The Red Barn Outdoor Market

 We had a great time as an exhibitor at The Red Barn Outdoor Market near Benton, Kansas.  It was a breezy, but beautiful day.

We arrived the night before for set up, but decided to not take our chances with the wind and possible thunderstorms.  We left our tent in the trailer and just set out our doors.  We thought we would be clever and "cover" our space with the doors, just in case it rained.  Thankfully, we had very little rain and no severe weather.

The morning was cool, but nice.  The sunrise made the most beautiful colors in the sky.  I love the picture in the top left - before everyone arrived and the field was full of tents and displays.

The crowd was really nice and we stayed busy all day. We also enjoyed some expert sign wrapping by my mom.  She also braved the lines at the food trucks to bring us some delicious lunch. We were so thankful for her help!

We have two more weekends of shows this month.  Needless to say, our suitcases and trailer are still packed!

I did want to show off these great cards made by box113.  We were lucky enough to be neighbors with them at the show.  Alison makes beautiful hand-lettered cards and they are packaged in the most tasteful and gift-worthy way.  She and her husband were awesome and I hope we get to see them at future shows.

Accidental collector: canning jars

There is just something about canning jars.  From as far back as I can remember, canning jars have been a practical part of our family system.  My mom and grandmothers fed their families by preserving food from gardens and orchards, all in Ball and Mason jars.

Beyond the practical, canning jars are beautiful and fascinating.  I love this article in The New York Times from last August. Canning jars have always been beautiful to us, but they are also suddenly hip and trendy. I am guilty of following the madness, as I am lusting after the new purple Mason jars. And, I may or may not have purchased a t-shirt with Mason jars and the saying, "I eat local because I can."

Canning jars also show up around my house as decor - holding wooden spools of thread, crafting supplies, vintage dominoes, puzzle pieces, and other treasures.  In the kitchen, the jars hold pasta,  muffin cups, baking soda, and other pantry staples, in addition to home canned fruit and vegetables.  I also just have some antique jars as stand alone beauties.

During a trip to Target this fall, I found some Italian jars for food preservation on the sale aisle.  Am I the only person who cruises the sale end caps at Target and gets sucked into the impulse buy? For these particular jars, I picked them up and set them down several times and ended up bring them home with me.  And then, they joined the piles in our spare room. I wanted to do some research on the jars and didn't want to use them for anything less than a worthy purpose.

The Bormioli Rocco company makes these jars - embossed on the sides and just the right size. The jars are so beautiful, I wanted the best possible use for them.

My answer:  sprinkles.

In an organizing frenzy this weekend, I decide that I would put together all of our baking supplies, including our surprisingly large collection of sprinkles.  I realized that I could combine several of the smaller containers and I could use my Italian jars!  I was pretty pleased with myself for cleaning the cabinets and for using the jars and for finding a beautiful and practical way to solve a problem.

Framing some finds

 I wanted to share two new pieces we just got back from the frame shop.

We picked up the Farm Fresh Picks print this summer when we were at Antique Archeology in LeClaire, IA.

I loved the print for the subject matter, but also because it is a Hatch Show Print.  Famous for their show prints, I have long wanted to own a print from their presses.

I am still trying to find the perfect place to hang it, but know that this art will be a perfect fit for our home.

 This little gem has been on my wish list for a long time. My husband's parents gave it to us for Christmas this year.  

Two things that make this print great - the artwork is beautiful with charming little illustrations across the state and the print is on the back of a book page.

Our framer - who is fabulous at helping to select colors and styles of mats and frames to make the print really shine - was creative in helping me protect the print and still preserve the chance to honor the book page.

Prairie School Farms Spring Show Schedule

April 11 & 12
Tulip Festival - Wamego, KS
Saturday hours: 9 a.m. to 5 pm.
Sunday hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

April 25
The Red Barn Outdoor Market - Benton, KS
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

May 2 
Funky Junk Market - Funk, NE
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

May 8 & 9
2 Friends & Junk - Dewey, OK
Friday hours: 5 to 9 p.m.
Saturday hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

May 23 {tentative}

SugarPete Fabulous Flea - Lyndon, KS
9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Spring Show Schedule: Funky Junk Market

We are really pleased to be a vendor at the Funky Junk Market in Funk, Nebraska.

Mark your calendars for Saturday, May 2 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Admission is $1.

Be ready for some vintage and handmade shopping and food trucks - a perfect combination!

Olivet church: Progress, sweet progress

We are celebrating some progress on the renovation of the Olivet church.

You might remember that we bought my childhood church with the intent of renovating it for community use. Our first goal for the project was to replace the roof.  After collecting bids from a few contractors, we found a highly recommended and trustworthy person who was willing to help us. His business is in the county where the church is located and we felt good about keeping money within the county.

We got word last week that the project was finished.  With only a few "no good deed goes unpunished" moments, we were really, really pleased to have something finished.

The first phase included completely replacing and shingling the roof, installing new guttering, and replacing and painting some fascia boards.  We are most proud of the bell tower - it was shored up with the replacement of some boards and a new paint job.

We look forward to catching up financially and then tackling the next phase.

Let's make some stuff!

One of my goals in the new year is to make some stuff. 

I have a lot of unfinished projects and ideas galore.  One of our favorite sayings is, "More ideas than time."

In an effort to make good on some of my promises to myself and the desire to make some stuff and tell people about it, I made vanilla.

I get a real kick out of trying something, just to see if it will work.  I had read about making vanilla and it seemed pretty straight forward.  My first batch was purely for our consumption - just in case it went terribly wrong.

Well, it didn't!

I read a few recipes and followed the instructions and it turned out pretty great!

Just before the holidays, I started four more jars.  You can see in the picture a jar that has had three months to process and a new jar on the right.  The small bottle in the foreground is the sample that I sent home with my mom.  The big jar of vodka in the back - the main ingredient that makes all of the magic happen.

One of the hints I discovered in my research was to order the vanilla beans in bulk - they can be expensive at the local grocery store. I ordered from Vanilla Products USA on Amazon.

I also read some conflicting advice about the vodka to use - some recipes recommended the cheapest possible and others recommended buying something more expensive.  I went for middle of the road.