Nirvana on a Sunday Morning at Todd Farm

What is a better way to spend an early Sunday morning than meandering aimlessly through a flea market, coffee in hand enjoying the relaxed pace of other marketers walking dogs, chatting & admiring the wares?  Yeah, I can’t think of many better ways either.

Todd Farm Flea Market
Route 1A, Rowley MA

Loved these "rustic" rusty shopping baskets

So last Sunday, I headed to the Todd Farm Antique Flea Market in Rowley MA and was not disappointed.  You may remember my pals & I tried to go to Todd Farm last spring but we were rained out…so we went with a “plan B” on that particular day (you can read about that day here).

I'm not sure if this is authentic but it sure looks like an Enid Collins handbag...Fun!

oooohhhh la la look at the bling...so many lovelies

Todd Farm is open every Sunday (barring rain apparently :) from April to November from 5:30 am to 3 pm and from all accounts the best advice folks have is “get there early”.  Well, If you've been following me for a bit you may know by now I have my own philosophy about this “early bird” tactic….if it’s not there when I get there I didn’t need it to begin with…spoken by someone with a house full of goodies of course.

So I arrived just after 9am (my definition of being out & about early on a Sunday).  I’m sure there were a ton of wonderful things I missed out on but I certainly didn’t feel like there was a lack of fabulous goodies to draw me in.

Definitely tempting!

I always have my standards that I am on the hunt for (dishes, jewelry, artwork...) and my latest must have is a silver ice bucket.

Kelly from The Essence of Home shared this pic of her kitchen last year...I was instantly in love
photo source

About a year ago I had spotted this bit of fabulousness on The Essence of Home and have been obsessed with finding an ice bucket and totally ripping Kelly’s idea off.  In all of my travels over the last year I have seen quite a few ice buckets but not the perfect one and certainly not one that was at the perfect price.

Imagine my excitement when I spotted this little beauty…not an ice bucket but it certainly fits the bill for fabulousness.  But with no price on it I hedged…I was so sure it was priced out of what I wanted to spend…I mean it was perfect right?

Yup - she came home with me!

So I circled the block a couple of times, sorted through what I was so sure she was going to ask ($75)…I mean, I’ve seen these in the shops.  And I made up my mind what the max price I would pay was ($20)….not a chance right?

My timing must have been right…I asked the price and I had to ask her to repeat when she said $15…couldn’t be right….but it was.  I quickly got my cash out before she had a chance to change her mind and off I went with the perfect utensil holder and a huge grin.

My cluttered countertop before...for someone who hates counter clutter (me) I sure did have quite
a collection going here.

I was so excited that it ended up being my only purchase of the day but I did spend another couple of hours walking the grounds of Todd Farm and thoroughly enjoying the morning.

My new counter set up...oh so much better...now just to purge some of those extra spatula's

sharing this week on:
Between Naps on the Porch, The Dedicated House, Savvy Southern Style, Coastal Charm, Cozy Little House, The Cottage Market, The Charm of Home, French Country Cottage, Mod Vintage Life, Jennifer Rizzo, Artsy Chicks Rule, Elizabeth & Co, Our Home Away From Home

80% Local in The Perfect Storm - Gloucester MA

Are you ready for Tuesday?  I can’t believe how fast Christmas came this year….I seem to say that every year….this year I really mean it though.

The last couple of weekends I have really helped boost my Christmas spirit.  I’ve been “shopping local” and trying to find just the perfect thing for everyone on my list.  

Town tree in Gloucester...totally constructed with lobster pots (or
traps for non-Yankee's)

Last weekend I headed to Gloucester (about 30 minutes from my house) to explore – you know where they filmed the Perfect Storm (and of course the locale of the story the movie was based on).

Gloucester MA
photo source

 There is some irony here given sometimes Christmas shopping can feel like a bit of a perfect storm.  Well, Gloucester last weekend was just the opposite…it was a lovely day and without exception everyone I came in contact with was exceptionally warm and welcoming.  

Lovely proprietor-ess at Pearl's.  She really cared about everyone
who came in and thoroughly supported my 1 for you, 2 for me habit.

Pearl's
222 Main St., Gloucester MA

There are a mix of vintage, green specialty, and general boutique shops on Main Street.  There are also a couple of antique bookstores where I absolutely could have gotten lost in for days…it took all the self-restraint I had not to.  But I trekked on and I definitely checked quite a few gifts off my list.  

Oh my, so much bright shiny goodness at Banana's

How fun is this?
Banana's
74 Main St., Gloucester MA

Couple of “lessons learned” from this 80% local shopping experiment:

• In general I have found the local business folks provide a higher level of service than the big box stores…almost every item I bought was wrapped in a bag with tissue & ribbon that can double for holiday wrapping so I don’t have to rewrap everything.  Can you imagine that happening at Wal-Mart?
• No question there is a much more feeling of community when you are actually shopping in your community!
• The traffic/parking problems of heading to the mall…non-existent. I found on street up front parking everywhere.  Now the parking goddess tends to sit on my shoulder in general (some folks are lucky in gambling, I am lucky in parking) but I didn’t see a lack of parking anywhere.
• You can find the perfect gifts in some of the most unexpected places….I scored big time at the local hardware/lumber store.  They had a little specialty nook with specialty gifts and home decorative items. 

