was others make the same miscalculations along the way and cancel – so sometimes calling as you go you can find one closer to where you might end up – but knowing you have a bed at the end of the day is a very good feeling – even if you have to drive a little out of your way.

Other tips –

Carry LOTS of ones, fives and tens. Mostly ones.

Pack lots of water (it was 100 degrees)

Pack your own food – sometimes food is hard to find

Fresh fruit , veggies are very refreshing on a hot hot day!

Go to bathroom when you find one – even if you don’t have to!

Bathrooms are few and far between!

Stay tuned for more adventures of our travels and finds!!!