THE BEST TIME OF YEAR

OH YES....FALL, been a long time coming!!!
I'm not one of those warm weather fans, anyone who knows me knows this. Fall could come and STAY!

I have news about my business - I FINALLY decided to stop doing shows.  It's just getting way to hard to do the set up and take down. A show off property is hard enough but when it's in your home it really takes a whole lot of effort.  This is the first year we asked for help taking furniture and things out and shop displays and products up from the basement. When it gets to that point then it's time to stop what is taking you down.  But once the decision was made I felt a relief come over me.
I LOVE doing the show, making the products and seeing my wonderful faithful generous customers - oh my customers....they were so surprised at this revaluation but so agreed.

But that being said, YES, I will still make things as I go along.  Just when I feel like it...sell it...move on to something else.  I want to concentrate on making more of my Civil War era penny rugs and designing punch needle (they have taken a back seat lately).  SO ONWARD I WILL GO and happy about it.

We are trying now to get a vacation in the books.  Nothing big, nothing fancy - just go someplace we've put off for quite awhile.  Thinking it might be the New England states.  It makes us feel so comfortable going that route, seeing nature, antique shops, prim shops...oh what fun is ahead!!!!

This past Saturday was our last show.  We had a fantastic turnout and the weather was perfect Fall weather!!!
Looking at the pictures they aren't that great and it looks like stuff just put anywhere but in person it worked!!!
We had things in the family room, den, kitchen, bath and dining room and all the garlands and dried items were in our E-Z UP  tent. Plus some of the garden items were by the courtyard.

The pictures were taken right after finishing setup - then it was tweaking time...move this here and that there. 

LOL, I see the last remnants of my donut on the counter - and Doug still needed to put the Open flag out.

A friend of ours lets us come out to their place in the country and forge in their acreage for whatever we can find.  We love dried things!!!  We found tons of wild Rose Hips that I de-thorn and remove the leaves, then I bundle them up with kraft tissue paper and tie with twine.

Rose Hips all tied up

Doug is always in charge of the outside and I think he did a great job 'again'!!!

A dear dear friend always give us his dried grungy sunflowers...I LOVE THEM in displays.

Dividing up the cornstalks for all the fence corners

Bundling them up!!!

Corn all tied up for the fences

One thing I did different this year with the gourds was to dye some.

I used Mahogany leather dye, then Briwax....they turned out just beautiful.

A few I did with an undercoat of red then the Mahogany!
Depending on the natural color and patina of the gourd it made the colors come out all different.

So I don't really have a more to chat about because we have been so busy with the show prep this past summer.
I think blogging will get better now that I'm not tying myself down.

Happy Fall

Karen and Doug

FESTIVE TIMES ARE COMING!

The wonderful festive family times are almost here...Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So many things to reflect on at Thanksgiving...so many things to be thankful for.

Christmas...opening gifts and celebrating. But we all need to remember during those fun moments the real reason we can celebrate...our one huge gift of all.

I have finally caught up on orders for my penny rugs and can now

give my full attention to things around here.

This one was very hard to part with...it is 19-1/2" x 51-1/2"

I mailed it this weekend so hope she loves it as much as I do.

This one will get shipped to IL today!

Last week we got new carpeting for our family room, stairway and upper hall.

We disliked the carpet we had installed 4 years ago and could not wait to replace it...

now the room looks like it should - Warm and cozy.

Here's the room with the old carpet...it's a beige but shows a very pink tone with red.

Even after vacuuming it always looked dirty where you would walk and it wasn't dirty.

Very frustrating.

The next project here is stripping the wall paper in the den, painting and then stenciling.

We can't make up our mind though if we want to carry the family room paint color into the den or do it a light color. So I painted several poster boards and will do a mock stencil to see how it looks on that paint color.

Thes are kind of blurry but these are the designs I'll be using.

This is the divider

This one will be all around the top (below the crown molding)

These will be down the wall (between the divider)

I want to thank all my wonderful customers who purchased all my left over merchandise from the show....it is now all gone!!!

Except for the gourd garlands...we have a few left that I put ON SALE.

If interested check them out here - sale goes through the 15th:

http://kmprimitives.blogspot.com/

I'm anxious and ready to get going on Christmas decorating but that will start the day after Thanksgiving....how about you, when do you start your Christmas decorating?

Blessings to you all and thank you for visiting!

Karen

A perfect 'last week'....

For so long this winter we had some wonderful temps and very little snow - just dustings....but then Mother Nature decided it was time,...in three weeks we had 3 good snowfalls...the first one was a surprise overnight one...woke up to 8 inches of the white stuff...but it totally melted within 3 days!

Then Thursday and Sunday we got hit again!

We had a great few days in PA last week.

Saturday on our way through PA we stopped in Ellwood City to visit a dear friend

who has been batteling health issues for the last 3 years.

It was wonderful seeing her again at home and not visiting her in the hospital.

Our buying trip to the wholesale show was just okay....didn't find too many things for the business but did find some embelishments for our gourd garlands.

We then spent 2 days in Lancaster with Doug's cousin and the weather there wasn't all that great either...rainy and icy! Butstill a very enjoyable time - we did get to a few of the shops there and found a few things....but it was just night to get a way for a few days.

Some of these things shown are from the show - the others are from the shops

The red boards have nail pegs at the bottom

I thought they would be great for mounting my punch needle.

A 'new found FB friend' told me where I could find wool to purchase.

It's at The Old Country Store across from Kitchen Kettle

They have just a few colors to choose from but now I know I can get it

and they also carry Valdani thread...also limited colors.

(They are very large like the ones above)

We have been purchasing our large leaves (called Botquin or Quina) for garlands from Primitives by Tracy and she had two boxes left so we bought them...I think we will have enough to work with now 😁

And of course we had to buy more gourds.

I called the Levi Stoltzfus farm to see if we could come to the farm while we were

out there and he was very obliging...they have the best selection around!

Doug knew right away when he saw this huge bird house that it was coming home with us.

The one we have on the post in the garden is about on its last leg.

Found this wall box and florals at Olde Mill House Shoppe

Tuesday while out there we met up with another FB friend for the first time.

We went to their house for a visit and then we went out to

supper with them and 2 Amish ladies, Mattie and Lydia Bieler (sisters).

We hade a geat meal at the Bird In Hand restaurant and then

back to the ladies house for a visit.

These two ladies were a delight....we heard stories and laughed so much with them. 

We now have two very wonderful Amish friends.

And we want to than Lisa and Jerry Thrush for making this happen.

Lisa gifted me with an adorable set of childrens Amish clothing

She went to an authentic Amish store and asked if it was okay to purchase them for a friend and they said it was okay...and I'm so glad - they were the perfect gift.

And 'yes' some orders allow 'buttons'.

So that's what happened here last week....

And now we're back to getting our bathroom cabinet doors and drawer fronts made.

Our son Brett is helping Doug make them - and then my job will be to paint.

There were so many coats of paint on the frames so I had to sand and sand

to make them smooth so the new hinges will fit flat.

They are going to be a very plain Shaker style.

I think I'll paint them and the trim a bone color.

We would like to replace the counters and sink but that is down the line a bit,

maybe when the weather gets nicer and we can have the windows open

because it's going to be messy getting the tile counters off.

This is what they were...

I put a new finished Punch Needle

and finished Penny Rug on my website

http://kmprimitives.blogspot.com/

Thanks for hanging in there with me....hope you have a great week

Karen