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Country Life

In Country Life/ Make Something

Homegrown Vintage Market Season 3

Looking for something to do this weekend? How about a market in a quaint country setting but filled with loads of treasures? You need to check out the Homegrown Vintage Market!

Guys!!!  Third Season is happening this coming weekend! I’m so excited!  And I have to say, pretty relaxed…  We have a great line up of vendors, some old, some new plus the ever popular food truck!

Here’s the low down on this year’s vendors – ‘Flora’s Finds‘ and ‘Angela’s Attics‘ are both back and are certainly crowd favourites.  Shane will be as entertaining as ever and Angela will be doing some FAT Paint demos throughout the day, too.  We also have Norene returning with her vintage goodies.  Of course, I’ll be set up with some vintage and handmade Farm Fresh treasures.  The girls will be doing the Lemonade Stand and the sucker pull, too.

But this year, we have some new friends joining us!  The Pictou County food truck, ‘WANNA LICK MY PLATE‘, will be there serving up some tasty food for the day.  I’m also excited that my Instagram friend, Chris Bennett, of ‘Christine Bennett Design’ and ‘Lucky Me Lifestyle‘, is coming with her hand-painted designs….chicken mugs, guys!  Rachel will be there with ‘Vintage Treasures’ as will Beth Cole with her goodies from ‘Summer Friends’….I can’t wait to see what they’ve got!  Laura of ‘Lumpylu’s Treasures’ will also have even more vintage goodness!  I can’t even believe all the awesome vendors we have this year with vintage finds for you!

Lodestone Soap Company‘ will have us all smelling good after shopping their booth come market day.  Plus, Joyful Gardens will be there with fresh-cut blooms and rumour has it she has some pottery vases as well.  It’ll smell good on Saturday at the Hall!

This year we also have ‘2 Paws Up‘ and ‘Paws in the Park HFX Society‘ will be there with treats for your four-legged friends.  Such a neat addition to the market!

If you need directions, click HERE to see the location on Google Maps.  I have put signs up along the way that simply say ‘MARKET’ so that you know what you’re looking for.  Either Highway 6 or Highway 256 will take you to the Meadowville Station Road and then Black River Road is off that.  The market is at the cutest community hall in Meadowville.

I get asked often why I started this market.  And really, what I want to create, what I want to happen, is to draw people out into a country setting and create a sense of community and comradery as people connect with other people of similar interests.  I want people to linger, spend some time and chat with their neighbours, and strangers.  There’s a huge market in Roundtop, Texas that is HUGE and Roundtop has a population of barely anyone.  Now, I realize I’m no Roundtop but I love what this event has become.  I love the buzz it’s creating, I love the people who want to be a part of it, whether it’s setting up a booth or coming and spending some time looking at the booths and sitting on the grass enjoying the atmosphere.  So, when you pull up to this year’s market, take a deep breath of country air and prepare to slow down and just enjoy.

See you Saturday!

To be continued,

Lori

In Country Life

Better Late Than Never – Fireworks

Just wanted to pop in to share with you the fireworks from our local community’s celebration.  They didn’t happen on Canada Day here as it was drizzly and damp out.  But last night was perfect for it and we had lots of people out for them, too!

I brought my camera to snap a few pictures of the fireworks.  I’m not very good and in hind sight, I should’ve had my tripod, but here’s a few of the best ones I managed to get.  Hope you enjoy!

We’re off to enjoy the last day of our long weekend! Hope you do the same!

To be continued,

Lori

 

In Country Life/ Decorating

I’m Currently Into….Farm Fresh Version

New blog series alert!!  Once a month, I’m going to share with you some things that I saw out in the big, bad world that caught my eye.  Because if I like it, I’m sure there are other’s who will, too!

I love those light bulb moments.  They can be complete game changers, right?

I had one a few weeks back and I have fellow blogger, Erin, of DIY Passion to thank for it.  As bloggers, we are always looking for things to share with our readers and sometimes its hard to think of ideas for posts.  So, at our last East Coast Media Moms Workshop { which I will share next week so hang tight } we chatted about creating content for our blogs.  And Erin shared one post that she does on a regular basis, and she threw the title, ‘S@*t I Like’ out there and we all drew a collective breath and said, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’

So, here we go!  I am always loving certain things I come across on social media and feel like saying, ‘Hey, guys, did you see this? How neat is this? Man, I’m totally digging this…’ but I’d look weird doing that sitting at home all by myself.  Instead, I’ll use my voice on the blog over here, where it actually makes sense and doesn’t seem so weird.

This version of ‘I’m Into…’ is brand based, and an easy place to start.  I see Farm Fresh stuff everywhere and I love it, of course!  That’s what I called my blog after all! So, thus this round-up’s theme was decided!  I will include the link on the products so you can hop over and buy it if you feel so inclined, if there’s the purchase option available.  Now, to be clear, I’m not making anything off this and if that ever changes, I’ll be sure to alert you so things stay transparent over here.

Here we go!!

How adorable is this print?  I love the idea of kids running around in the yard, living the farm life!  You can see the Etsy listing HERE. (Photo from the Etsy listing) And chippy blue chairs for the win, right?

I follow this fabulous account on Instagram called Vintage North and they sell modern farmhouse accessories here in Canada! Loving this tea towel with the classic animal stack in my favourite colour!  You can follow them on Instagram HERE and shop this tea towel HERE. (Photo from their listing)

Umm, so yeah, I want this.  How cute would that be set up at my Homegrown Vintage Market? Or at the end of our driveway selling extra garden produce?  So who has an old truck bed they want to be rid of?  I have seen this image floating around the internet for a bit now and I always love it.  I tried to link back to the original post, but I couldn’t…so the source is Pinterest – you know, where all great ideas come from!

