gentlemen...start your engines.....

One of the sweet treats my daughter and I made for the sale were these little candy Santa sleighs.
You can pick what ever candy you like and create lovely little gifts that are great for the kids to give to each other or sweet little teacher gifts.

Start with a full size candy bar and hot glue the candy cane sled rails (as you see at the bottom of this picture).  I used my two favorites: Reese's and Kit Kats. 
I secure the rails with a little extra hot glue on the sides.
Then pile up the mini candy bars.  Add a  pretty ribbon and a little bow.  
I finished mine off with these cute little chocolate Santa's I found at Aldi's.

 And yes,  a glass of wine is always nice to accompany any creation :)

a huge thank you!!

Wow!  We are humbled!  

We want to say THANK YOU to everyone who came over the weekend to visit us.  

We thought the pouring down rain would keep everyone away!

It didn't!!

It was so great to see so many old friends and make some new ones!

Thank you to all our wonderful friends and customers who stood in the rain.

Thanks to my darling son who worked the muddy parking lot and made sure no one got stuck! 

Thanks to my sweet daughter who helped me so much.

Thanks to my wonderful French Hen Farm crew, which without you this wouldn't be possible...

Thanks to my sisters, Becky and Sandy; my cousins Judy, Jane and Bonnie; and my friends Anne, Cindy, Kim, Carrin and Jeff, Jenni and AJ, Mechele; and my mom, who instilled this love of what we do here.
And a very special thanks to my hubby who helps me every day and loves this as much as I do!

fa la la la la!

hope to see you tomorrow night or saturday!

frosty the snow tree

Frosty the snow tree is waiting your arrival!

snow deer

Here is another Table centerpiece I made.  This one started with an old ironstone plate. 
I found an old bottle brush tree and some vintage deer.
I brushed the deer with some glue and sprinkled snow and glitter on them.
Topped them off with a glass dome!
Perfect winter centerpiece!

barn light!

The barn is lit, the tent is up, the wreath is hung, the barn is bursting with goodies....

hubby's creation

Every sale, my husband has a pet project that he works on.
This beautiful piece is this shows "special project."
She is equally beautiful on both sides.  

So it  can be used as an island or a buffet.

Here is how it started...

Its top was layers and layers of green paint....  

He sanded it forever, but the top is beautiful now.  
I think the top is one solid piece of wood.

He added some much needed woodwork on the body.
I painted it and waxed it.  He cleaned the hardware.
I wish I had room for her, because I think she is beautiful!

holiday buffet

Here is a gorgeous buffet from the wonderfully talented Jenni from The Vintage Songbird.  She will have some beautiful pieces for sale at our Sale on Dec 7 & 8.
She does the most amazing work!

chippy wonderful!

Here is a wonderful chippy cupboard from the talented Kim from Uptown Antiques in Marysville.

Come on Friday or Saturday to see this and more great primitives from Kim!

white christmas

Here are some beautiful pieces from the wonderfully talented Carrin From Chic Unique.
Come see us on Friday or Saturday and see these and her other wonderful creations!

french classics

Wish I had a before picture of this beauty.  She started out painted all black...  all of her.  
You couldn't even see the beautiful details she had.
Now that she is painted you can see all the beautiful detailed wood carving.  I love her!
Then I painted this pretty dresser/buffet to match her.

Both will be available at the sale this coming Friday and Saturday!

fun holiday centerpiece!

Here is a fun thing to do with old Holiday decorations.  
I took a hurricane vase and added some vintage flea market finds...a vintage santa, a vintage deer ornament, an old sleigh, added some mini ornaments and a sparkly silver pick...
Sprinkle in some snow and glitter and you have a really fun table centerpiece for the holidays!

pretty holiday bottles

My obsession with old bottles continues.
Take some old bottles, some old photos, vintage papers and glitter them up!
Very pretty for your Holiday mantle.
We will have these for sale at our Holiday Open House December 7 & 8!
Hope to see you then!

2 weeks until our Holiday Open House!

standing guard...

Hoping to see you Dec 7 & 8th.  These little deer will be there to greet you.  Aren't they cute!

it's starting to look a lot like christmas!

I know its not Thanksgiving yet, but the barn is getting twirled up for our Holiday Open House Dec 7 & 8.

Here are a couple sneak peeks of how the barn is starting to shape up for the Holiday Sale.

My goal is to get it done before Thanksgiving so then I can just craft up until the Sale.
I will be sharing with you some of the new things we are making this year.
Hope you can make it!
Friday,  Dec 7th in the evening 5-8, then on Saturday Dec 8th 9-4.

craft girl essential

For all you crafty gals out there, this is an essential must have for you!
I love these vintage carpenter tool waist packs.  
Every time I see them at flea markets I buy them. 
They are usually just a few bucks and well worth the money.

I use them all the time when I craft.  
They hold my phone, scissors, glue sticks, tape... whatever!  
They keep everything you are using right where you are.  
After so many times of putting down my scissors and spending 20 minutes looking for them, this is finally the fix.
I have a couple of them and always keep a pair of scissors, pen and tape in them.  
We use them at the sale to keep everything handy too!
I usually look for unused ones with cute graphics!

warm metallics

I found this picture on the site Joss & Main. I fell in love with this dresser....

I became obsessed with trying to find nice metallic paints.  I have tried quite a few.  
Krylon, Martha Stewart, Modern Masters... to name a few.
So far my favorite it Modern Masters.  
It is a very nice coverage and the colors are warmer than some of the others.
I took this little empire drawer piece (sorry it is upside down in this picture, but you get the idea...)

and made this out of it.

I used Modern Masters on this one.

