Are you there Readers, it’s me Sue

It has been FOR-EV-ER since I posted.  Not that I haven’t been checking all of your amazing blogs out on an almost daily basis.  I have been busy, working on crafts, for craft shows.

getting ready for the holidays,

etc. etc. but honestly I just felt like I had nothing blog worthy to write about.  And more so, I didn’t feel like there was anyone out there reading my blog.  So when I saw that Heather from  inspiremeheather.com was hosting a blog hop, I decided to jump right in.  Heather’s idea is to have anonymous bloggers critique a strangers blog. I was so excited to find out personally what other people think of my blog, my mom loves it, but hey, she’s my mom, she has to say that, right?  I got one of my critical reviews back, and was extremely thankful for what I was told.  I tried to make all the changes, which were mostly about technical issues rather than content, which I was thankful for.  I am still not sure how to fix the poor photo quality problem, I do own a crappy camera, but I am working on it.   Heather’s blog hop is full, but since there was such an overwhelming response to it, I wouldn’t be surprised if she does it again!! Thanks Heather, I look forward to getting my next critique from you!!  Sue

Pumpkin Patch Craft Show

II am loving these crisp fall days we’ve been having here in Southern Indiana. The leaves are just starting to change, this is definitely my favorite time of year!  I am a crafter, I used to have huge shows in my home every year.  But about 8 years ago I got really frustrated when so many of the crafts that I was making started to be sold at Hobby Lobby, JoAnns, etc, for a fraction of what I had to charge to make making them worth my while.  I stopped crafting, but didn’t stop loving to craft.  Last year I started sewing, and ended up making probably 150 aprons.  Most of them have sold, but they have sold very slowly.  This year I started making pumpkins, probably 100 of them, and just couldn’t stop.  I used Goodwill sweaters, upholstery fabric, old blankets, etc.  for my pumpkins, and I love them.  I just hope other people love .

 

Well, the show is over and I would call it a success!!  The best part of the weekend, is that my daughter and I did it together.  She will be graduating soon with a degree in pastry arts, so she decided to make some yummy treats to sell, and basically sold out both days.  With little time to make things, she went with iced pumpkin cookies, that sold out both days, oatmeal cream pies, carmel apples, with chocolate, and cupcakes.  She came home with 2 small plates of the oatmeal cream pies and  1 carmel apple out of 24, and 3 cupcakes out 2 dz, and a pocket full of $$.  I sold quite a few pumpkins, and my little coupon/receipt/makeup bags, and an assortment of other items.  Saturday was definitely the best day for making money, but brrrr it was freezing and so windy, our easyup actually ended up blowing up in the air and across the field, before we secured it down.

All and all a fun weekend, met new friends, and made a few hundred dollars to boot, we just might go up again this coming Saturday.

Thanks for stopping by, happy Fall!  Sue

PS Sorry about the picture quality,I forgot the camera and these were taken with Nikki's cell phone.

Pumpkins Pumpkins and More Pumpkins

I have been a very busy girl.  Last year it was aprons, and this year, well it’s pumpkins.  I am loving them.  I happen to love Fall and the colors associated with the season.  The pumpkins I have been making are made from repurposed wool sweaters, and stuffed with rice and plastic grocery bags, and topped with bits of fallen branches from our yard.  I was inspired by a post by The Country Chic Cottage seen here.  From her idea, I came up with these.

I also started looking at upholstery/home decorator  remnants and their interesting textures to make make more fun pumpkins, like these.. 

1 of those discontinued home decorator samples at JoAnn's makes 2 cute size pumpkins.  they measure 17in x17in so by cutting the piece in half 81/2 by 17 you can sew up the short side, hand gather one of the long sides turn it right side out fill with rice and then recycle those plastic grocery bags to fill, hand gather the top and hot glue a tree branch stub, and TADAA, an adorable pumpkin to use in your fall decorating!

SSo, what crafts have you been working on to get your house ready for Fall??

Thanks for stopping by,  Sue

Worlds Longest Yard Sale-The Results

Well, I am back from our big adventure, The World’s Longest Yard Sale, and hmmm, I’m not sure what I think about it.  We started our adventure around 5:20 this morning.  My friend Kathie borrowed her husbands truck, so we would have plenty of room for ALLL of our treasures.  She packed newspaper, bungee cords, everything we would need to secure all of the treasures we found.  Well…. lets just say, she didn’t have to waste her time with all of that.  About 40 minutes into our trip, we found ourselves at a dead stop on the highway, apparently a semi had overturned literally minutes ahead of us.  We sat in the newly made parking lot, aka, I-75 N for an hour and 40 minutes.  Not the best start to a trip we had looked forward to for weeks.  Once the accident had cleared, we were once again on our way.  Our plan had been to drive up to Van Wert, Ohio and then slowly make our way down 127 back to the Cincinnati area.  Well, driving past all the yard sales on our way to Van Wert proved to be way to hard to do, we just couldn’t pass all these sales up without stopping, so… we stopped.

