Bloggers Rock!

As you all know there are a lot of issues going on right now with blogger and I wasn’t immune to the snafus. For a week I wasn’t able to do anything on my blog and that left me a bit manic. I kept trying to tell myself that my blog didn’t matter, it’s just a computer but the truth of the matter is my blog matters to me. It’s something that I’ve put a lot of time into and shared parts of my life openly, my blog is me. But the most important part are the friendships I’ve made over the last year, people I’ve come to know far and wide who are sharing their daily life. The good news is thanks to all of you for your help and advice I’m now back on my blog so thank you my friends for all your support and help, you all mean the world to me!

HELP!

I need everyone’s help please! For days now I’ve been trying to log into blogger to leave comments and blogger won’t let me. Here’s the problem:

I sign in, it says I’m signed in on my dashboard but not on my main blog page. If I try to leave a comment it says I’m anonymous. Does anyone out there know how to fix this problem????

Until it’s fixed I can’t leave comments even as anonymous, this has been a real bummer!

That boy sure is handy!

Ever since I saw the cover of the February issue of Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles magazine with this image I have been coveting those pedestals and urns. Unfortunately they’re antiques and already sold from a shop that no longer exists. I’ve searched everywhere for affordable antique pedestals but they’re usually over a thousand dollars and new ones somehow never look the way I want them to…..what to do? 

WHAT TO DO, why show the magazine to mister man of course because he could build those pedestals easily. I mean how tough could they be to make, they’re just a couple of pieces of wood banged together, some decorative trim and voile, wife happy right?

If there’s one thing mister man is it’s accommodating and he likes building stuff so he said no problem. He took a look around to see what he had on hand to make them with, of course this is where I had the problem…not spending any money to buy nice new clean wood? You see that dirty piece of wood he’s working on and the one leaning up against the table saw, when he said he was using it for my pedestals I had a moments hesitation. Those dirty 2x4’s were used for the cement forms for the footers of the barn stone walls and he used that wood as a straight edge when building the stone walls, haven’t they’ve done enough duty already? I was a tad panicked!

I tried to say something but he said not to panic and I guess when someone else is doing you a favor you shouldn’t question…yeah right! But it’s all good he was only using that dirty wood for the center forms and nobody would ever see it.

He even had some nice clean 100 plus year old antique pine wood for the face, it was a rejected piece of pine from our antique flooring going in the upstairs part of the barn. It was rejected for the floor because it had a very large knot and split in it but mister man had no problems with it. Kind of nice that the things that went into renovating our antique barn was also going into my pedestals.

He even had cut nails that look antique since the round new kind wouldn’t look right. The only thing he had to buy were the two different trims for the top and bottom and those only cost $24 all total. The heck with thousand dollar pedestals mine just cost $24 bucks and twelve hours of mister man’s time! He even made them to the height and size I wanted…what a guy huh? 

(Yes I’m sucking up here!)

So what do you think? They came out exactly like the picture minus the beautiful gray stain but now it’s my turn to add those touches since I never ever let mister man paint anything. He hates to paint/stain and he's really bad at it, it's always good to know ones strengths.

Some beautiful antique urns courtesy of Brimfield, the lichen was free!

I've ordered some dried moss to place in the urns and I think we're almost set, just have to stain those puppies but it has been raining here for a solid week! Mister man is definitely a keeper huh? He's always making me things from pictures, love it! So what do you think of my new/old pedestals?



Exhausted, poor but happy!

This has been a very long week for me and I’m exhausted. I’ve been hard at work but my work can be extremely fun especially when it means shopping! It’s the start of the antique season for us on the east coast and it really gets a start with Brimfield, an antique show that takes place three times a year and has over 5000 dealers spanning 21 fields, it goes on for miles! To start the week off is an annual antique textile show in Sturbridge, MA and being an antique textile dealer of course I’m first in line. The line was just getting started here but by the time the doors opened this line was the longest I’ve ever seen it and I’ve been going to this show for well over ten years.

