Don't forget 'THE EVENT'!!

There is more shopping close by!!  Info will be available on your arrival at 'The Brick Farmhouse Event'.  So even though Anthro is 'too far' you can expect to have more places to go than just the 'main event'!!  Make a day of it.  Better yet, make a weekend of it!

Everyone is gonna be there:)

Picture taken at 'The Little Shop' antiques in Verona.  You will have to check out her fun place too.

To HIM who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy -- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!  Amen.

                                                       Jude 24&25

Jude was my Bible reading this morning.  The last 2 verses just sang to me!  How could I not fall on my face before Him and praise Him!  He who made the earth, the planets, the sun, the stars, the whole universe and everything in it - then He made us. Knowing we would sin.  He knew before hand!  And He created us anyway.  AND He masterminded the plan of salvation, sending His SON to die for us.  All we have to do is accept Jesus as our Savior and follow Him.

And He will present us WITHOUT FAULT to God the Father, our creator.

Truly, how can I not praise Him?

Picture painted by Akiane Kramarik when she was 8 years old.

I first saw it in the book 'Heaven is for Real'.  I beg you to buy and read this book.  It is truly amazing.

~Eventful happenings~

For those of you who have missed McMaster and Storm's brick and mortar shop, come on out to the 'Brick Farmhouse Event'.  Pop-up shops can be almost more fun than having a brick and mortar to go to anytime:)

And along with their pop-up- shop we also bring you...

As Kara said 'an event is so much more fun with lots of places to shop and eat'!

Here is a tentative list of vendors:

*McMaster & Storm (the main event!)

*Consider the Lilies (flowers, wreaths, moss balls, etc.  all your fall florals!) Wendy Lavy

*Josephine Candle Co. {pure natural simplicity} soy wax candles with pure essential oils - Amber Schmerge

*Latina {Fresh Mexican Cuisine} Garreth & Athena Beachler

*Sew a Fine Seam (that would be me!)

*M. Blooms - Marcy Crabtree

*Market Snacks - Gina Rapp

*Speciality  Sauces & Dips - Judy Flory

*Vintage & Antique Finds - Bill & Mary Kate Peters

*Fresh Baked Treats & Sweets - Wanda Eikenberry

*Graced {Vintage Home Touches} Levi & Lauren Bowman

(names of vendors subject to change!)

So come on out and join us - it's sure to be a delightful time.

September 23, 10-8

September 24, 10-5

1724 Karr Road, Arcanum Ohio

AND

There will be more shopping just a hop and skip away when you've finished browsing and buying here!  Maps to The Little Shop, Baltimore Shop, Betty's Antiques, and Countryside Antiques will be available at the event.  So make a day of it.  You won't be sorry!

"On the way to nowhere..."

An Afternoon in the Countryside...

Brick Farmhouse Event!!

I Spy...

Brick Farmhouse Event

{Upcoming Event}

At last!!  More pics from the photo shoot for the 'Brick Farmhouse Event'!

We wanted to create an online look book.  I'm still trying to decide if I can indeed figure that out myself.  As time is running out and I have tons of sewing still to do it may not happen.

So here is the next best thing:)

Her day is filled with laundering textiles; she hurriedly gathers her french laundry basket to collect the linens off the line, so she can enjoy a seemingly simple afternoon in the countryside. She is in a dither over going to the charming brick farmhouse event that is "on the way to nowhere and out of the way from everywhere!"

See you in September

at the McMaster & Storm Brick Farmhouse Event

Details here!

Vivi's Birthday Party

The decor was swoony - just as expected:)

As Kara said, 'if you don't have time to wrap your child's gift - put it out for display'!!

The kids loved this candy bar.

Sparkling Lemonades from Trader Joes.  I've been craving these ever since.  Gonna have to make a trip to Dayton.

The swan theme was darling.  So glad Kara has a girl so she can pull out all her pink, girly stuff.

Macaroons.  No need to make these, Trader Joe's were deee-licious!

Leave it to Kara to serve her daughter chocolate cake on a beautiful china plate!

She really wanted to check out that flame.  We had to sing fast.

The 'blaster' was very intriguing.

MMMM.... Maybe I will pay attention to that stuff in my bowl.

A couple cute kids I coaxed into posing beside the gorgeous hydrangeas.

And Miss Vivi did indeed get into her chocolate cake:)

After a bath and clean clothes she was ready for bed.  Unfortunately her blanket was wet - thanks to big brother Zach for spraying her pack-n-play with the hose.  So the blanky had to go to the dryer and Miss Vivi got a lollipop!

And some gifts.

Sorry for the blurry pics, the last couple were taken when it was completely dark and I couldn't tell where I was pointing the camera.  Good think we have a flash or there would have been no pics at all:)

A blog you need to bookmark...