Building Center
1 Harbor Loop, Gloucester MA

Some lovelies at the Building Center

More lovelies from the Building Center

• There are certain things that are just impossible to find anywhere but a big box these days…try finding a small inexpensive camera at a local camera shop…for my 8 year old niece (who doesn’t read this blog so I’m not spoiling anything here) so a $200 camera is a bit overkill…we’re talking $50 price range here.  So Best Buy it is and this falls into the 20% non-local budget.  

Funny side story about why I went the camera route for an 8 year old.  A couple of years ago my nephew (who will be 17 next month) got an ipod touch for Christmas.  He wanted one sooooo bad so his other favorite aunts pitched together and bought it for him.  He has really coveted it ever since.  Well, the niece got a hold of it one day and cracked his passcode and decided she would leave him a little gift….250+ pictures of herself!  She just went to town  posing in every way you can imagine a then 5 year old would, with and without Barbie.  We all (including her) thought it was pretty funny…my nephew not so much.  So this year she gets her own camera.

Self portrait

So I have thoroughly enjoyed taking a little time and exploring the wonderful businesses in my area.  Really the only negative for me was it became harder to fight the “one for you, two for me’s” when I was faced with so much loveliness at every stop.  I definitely ended up spending more this Christmas but only because Santa was very very good to me this year :-)

May you all have a very Merry Christmas with all of your families & friends.

Amish Country Antiquing - Adamstown Antiques

I have needed an official vacation for a while now…one of those vacations where nothing is planned and there is no stress what-so-ever.  I try to get at least one in during the summer since it’s such a short season here but this summer has been busy and tough to find a place in the schedule where it would work…finally I just blocked the time and have been off all week. 

It’s been wonderful but has been packed…that’s ok, I don’t do “nothing is planned” well anyway.

  

My vacation started with a short trip to Lancaster PA with some excellent friends.  Not planned on my part but I was happy to accept the invitation to join them for a few days and see the sights of Amish country as well as a few other fun things.

Adams Antique Mall
2400 N Reading Road (Rt 272)
Adamstown, PA
photo courtesy of google images

 We spent one very hot afternoon hitting the antique shops in Adamstown…Route 272 is packed with every kind of vintage shop you can imagine from mid-century to primitives to French country…it’s all there (and at every price range).

It took an impressive amount of restraint
(on my friend's part) for this to remain in PA

Our first stop was at the AdamsAntique Mall and we instantly knew we were in the right place with the most wonderful industrial looking pieces in front of the shop. 

it took an impressive amount of restraint (on
my part) for this to remain in PA...second guessing
that now though 

There was a momentary hesitation on our part when we walked through the front door and was faced with row upon row of locked glass cases.

An amazing array of jewelry - talk about self restraint...
would have been harder if it wasn't all behind glass though

We quickly by-passed these and found tons of open booths with wonderful things to browse.  While I understand why shops install these glass cases there is just something very unwelcoming about looking through glass.  I want to see things up close and be able to touch it if I want to (understanding the “you break it, you buy it” rule).

It has truly been a very long time since I have seen
so much depression glass as I saw in the many
shops we visited in PA...so pretty!

Lot's & lot's of vintage Christmas goodies

Loved this piece but it had been "refinished"
and had lost a bit of that rustic charm that
many of these kinds of things have

 This place is huge with more than something for everyone and a fantastic respite from the July heat we were feeling last week.  Even my friend’s husband (who by the way, hates anything “old”) had a fun time rummaging and walked away with some way cool old record albums. 

I ended up picking up the most wonderful pictures….not everyone saw the fun in these that I do but they will learn to enjoy them on future visits to my house (since they are going to be hung in my guest room).

Michael Berry whimsical prints...I don't care I say fun,
fun, fun!

Beautiful piece of wrought iron I am going to hang with
some bone china pin tray's in my dining room.  Friends
husband thought it looked like a large trivet...kinda does
but so much prettier!

A Little Bling Never Hurts

I think I may have mentioned in the past and for those who know me personally I’m stating the obvious here but…I have a small obsession with vintage bling. 

I’m not generally drawn to really fine jewel vintage pieces (although I do certainly admire them tremendously) but a little rhinestone pin or bracelet calls me every time!  I scour the shops and sales for just the right piece at just the right price.  I am always so excited when I find a bargain that is such a great deal that I just can’t believe it. 

Unfortunately, often what appears to be too good to be true generally is just that with missing stones, a damaged fastener or tarnished edges. And of course you never see the flaws until your heart is all aflutter with the beauty of the piece and you pick it up for further inspection.   Now I’m not a girl to discount beauty just because of a little flaw but really as much as I may admire them do I really want to regularly wear jewels that are very obviously missing stones?  Given this, I’m always trying to come up with ideas to use these pieces since they really are in many cases truly spectacular.