Here are a couple others that we painted.

Knobs from Hobby Lobby -they have the best and every other week they go half off!
(Yes I still need to find my last knob for this one!)

We used Martha Stewart on this pretty dresser.
We will have these pieces at our Holiday OpenHouse, Dec 7 & 8.

studio...at last!

One of the things I have been working on all summer is my work studio.
We carved out a little portion of the new barn for both my husband and I to have a little work space.
My husbands - to work on farm things, trucks, cars, tractors, machines and whatever else he does over there.
Mine - to create, paint, think, glitter, stamp, draw, dream, twirl up, plan, decoupage, and whatever else I can think of doing over here!
I love my work space!

My husband is putting heat in the barn this week so we will be able to work over there all winter!

I love this iron welding table.  I found it at a local flea market.  It is soooooo heavy.  
It almost killed my husband when we loaded it on the truck (literally- it fell on him when we loaded it)
It is perfect for anything that we do.  I can solder, paint, glue....
We both love it.  He tried to talk me into giving it to him for his side of the workshop....no way!

 My paint cart.  It keeps everything I need handy...

I love drawers!  
I found this piece at a flea market.  It was from a nearby schools Home Ec department.  
The drawers still had needles in them.  I added the file cards so I knew what was where.  
I love this piece.  The shelves are filled with my paper collection.  I faced out some of my favorites.

These shelves are filled with glitter, metal stamps, bits and baubles and jewelry making supplies.

I found these strange display racks at a flea market.  They were purple.  
I spray painted them black.  They make the perfect ribbon holders.

My family will be so happy to get rid of all my stuff that I continually drag over to the house when I work on all my projects!

Holiday Open House!

We were not able to have our regular Fall Barn Sale this Fall, but we will be having a Holiday Open House!!
It will be Dec 7 & 8!
We will be having a few friends over to help us fill the barn with a wonderful assortment of vintage finds, beautiful home decor and wonderful Holiday gifts!

Jenni from The Vintage Songbird, Carrin from Chic Unique and Kim from Uptown Antiques are going to be joining us for this wonderful Holiday Open House!
We will be open Friday evening from 5pm to 8 pm and Saturday from 9am to 4 pm!
Hope to see you then!

lake house redo...on the cheap!

 I told you I would share with you how we did our lake cottage on the cheap.  
So here it is...

Lake house on a budget...
Starting with a clean slate....
I picked a neutral color story of greys, creams, whites and naturals.... appropriate for a lake house and very easy to design into.

Starting with the Family Room- before...

Our one splurge -  was the couch and ottoman, which we found at Ashley furniture.  
This was really the only furniture we bought new. 
Almost everything else was either a yard sale, flea market or craigslist find or a very cheap find as I was working on a very small budget.
The butterfly chair is from Walmart $16.88. 
I took one of the pillows from couch to tie it in and make it look like part of the set.

The light is one of my husbands creations from a vintage tripod topped off with a Walmart lampshade.
Photos were printed off my printer and put into Ikea frames.
Another butterfly chair and some old suitcases from a flea market stacked to make an end table.

on to my Sons room-

Bed came with the house:)  
When negotiating, we asked for quite a few things and we got everything from the furniture to appliances to lawnmowers and the fooseball table!  
It never hurts to ask!  All they can say is no, and in our case they said yes!

Bedding from West Elm on sale, with a couple of Target pillows.
Vintage sign from French Hen Farm Sale
Lenda Curtains from Ikea $20 for pair!

on to my Daughters bedroom- (or Aunt Becky and Grandma's room!)

Headboards from JCP.  Saved money by not buying the footboards, just headboards.
Bedding and pillows from Ikea. 
Quilts that I bought at an auction years ago worked perfectly in this room (a lot of my things were items that I bought many years ago, but just could never part with and now have found new uses... I told my hubby it was a good thing I am a pack rat! lol!)

Bedskirts Target.
Artwork, little metal desk and suitcases - auction and flea market finds.
Vintage light one of my husbands rewire projects.

Dining room-

Farmhand table found at flea market years ago, dug it out of the barn to reuse it again.

Chairs - auction find - painted them all the same color for a cohesive look.  
You can take mis- match chairs and make them look like a set by doing this.
Stenciled galvanized bucket.
Curtains -Ikea Lenda $20 pair!
Plates - Big Lots with a 20% off coupon!
Sign - French Hen Farm sale

Master bedroom

Sleigh bed - Craigslist deal!  
Bedding - Ikea
Stripe pillows - Target
Stole the other pillows from our other bed, I like them better here!
Calligraphy artwork - flea market find, framed in cheap Walmart frames
Curtains Target

now down to the Basement...

Sectional sofa - found on Craigslist (the people had misjudged the size of their space, their loss our gain!!:)
Great for kids friends to sleep on!
Pillows to tie everything together - Ikea
Old farm tractor augers found at flea market,  filled with flowers for a new look.
Fooseball table - came with the house!

Barcelona Chairs - got these in the late 70's - dug them out of the barn!

Futon sofa that matched barcelona chairs- Walmart on sale- another spare bed for kids friends to sleep on.

Round table (with 2 leaves) - found at yard sale for $30, painted black.

Chairs - found at auction, recovered with feed sacks.
Clock - found at flea market from my friend Carrin at Chic Unique!
Curtains came with house.
Pig chalkboard - French Hen Farm Sale

It's not very fancy.  It's very minimal (I love not having clutter!)  but we love it!
I keep adding a little every time that we go. 
Came in way under my budget by recycling, repurposing, painting and bargain shopping!
So there you have it ....Lake house redo ....on the cheap!