...a delightful glow.

My sister has started a blog.  And she's a pretty swell writer if I do say so myself.  So I invite you to check it out!  They live the Kansas farm life, in the land of the Big Sky.  I love Kansas and don't get to spend near enough time there.  I'm biased about it, I know, but you see, I've been going to Kansas my whole life!  I have an Aunt and Uncle who live there and they just happen to have a daughter my age.  I don't recall missing very many (if any) yearly trips to this beloved land.

It's almost always windy there.  I remember very well my early teen years.  That wind played havoc with my 'well-styled' hair! ( think late 80's/early 90's hair)

Today we still go to Kansas yearly.  My sister has 2 absolutely adorable, fun children.  Her oldest is a year younger than my oldest and they love each other dearly.  Big Sister always says Cousin R. is her best friend.  I love it that it's that way!  Middle Sister is 6 months younger than T.S.  T.S. is a boy.  The two get along famously.  Middle Sister wishes she were a boy.  They play football, cowboys, spiderman, etc.  She took her play gun with her along with her Buzz Lightyear on our recent trip.

Little Sister said at Christmas time that she wished Aunt Deborah had a kid HER age.  Bummer.  Guess Aunt Deborah needs to adopt:)  Little Sister does very well at playing by herself and the others do pretty well at including her.  It's hard being the youngest.  At least she's cute!

So.  yes, I'm biased when it comes to Kansas.  But truthfully, I've always loved the country out west.  I also have family in Pennsylvania who we went to see every year.  I much prefer the West to the East.

No offence to anyone living in the East.  It's just a personal preference!!

So go check out my sisters' blog.  Leave her a comment, they are SO fun to get:)  And follow her, check her daily, leave comments!!  You won't be sorry:)

A Delightful Glow

Preparation for the 'Brick Farmhouse Event'...

...is clipping right along!!

Shopping in 'out-of-the-way' places!  YAY!!!

Shopping...

On our way home from Kansas we stopped in St. Louis at an outlet mall that we've been wanting to stop at for a few years.  Stopping there put us home at midnight but it was worth it!  This outlet mall was truly an outlet.  Like the ones around here used to be.  Most things were on sale and lots better sales than I ever see around here anymore.

Shoes seemed to be the buy of the day...

Travis came home with THREE pairs of crocs.  $10 for the regular crocs.

$35 for the flip flops which his wife insisted he get regardless of the fact that they were not on sale.  BUT... when the clerk rang them up the other pair of shoe-crocs was FREEEEEE!!!  YAY!

Middle Sister was BEGGING for some Converse.  She wanted black.  They didn't have her size.  She thought the ones that were 2 sized too big would work!  I did not.  So she settled for the grey.  Which I love much better anyway:)

Big Sister found a pair of Purple Crocs on the $10 bin.

And then begged for a pair of purple Converse.  Since it was buy one get on half off, we caved.

Little Sister got some croc pins for the crocs she already owns.

Middle Sister talked me into a Spiderman pin. :(

Little Sister didn't get any new shoes because her Aunt Deborah had just given her these.  Yes, that's a super ball in the heel of the left one.  They all got them at the mall.

Big Sister and I spent awhile in the Aeropostale store.  We are to that stage in life it seems!  She tried several things on but nothing that was on sale enough for Mom or that Mom thought she really needed.

She did find this wallet on the clearance rack.

And I found this bag on the $5.99 rack.  Love finds like this. It's a great size!

Someday I'm spending several hours at this mall.  It had a huge play place for kids and tons of stores we didn't have time to go in.  Maybe next year...!

{Brick Farmhouse Event}

It's coming up rapidly folks!  And it's going to be so great!  Authentic Mexican food.  Great sweet treats!  Cool old antiques.  McMaster and Storm at their finest!  You really don't want to miss this one.  If it's not on your calendar yet - get it on there!  If you need to buy a plane ticket to get here - get it bought!!  It will be worth your effort.  The behind-the-scenes action is hopping:)

I'm off to keep stitching!  Would you like a few sneak peeks of what Sew a Fine Seam will be selling?

A complete list of vendors is coming soon.  Also some really cool advertising.  Kara if you are reading this, get off my blog and get those pictures done.  Chop chop!!!!