Several years ago there was a mention in a magazine (along with a spectacularly eye catching photo) for a new venture Christina Ferrare had started creating picture frames & mirrors with crystals & stones.  The pieces were so stunning; I immediately stored it in my “I must do this” file.  My thought was it was a great way to repurpose some of the beautiful vintage pieces I had seen that are beautiful but not quite perfect enough to wear.

Ferrare & Co have so many fab
blingy things!

Well, this turned into easier said than done.  I totally underestimated the number of pieces that would be needed to fill the piece I wanted to do.  So now I had a collection of slightly imperfect vintage jewelry pieces and needed to find a more doable project to use them on.  Enter House Beautiful…

Jewels I have collected over the years...
(see Provence Cottage Antiques post)

Maybe two years ago I picked up a copy of House Beautiful Magazine and in it was a picture of a pillow that was all blinged out with vintage jewels.  Now that’s what I’m talking about…

Well, of course I had a spare accent pillow that I had picked up at Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Target or some such place that was just waiting for embellishment. 

I'm now wondering why I ever bought this...

Now I had to spend my requisite several weeks (ok, maybe months) analyzing, assessing & contemplating the best most clean way of applying the jewelry. 

Some pieces still had their fastenings, some did not so I knew that I would need to either glue or sew some but others I might just be able to pin to the pillow.  The pins that I could pin did I want to cut a small hole in the pillow so they were flush with the surface or did I want to go through the exercise of sewing a button-hole type of stitch so it would not only be flush but look finished?  Did it matter?  Would glue be an appropriate option for those without pin backs or would a simple stitch be better?  Did I want to break up the necklace pieces into smaller pieces or leave them as is and attach them?  Did I want to even use them at all?  So many possible ways of executing this I really had to just sit down and give it a shot and see what worked and what didn’t.  End result was no glue, and just simple holes that the hardware could meld into.

Trial and error....this ended up being the most balanced
placement

And here is my finished product.  I’m so pleased to not only be able to repurpose jewelry that appeared to have been destined for destruction but also have a unique pillow that looks just fabulous in my living room!

I think this is why I bought the pillow!

Provence Cottage Antiques

Last year I came upon a fabulous pillow in a magazine that was decorated with vintage baubles of all sorts.  It of course made me stop immediately so I could study it and figure out just how to replicate it.  Well, I had a several pieces of slightly flawed (missing stones, bent pins, etc) old jewelry that I had been saving for just such a project but not enough of just the right thing to fill a whole pillow. So for months I have been on the lookout for nice inexpensive pieces that I could add to my collection of “broken bling” and create my own fabulous pillow (soon to be seen in an upcoming post). 

Sneak Peak....

In my search for the perfect bling at the perfect bargain price I happened upon a lovely little shop that specializes in cottage style vintage items in…you guessed it…Wells Maine.  Provence Cottage Antiques sits behind a sweet little grey house with a white picket fence on Route 1.  

Provence Cottage Antiques
752 Post Rd (Rt 1) Wells, ME

When we visited Provence Cottage last year the porch and the front rooms of the house were open, filled with interesting pieces and what I remember most was the truly splendid vintage chandeliers hanging everywhere.  There were also 2 back buildings full of fun cottage style items, one mostly gardeny type things the other just fun decorative vintage items.

The Garden items....dislayed outside

This year Provence Cottage was another stop on our 4^th of July extravaganza…still great stuff but much smaller this year.  The front house was not open at all nor was the first building that had the gardeny things last year so it was just the far rear building…less stuff, still well worth the stop! 

Last year I found a few slightly damaged jewels priced right for my pillow but still not enough to complete the project…this year I found exactly what I needed to finish it off along with so many other things. 

No, as much as I wanted to I didn't purchase the
whole tray full....now that's restraint!

Now this is a “ladies who lunch” kind of shop but if you love vintage linens, clothing, jewelry, books, teacups, etc this is your place!  There was a vintage 1960’s dress on a dress form next to the front door…so Mad Men…if it was my size you had better believe it would have been in a bag in my car!  I’ve been contemplating having a Mad Men themed party and it would have been just the perfect thing..not meant to be this time though.

Always up for an antiquing adventure...now that we
have her husband convinced not every antique is
old & smelly.  The Mad Men dress is the aqua one
to the left behind Kate.

There were several of these chenille bedspreads that just made me think of spending summers at my great-grandmother’s cottage on Sennebec Pond.  I hated these spreads when I was a kid because it was so hard to make my bed neatly, they were constantly wrinkled, uneven or just not laying right.  Now I definitely have fond memories but then if I had known any curse words I would definitely have used them!



Do you remember these spreads?  My grand-
mother had them in an aqua color.

Provence Cottage Antiques is really one of those places where I can always find something to accessorize with…either myself or my house.