Summer Market Weekend

So we just finished Summer Market again.  Here is what our booth looked like.  

There are a lot of really great vendors there.  It is a really nice show.

It was especially nice to see our friends Jeni and AJ from The Vintage Songbird and Carrin from Chic Unique.  They both had beautiful booths.

Friday was a great evening.  Lots of people showed up.  We got see see some old friends and meet some new ones!

We woke up Saturday morning for our second day and wouldn't you know it, the rain came in.  
Not nearly as bad as last year, but it sure dampened the day :(

But we had a lot of fun with my sisters and our friends!

The Summer Market

We will be trying The Summer Market again this year.  
If you recall last year we were blown away by a huge monster storm that came in off the lake.  
My husband is not so thrilled about doing it again, but he has agreed to join my sisters and I up there, providing there is no rain in the forecast :)
It is a great show! Hope you can make it!

nieces wedding

As I mentioned, my niece got married a couple of weeks after our Spring Sale. 

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful wedding. 

 Here are some pics of the beautiful day.

 

2 graduations,a wedding, and a funeral later

So you have heard of 4 weddings and a funeral... we have had 2 graduations, 1 wedding and a funeral since we had our barn sale in May.  It has been very, very busy here on the farm.
    The day after the Sale (which was Mothers Day)  we needed to clean out the whole barn.  Completely.  We had a wedding 2 weeks later.  My niece was getting married on our barn.  We need to clean it out that weekend because we had a funeral the following weekend we had to go to.  I will share some pictures from the wedding later.
    My son then graduated from high school the following weekend.  We had two graduation parties - one for him and one for him and his cousin a few weeks later.  Pictures of that to come later too!
    I wanted to take a moment and thank all the wonderful friends and family members that helped with our last Sale.  We had a wonderful time with all of you and we want to thank our wonderful customers who came out in the rain.  It was so great to see you all!
    My friend Brian took some amazing pictures from the Sale and I wanted to share them with you.  He is an amazing photographer www.groganstudios.com 

the barn is almost full.....

another shot of Marcy's great beach creations!

 Rain or shine we open our barn doors on friday morning!
(We are hoping for shine:)

country farm fun!

A couple more sneak peaks... I really love this bright and cheery country farm look.

Another super cool sofa from Jenni!

some sneak peaks

The Spring Sale is less than a week away!.....

Here are a couple sneak peaks of how the barn is shaping up!

A beautiful sofa and dresser from the amazingly talented Jenni from The Vintage Songbird!

 Some really cool beachy things from the wonderful Marcy from Shabby Shore!

More to come this week!

mom gifts!

One week away!
We will have lots of wonderful gifts for Mom!
The weather is getting nice (finally!!) and we will have lots of beautiful hanging baskets, herbs and flowers for Mom too!

good eye!

 My daughter has taken an interest in photography, and I have asked her to start shooting for my blog.  

She has an amazing eye in how she frames pictures.  

Here are just a couple photos that she took of the barn last evening while we were working. 

spring sale is two weeks away!

The Spring Sale is only two weeks away! 
The Barn is shaping up! 
I will be sharing with you this week some of the wonderful talented ladies that will be joining us this year! 

calling all urn lovers!

I am always looking for urns.  They are getting harder and harder to find.
But we recently found the absolute most AMAZING pair of urns I have EVER seen.  
I had to have them!

We got them at an auction recently.  I have never, ever  seen a pair like this!

 They have the most amazing cherubs on them and lions with ring handles.

You have to see these in person to appreciate their beauty!

state champion!

So I have not been posting much lately...I'm a bad blogger... but I have a good reason....

We have been spending every weekend going to gymnastics meets with my daughter.
It all led up to this weekend.  The State Finals.....

Well....Guess who is now the Ohio State Level 7 State Champion!!

Mamma is so proud of her! 

Now...... I have to get ready for the barn sale!...

invites are out...

We are no where near ready... but invites are out!!

Spring has sprung and we are getting ready for our Spring Barn Sale.  
Mothers Day  weekend!
Hope to see you!

New Years Redo

As I mentioned earlier, I want to share some of our family room "redo".
I wish I took some before pictures.  It was very dark and dreary. 

And it was very cluttered!  
First step was de cluttering (New Years Resolution!)- getting rid of all the stuff I had that had piled up over the past few months and clearing out and starting with a clean slate.  

I decided to do the room redo via outlet stores.  Trying to save money where ever we can.
...It proved to be a bit difficult because you have to curate a collection that works together with the bits and pieces of returned and discontinued items that they have on hand on that particular day.  
And you have to check it over real good to see if it was returned or just a discontinued item.  Always ask the sales associate, they usually know the reason.  
Sometimes it is a minor flaw that doesn't matter when you look at the price you are getting it for and what you can do with it.

We started with my favorite store - that I can't ever afford at retail, but at the outlet it was much more reasonable.  
Arhaus Loft outlet in Cleveland.
I knew that they have very high quality furniture so even if it was returned it would still be of high quality.

Here we scored a new table and chairs and a great sleeper sofa (didn't need a sleeper, but what an added bonus!), two chairs and a leather ottoman.  Great deals! 

We were there all day moving things together and back and forth.  (thanks to my little sister for helping me do it!)
While we were there (all day), they dropped the price of this table by several hundred dollars!

We couldn't pass it up, and now its one of my favorite thing we got.
The table had a tiny little chip in it on the underside that didn't matter because it is a very rustic wood table. I put some dark Old English on the spot and you would never know.

The chair had a really ugly yellow slipcover and the couch didn't have any slipcover at all.  We threw a blanket over them to start with and then we had to order the new slipcovers from Arhaus and we were told that it would take 14 WEEKS and they were very expensive...

So, I got online and started researching.  
I came across a wonderful blog while researching http://evolutionofstyleblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/slipcovers-arhaus-vs-ballard.html 
that mentioned that Ballard Design slipcovers fit Arhaus furniture.  
And, that they have Outlets where you can get them very cheap!
So I googled again... and low and behold.. there is a Ballard Outlet down in Cincinatti where I was headed later that week to hit the Ikea (another of my favorite stores, where I get all my curtains from... so cheap!)  It was literally right across the street and I never knew!
So I headed down and I couldn't believe it.  

They had slipcovers and they were 75% off the SALE price! 
So, I got slipcovers for the chair and the sofa for less than $100!
Again, you had to chose from what they had, which was slim pickings, but I managed to make two mismatched covers work together with pillows (40% off sale price) and other accessories, all at a very discounted price!

Then we had to choose a paint color.  For me, that is soooo hard.  
Even though I am a designer by trade, I find it very difficult to choose paint colors for my home that I like once the whole room is painted and in the many different lights through out the day.
I spend more money in samples than I do on actual paint.  
We chose Rockport Gray from Benjamin Moore.  And so far I really like it!
Here are some pictures of the finished room.
It is a much lighter and a more colorful room than we have ever had.

Now to keep the resolution... of NO CLUTTER!
I have to get the whole family on board for that!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday!

We had lots of snow and it has been very cold, but very pretty.  

We got to see all of our families and we had a lovely time!
We had great Holiday, but I must say, it was not too relaxing!....
We decided this year, that our gift to each other would be redoing our family room.
Last year we redid the kids room and the bathroom.... now it was our turn.
In addition, one of my New Years resolutions that I started before the New Years was 
de-cluttering my house.  
Over the past year I have just let the piles of papers and magazines grow and grow.  
They had taken over my home and made it very stressful to come home to the piles.
I took two weeks off over the Holidays and I decided to take back my home.

I will be sharing with you this week pictures of our family room redo!

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday and wishing you a wonderful, happy, healthy New Year!