Country Living Fair Followup

We had such a great time at the Country Living Fair - South at Stone Mountain Georgia.  My lovely daughter Carrie, worked like a Trojan the entire time, setting up, arranging, and rearranging all weekend.  We arrived on Wednesday with our 24' gooseneck horse trailer, and quickly found out how difficult it was going to be to get that trailer to our space around the twisting narrow paved pathway and forrest of huge pines.  The setting was wonderful, the access was horrendous.  A good Georgian friend, Victor, met us at the showgrounds and saved the day.  He got the trailer to our boothsite, helped us unload and set up tents, and got the trailer back out.  We had just enough time to cover everything up  before the setup time was over.  Thursday morning Carrie and I set to work, finishing the furniture arrangement by noon, and working all afternoon on smalls and decor.  We were dog tired by Thursday night, but were relieved to have help from my husband who came to join us.

Because of our schedule and busy day on Friday, I was not able to leave the booth for pictures until Sunday!  My camera got left in the truck so I used my husband's cell phone (mine was set up for credit card sales) and managed to get my first walk around the show.  I got several nice pictures and enjoyed a quick browse through, but lost all of my photos when my husband changed phones on Monday!  At least I still had my booth pictures on my camera which I had brought in for setup!    Sorry I could not share with you what all I saw, it was such a wonderful show, filled with such talented people who did miraculous things with jewelry, antiques, vintage, artwork, metal, pottery, glass, and you name it!   It was not your ordinary country fair by any means. 

Our booth space allowed us plenty of room to spread, and since we had a tree in our front yard which prohibited setting the tent up by the road, we opted to set the tents up by depth instead of width, and used the tree to set up a mancave display with the antique mantle, oars and paddles, lobster traps, log tables, old weathervane, lots of old barn and fishing items, and my husband's creation coffee table made from an antique drag(old mule-drawn cultivating equipment).   The glass-top table got lots of great comments, as well has his hand-hewn log tables.  

Our antique mission child's desk was a favorite with many lookers.  It has old green paint and built-in electric sconces.

It was nice to have the room to create an island of furniture.  The island dwindled over the 3 days, and had to be rearranged every day,

 Among other smalls, my handpainted Paris signs were a hit, and none came home with me.  Most of what is seen in this display went home with others!

 There was not much remaining of this grouping either.

Sold a bunch of my crocheted hats.

Inside the tents I had my big cupboards

 My husband hung this lamp and put all the crystals back on the rim of the shade.

 I still love my old Brimfield step-back cupboard.

 After selling several wood bowls, I sold the display out from under.

 I painted and antquied the white hamper and then added the fluer de lis, which sold on Saturday.

 My daughter caught a picture of me still in my coat from the morning chill on Friday.

My husband shot this of us two girls, my daughter and me.

 Our early plantation desk was not only a conversation piece, but went to a new home on Sunday.

 My potpourri was a hit and made a great earlybird special.

 My daughter even sold my crocheted spread that made the backdrop for my vintage linens.  We had to redo this area for Sunday.

This mustard yellow cupboard is one of four early stepback cupboards I displayed at the show.

Sold my little refinished hanging lamp on Saturday.

 The cherry rope beds also found a new home. They were unique in that there where two identical matching twin beds all intact.

 This is what was left of what was in the picture below after Fridays sale and after we rearranged for Saturday.

I love my husband's log tables and still got to bring them home.  They have another purpose, maybe in our log cabin.

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 I happily sold many pieces of my handmade jewelry, which made me happy since this is the first showing of it.

The old wavy glass door made a good backdrop to hang necklaces. My jewelry is available on Etsy.com

All in all, it was a very good show, and I hope all those that patronized our booth will come back to see us next year.  Thanks to each and every one of you for making our first Country Living Fair such a success!

The Remodel Complete Part 1

This is our new dining room.  This room used to be our living room, but when we did the renovation, we decided to switch rooms.  In old houses, often the rooms can be multi-purpose, so we took advantage of the opportunity to make the swap.  Doing so, placed our living room on the front of the house by the front door and next to the foyer, and allowed our dining room to be immediately off the hall by our kitchen. It now backs  up to our sun porch where we spend most of our time.  We also have to walk through the dining room to get to the hall that goes to the bedrooms.  We like this arrangement, and find it is working quite well, even though I had to convince my husband that he would like it better.  He does.

The books shelves from the former living room now display a collection of ironstone and yellowware.  Even though I had some of this on the shelves previously, I now use the shelves entirely for this collection.  In order to keep it from being "too" busy, I tried to put just one or two pieces per shelf.  With my cupboards having display as well, I knew it could all quickly become overwhelming and lose effect and impact.  This little sideboard is one of my favorite pieces we brought with us from Kentucky.  It is a period walnut piece, and works so well to serve or display from. 

This view is the doorway to the hall leading from the sunroom to the kitchen.  This room was painted a new deeper gold tone, one of the new Nashville series paints by Sherwin Williams.  All of the rooms got new hardwood, "Saddle" 3/4" oak by Shaw Flooring.  My husband and I put down every last piece .  Some days I worked by myself while he was at work, just to keep making headway toward completion. 

This little vignette sits on top a cherry dresser which houses my table linens.  An antique spice box with individual metal boxes each marked with names of spices, was an estate find when we first moved here in 2000.  A miniature lamp sits in front, but it is really a vaporizer.  A little pan would sit above the chimney, where medicine, like Vics, was incerted and heated up by the oil lamp.   A little miniature oil painting was done by me many years ago depicting a primitive scene of my family playing together in the front yard of my childhood home in Wisconsin.




I really love my cherry stepback cupboard.  It too, is a period piece with nice chamford doors, and has excellent storage for glasswear and dishes.  It now houses my grandmother's red and white Crown Ducal.  I remember my aunt serving Christmas breakfast on it when I was a little girl.  Her home was also decorated with primitives, which I always admired, and believe that is where I developed my love for them. 

I often use my oval ironstone platters on the bottom shelf.  I have several very large ones, but they all have great uses from grilling out to plates of cookies for sandwiches.  The red and white transferware makes a nice contrast with the gold walls, while the white ironstone stays crisp and clean looking.  I have collected ironstone for many years before the popularity of recent years. 

The little dented up silver cup was mine when I was a baby.  According to my mother, I used to beat it on my high chair tray.  I must have beat it alot, because it is dented big time!

My husband built my dining room table when we first moved into the house.  It is 8 1/2' long and made with 2  very wide plank poplar boards with biscuit board ends.  It easily sits eight people, but we can pull up more chairs and pack them in!  

This was the light fixture that was in the house when we bought it.  We took it down to move it into the new dining room, and while it was down I painted it satin black.  I had wanted to do that for a long time, but finally got the go-ahead from my hubby.  We both like it so much better. 

We bought this pewter cupboard in northern Indiana while visiting my son and daughter-in-law.  I don't have much pewter, but it still has nice rimmed shelving and bottom.

The two dining room windows look out onto the back sunporch.

One windsor high chair holds a rack of milk bottles.  This still works great for the grandchildren too.
More pictures are on their way of the new livingroom, master bedroom, kitchen and master bath.  Thanks for cominb by!