Kansas Barn Sale

We are still celebrating a great Saturday at the Kansas Barn Sale.

This event is held each fall near Hesston, Kansas and features vintage, handmade and antique goods along with food, live music, and great fun.  We learned about it several months ago and applied to be a vendor.  We were thrilled to be accepted into the juried show and spent a lot of time working on what we might exhibit.

To complicate things, I was scheduled to be working out of state.  We had a plan.  And, like most of our best plans, things happen.  Just before the show, my husband got really sick and it made it hard for me to feel comfortable being a six hour drive away in the event he started to feel bad again.  So, we made the decision that I would stay close to home and help at the show.  We had a time trying to make decisions about what was the best things to do.  In the end, I think we made the right decision, but not without a lot of our usual chaos and scrambling.  Thanks goodness for my mom and dad who helped tremendously.

On the morning of the show, we set up all of our items and had the chance to really take in the whole event.  It was excellent - the best hospitality, a great crowd, excellent sales, and meeting new friends and reconnecting with old friends.

If you have a list of "must-do" fall activities, please add the Kansas Barn Sale.  You won't be disappointed in the quality of the shopping, the entertainment and great food.

Vintage Treasures Market

Today was a huge adventure for us.  We set up at our first major event to sell some of my husband's hand-painted signs, repurposed furniture and other items.  The Vintage Treasures Market was held in Emporia at their mall and was highly supported by Sudio 11.  (We fell in love with their store last January.) 

We were super excited to see how our items would be received and I was also super excited to get some things out of our house - we have been bursting at the seams.

We had more success than we could ever imagine.  The crowd was consistently strong in numbers and also super friendly.  We ran into people we knew, met some great new people, and also learned from other vendors and customers who had similar interests.

The first hour was a mad house!  I asked my husband how much time had passed since the market had opened and he said only 47 minutes.  We had sold so much and were trying to hold items for people, help people who wanted to pay, respond to questions, and rearrange the booth so it looked nice.  Whew!  We were so thankful to have my mom's help during the whole day, especially when we ran out of receipts and needed more singles (and a Starbuck's run).

We learned so much!  The next time we set up, we will be better prepared about what to pack and we will have a better idea about what might sell.

Overall, it was an awesome, awesome day.  We were so happy with the turnout, our sales, and the great people we met.

Beautiful Kansas sunrise

My favorite time of the day is the morning. This morning was especially nice to see that we had a break from the heat with a nice slow rain.

The colors in the morning sky were the second gift.

My favorite way to start the day is in our new addition watching the sunrise just behind the hill.

This is why we live in the country.

Beautiful.

A goal for this year...buy more art

I set a goal to buy more art. We are not going crazy or anything, but we have a commitment to finding affordable, cool pieces that speak to us.

You read in previous posts about Connie Norman and her fabulous ceramics and Ursula Dunnewind, the talented paper artist. Now, meet Jamie Lavin, a Kansas painter who created this beauty.

It has amazing dimension with a painted canvas and a silver layer under the oil painting of the prairie.

Jeremy and I both fell in love with it, so it had to come home with us. I think we get bonus points for having it already installed on our wall.