reflecting back...looking forward

                This is the view of our little orchard.  

Onward...

Christmas wishes

Several years ago I climbed through a snow drift to catch this 

picture of our house in fresh snow.  This will always be a magical moment...

a warm, well loved home on a snowy day ~ an embrace.

Wishing you & yours that mix of home, love & the magic of the season.

sweet little Christmas shelf

          One little wall shelf in the kitchen filled with holiday charm...

                                        Little snow guys.

                Vintage wrapped boxes & a bowl of ornaments.

                  Added to my collection of funnels & toy mixers.

Vintage Christmas

What do I adore more...sweet bottle brush trees or German Putz sheep?

Both are for sale in my case at the Hixton Antique Mall.

Charming vintage holiday! 

a few of my favorite things for the holidays

Yes, I certainly "live what I sell"!

When I go on an antiquing trip to purchase for resale, one of my questions is~~

"Would I keep it if it doesn't sell?" ~~ I have to answer "yes" to this.

You will always find these favorites (pictured above at my home) for sale

at my booth or case at the Hixton Schoolhouse Antique Mall:

~Ironstone 

~chippy little benches

~Vintage holiday

~baskets

~wire works

~anything in multiples

quietly winter arrives

savings like snowflakes

Just couldn't end the fun...20% sale in my booth at the Hixton

Schoolhouse Antique Mall through Christmas!  Restocked too!

                                    (via Pinterest)

"Squirrel away savings" Sale

Special 30% off Sale in my booth (dealer SPY) at the Hixton Antique Mall for one week!

Now through the close of business on Saturday, November 28, 2015!

Farmhouse Christmas

It always feels like I should wait until at least after Thanksgiving

to "Holiday up" my booth at the Hixton Antique Mall...but as I 

have been out antiquing, I have found that fall feels like it is in 

the rear view mirror.  So I have let Christmas & winter arrive.

With tin, Ironstone, enamelware and bits of vintage holiday - it is here!

It looks full...but trust me, there is a pathway and goodies for folks to find 

at every turn!

Farmhouse Christmas has arrived at Meadowview Farm!

art should touch your soul

When I first found Jamie Heiden's art and words...I felt I had

come home, again ~ just like when we had found our farm.  It was not

a surprise to find she just lived south of Augusta, I could feel western 

Wisconsin in her artistry.

As I looked through her gallery    http://jheidenphoto.net

this picture took my breath away ~ titled "Our House...is a very very very nice house"....

Art should touch your soul, should reach into your heart and should take you on a journey home.

Our 1857 home...

still

From May until November, my dearest pansies show 

just how strong they are!  I am just a bit in awe of such

gentle strength.

gobble

Guess what arrived at Meadowview Farm on Sunday?

Daisy Grace

We welcome Daisy Grace into our family & farmhouse.

Lucy Lily has accepted her from the moment she arrived last night.

They have played & played.  Now there is sweet sleep.

Our thanks to the Eau Claire Humane Society.

My heart is mending...

pardon me...

I imagine that for the rest of my days upon this earth, I will start October

with reflection.  I will gently tap friends upon the shoulder with a reminder

that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer...and remind them,

further, that early detection matters.  With a tear and a smile I will blow out

two candles on my "re-birthday cake" and remember that all clear call

from my surgeon on October 18, 2013.

With some authority - I will strongly state that 

no one loses a battle to cancer.  There are many who face a briefer

journey -- but I am certain they were the bravest of us all.  

So please say a gentle prayer for those brave & courageous

souls that walk through the valley & fear no evil.  And if you 

will, make a wish for a cure.

                            {via Pinterest}

good bye dear Rosie

This evening I buried my three year old kitten, August Rose, in our apple orchard.

