Christmas is coming!

We were surprised to see snow last Friday!  I was at work and heard someone say that they saw snowflakes.  By the time I looked outside, there was a pretty good snow shower underway.  And, here I was without a coat!

The change in weather got me to thinking about the holiday season.  We just ordered holiday cards from Persnickety Prints and love them!  They have a great sale for early holiday card orders.  If you order before October 31, you save 30% (code EARLY30) and if you order before November 30, you save 15% (code EARLY15).  The already have reasonable prices and the envelopes are included with the cards.  A sweet deal!

On Saturday, I asked my husband to help with a Pinterest project.  The Christmas tree is a lovely scrap wood creation, some pieces with chippy paint and one with a builder's notes scratched out in pencil.  I am considering having my husband paint a message across the "branches."

It's fun to anticipate the holiday season and to begin making preparations.

Vintage finds and kindred spirits

We enjoy speculating about the activities of "normal" people on any given weekend.  We are usually running around with a giant to-do list and tackling more than is even possible to accomplish in a day.  One of us will say to the other, "You know, normal people lay around and watch golf on a Sunday afternoon."  We have not had a relaxing weekend afternoon in ages.  I am not sure it is part of our fabric.

This Sunday's adventure - setting up a booth space at Rerun Consignments in Council Grove.  We decided to take this leap for a couple of reasons - we really like the owner (and have only heard good things about her business) and we need storage space!  We hope that in the process of getting a few things out of the house, we will make some sales and contribute to Darla's business.

We had a furry of activity on Saturday night.  We both had been busy all day and met up at the house.  We had a few things that we wanted to finish and several items that needed to be cleaned and prepared for packing.  A couple of the projects we completed are the 'always and forever' repurposed window frame, the turquoise message board, turquoise photo frame, a jewelry organizer, and a Christmas tree from scrap wood.  We also picked up some awesome pumpkins from a friend - check out the white Cinderella pumpkin we staged in the wine barrel ring sphere.

While setting up our booth, we met a fellow consignor and I think I made a good friend.  I shopped her booth and found so many things I loved.  She has a great eye and I know I will return to pick up a few things for our home.  I love fellow junkers/vintage finders; they are true kindred spirits.

A Giveaway!

It is October and that means a lot of craziness in our schedules and also the flurry of activity to begin to prepare for winter.  While enjoying the cooler temperatures and the beautiful fall colors, we begin to think ahead and prepare so that things will be in a good place when the temperatures get cold.

For my friends who knit, spin and weave, they begin to think about winter fiber projects.  In honor of them, we want to have a giveaway!

Up for grabs:  a sampler of alpaca yarn.  The lucky winner will get four skeins of 100% alpaca yarn.  Our yarns are all natural with no dyes or additives.  The yarn is processed at The Shepherd's Mill in Phillipsburg, Kansas.  (This business is a great small business, small town story!)

These skeins are sport weight and all different lengths (Black, 214 yards. Ivory, 130 yards.  Brown, 191 yards.  Fawn, 208 yards.)  We usually have a skein for each color that is irregular in length because it is the end of the run.  We love to share these with friends and decided to make this year's "ends" the giveaway!

To enter:
Go to our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/prairieschoolfarms
Like the post about the giveaway
Share the post about the giveaway

We will draw one lucky winner on Sunday, October 20.

Don't have Facebook?  Comment on this blog post and tell a friend (via e-mail or any other means).  We believe in the honor system.

Good luck!

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.

Farm visit thank you

One of our favorite things about owning alpacas is having the chance to share them with other people.

A friend asked if she could bring her son to our house to learn about alpacas.  He came home from school and announced that he would like to see an alpaca.  A friend at school had mentioned the animal and the young man was curious. 

Our friend probably never imagined that knowing someone with alpacas would be helpful.

We had a lot of fun showing off our small herd to the young man and one of his friends.  They had the chance to feed them and lead them around our yard.  We showed them the yarn, rugs and roving that we have made from the fiber. 

It was a great day made even better by this sweet thank you note that arrived a couple of days later.

I have a great deal of admiration for parents who encourage their children to show gratitude.  Writing a well-written thank you note is a very good habit.  We love this family!

Vintage photos

 I am working in Texas this week and am loving all of the Texas culture surrounding me at every turn.

The hotel lobby has a lot of interesting decor, including this impressive collection of vintage western photography.  The photos are all framed in black or brown wood frames of about the same width.  The frames line the top of a book shelf that runs along two walls.  I love each of the photos - pictures of what seem to be working ranches, all in black and white.

I love the subject matter and the visual impact of the collection together.  Really simple and lovely.

The luckiest man in the world

Tonight I have the chance to work a booth at the State Fair for work.  My husband, a co-worker and I passed out tons and tons of free items and visited with people all evening.

The state fair brings out an interesting mix of people.  Out of all of the events I work and all of my travels, the state fair is far and away the venue with the best people watching.  Simply put, people from all walks of life, political views, socio-economic status, and higher education allegiance converge in the same place - a land where deep fried food and who has the best giveaways are common topics of conversation.

Beyond the people watching, I also enjoy reconnecting with old friends and connecting with new people.  Tonight, I visited with a real character and he had a message for me.

He shook my had and introduced himself as "the luckiest man in the world."  I was a little taken back when he continued.  He said, "I am sharing my luck with you by shaking your hand.  You are lucky; you just have to keep your eyes open."  He went on to tell me specific examples of how he was lucky.  He fell down earlier in the week (even showed me his scrapes and bruises) and told me he was lucky because he didn't break his arm.  He told me he was lucky because he just got a verbal warning for driving 78 mph in a 55 mph zone.  He went on to tell me that he was lucky because of his grandchildren.

Friends, his message was just what I needed to hear at time when professionally, all is well, but personally, I am feeling really unlucky.  The universe sent me the right message at the right time when I needed it the most.  I am filled with gratitude to have met "the luckiest man in the world" and for him to remind me of my/share with me some LUCK.

P.S. Aside from the people watching, I also really like the bierocks served in the Pride of Kansas building.  Their apple dumplings are delicious, too.  We didn't try any deep fried anything.