THE PLACE WE CALL HOME GATHERING...

Good evening Prim Pals! Just wanted to pop in and invite you all to a very special event hosted by Wren In The Willow (Bob and Peggy Meganck) and co-hosted by Holly Hills Primitives (Dick and Dawn Rossell) called THE PLACE WE CALL HOME GATHERING. The location is 9171 Henderson Rd, Goodrich, MI 48438. The dates will be Friday, September 7th from 5 p.m.-9 p.m. (This will be the special opening preview evening), Saturday, September 8th from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., and Sunday, September 9th from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday night will feature TERESA KOGUT for a signing and she will be bringing originals and other treasures. GARY MUSGRAVE will entertain with his soft rock guitar for your listening pleasure. Saturday DAN HAYS will be singing wonderful memories of days gone by. We will be presenting a HUGE gathering of wares, including: Spectacular FALL & CHRISTMAS, unique handmades, handcrafted primitive furniture, candles, textiles, potpourri, framed prints, stitcheries, calendars (wall and magnetic), primitive make-dos and dolls, jams & jellies, pancake mixes, needfuls and much, much more. There will be YUMMY treats including Mom's famous Lemon Cookies. So gather up your friends and be sure not to miss this fabulous show! Looking forward to seeing you there! Until next time...

LOVE OUR VILLAGE...

Happy Monday morning! Sure do wish this could just be a jammy day, but there's WAY too much to do for the next two weeks! I'd like to thank everyone that helped make our open house a success and to the great blogging friends that came to visit.

It was such a nice surprise that Bobbi (The Evening Stitcher) and Dave popped in. They are such nice people and needed a break between planning weddings. I'd love to have them out to dinner one night and be able to just sit and visit! Can you believe they had two weddings nine weeks apart???!!! Whew! Yup, we'll have to plan an evening when all of the hustle and bustle lets us.

Do you remember the post Bobbi did about the self tanning lotion for the first wedding? It was a riot!

Gary Musgrave was gracious enough to bless us with music all afternoon. The crowds loved it and you will be seeing a lot more of him soon - like next Saturday.

I love how he plays barefoot!

Nicole (from Morgan's Boutique) came down to model one of her new frog hats! They have a whole new line of great hats - and lots more.

Merchants having fun with Gary! Janet from the Holly Spirit Shop, Nicole from Morgan's Boutique and Dick doing a little dancing in the street.

This was my first chance to get down to the new Sunday Farmer's Market in town.

What beautiful produce! I stocked up for the week and can't wait until next time.

I sampled some things last night and it was all fabulous! Our village needed the market.

It was a special day for our Abbey - her 10th birthday! Her and Papa are like two peas in a pod. I'm so bummed that I didn't get a picture of Earlene and Norm. They came over on their motorcycle at the end of the day, but they'll be back next Saturday for a dinner date! Can't wait.

After we closed, we headed over to daughter Ashley's (and Tony's) house for a birthday party for Abbey. Abbey will always be our "first best girl", and there will only be one Abbey ever. We had the most delicious cake and ice cream and spent some time with my heart of hearts. Son Chad and Kim were there, my mom and others too.

Abbey spent some time riding her beautiful bike that Uncle Chad and Aunt Kim got for her a year ago.

Then Lucy decided she wanted to learn to ride a bike too! This was Abbey's first bike from Uncle Chad and Aunt Kim.

Had to show you the color of our little Lucy's red hair! She is so much fun, following in her sister's footsteps. Had to wear her Cinderella dress over her Buzz Lightyear t-shirt! Thank you Ashley and Tony for a nice afternoon. Now it's Monday and time to start the creating process all over again. Three more shows in September and a store to keep full. Whew!!! When did you say we had to start on Christmas????? Until next time...

FIRST DAY OF OPEN HOUSE...

What a great day! We got to the shop early to turn on lights, put up our tent, set up the yummies and be ready for our customers. It was so much fun to see so many familiar faces and some new ones too.

Our friend Gary Musgrave was kind enough to give us some live entertainment under the tent in front of the shop and he will be back again tomorrow!

Another great creation by Dick, this shelf and crock bench in cobblestone.

Closer view of shelf.

Crock bench filled with crocks and handmade, primitive canisters.

After the open house, we hurried home to get ready for a fabulous wedding reception for our customers/friends Dave and Teresa. The reception was in their beautiful back yard. The tent and decorations were amazing!

Outside of the tent was a "hay bale lounge" complete with a fireplace mantle, electric logs (compliments of Holly Hills Primitives), including wedding pictures and a lamp on the mantle.

They bought this potting bench at our shop to use for a lemonade stand. The lemonade was adults only, but adorable.

Inside of the tent was a "campfire" filled with candles.

Their home has a wonderful wrap-around porch, stone chimney, unbelievable sound system, comfy furniture and overlooks a windchime/rose garden.

