Go Panthers!

Little girl just started cheering for her team!
She makes her mama proud!
Go Panthers!

pretty sleigh bed

Here is another redo ...
This was a sleigh bed that we bought at an auction.  
It was very beat up.
I decided to make it more modern and to paint it black.

We used a soft black paint and slightly distressed it.  Finished her with a couple coats of poly.  
She is ready to be slept in again!

almost heaven!

fresh garden tomatoes and basil....a little mozzarella and some fresh ground pepper..balsamic and olive oil...heaven!

bar stool redo

Here is a set of bar stools that we found a while ago at a flea market.  
They were an ugly orange color.  
We painted them black, distressed them and topped them with a couple coats of poly.
I think they look really sharp now.  
Pair them with an industrial table for a really great look!

fresh picked sweet corn for sale!!!

For any of you that are in the area we have delicious sweet corn for sale!
We had planted three different maturities this year and the first one was ready while we were on vacation last week.  
And the darn raccoons had a hey day in the corn field!
We don't want them to get this patch, so my daughter has set up shop outside! 

For those of you who love the taste of sweetcorn and wish that you could have it year round....now is the time to buy it and put it up and freeze it for the winter. 
Nothing is better than having fresh sweet corn for Thanksgiving dinner!

See my post from last year 
 http://frenchhenfarm.blogspot.com/2010/08/sweet-corn-season.html 
for directions on how to put corn up.



 I had some for lunch and it is delicious!!
Bakers dozen (13) for $4!
She has already had three sales in five minutes!!  

mix and match transformation

This is a fun thing to do.  All these pieces were purchased separately.  
Simply by painting them in a similar color and finish they look like they were meant to be together!

First, another ugly duckling we found on Craigslist....a pedistal table.  
We had to drive a bit to pick her up but she was worth it.

Next was a hutch I found at a yard sale.  She was a steal.  She had a couple of broken knobs, but she painted up beautifully.

Then they were the chairs.  These were all found at separate garage sales.  

They were loner chairs that had no matching partners.  

They are all similar in look, so when painted they look like a matching set.  

Only if you look closely can you tell they just met!

.....put them all together and you have a completed kitchen that looks like it was made to go together!

how cool is this

So, I conquered one of my biggest fears, and along with it,
I got to see one of the coolest things I have ever seen!
Fear is of being in deep water.  Coolest thing was being out there with dolphins!

We rented sea doos and went far out into the ocean on them.

If you go out and find a shrimp boat, you will also find all kind of wildlife.  
Pelicans and seagulls will be swarming the boat.
But the coolest thing is the dolphins that just swim along side and behind the shrimp boat.  
The morning we went out there were TONS of dolphins.  There were even baby dolphins!

 Once you reach them you cut your engine and float around with the dolphins...

It is so cool!  If you ever get the chance do it!!

bras, chickens and tennis shoes...longest yard sale

So, for those of you who think the longest yard sale is endless wonderful deals of great antiques....well...
you have to dig though a lot of junk to find any good stuff!!!
Here are some of the funniest, craziest things we saw along the way...

Bras for $5.  Would you EVER buy a bra at a yard sale?!  I like the happy faces in the 00's!

Chickens...  how would you like to take them along the journey with you?  
Don't get me wrong... 
I am a chicken lover, and they had some real pretty ones I would have loved to have gotten,
but don't think I would buy any along the way! 
My husband would divorce me!

My all time favorite is the field of used tennis shoes!! 
Hundreds of them!! 
Where did they all come from?!?  
I wouldn't want to drive in the truck that hauled all these! 


Sometimes you have to dig through a lot of junk to get to the good stuff!  
Miles and miles and miles of junk.... 
But of course... that is the fun of it - the thrill of the hunt!!!

longest yard sale pretties

Here are a few pictures of some of the pretties we saw along the way....

A table of pretty blue carnival glass...

my wonderful family....and an air conditioned van!!

a really cool cello i wanted but it was about $700 over my budget...

 a field of sunflowers...

 some really cool weathered blueberry boxes...

 a setting sun.... (this picture was taken from the car window driving about 65 mph!)

 a sleeping child....

hidden treasure

One of the dealers along the way told us an interesting story we had never heard before.  
She asked me if I knew about tomato can ottomans. 
I guess these ottomans were made from old tin tomato cans back in the depression. 
You can see the cans if you turn the ottoman over and look at the bottom.

Back then, people were afraid to put their money in banks and they used to hide their money in the cans and make them into these ottomans.  She said she was told to always check these before she sold them.  Wouldn't that be super cool to find some old hidden money?!!  
I remember my dad telling me a story about an auction he was at and they were selling a bunch of old clothes from the basement of a house.  The auctioneers had to call off the auction because there was a bunch of money that was found hidden in the sleeves of some of the old clothes.  The family called off the auction as soon as this was discovered! 
So if you ever find one of these cuties, buy it!!  It might be worth a whole lot more than you pay for it!!

the longest yard sale -one of our favorite stops

One of our favorite stops along the way is in right outside of Lake Cumberland, near Jamestown Kentucky- 
Pioneer Antiques and Collectibles.


Its a quaint little shop with some really interesting things.  


One of the coolest things is outside they have a bunch of hummingbird feeders.  
These feeders usually have about 20 hummingbirds just swarming the feeders.  
They are oblivious to all the people walking in and out.

But the best thing about this place is the ICE CREAM!  
We have never had better ice cream than what they serve here!!

A trip is not complete without stopping here!  
One of the highlights of our trip!

longest yard sale 2011

For those of you looking for something to do this weekend, and you live anywhere in or near Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama head towards route 127.  
The Worlds Longest Yard Sale is this weekend!
Go either way, north or south.  Yards sales to the left of you, yards sales to the right of you!  Deals, bargains, cool stuff, junky stuff, fun stuff, weird stuff, everywhere stuff!

Its a lovely drive. 

I enjoy the scenery as much as the yard sales.  
I love the rolling hills of Kentucky.

The black barns, the tobacco fields...  and those cows....i love me some cows!