Is this the summer of the hoedown or what? I hope you guys aren't getting sick of my photos of country chic, but I can't seem to help myself. I keep going to these vintage barn bazaars and find myself leaving totally inspired.
This weekend was the Vintage Barn antique show in Rathdrum, Idaho. 51 vendors, home-baked goodness by women from a nearby Mennonite community, and live bluegrass music. This was the scene:
I thought this would make a great lemonade stand for the girls, but for $300+ I decided we'd stick with the card table for now:
Can you imagine the hours that went into this?
More tartan! This time plates:
Bo contemplates the "naughty chair." I'm not sure today's child psychologists would recommend this.
Wee! No buckles! No straps! A handle that can become dislodged and used as a weapon.
Pretty paper flowers made from pages of vintage books, I assume:
I loved the sea of blues and greens in this booth by Wild Whimsy (photo above, too):
Given that my blog is named Penny Carnival, I couldn't resist bringing home this toy for $5:
Can you see the grumpy look on the Ferris Wheel operator's face? I love it. It's like me at the sewing machine when I need to use the seam ripper. Grrrr ...
The girls each chose a vintage toy, too--a dog on wheels for Bo and a helicopter on a string for Magpie. Bo named her dog "Flower" and insisted we build her a dog house this morning.
There's something about painting 3-dimensional surfaces that thrills my children to no end:
That's why I rarely recycle cardboard boxes and I keep the hot-glue gun handy at all times.
Does anyone else buy their kids secondhand toys? The girls chose these vintage ones on their own, but on birthdays and at Christmastime, I always throw some garage sale finds into the mix. Just today, I heard a funny story about an old friend whose dad always bought his kids stuff from garage sales for gifts. So they'd be putting together a puzzle and get to the end only to discover that four pieces were missing. And one Christmas two of the brothers got bicycles--one bicycle worked and one didn't. That cracked me up, but it caused one of the brothers to vow to always buy new toys for his kids. You can probably guess which brother.
In other news from the weekend, we attended our nephew's absolutely gorgeous wedding in the, you guessed it, country.
I don't know if Bo was more thrilled by the bride and groom's kiss at the altar or the horse-and-carriage rides:
This draping was inside the barn where dinner was served:
Outside the barn looking in:
Inside the barn looking out:
At the risk of sounding completely unappreciative for the lovely wedding J and I had 7 years ago ... um, can I have a do over, please?
I did do some sewing this weekend, but it just involved adding straps to an otherwise revealing strapless dress. I'd show you the before and after, but the before shots would make this an x-rated blog. Not that I actually took before shots like that.
We did manage to hang my hammock in the backyard after it spent, oh, 15 years in storage. Literally. I bought this hammock while studying abroad in Costa Rica in 1994, lugged it all the way home on the plane, and then never hung it. Leave it to my task-master husband to get it swinging. That guy can plow through a to-do list like nobody I know.
It's dreamy to relax in there under the cherry trees, callused feet and all (don't zoom in. you'll regret it. I've been running a lot).
Speaking of cherries, I'm overdosing. I need an intervention. I just filled a small baby bottle with pits while writing this post.
They're. Just. So. Frickin'. Good. And. Sweet.
I mostly just eat them as nature intended, but we had J's cousin over for dinner last night so I made this dessert:
Bo took her job of making it snow on the clafouti very seriously.
OK, so she went a little overboard. What can I say? The kid is used to living under 4 feet of the white stuff every winter.
love this post. enjoyed reading. beautiful wedding pics too. funny about the garage sale items & the brothers...i know who you are talking about. funny that i just heard those stories on saturday night!! too funny.
Posted by: Apryl | July 14, 2009 at 03:06 PM
Ha, ha. I was sad to miss the little reunion, Apryl, so I got the play-by-play from Carley the next day over the phone. Did I get the story right??
Posted by: Megan | July 14, 2009 at 04:37 PM
My daughter also loves to help in the kitchen. Disasters never fail to occur but I love every moment of it. It will never be the same when they grow up. =)
Posted by: baby gifts | July 15, 2009 at 07:55 PM
What a beatiful, inspiring post! LOVE your photographs~
Posted by: Susannah | July 17, 2009 at 10:05 AM
I have heard of old barns being converted into reception halls, but I cannot find any of these locations in the southwest Michigan area. I am just looking for a casual location to gather friends and family for a fall wedding in the country.
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Last question " Who else besides me had a SSP Smash em' up derby set or a Sizzlers race car set as a kid?
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I really love this post.
enjoyed reading and beautiful wedding pictures too..funny about the garage sale items & the brothers...i know who you are talking about.
Thanks for sharing ..
Posted by: Oklahoma Weddings | June 02, 2010 at 09:02 AM