Hearts and Gardens

My gardening mostly happens in pots, I love to fill the deck with herbs and tomatoes and cascades of petunias, and I even fill window boxes with carrots and lettuce. It is just a dream at this point, as the deck is snow covered and scattered with corn and birdseed for the chilly back yard squirrels and birds right now. So, I just got out some gardening antiques to tide me over until spring, and I have collected quite a few tin hearts just for Valentines.

Back to Work~

Vacation over, but it was a very Merry Christmas. We spent the day with my in-laws, had a lovely dinner (even better that I didn't have to cook), and Eleanor is such a good pie baker, so dessert always a treat. The wrapping paper scraps are all picked up now, but we will enjoy the tree and the Santas for a couple more weeks yet. The snow we got was of the most beautiful kind, trees are all frosted, and it makes all the Christmas lights look a little misty and gorgeous. Even better news is that warm up is predicted so it could all melt before we have to shovel again.

I didn't spend the week doing completely nothing, so I have some great prims to list over the next few days, mashers and brooms and bowls and so much more, time to get cracking!

Taking Time Off

Ebay sales have slowed down, giving me a little time off, spent 2 glorious days just putting together a big puzzle and watching funny movies and Top Chef reruns. I got out the paints again yesterday and indulged myself with trying the robins egg paint, I think it is really pretty. The next color I tried is slate gray, still in the first stages, but think it will be gorgeous in the end. I might even start listing the things I've had finished a week ago and just didn't get around to putting them in.

First Snow

The first real snow fell last night, aching arms from all the shoveling, but it is pretty.

Too Attached

I just finished up a brown and blue calico collection and love it a little too much. I am especially going to have to force myself to sell the little bread boards, they are bitty little sandwich boards that look like toys, even my girls are saying "Mom, don't sell those, they are too cute!"

Decorating at Last

The tree is finally upright with ornaments and everything, I've thrown stuff in boxes, cleaned and decorated, I'll never remember what I did with all the junk lying around! Here are a few vignettes from the house, as you can see, my ebay addiction is samplers, my favorite dealers are Homestead Gatherings, Sandiscraps, Etwalls, and Kasi Small Corners. The toy cars and animals are all part of the Christmas farm, my girls favorite.

Early and Original Dough Bowls

Lots of prim originals on the way to ebay this week, tins, cookie cutters and chocolate molds, cute prairie whisk brooms and these extra gorgeous bowls.

Christmas Tree Farm, Mt Vernon and Amana

The open house is done, smaller crowd than usual, but everyone who came bought lots, so it was good. CUTE babies this year, little Lily, Cooper and Hunter were so sweet, my girls loved playing with them.

Today was spent going to Handley's Tree Farm in Solon to cut down our Christmas tree. It snowed just enough to make it the perfect tree day, there is a tiny brook you walk by to get to the tree field, all icy and pretty, the trees dusted with just the right amount of snow, and it smells SO good there. My dad was a lumberjack and that pine tree and sawdust smell takes me right back to visiting the sawmill and watching Dad and the uncles cut the trees. My husband surprised me when I came home with this antique truck that he put the Huntsman Brothers logo on the side, I just love it.

We had to go to Mt Vernon, Polly Ann's is packed to the gills with great buys, such a cheery bright shop, I love it. I got a wonderful dough bowl there. It was such a nice sunny (if freezing) day, we went on to Amana to stock up on Civil War calicos and some amazing wood prims that I should have ready for sale tomorrow. Grapevine Antiques and Smokehouse Square always have the best of the best. A stop at Erenbergers, where I always want everything, plus the wood stove makes a day like this a must stop. Amana is all decked out with real greenery, such a pretty town.