And one last final item that I created myself in my studio.  Farm Fresh Eggs anyone?  This little number is actually for sale.  I thought I’d offer him up here, although I’m trying to compile work for the Homegrown Vintage Market that’s coming up on August 5th.  The wood is from a local barn and then stenciled and hemp oiled to bring out the colours and richness of the aged wood.  $28 plus shipping, if you’re interested.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this round up of Farm Fresh related items.  I think I’ll probably aim to do this once a month and center it around a theme each time.  If there’s a certain theme you’d like me to explore, leave a comment on this post!

To be continued,

Lori

2 In Country Life

Lambing Season is Here!

Well, the lambs have started arriving!  A sure sign of Spring in these parts.  Every year I post a blog not because I have anything grand or wise to say, but only because they are just so adorable.

Can I just say how much I love their little ears that sag under the tiny weight of their eartag?!?!?  These lambs are pretty small but they are hearty little creatures, they hit the ground running….or maybe I should say bouncing!!

See? Aren’t these babies the cutest?  I wasn’t even kidding!

Now, a few years ago, Hannah bought herself a little bottle baby from Opa, which she named Sweet Willow.  Now, that bottle baby grew up and had a baby last year, a little ram lamb who I got to witness being born in the middle of the night.  Hannah named him Hot Chocolate.  So, this year Sweet Willow was due to lamb out again….and she had twins!  Hannah was so excited!  Two sweet ewe lambs that she named Sweetie and Lily.  We tried to capture Hannah with her new babies, whom she refers to as her nieces….better than granddaughters, I think!  We had the shot all lined up and ready to go when she realized she was getting lambie poop on her jacket!

So, I’ll just show you how precious they are!  Warning…I took a few pictures…..

I wish I could tell you who was who….but I’m honestly not sure…Lily has bigger ears and tighter curls.  Unless I see them together, I can’t tell.  Pretty sure, neither can Hannah 😉

Anyway, welcome to lambing season of 2017!!  I hope to make it down with my camera again so I can share more sweet lambie pictures with you!

To be continued,

Lori

In Adventures/ Clear Day Farm/ Country Life/ Our Family

Meet Ebony

We have a new addition to our little farm and family!  Meet Ebony, our little Shetland pony, who just joined our family yesterday afternoon.  She’s a little firecracker who, I think, will fit right in around here.

Our girls are horse crazy and have been for quite a while.  But committing to a horse seemed like a huge step.  And honestly, we weren’t even looking for a pony.  But when my friend, Rebecca of Pearl & Daisy, posted a Kijiji ad about a sweet little pony who was looking for a new home, I sent the link to Michael and basically started to beg.  And then I played the winning card…..telling the girls about her….and that pretty much sealed the deal.  There was messages back and forth with Rebecca, asking questions and making arrangements for a visit.

As much as we wanted a pony, we need she had to be the right fit.  So our first visit to Ebony was to meet her and check her out.  And we told the girls if it isn’t a good match then we can’t take her.  Thankfully, it went well, even though it was a springy kind of day and Ebony was feeling it.  I took a few pictures during our visit and I love this one of Lena, sharing breath with Ebony.  This is how Ebony gets to know someone and be comfortable with them.  This was a special moment caught between the two of them, and I love Rebecca’s expression in the background.  Rebecca has two girls who have outgrown Sweet Ebony and so it seems quite perfect that Ebony should find a new home with two girls again.

I’ll admit I was nervous about trailering Ebony home.  But I guess I didn’t need to worry.  She was fine, freaked out, yes, but she did great.  Admittedly, it wasn’t the easiest task to get her on the trailer but with a ramp and some apples for bribery and loads of patience, we got her on.  Huge thanks to Gordon and Morris MacKinnon for the lend of the trailer { and not taking 2 hours to show Michael the cows 😉 } and to Dad for the truck.

When we got her home, we took her straight to her paddock behind the barn and let her run around a bit, showing her the fence line so she wouldn’t try to bolt through it.  I lead her in and out of the barn a few times, too, but she was more interested in grazing on what bits of green grass she could find.   The girls were in the pasture with her but still a bit nervous of her since they don’t know how she’ll react quite yet.  But each visit to the barn they get more and more confident around her and she is settling in quite well.

Today is blowing like mad and cold, cold, cold and we let her out in the paddock and she loves it!  We’re freezing in the barn and she couldn’t care less about the weather!  They make those Shetland ponies tough!  I think her outdoor weather is not going to be the same as ours!  She has a shaggy coat to keep her warm in weather like this!

I’m excited for our family to have this sweet girl in our lives.  I look forward to working with Ebony to get her settled in and hopefully ready to ride again.  The girls will have so much fun with her!  We’ve laid down the ground rules and fully expect no trouble, the girls realize the honour and privilege of being responsible for this precious pony.  I have fond memories of our pony Chestnut that we had growing up, and I’m happy that our irls will have these memories, too.  Chestnut was your typical stubborn pony and I think Ebony may have some of those some pony tendancies, but that’s what builds character, no?  But this face, though…..

I’m sure Ebony will be a popular face on my blog and Instagram.  I’m even toying with giving her her own Instagram account….but we’ll see about that – I’ll let you know!!

Now, we’re off to the barn yet again!

To be continued,

Lori