~ Weekend in New England ~

After nearly one entire decade of not taking a vacation of any kind, hubs and I finally made a little time for ourselves and took a 3-day trip up to New England this past weekend! We drove out Friday morning and got through DC ok but encountered a horrid traffic jam in New Jersey that delayed us about an hour and a half, yuck!...then one of the things on our agenda was to drive through Times Square in NYC, crazy right? RIGHT...we encountered the biggest, craziest, most insane traffic jam coming out of the toll booth that leads into the Lincoln Tunnel...I have never even imagined such a thing could occur!!...well we lived to tell about it is all I can say!!...we did manage to drive through Times Square on a Friday night, I was driving, and let me tell you THAT was an experience in and of itself!!...we have never been to NYC and it is at the very top of hubs' list of want-to-do things...we need to go back on the train and do one of those sightseeing bus tours...anyway, after another couple of hours sitting in traffic getting out of the area, we continued on our journey...the main problem was that we were supposed to be at my friend Connie's house around 6PM for dinner and it was now WAY WAY past that!...we felt SO BAD!!...we didn't arrive to her place in CT until 10PM!!!...this is when they normally go to bed and she was serving us dinner!...and what a delicious dinner it was!...Connie and her husband Paul live in a 4000 sq. ft. log home that they built many years ago and Connie has it completely and totally decorated in the 1700-1800 period...every single room is full of the most fabulous furnishings...she has candles lit all over the place with minimal lighting and the ambiance is stunning!...there really are no words to describe their home...I could have spent many more hours just gazing at each and every room...she's got big cupboards and gorgeous antiques everywhere and nothing looks cluttered as she has the perfect touch in placing her smalls here and there...I could go on and on!...there are no pictures that would even come close to doing it justice so I didn't even try...we spent the night in one of her upstairs rooms and got a good night's sleep...in the morning we had coffee and bagels and a very nice visit...she's got an adorable little shoppe right on their property and I did a wee bit of shopping!...here's a pic of my goodies:
...the dried gourd was a gift from Connie, and she made those cute little balls in the tin cup herself, they look like miniature cloved oranges!...here's a link to her Picture Trail: Log Cabin Primitives ...Thank you again Connie and Paul for your generous hospitality!!!

Saturday, shortly after noon, we continued on up to MA to attend the antique show going on at Walker Homestead...I was disappointed in general...it may have been because of all the rain the previous day and the muddy conditions, but the mosquitoes were outta hand!, it was just horrible!...we had to hurry our way through and I really didn't enjoy it at all...I now wish we had opted to just visit the nearby Sturbridge area and go in a few shoppes there...although I did run into a couple of fellow bloggers I recognized, Bonnie and Sarah, that was nice!...and I did make a purchase at the show...this sweet little redware jug made by Pied Potter Hamelin:
...it won't be difficult finding a spot for this little gem!

After a whirlwind tour of the antique show, we drove about a half an hour to my friend Linda's house...she was having a gathering of friends who were in the area attending the show too...we have been blog buds for a few years now and I have seen many pictures of her lovely home which is furnished beautifully and if you have seen her pictures, you know her decorating is just perfect!...here's a link to her Picture Trail...it was such fun to finally be there in person and of course the best part was meeting Linda!...she is just the absolutely sweetest person!!...she had prepared a wonderful spread of goodies, oh my everything was SO DELICIOUS!...and she sent us home with so many goodies, we had yummies in our hotel room that night and all the way home!...Thank you Linda!!

We had originally planned to have dinner at a nearby restaurant but were just too exhausted and decided to cancel the dinner reservations. We checked into our hotel room, ordered a pizza, and went to bed early!...I was so paranoid about the possibility of bedbugs that I barely slept a wink...I am not comfortable spending the night away from home anyway...so at about 3:30AM, I finally gave up on sleeping...hubs woke up at about 5AM and we decided to skip the free breakfast and get on the road since we had quite a long drive ahead of us!...since we were getting an early start, hubs wanted to drive back through NYC again...oh joy! LOL...so this time we drove past the World Trade Center site and saw the beautiful new skyscraper they're building...traffic in the city was a little less chaotic since it was Sunday and we managed to get outta there without too much trouble...just a few horn honks and a couple close calls, LOL...we really want to get back there and see the sights the proper way...we knew driving through was not the way to do it, it's just that our route was taking us so close, we just had to do it!

We arrived back home in Central Virginia at about 5PM and it feels good to be home...I immediately had to get to work packing orders before I could even rest but I am now caught up and getting back to normal...I may be getting too old to do this sort of thing again but I'm glad we did it!...have a great week!