Rosie had lived a full three years...born under our chicken coop.  At 8 months she had 

been found with a shattered pelvic bone followed by six weeks in a carrier on our porch 

as she miraculously healed.  Two years ago she became a house cat...taking me through

my breast cancer journey.  She lived with & then through the loss of our

two older cats, Shawnee & McCoy.  This past spring she welcomed a new kitten,

Lucy Lily, into our home.  She had been quite sick this past month.  This morning, after 

a second trip to the vet, she took her last breath at her farm...with Dave, Lucy & me at her

side.  She was a cat, but she was more than that.  To me, she was courage...sweet, gentle 

courage.  Tears for a cat, again.

autumn #4

    brown transferware ~ faded black ~ demure colors of fall

autumn #3

     bears ~ acorns ~ tick, tick, tock....here comes autumn!

autumn #2

blackbird singing in the dead of night ~ pie birds sing for fall

autumn #1

layers ~ harvest ~ patina ~ a hint of summer ~ a peak of orange

autumn arriving

In little nods to the change of season, autumn arrives at

Meadowview Farm.

at auction

Dave & I spent this past Saturday at auction.                       That's me ^.  

It was comfortable weather, a small crowd...and a few items worth the wait for a bid.  

I was not feeling all together, so let Dave do my bidding, literally.  I watched ~ lots of people

watching...farmers, Amish, antique dealers, and some auction newbies...and the family.

I kept thinking about the chapter of a life's story I was "reading" as I sat there.  Item 

after item bid on, loaded, and removed from this farm.  This ritual.  At auction.

for the love of Pinterest

I do adore organizing little scrapbooks of inspiration on Pinterest!

Lately I have been busy pinning to my "Celebrate Autumn" board!

Check my boards out in the right column......over there!~~~~~~>>

for the love of Lucy

     Lucy & bunny...this little girl loves loves loves life!  

     

time for autumn...

I feel like I am rushing things, knowing full well that after fall comes...cold!

But every year at this time I am anxious to pull out my autumn goodies &

head over to the Hixton Schoolhouse Antique Mall.  And so, today, I did!

Gold Rush

On one weekend each year, two flea markets open their gates on the same days...

both about 20 minutes apart.  And both are called Gold Rush.  I believe the original began

in the small town of Oronoco, MN ~ where, literally, the whole town becomes a flea market!  

The other Gold Rush is at the fair grounds in Rochester, MN.

Each year I travel to both...in O N E day!  This year, Dave & Ian joined me.  

My method to this "marathon of flea markets" is to spend the morning on Friday in Oronoco.

You must get there early enough to get close parking (for trips back to the car with 

vintage finds)....and you must have "fresh legs" due to the hilly walking!  By noon we are done!

Then we grab a re-energizing lunch at a cool sit down restaurant...this year Newt's Burgers.

We cap off the day in Rochester, thankful for the flat terrain of this flea market & the many inside vendors to get out of the sun.

Friday was hot...93 degrees I believe!  I was glad to have thrown a hand towel in my bag...

sunscreen & sweat in the eyes could not get in the way of finding vintage goodies.
We were also ever so thankful for an afternoon breeze!

My keepers:

This framed bookplate of small moths...

And, this picnic carrier...on top of the suitcase & bench to form an end table:

I also found some wonderful items that will make their way to my 

antique booth in Hixton soon...getting ready to introduce small doses 

of Autumn!

We had such a fun day, loved having my Ian with me.  He has now been

to 4 mega-fleas with me...and he even found a few items at Gold Rush

for his place!

Counting the days to my next flea market adventure!

decision

I am generally pretty good at making decisions...

But, each time someone has asked me if we will be having a Barn Sale this year (2015), I would sputter out a "maybe".  Then it happened on Friday.  Someone asked, I began to sputter & explain.....and then out came a very clear "no".

No, there will not be a Meadowview Farm Barn Sale this year.

There are so many reasons I had held back on a clear, concise answer: 

  1.  What if I just held a smaller sale?

  2.  But it is so much fun to get ready...

  3.  My hayloft looks so empty & lonely!

But for every reason why, the list of why not was longer.

So...there, a decision.  

No Barn Sale in 2015!

Now, as for 2016~~~~I will think that through later.

blending old & new

I love vintage!
I also love fresh fabrics...often found on my bimonthly stop at T.J. Maxx.

I love how they go together...like peanut butter & jelly.

They bring out the best in each other.

Vintage finds lend warmth, fresh fabrics tone down the age just a bit.

