Prairie School Farms studio - a dream realized

 Today is the first day for our little studio space in the small town near where we live.  We have always wanted to own a little store and while our full-time jobs won't let us have store in the truest sense of the word, we can use this cute little building for a studio with a little retail space.

We were in town to drop off some yarn for our friend who is making some Christmas stockings for us.  She needed more yarn and we thought we would just deliver it over the weekend.  On the way back to the house, we noticed that this little building was for sale.  Since we had been weighing some options, including renting a storage unit, buying a space that could double for storage/working and could be open for sales looked like a great option.

 Last night we put together this sidewalk message board to welcome our friends and customers.

 We have loved decorating with these wine barrel ring spheres.  We have also loved our concrete planters - another one of my accidental collections.  We were hoping to have something to establish our entrance and the pair of planters looked right at home.

 My husband has a really great eye.  He designed our signs and painted them last night.

 We wanted to have a few things out in front of the store and decided that some of the recycled wood items would be a good fit (and hold up to the little bit of melting ice we still have left from the last winter weather).

 We installed barn wood from my family's farm on the focal point wall.  It is the perfect backdrop for my husband's signs.

 We made the 'joy' signs last night.  We had a lot of fun choosing colors and painting them together.

 Our little collection of glass and plastic ornaments (some vintage) are displayed on the wreath.

 This is a mix of all kinds of treasures - some jewelry, jars, a sign, vintage apothecary jars, maracas, and more.

 One of my favorite things in the shop right now is the vintage wagon we found at my family farm. It is perfect for a holiday display on someone's porch.

 We have two doors with chippy paint to display signs in one of our windows.  It is so much fun to see everything together.

We have an awesome bedroom set on display, along with a lot of cute smalls.  The "be full of joy" sign with the canning jar is super sweet and I can't wait to see who buys it.

Overall, we have had a great start to the day - friendly people and nice traffic.  We couldn't ask for a better start for out little space.

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.

Winter in Kansas

 Our farm still looks like a winter wonderland - well, sort of.

By now, we have trudged over most of the snow and have left footprints.  We have had some melting and a few patches of grass are starting to show through.  It is nowhere near as magical as the first moment when you step out the door and everything is covered in a blanket of pristine snow.  I think it seems so magical because you know that the landscape will never be that perfect again, once you blaze a trail across the yard...at least until the next snow.

Last week, I helped with chores in the morning and was the first to mar up the snowfall.  My husband had sidewalk snow removal duty.

I remembered to tuck my camera into my chore coat pocket and say a silent prayer that the dogs wouldn't knock it out or I wouldn't spill it out bending over to pick up something.

It was cold and quiet and beautiful. The chicken coop door even looked kind of lovely with a little snow resting on the window.

 People often ask how the alpacas handle the cold.  They are much better in the cold than the heat as they have a warm blanket of fiber.  We still take extra care to make sure they have hay and fresh water in the winter.

This year, they didn't like the snow drifts near the barn, so my husband shoveled paths for them from the barn to the hay bunk.  The first morning when the drifts blew high against the fence, the alpacas put on a funny show of first hesitation and then some crazy jumps over and around the drifts.

Just before feeding, we run all of the alpacas out of the barn to set out their food buckets.  They keep watch and jockey for position to be the first through the gate for feeding.  This particular morning, Scout had snow on his face and a lot of hay jammed into his fiber.  What a clown.