A Trip to the Barn Sale

Today we final headed up to Frederick to check out the barn sale at Chartreuse & Co. that we heard about back in February. There was a pretty good mix of re-finished and needing-to-be-refinished furniture. Best of all, most of the prices were pretty reasonable. Only a few pieces were over $500. The old library card catalog to the left may have been one of them. Kevin loved the Scrabble pillow on top.

There were more than a few pieces that we really loved. Sadly, due to our complete and utter lack of space, we just couldn't commit to bringing them home. The whole experience made me desperately wish we had a house but it was really fun just to poke around.

I loved this industrial workshop cart. The color was like a deep teal. The little herb bottles were really fun. We actually brought home this window frame for about $30. I'm trying to decided whether to turn it into frames, a chalk board, a magnet board... so many options. Any ideas?

I really love this desk. The top was so nice. We were both pretty obsessed with this cabinet which was a blue-y gray color (there was definitely a weird "antique blue" theme throughout the sale... as if all re-painted antiques should be blue).

So what do you think? Should we have made room for any of these treasures? Ever been to a barn sale? It's literally in a big barn in the middle-ish of nowhere.

How to Sew Like Your Great-Grandmother

Well, there's really only one way to sew like your Great-Grandmother and that's to break out her sewing machine from the mid-1930s. And if you're me and you need to sew something, then it's pretty much your only option. Enter, my fabulous, indestructible Singer sewing machine:

See the red cloth hanging on the chair? That's the couch cushion that ripped itself (surely it wasn't anything I did...) off it's zipper. I finally had the time and motivation to fix it. The fun thing about my sewing machine (I mean, other than the fact its 80 years old) is that it's dead simple. It only sews one type of stitch and it only goes forward and backward. No waaay I can screw this up. And if I do, luckily I have the original manual to help me sort it out.

I also have a box full of different "feet" which claim to do miraculous things like zippers and buttons! Ooh, aah, you people with your electronic sewing machines that hook up to your computer and embroider and such... I know you're jealous. Finally, my mom also passed along her pair of beautiful stork scissors from Germany.

I love the decorative gold painting around the base of the sewing machine and I especially love that it's been worn away by four generations of women in my family.