Always a tad of a balance...I like to call "Fresh Vintage"!

     Sweet kittens also are a farmhouse style addition!

the art of gathering

Gathering, picking, is not always for the meek...

it can often consist of a long, hot day at an auction or flea market.  

Take these burlap feed sacks as an example.

Dave & I spent a hot, sunny day at a farm auction...

trying to stay with the cadence of the auctionnaire, 

attempting to follow any shade, and working to keep

our goods safe & sound.  Dave actually bid on the 

feedsacks that were still in the barn.  I came upon him after he 

had won the bid and was trying to stack & sort the huge 

pile in the barn, dust kicking up everywhere-sticking to 

sweat.  But it was a great deal...so I jumped in with him!

We both looked like "Pigpen" from the Charlie Brown comic

when we came out for air from the barn with a huge pile

of sacks.

The next step was to get them home, shake & shake & shake

them out...then air them on our clothesline.

Batch two out of likely fifteen lines full!

Once aired, they will be priced at $5.50-$6.50 each and brought

in to my booth at the Hixton Schoolhouse Mall.  They will then

go home with crafty folks that will turn them into bags & chair

upholstery or even curtains.  With the popularity of Farmhouse

Style continuing to gain traction, these have become popular

finds...often just laid over a table to show off the great graphics.

Some sacks will be purchased by other dealers, knowing that

my prices are low and they can sell them even higher...and

I'm good with that.  

So, from a humble barn, through our sweat equity, to you...

sweet moments

How often I wish I could capture those times in life, put them in their

own sweet box, under their very own cloche.  A morning with wrens

singing outside, kittens napping here & there, quiet except for nature,

and time for reflection.  Sweet, precious moments...

ever more

This is the country road I travel from our farm to my office in Eau Claire.
I have grown to cherish the fields I pass, the barns, the woods...

They are all part of my Township of Otter Creek, and they speak

to me the quiet language of rural life.  There is such a purity in their words.

Even the bales of hay repeat, "live gently on this earth".

And so soon I will sit at the table in our one room town hall, a member of a 

Land Use Committee...and I will help to put the words on paper to

protect this land, to save it for farming for generations to come.  

Although I arrived later in life to this countryside, I believe it had

called to me.  I hope I can find the right words to protect her, to 

sanctify her beauty, to keep her rural roots.  

the tale of a coyote & a mother tiger

If you look...slightly to the right of our farmhouse, right there in the driveway, you will see my Whisper Annie heading back to the barn. This was the day Matt & Caroline visited and they photographed my little 6 year old barn cat ~~ mostly because she was just so friendly.  She was my oldest kitten born on our farm...outliving the 5 year average mortality rate for female barn cats (males only average several years).   She was a sweet, independent girl - princess at this farm.  She often spent nights on our porch, one of only two outdoor cats allowed on.  We had debated bringing her in after our boy cats passed away, but knew she would fight with Rosie...and knew she would crave her freedom.  So, we took our chances.  Two days after this picture was taken in mid-June, she disappeared, without a trace, just gone.

But the wren knew, she chattered near the corn crib, telling us tales of alarm.  Our minds traveled to so many possibilities, but in the end, we guessed it was the work of a coyote...the wren told us as much as she danced over droppings in the yard.  And Tuesday, as I watered plants, again I found droppings.  So coyote ~~  I venture to share that you may have met your match ~ when you mess with "my flock" ~ you mess with me.  Lights were lit about the farm last night...and we also learned that coyotes dislike talk radio (of course they do-such are the analogies of life).....so we broadcast WPR all night from our deck.  We have a new fence around our pasture and a hunting rifle at the ready.  

This may have started with a whisper, but it will end with fury.  

I do not have patience for such evil.

for the love of...

Happy 4th of July!

with a Whisper

And in the quiet of a summer day, my first-born girl kitten at the farm is gone. This is

one of those extra difficult losses, because she just never came home.  So we search 

& call for her, we check outbuildings & treetops.  Over the 6 years Annie 

gifted us with her sweet ways, we knew this day would come.  Such is the life of a barn cat.

Whisper Annie...you are missed!  May her memory be for a blessing.