 

At our first stop, I found a box with 5 old brass door knobs, I loved them, and picked them up for $2.00, not each, total.  At our second stop, Kathie was looking for things for her husband to use as a type of yard sale incentive at his business, we found 5 holiday decorations that were in great shape, we haggled, well, actually we asked and she accepted $15 for all five items, SCORE!!  What a great start to our day!!  For our third stop, we drove 11 miles off 127 to a Gun Club that was hosting a huge flea market.  Immediately Kathie found a really nice cage for her dog.  We went on to find a cute picnic basket$4 for a mutual friend of ours, and the coolest globe ever for my daughter in law $10.  At this stop we also found a cute white table,$6.  Kathie found a nice 2 wheel cart, almost just like mine for a few dollars and a Kirkland's 3 pack of candlesticks for a couple dollars. 

My post is getting way too long, and don’t get me wrong, we had fun, we laughed a lot, and we’re glad we went and experienced the sale, but honestly, I feel like we do much better at a little local sale called White’s Farm Flea Market.  The sale is held every Wednesday, the prices are great (we felt like prices were high on a lot of things at the WLYS) and it isn’t a lot of clothing, which we don’t look for and which the WLYS had way too much of.

All and all, would we go again, hmm, I for one would have to give that a lot of thought, but it was an experience and another item to check off my bucket list.

Thanks for stopping by,  Sue

The World’s Longest Yard Sale

AKA 127 Corridor Sale OR

Sue and Kathie’s Excellent Adventure

The countdown in on, less than 5 days until I am able to check another item off my Bucket List, and attend The World’s Longest Yard Sale.  We, my thrifty shopping friend Kathie, and I,  are starting this year taking baby steps by only doing a small leg of the sale in a long day trip.  Instead of going south, we live near Cincinnati, we have decided to go north thru Ohio.  This is the 24th Year for the Sale, but only the 6th year that Ohio is participating.  The Sale goes along  RT. 27 -675 Miles From Hudson, Michigan to Gadsden, Alabama!  And in-between there are hundreds and hundreds of garage sales, tag sales, barn sales, church sales, antique sales, and I cant wait to  go to as many as we can, in one day.  I was in Wal Mart yesterday returning an item when the woman in line behind me and I started talking, which is something I never almost always do, ha, somehow we started talking about The World’s Longest yard sale, and she said she has been, and that it was awesome, but she wanted to give me a tip, “When you see a bathroom, USE IT, even if you think you don’t have to, because you never know when you will see another one”. Good advice especially  for 2- 40something women.

There are several websites giving lots of information on the big Sale, we are taking notes and putting our World’s Longest Yard Sale survival packs together,

What to bring, according to HGTV.com:

• cell phone —
• rain jacket, sunscreen, sunglasses, and a hat — Yes, all four at once.
• layers of clothing —
• comfortable shoes — Many of these sales are in fields, and mud is always likely. Have a pair to wear and a pair to switch into while in the car, or a pair
• Box, bag, packing material— Last year my shopping friend and I each had a big box in the back of the SUV to put our smaller items in after each stop.
• cash — Bring a variety of small bills. Most sellers don't take checks;
• camera — Even just a disposable one will do, but bring one along, especially if you've never been to this part of the country before. You're in the land of rolling hills, historic farmlands, and old Southern towns with names like Lick Skillet, Shake Rag and Turkey Foot — there's bound to be something you want to photograph.

gloves/antibacterial hand gels/wet wipes —

 road-trip music — Bring your cassettes and CDs for the stretches of rural highway with poor radio reception.

measuring tape — Don't forget to also measure the space where the thing you want will go. Otherwise, the measuring tape won't do you much good.

flashlight, magnifying glass —

small plastic zipper bags — For any small parts, screws, bolts, hardware, etc. that you don't want to lose, plus they are good temporary wallets for walking through field sales, allowing you to leave your real wallet and/or purse locked safely out of sight in the car.

tarp, rope — Especially if you have a pickup truck, but also maybe if you have an enclosed SUV, because inevitably something won't fit all the way in it, and if hundreds of other shoppers need a tarp, you might have to drive a piece before you find a store that isn't sold out.

All great ideas, but I’m starting to wonder if we’ll have room in Kathie’s husbands truck for our treasures if we take all this stuff, ha.

So it’s T-minus 5 days and counting, and I for one can’t wait! Some things we are looking for for ourselves, and friends; old scales, globes, old keys, chairs,old books, old fans…….