I want a MAC

Has anyone else upgraded to Windows 7??  Have you noticed any 'issues'?  I don't like 'issues'.  And we've had a few.  The one that really had me up in arms was with the Microsoft picture viewer.  If you have upgraded to Windows 7 and use the Microsoft picture viewer have you realized that you may be missing some pictures???  Any pictures that get 'flipped' then 'disappear'.  Annoying to say the very least.  I was so upset and grumpy when I discovered it that I couldn't concentrate on anything.  Called hubby.  Of course he couldn't do anything when he was at work and I was having the problem here.  He'd never heard of it.  Said he'd look at it when he got home.  BUT.  I've never been too great at waiting when I'm wanting something done NOW.  So I stewed for awhile, tried to do some sewing, didn't like what I created, stewed some more, tried to do some cleaning up, kept stewing....
Finally I turned to google for help.  Duh.  If you have a computer problem most likely, so does someone else.  Usually quite a few someone elses.  And there I found my solution.  A code to put in that would return my pics which were actually just 'hidden' not 'missing'.  Which was a good thing since I had looked EVERYWHERE for them and they were not to be found.  And a little further research dug up this:  it's McAffee causing it.  Haven't proved that yet, but our new computer DID come with a free 6 months of McAffee.  It's getting itself uninstalled pronto.  Not going to deal with it - it's history.  Don't mess with me and my pictures!!
And so.  My mind is made up.  MY LAPTOP WILL BE A MAC. 

{MUSICAL FURNITURE}

Remember playing 'musical chairs' as a child? There are enough chairs for all but one person. When the music stops everyone dashes for a seat. The one left standing is 'out'.

Well, I've been playing 'musical furniture lately'.

Moving things around, trying it here... nah, it needs to go there...

this will sit here till this other project is done, then it can go over there...

That sort of thing. Anyone know what I'm talking about??

This desk finally moved out of the living room a few months ago and now resides in Big Sister's closet. She loves having it there. And I still need to take pictures of it where it is now. I'm waiting on the closet to be neat and tidy. So don't hold your breathe on seeing those pics anytime in this decade. Big Sister is 12. And a half. I knew you would understand!!

This dresser also went with Big Sister to her new room - from the dining room.

This dresser (which is a favorite of mine) took the place of the one in the dining room.  This one had been in the bathroom.

This took the spot in the bathroom.

It had been my dresser.

I have been without a dresser for awhile. 

Till now.

More on that in a little.

This is the furniture that was the 'last one standing' in this game of 'musical furniture'. 

It was 'out'!

Couch and Love Seat had to leave the game.  They now reside at the home of a friend who needed some more furniture.  And I'm sure they are enjoying themselves there immensely!

You see, we acquired a piece of furniture that is truly musical!

This old upright piano!  We are all so thrilled with it.

And that is a story in itself for another day, another time, another post!

Because we sent the Couch and Love Seat packing we needed something to sit on.

Enter this lovely piece.  Lovely is said tongue-in-cheek.

Really I do love the shape and size of this thing and it is pretty comfy:)

It's covered with quilts right now that always need repositioned. 

The plan is to reupholster it.

And eventually sell it and get what we REALLY want.

So.  Game ended for awhile but if you were following closely you will remember that I am now w/out a dresser.  And it's been a few months.  Not ideal but I just closed my eyes to the fact that I had stacks of clothes on the floor beside my bed.

We had a dresser stored in the basement that matched the table above.  Travis uses this little table as a night stand.  Plan was to paint the dresser to match and I would use it.

But... when we pulled it out of the basement it was rather moldy inside.  So it went to the curb to await the trash truck.  Guess it got left standing too!

The other night in the middle of the night I had a brainstorm.

Also in the basement was a bookshelf that had played it's own game of 'musical furniture'.

I had been thinking I would get rid of it since I didn't have anywhere to put it anymore.  That's before I thought outside the box and considered it more than just a bookshelf.  And I needed a dresser remember?

So this dresser above, is now sitting in my bedroom ready to get my clothes off the floor.

And in the dining room, where this had been is ....

...This!!!!

We pulled that bookshelf out of the basement where it was languishing, cleaned off the spiders and webs and dust, and then - I pulled the back off.  The back was several thin layers of veneer which had not stayed very flat.  And I like it so much better without the back anyway.  Takes away the 'bookshelf' look and gives it a more 'open shelving' look.  And I'm loving having my stuff easily accessible and on display.  I haven't been this excited about a redo for a long time.  I just love the game of 'musical furniture'!  When it turns out this great anyway:)

Old post cards are so fun to decorate with.

Love the old mortar and pestle from the science lab of an old school.

Old flask from the science lab of a school. (Thanks Kara!)

More old jars from the science lab. (again, thanks to Kara:)

Love these white pitchers.  They are going to help me outfit my booth for the

"Brick Farmhouse Event"!!

Glittery crown wand from Damask Designs

This crown is one of my very favorite things (I'm sure I've told you that before)

It's fun having it in a spot that it really shows up against all the shades of white.

And another pic of the whole thing - just because I think it's fun and I like it so much:)

 Kara, I wish I'd had your camera here to photograph this!  Mine just doesn't do too well at these full shots since it's little trip to the floor.