They were married yesterday in front of this waterfall next door to their home by Rev. Edward Pedley. We had a delicious meal and great fun. Congratulations to Dave and Theresa. It's been a LONG day with another fun day ahead tomorrow. If you didn't make it to the open house today, we still have lots of great wares to choose from and will be open tomorrow from 10-4 - then it's on to granddaughter Abbey's birthday party. Sleep tight and we hope to see you tomorrow. Until next time...

A LITTLE SHOP TOUR...

Whew! What a crazy, busy week. Got all the furniture moved around, brought decorations up from the basement and put out loads of new goodies for our annual fall open house tomorrow and Sunday. I'm so excited to see our friends, this is just the best time of year! We will be open Saturday from 10-5 and Sunday from 10-4. We will have a shade tent out front of the shop with live music. Zanie Janie's Simply Coffee (next door) will be selling hot dogs, chips, sweet treats, hot and cold yummy drinks and her famous fresh roasted coffee. Thought I'd take you on a little tour of the shop tonight and show you what we've been up to.

Come on in, grab a cup of coffee and settle in for a little walk through the shop

Didn't have much luck with the window box this year in the heat, so some handmade posies and pumpkins are filling it until we plant our mums.

Our "black" section is filled with witches, black furniture, signs, owls, fall bottles and more.

Got another make-do settle ready to go home with someone - wish it was me. Lots of prim pillow cases, and great textiles.

Just to the right of the door are lights, scarecrows, garlands and more fall goodies.

Isn't this chalkboard adorable made from the old tray?

Come on up on the step and take a peek at the make-dos done by the Funky Tennessee Artist.

Love the rust and black textiles (runners and table squares) with the "pumpkin" cranberry box filled with handmade pumpkins.

Got another mustard dry sink and blanket crane shelf just in time for the open house.

More mustard furniture and fall goodies.

Who doesn't love burgandy/red? Take a look around.

This old green desk and chair would make a perfect statement in a screen porch.

We have several sets of "chairback" covers, they have been a hot seller. Also, what is Halloween without a ghost?

The little cabin is decked out for fall with a tobacco stick scarecrow.

A little cubby is filled with rug hooking kits, teddy bears and more.

Now come back to my favorite spot in the shop, the log cabin.

I've GOT to take a better picture of this new blanket chest. It is fabulous! Old blue, top lifts off and a shelf underneath.

Time to start lighting the fire as the weather gets cooler.

We also have a big variety of towels to choose from - all over the shop.

And last, but not least, is the beautiful, primitive, grubby new cupboard that Dick brought in today. This was a hard one to bring to the shop, I have just the place for it at home. But...always want to share the best stuff with our customers. Two more new pieces of furniture are coming in tonight and I've got to go pick up supplies for in the morning. Hope some of you can come take the tour in person, I think you'll find just the right new fall decorating necessity to take home. See you tomorrow. Until next time...

OHIO TRIP...

Good Sunday afternoon friends. This has been another hectic, but fun, week. Dick and I headed for Columbus early Thursday morning. We went to two great primitive markets and two warehouses all in one day. Got some new goodies for the shop - which we will put out for our open house on August 25 and 26. We were SO tired by the time we got to our hotel, that we both took a long nap. Felt so great to have some down time. When we got up on Friday morning, we decided to just "have a day" for our anniversary.

Our first stop was in Washington Courthouse, Ohio at the beautiful North Shore Primitives. We were so lucky, it was the first day of their open house. Just beautiful and it got me all geeked to get home to change up the shop.

The courthouse is spectacular in this little town.

Tried to do a drive-by picture of this house. The flowers were out of this world!

Next we drove on to Waynesville, my favorite little town. We visited with some other shop owners/friends and then headed back to Michigan. We made another stop in Findley so Dick could see the little "buildings" next to a shop there. I would love any of them in my backyard. This little barnboard shed with the porch is prim perfect!

This one had a bowed roof - so different.

Not sure what this little round building was, but sure would like to bring it home.

But, my favorite was the porch on the back of another building made with all kinds of found objects (screen doors, banisters, picket fence...). I could just see that just outside of our doorwall! PLEASE!!! So yesterday was back to the shop and I worked all day moving furniture, cleaning, taking down "summer" and getting ready for fall decorating. We went to visit our Gannon and then I came back to finish up until about 10:30 last night. I don't even remember going to bed! Now I can pull out the boxes and start having some fun! Can't wait to put out our new goodies for our fall open house - August 25 and 26. Hope you can make it, we'll be there waiting for you. This afternoon we are taking Gannon with us to the funeral home. Our hearts are so very sad. We lost our old Joe that was a regular at Zanie Janie's for the past three years. He touched so many hearts and souls in our village. Gannon and Joe became fast friends and they loved each other so much. Please send up some prayers for his wife Anne. So... until next time...