~ Have You Ever Heard Of... ~

Have you ever heard of Pumpkin Yellowware???...Oh my word!...I hadn't until recently while browsing the internet so I proceeded to find a piece at a decent price...actually two pieces, the second bowl is enroute LOL...but isn't it a lovely shade?...especially for this time of year, what a joy!

I also wanted to share with you this fabulous Pumpkin Folk Doll I purchased from my friend Karen...made from a T.F.C. Folk Art pattern, her workmanship is second to none!...he arrived in the mail on Saturday, isn't he fabulous?...I have him sitting atop a stack of small benches next to the lovely pumpkin she made for me as a gift that I posted about last time:

Lastly, I wanted to share a Random Act of Kindness that I had bestowed upon me the other day...I made an ebay purchase from one of my favorite sellers, Natalie of Country Farm Simples, her pictures are the absolute best!...she has a way of putting things together like no other and it is always such an inspiration!...I purchased this sweet ditty bag she made from olde calico in a lovely shade of bittersweet, it is lovely!
...and inside the box was a gift that completely blew me away!...a month or two ago I had sent her a message asking about a pair of dolls she had in one of her gorgeous pictures (you know me and my love for primitive dolls) these little dolls just struck me and I asked if she knew who made them...I hadn't heard back from her but guess what was in with my purchase?...yep!...one of the little dolls!!!!!!!!!!!...can you believe it??...wasn't that just the sweetest thing to do?...I have her sitting here with the gathering on the fireplace hearth:
...aint she cute?...Thank You again Nat!!!!!!!

Well that's gonna do it for this time...have a wonderful week!

~ More Decorating Pics! ~

I hope everyone is enjoying their last long weekend of summer...we are doing stuff around the house here...had hurricane Irene blow through last weekend and lost power for 24 hours...I feel so fortunate to have only been without electricity for a day when there are folks all around us that have been without it for an entire week!...we also lost a native tree in our backyard that hubs needs to rent a chainsaw for...other than that, we were very very lucky!

I have made more progress with my Autumn decorating and wanted to share some more pics with you...first there is this beautiful basket that was custom made for me by Pam ...I told her what I was looking for and gave her some dimensions and voila!...I love it!...I've filled it with the Artificial Fall Boxwood that I sell in my shoppe...the cute little doll I got a couple of years ago, it was made by Lori ...and the sweet little Small Pumpkin Square is American made Redware and available in my shoppe!
I think it finishes off the display nicely:
Here's a full view of the cabinet, it's a favorite piece of furniture made a couple of years ago by hubs!
Now these next things are also new...arriving just yesterday, by way of the Royal Mail, is the cute folky pumpkin head doll you see on the right, made by my dear friend Karen in the UK...the sweet pumpkin lady doll on the left was made for me by Jenn ...I think they look cute together!...the little pumpkins in the foreground are from the set of 24 Assorted Little Pumpkins I sell in my shoppe:
Here's a full view of the foyer table:
In that same Royal Mail box was the prairie doll you see there on the right, also made by Karen and another of Jenn's pumpkin lady dolls on the left...the iron Tall Ring CandleHolder is available in my shoppe!
Here's a full view of my primitive stepback cupboard...hubs dislikes this piece, he says it belongs outdoors, but I don't care, what does he know! LOL...the folky doll hanging on the left door was made by Jackie!
This pumpkin here is a very special pumpkin...it was also inside the Royal Mail box but it was something I was not expecting!...it was a gift, handmade with love, from my dear friend Karen!...thank you again Karen!
The little chippy white table by the front door looks basically the same as last year with the addition of another one of Jenn's pumpkin lady dolls!
This is my view from the sofa...the black cabinet houses our tv and all that stuff...over in the make-do chair, which was made by Pat of Olde Bittersweet Farm, I've got a pumpkin pillow that I've had for a couple of years, it made by Barbara of Turkey Hollow, and the kitty hanging on the peg rail, I've had for a few years now, and it was made by Dawn ...the hooked pumpkin mat you see there on the coffee table is new and it was made by Pat of Ginger Creek Primitives:
Speaking of the coffee table...I had added one more little pillow to my bowl display...the pillow was made by Barbara of Turkey Hollow...and if you like the bowl, I still have a few left in my shoppe, it's the Large Rustic Chopping Bowl...I also have the Pumpkin Spice Wax Bars currently available!
On the left side of the fireplace hearth sits an olde ladderback chair which is usually where my group of favorite dolls sits but for Autumn I have kept the largest doll, which is from Arnetts, and have a Salem pumpkin along with a pinkeep that I made from a Stacy Nash pattern.
Well that's what I've been up to!...I've also loaded all my pics up on Picture Trail if you prefer viewing them there...I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday tomorrow and a fantastic week!