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!