Sunday, May 22, 2016

REARRANGING THE PLATE

Yes we are rearranging our plate. We are changing the slices in our pie. Our plates have been very full. So we have decided the shop will be open by chance or appointment.  We have thought about this long and hard. Together we did some serious soul searching. We searched a lot, together.

Farmer Dave wants to go to a tractor show when he wants to go to a tractor show.  We want to travel more. We are so fortunate to have a house and dog sitter while we are away.  We are blessed that we "get" to do what we want, we know many can't.

We want to be able to go see our family more often. We both miss having sheep and not going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. We want to be in the fields more. We have been doing well with lavender and would like to expand.  I would like to expand the fields with cut flowers. Farmer Dave would like to be on a tractor more... we can't keep waiting...now is the time...while we still can.

And so perhaps sheep are in our future.  Perhaps the lavender field will grow with flowers beside it.

We have been asked to set up at a local farmers market and we couldn't be happier. We were going to look into doing one and one came to us. We call that confirmation!

We didn't want to add with out taking away.  We will keep our shop's three events a year (maybe squeeze in a lavender festival like other years) and our vendors who share space and will be open by chance or appointment.  We will announce on Facebook when we will be open or please call. Some days we will be closed when family and friends are vacationing here.

Here's a little recap of our first trip without worrying about the shop.

We wanted to go to a different show ~ so Lucketts Spring Market is where we were headed.

On the way we stopped at Beaver Creek Antique Mall in Maryland.  It wasn't off the path too much. Jimmy Cramer is set up there and his booths are always awesome. He knows what we love.  We bought two things from him and they are our favorite things we brought home.  How did he know that I have been looking for Mr. Rooster for YEARS! Farmer Dave loves farming advertising.  We are changing up the kitchen so the chalkboard MIGHT go in the kitchen.


We are on Instagram now and there we met some new folks who steered us
to some barn sales along the way...farmer Dave loved the John Deere


 
We visited farms and met new friends
 

 
 We ate at an Irish restaurant and I had wonderful Cottager's Pie
 
 
Then a sneak peek the night before into Lucketts Spring Market
Loads of Spring items...just what I was hoping for
 

A little stop the next morning... this used to be a gas station years and years ago
They have a million flavors ~ we tried a few!

 
Then we off to the market...7th in line out of 750...
look at the sweet wagons...they were ready for serious buying
  
 
It was nice meeting Marian from Miss Mustard Seed, Beth from Olde Tyme Marketplace and
visiting with a show friend Heather.
 
 
Then we went onto Frederick, Maryland for old time sake. 
We used to go there every year on the way to the sheep festival.
Onto home sweet home ~ it was the first time away without the new dogs.
It was so fun meeting new friends, seeing old friends, visiting farms, but always happy to be home.
 And it was great to come home with a van load for our shop's customers
 

I have been blessed with a few decorating jobs ~ a few things for those customers too!
Next time we will talk about more changes and decorating...fun!
Until next blog time
 
Blessings from the farm ~ farmer Dave and Audrey Ann



 
 
 
 
 













Tuesday, May 10, 2016

FEEDSACKS AND FUN

For our events at the farm we usually hang quilts in front of  the tractor shed and they sorta hide "stuff" in the tractor shed. But me bride thought it would be fun to change up and hang some feed sacks. I loved the idea (now why didn't I think of that!) and out they came.


We lined them up on the lawn to see which ones we wanted to hang. This was a fun decorating project for us.  We were about to celebrate 20 years as a brick and mortar business. Before our brick and mortar business we did shows, sometimes more than 12 a year. We were asking each other...were we crazy? 3 very active kids, raising sheep, jobs...were we crazy?  How did we do it? When you love what you do it's not crazy.  It was fun discussing the feed sacks. Where did we buy them? People we have bought them from. Friends we have made along the way.  What was it that attracted us to the bought ones?
Graphics. Purina.  Pratts. 
 

cute faces...a chick family...a rare one with a cow on it.

 
one of my favorites...Clover Farm
 
 
I love feed sacks from local mills
 
 
 I ran out with one of my Purina clothes pin bags
my sweet bride was loving it
 
 
 
almost done
 
 
We liked so many we extended the line over to the house
 
 
This project reminded me how much we really do love what we do
 
So many people were complimenting Audrey on her feed sacks and wanting to buy them but they are my collection and if you know me I rarely sell from my collections, I still enjoy them.  I also collect egg baskets with farm advertising on them but then that 's for another blog post.
 
 
I don't think I paid more than $5 for any of them
 think these are like clothes fashions ~ coming around again!
 
NOPE, I CAN'T SAY GOODBYE TO ANY OF THEM!!!
 
Farmer Dave