Wendy Lewis

Here’s Wendy Lewis who owns Textile Trunk in Vermont and just began showing at the textile show but is a staple at the New England Motel antique show one of the Brimfield show fields with over 400 dealers on this field alone. Wendy who is known for her grain sacks and large variety of linen and hemp sheets also offers a wonderful selection of 19th century printed textiles. I’ve know Wendy forever, before her second child was born but this is the first time I’ve met her in person and I have to say she’s just as lovely, warm and friendly in person, it was so great to finally meet her. My bad since she only lives one state over!

Beautiful French and English offerings at Wendy's booth....

Carolyn Forbes

Another favorite dealer is Carolyn Forbes of Carolyn Forbes Textiles standing in front of a display of 18^th century textiles. She has a studio located right here in beautiful New Hampshire and can be found showing throughout the east coast. Carolyn features not only textiles but also a large display of clothing as well.

There were so many people at this show that taking pictures was a tad tough, this front woman was thrilled my flash went off in her face....lol.

Marston House Antiques

If you’ve never heard of Marston House you really should get to know it especially those of you who are true Francophiles. The Marston House is own by Paul and Sharon Marston and own a bed and breakfast in Maine they also own property in Luberon a small town located in Provence. Their 17^th century home in Luberon has several apartments for rent throughout the season.

Sharon is seen here after dying linens in her 17th century home.

One of the views outside her window in Luberon, talk about picturesque!

The slipcovers were made from some of Sharon's dyed linens, her linens are amazingly deep in saturated color.

A pair of panels that were on offer at the textile show made from tapestry fragments. A bit out of my price range at $25,000 but still beautiful.

Just a few of the textiles I brought home featuring an 18th century French silk brocade, 16th century pillow that needs to be remade, a small silk velvet Fortuny purse, a very early Fortuny hanging and a 17th century tapestry hanging with a rare crest motif.

While driving home I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures out my truck window since driving was slowed to a crawl. These are images of dealers setting up for the Brimfield antique show.

You can see from the front that the tents go on for as far as the eye can see.

Just some of the offerings at Brimfield. This show really offers it all and if you can't find it then you don't need it! At the time of this posting there's only one more day left of the show at Brimfield but you can always make plans for the next shows in July and September and don't forget to bring cash!

It’s becoming habitable!

The last I posted about our carriage barn our contractors were downstairs finishing up there while the upstairs was getting spray insulation. Once that was done it was a simple matter of hanging the plasterboard and getting the barn ready for plaster.

This is part of the annex, an attached room off the carriage barn that will be part of my studio. I loved how the whole place sort of glowed a blue/gray.

The exposed beams and rafters were wrapped in thick plastic to protect them from the plaster. Trust me when I say the plaster guys can fly and they’re messy! The big pile you see wrapped in plastic with the tools on it, that would be my new/old flooring. It unfortunately got delivered ahead of schedule.

The plaster went up really fast since I didn’t want it smooth and this job took three guys three days to do…fast! Then came the wait for it to dry, have you ever watched plaster dry? I did for about fifteen minutes then it became MIND NUMBING!

drying......

I have to tell you that while the plaster was drying sitting in the barn really wasn’t comfortable it felt like the air and moisture was being sucked right out of me.

(Or it could simply be the symptoms of menopause rearing its ugly head!)

While the plaster dried, which took a week, our contractors set about putting our property back together before the excavator left. That small stonewall wasn’t there before where the boulders are now. The boulders were found when digging out for the footers under the granite wall and were saved. I wasn’t home when they decided to make this wall and I was thrilled when I got home. See that huge granite slab under the propane tank that used to be a step out back off mister man’s workshop.

That guy would be our main contractor, the boss, Rich, the guy I made crazy...;) See that small stonewall behind him that was always there but hidden under mounds of dirt during the renovation, it was nice to see it back.

Out back of the barn, that square area will be a future patio off the French doors that mister man will lay for me once I pick out some stone. Rich didn’t place any dirt there since mister man would have to dig it right back out. That long arm is where I plan on planting shrubs along the back and will be putting in new soil.

Before

So what do you think? Our carriage barn went from this....

After

To this! Unfortunately the propane tank has to be there since it's the fuel to run the radiant floor heat. I'll plant some kind of shrub to dress it up or paint it gray to match the granite wall.  

Up next paint colors and lighting!