My Love For Old Things

I know you guys love old things just as much as I do so this post is dedicated to vintage kitchen items....oh how I love things like old hand carved wooden spoons, old white pitchers, vintage fly screens, antique silverware, big white mixing bowls, zinc lid jars, soft and stained from use vintage linens, wooden cutting boards with thousands of knife marks...the list goes on and on. And for me they are what makes my farmhouse kitchen complete.

When I head to the flea market these are the things that I seek out the most. I love that these things are beautiful, but also that they were used over and over again by someone previous to me.

I recently found some beautiful ironstone pitchers and wooden spoons at the flea market.

I also love finding things that aren't old but look like they could be, like these measuring cups that I found at TJMaxx on clearance and the wire egg holder from Hobby Lobby.

These salt and pepper shakers were also a clearance TJMaxx find and I just love them.

Most of my antique silverware is from estate sales. I usually buy it by the boxfull and boy do I love going through that box when I get home, sometimes I am lucky enough to find the "B" monogram on them.

All my best until the next post!!! Oh and my computer (which is brand new!!!) is giving me all kinds of problems and for some reason I get all kinds of spam, pop-ups, you name it when I go to reply to any of the comments on my blog(and yes I have virus protection)....so if you have a question for me please email me directly at MSBrokman@gmail.com so that I can answer you asap!!!

Springfield Recap, Viburnum and Porch Reno Start

The Springfield, Ohio Antique Show  was a big success and we had such a wonderful time! Thank you to all of my followers that stopped in to say hello and shop!

We are definitely learning more each time we go, we didn't have any of our tents fly away this time thanks to the awesome weights Neal made.  And I am starting to get the booth looking more the way I want it.  I found some really awesome pieces at the show to use in my booth each time, like the door pictured above. I knew I wanted a door for the center of our booth but it had to be just the right one. There are thousands of old doors at the Springfield Show and I figured I would find one eventually. Ironically the perfect one, with chippy creamy white paint, was two spots down from us and I spotted it on Saturday morning. It was the exact height I needed it to be too, I love when stuff comes together!

Most of the bigger pieces I took sold first thing Friday morning, like this adorable dresser, I had so many staging plans for this piece too! Neal had to run out and find me another table because so many of our pieces sold quickly, hey I'm not complaining!

We had so many people that wanted to buy our aprons, which my sister makes,  so we will definitely be selling those at the fall Extravaganza!

I can't thank my family enough for being so awesome and for being SUCH a giant help!!! We have the best time together and I feel so lucky to have them.

The Farmhouse soaps were a major hit and we sold all of the ones we had with us. We will definitely have way more of those for the fall show. The fall Springfield Extravaganza dates are September 16th, 17th and 18th...so make your arrangements now!!!

I sold enough stuff at the show that you can actually see the floor in my work area again. My work/etsy area seen below with the sink is off of the guest bedroom and was originally built as an in-law suite. It is where I store all of my inventory so it looks a little bit like "Hoarders" sometimes but I definitely hope to take some pictures of the whole space and show it to you sometime soon (something I promised a long time ago I know).

This room with this amazing old sink is one of the reasons I fell in love with our farmhouse. Eventually this will be our master bathroom (the guestroom will become our master bedroom) but the ductwork in this part of the house needs to be redone so until we can afford to redo that we have to patiently wait.

My viburnum bush produced more blossums than ever this year and they look just perfect in big ironstone pitchers don't they?

As far as the house goes we started work on the front porch this week!!!

This smoke covered eyesore has been driving me crazy for 7 long years now and I couldn't wait to get my crowbar out!

Good news is I found the original clapboard completely intact under the aluminum siding, the bad news is that I found crumbling plaster and lath under the aluminum ceiling. I was really hoping to find some original beadboard or just old wood planks of wood, oh well. We hope to get all of the plaster and lath down this weekend. We are going to finish taking off all of the siding along the front before we decide what kind of ceiling we want to do. 

Stay tuned to see more of the progress and to see all of the awesome things I bought for the house at Springfield!

Good Old Fashioned Christmas

Come Christmas time one of our favorite things to watch is Garfield's Christmas, and if you are familiar with it you know the song at the end that goes "Let's have a good old fashioned Christmas down on the farm". Well we love that song and that is exactly the look I was going for this year. With all that we were able to get done on the house this year I feel like our farmhouse is really beginning to look how I imagined it could. Don't get me wrong we have a ways to go but we have definitely come a long way and it feels so good to have all of the ideas (well some of them) that have been in my head all these years finally come to fruition. I am feeling very lucky this holiday season to have such a wonderful family and to live in the home I always dreamed of.

Speaking of luck we were fortunate enough this year to get our Christmas tree from Green Valley Christmas Trees. It is an absolutely beautiful Balsam Fir that was delivered directly to our door on the exact day that we wanted it! It is super fresh and smells amazing and we couldn't be happier with it.

The day we decorate the tree is one of our son Eli's favorite days, he just loves unwrapping each and every ornament and looking at them.

Here he is explaining them all to Millie

This is really the only room I am decorating this year because the rest of the house looks like a construction zone right now. I took lots of pictures to make up for it though:)

We switched the couches to allow for the tree to fit in the corner of the family room which meant we needed a smaller table in this corner of the room. We moved in this table from upstairs and I think it will be staying even after we switch the couches back. It is one my favorite pieces of furniture and I just don't get to enjoy it as much when it is upstairs.

My five dollar cupboard, as I call it, is filled with white ironstone and antique red and white linens, a perfect match if you ask me.

I found some old fashioned looking ribbon on Etsy (sources to follow) and wrapped an old spool that I bought at the flea market for a dollar.

I finally broke down and bought myself a red stripe grain sack, some things are just worth the price. I loved that this one was a wheatier color because I wanted a little contrast with all of the white in this room.

And they just put a new Goodwill in our area and I have had very successful shopping trips there so far. I found both the ironstone bowl below and the toolbox beside it there for $2.84 each! I also found a little dresser that we turned into our bathroom vanity (blog post coming soon).

The runner on the table is the one Neal bought me a couple of years ago. Sorry I don't know the source, wish I did because I would buy more. And because I didn't want to spend anymore money but I wanted more grain sack like pillows I sewed my own out of the red stripe dish clothes I bought at TJMaxx. The larger ticking pillow is from Big Lots.

I bought the  antique basket with the quilts in it at one of my favorite places to shop the Shawnee Country Barns Antique Co-Op in Wheatfield, NY. My best friend lives two minutes from it, she is so lucky! We always go there when I visit her and I always leave with a trunk full of goodies.

I have been slowly building my red and white quilt collection. I like them faded, soft and worn.

I got the beautiful grain sack stockings from my friend Mel's Etsy shop Rustic Farmhouse Wares. I looked for years for grain sack stockings but could never find any I liked. When I saw that Mel was selling these I was SOOO excited. I knew they would be awesome if Mel was sewing them:) They are exactly what I have been looking for and are so well made. I love the rustic and simple look of them.

As for the ribbons I bought the wider one from Lucky Lady Paper Crafts and the thinner one from Boxwood Avenue, both on Etsy.

And it is not too late to order something from my Etsy shop (or have someone order YOU something)  Farmhouse Supply in time to receive it before Christmas!

In the spirit of Christmas I am doing my first ever give away! I will be giving away three of these rustic red and white stripe dish towels made by Bombay Company. I bought myself some and I just love them. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post saying that you want the dish towels (please only leave one comment)! You have until Friday December 18th to enter! I will announce the winner Friday!!!

In conclusion I think Garfield said it best "Christmas, It's not the giving, It's not the getting, It's the Loving".

~Merry Christmas~