Thanks for stopping by, Sue

SSSCCCCOOOORRREEE

Yesterday I went to the Whites Farm Flea Market in Brookville, Indiana.  And it was a big success!!!  I met my partner in crime, Kathie at 6:45 am,well, ok, it was 7am I was running a little late, sorry again Kathie, and off we went on our big adventure.  This is the 3rd or 4th time we have gone to this flea market, help only on Wednesday’s, year round, on the White’s Family Farm.  There were at least twice as many vendors there as have been, and we had a great time!!  I went looking for an old fan, that worked, for the guest bedroom, it will have a guest in it next week, and SCORE, I found one, on the first booth we hit!  A silver one,  it works great, and I got it for……$3, yep only $3 !!  I love it!  No haggling needed!

The next item I was searching for, was a wire basket, I think they used to hold oil cans.  I had just seen one online, but with shipping that little sucker would have been over $30 and it was small, well, I found one at another booth for just $15, I tried to haggle, but they knew it was a great deal, and I knew it was a great deal, so I quickly paid them their money and off we went.  Next we found an item that Kathie was looking for an old watering can, it was can we say, UGLY, but with a can of spray paint it will be absolutely adorable! Next she found the cutest bench, small size for her grandchildren, made from some wood and spindles, and a twin size headboard, we asked how much, and SCORE, the guy was only charging $15 for it, well, obviously that was coming home with us too, ha.  I then found a cute old balance scale, $15, a rolling pin, $2.25, a cute tin vase with scarecrows on it, that I think will be adorable with big branches in it for Halloween, $3, and a cute bunch of acorns, $1 for fall decorating. 

N

Not too bad for $39.25!!  Kathie found a few other items too.  She is doing table centerpieces for a birthday party and the theme is The Wizard of OZ, and we found a perfect oil can, an adorable stuffed 3 foot tall W.o.O scarecrow, and 2 yards for blue and white gingham check, perfect for Dorothy!!!

All and all we had a great morning good buys, and a lot of laughs, thanks Kathie!!  And thank you for stopping by!!

Sue

 

Straight out of the pages of Southern Living Magazine

A Few weeks ago I got a call from a good friend.  She was at work, she is an interior decorator at a really cute shop called Sacksteder Interiors, located in New Trenton, IN .  A coworker of hers wanted to have a luncheon and I was invited.  Well after running a home daycare for over 20 years and basically missing out on lunches and shopping dates with friends for all those years,  I try always to be available when opportunities like this present themselves.

I had heard about Jackie’s house and was excited to get to see it in person.  Well to say it didn’t disappoint is an understatement.  When we arrived Jackie had a pretty table set outside.  The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, no humidity and a perfect breeze blowing.    

Here is her pretty house, built in the 1830’s, can you say LOVE IT!!

She had these adorable terra cotta plants at each place setting filled with Thyme that she had grown, so perfect!

“Never Enough Thyme For Good Friends”

We had a delicious lunch with chicken salad, grilled salmon, deviled eggs, bean salad, and a fresh fruit salad.

After lunch Jackie gave us the Grand Tour of her great home.  Jackie is a mom of 4 and a grandmom of 8 and family is everything to her and husband, a retired police officer.  Their home is set up to entertain their family with many many family dinners, here is the dining room when you walk in from the back patio.

Both tables open up to accommodate their growing family.  The cool sideboard above was once a harvest table that Jackie made herself, and then redid into a sideboard to hold dishes, and her coffee maker.  Jackie has been redoing and painting furniture for years, she was so ahead of her time!!

Jackie loves to cook, and her pretty kitchen probably makes cooking a joy!

 

All four of her children live within a couple minutes drive of her home.  Jackie and her husband have been known on way more then one occasion  to drop by their kids homes at bedtime to bring a piece of candy or an ice cream treat to their adorable grandchildren.  Isnt that the sweetest thing??

Their home has three sweet bedrooms upstairs, and there’s often a couple grandchildren enjoying a sleepover!

Jackie bought a few well maybe a few more then a few Longaberger baskets back in the day.  She figured out a great way to display them, I love it!!

Yep, she hung them from the rafters of her living room.  A living room that had 3 layers of drop ceiling, until she decided that wasn’t the look for her and tore them all down, and wheelbarreled them out of the room, all while her husband was at work!! HA!

Of course this adorable home would have a clawfoot tub!

Jackie’s outdoor space is spectacular.  They have a wonderful built in pool that is the center of lots of fun in the summer.  There is a fully stocked refrigerator in the barn, to make getting a drink so easy.  Also in the barn is a wall of pics of all the grandchildren from over the years.  And a line of hooks that holds the grand kids bathing suits and towels, each with their name stenciled above.  Jackie and her husband spend a lot of time outside tending to all their flower and herb and vegetable gardens and you can tell, and she has an adorable potting shed too .

As if it isn't obvious, I loved this home and had a wonderful time at lunch, thanks again Jackie for including me!! 

Martha Stewart eat your heart out!!  Jackie’s got this living well thing down to a tee!!

Thanks for stopping by,  Sue