A sneek peek and A Giveaway

This week I learned that the photographers from Country Sampler will show up with pictures of certain parts of certain rooms all printed out and those are the rooms they will shoot. The Editor and her art team work up the page layout ahead of time. I found that fascinating. I also learned the shoot is delayed by a day until Thursday! And I also learned that I need extra candles on hand because if a candle is in a shoot, it has to be burning and I know some of mine burn pretty fast. And they like to use cloth napkins when setting a table scape and my cloth napkins are Christmas or blue check and I wanted some solid colors anyway. So armed with all that new knowledge, and my DH's blessing (he pays the bills after all) I decided I was taking a break from cleaning and getting out of town! I decided to head to one of my favorite shops - where my DH bought my WONDERFUL homestead chair for my b-day and where I got my WONDERFUL settle bench last year - Homestead Primitives. It is about 35 - 40 minutes from here and I chose the back roads to enjoy the scenery. When I drove up, there were balloons all around and a big 10 th anniversary sign. When I walked in, I was handed a sale sheet with all the things that were on sale. I hit the jackpot! I talked with Charlene and her husband (he makes all the wood furniture including my settle bench -and told them about Country Sampler and that I hoped my Homestead Chair and settle bench would be in the shoot. They had cookies and snacks and lemonade and giveaways and I had a coupon with a discount because of my birthday and between that and the sale, I was like a kid in a candy store.

Edit: If any local gals are reading this - the sale continues today, Sunday and then the shop is closed for a buying trip until July 31st. I also forgot to mention that anyone who sepnds $35 gets entered in a drawing for the most awesome bench Charlene's husband made for the anniversary celebration. I am so hoping to hear my phone ring when the shop closes at 3 today!

I found the candles and cloth napkins I needed and a few more goodies. All yellow ware was 30 % off so I decided to do something I have wanted to do for a few years. I bought some for every day use. I am planning to sell my Pfaltzgraff set if my DD decides for sure she doesn't want it so it will get packed up soon. But not quite ready to use my Bennington every day. So I got 4 dinner plates and 4 lunch plates and the salt and pepper shakers for the price of 4 dinner plates normally. NOT BAD! They will become our everyday dishes. I have odds and ends in yellow ware that mix and match nicely with them already so I won't need a full set. I also got a neat bowl, and some nice homespun dishtowels too. All on sale!!

And I found this cute little crock - it was just the touch I needed on this shelf -

And this bee skep was on sale 20% off - I will use this on the hearth downstairs I think.

And this cute little quilt was on sale 20% off too.


I also wanted to show a picture of a little redo - I love this triangular wall shelf. I cannot even remember where I got it but it is one of my favorite pieces of wall decor. I guess it reminds of the three sided colonial patriots hat. I used to use it to hold my extra candles but I decided it needed a change. I love the Sweet Annie, yarrow and especially the wool strawberry my sweet friend Kathy made for me.

So those are a few sneak peaks at some things I hope will make the pages of Country Sampler!

Today DH and I worked in the almost 100 degree heat and humidity to mow, trim the lawn edges, freshen up the bark mulch, dead head my perennials and spruce up the yard in general. It looks nice and I just hope it stays that way until Thursday!


DH finally got around to cutting out a cover for the HUGE crock we use a recycle bin. We use the 25 gallon crock for recycling. Our town has mandatory recycling but I would make the effort anyway - I think it is important. It holds 2 brown grocery bags - one for paper and one for plastic, cans, and glass. It's perfect. The 10 gallon crock we use for trash. It used to be the other way around but we are making so much less trash now and recycling so much more. The small crock has had a cover for years and I keep mentioning that we should put a cover on the big crock too and I guess a magazine shoot was just the boost DH needed.


This is the circle of MDF that will be painted, aged and distressed and a wooden knob added to become the cover. I asked DH why he got MDF - I had suggested plywood. He said it has a smoother finish. LOL - sweet guy - he still just doesn't get that smooth isn't so important in most prim things. He just does what I ask but doesn't understand it all. I am so lucky he indulges me so much! He says I indulge him too so it's mutual. I think he's got a point. And since I will be cleaning and fussing all day Wednesday, this is my Whatcha Working on Wednesday in advance. I'll show you the finished cover some day next week - if I remember!

And I wanted to let you about some great news! My sweet and talented friend Tammy over at Country Girl at Home has just opened her new Etsy. Congrats Tammy!! She and her DH are collaborating on some very nice primitive goodies. She is also hosting a giveaway so if you want a chance to win some of her prim shutters, please stop on over to her great blog and say hi to her.

And last but not least, I am going to take advantage of bloggers new feature for a blog roll sometime in the next week or so and when I start, it will take me awhile to get all my favorite blogs transferred over there. So if you see your blog disappear from my favs list, it's just temporary until I get them all moved.

Well this will be my last post until after the photo shoot. I need my down time despite getting ready for it, so I will be checking in on my fav blogs before then, I won't be posting here. The next time I post it will be my 50th post! WOW!! I hope to have some pics of the shoot. The Editor of Country Sampler, Donna Marcel agreed it would be a great idea but I need to make sure it is OK with the photographers before I take their pics. I'll have something to blog about I am sure!! :-)

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by. I really do enjoy your comments and messages and again, thanks so much for all the sweet words of support and encouragement. It means so much to me!

Until next time - hugs, Linda