Country Living Fair ~ Atlanta 2012 Experience

Exactly a week ago, Stacey of A Sort of Fairytale and I were eating Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream--which totally lives up to its name--and resting our barking dogs after spending a day at the 2012 Country Living Fair in Atlanta.

What a fantastic weekend!

The fair's locale, inside of Stone Mountain Park, was simply gorgeous and serene.  Most of the vendors were situated in a pine forest, with tents and booths lining both sides of a winding, paved walkway. 

But the company was even better.

Me (in the stripes) and Stacey taking a brief load off Saturday afternoon.  Photo via A Sort of Fairytale.

Meeting and hanging out with Stacey was one of those situations where the comfort level was instantaneous and the conversation and laughter flowed easily. Spending time with her only made me wish we didn't live so far apart, and I couldn't have asked for a better or more fun shopping buddy!

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The 150 or so vendors at the CL Fair were truly top notch, and offered quite an array of mouthwatering vintage ephemera and finds, collectibles, clothing, furniture, industrial pieces, art, and handmade items. 

I didn't buy much, but did bring home:
-a small piece of white, chippy architectural salvage
-several vintage English labels
-a vintage floral flour sack for a yet-to-be-determined sewing project
-a mini boxwood garland from McMaster & Storm
-an adorable mug from Tasha McKelvey, similar to the one below except that the mug is red and the bird is aqua

via

 

Being so caught up in the whole experience of the day, I took approximately three photos, so please visit A Sort of Fairytale to see Stacey's shots. She took some really nice ones!

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Now, my two favorite aspects of the fair itself were meeting Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge, the Fabulous Beekman Boys, and seeing the Sisters on the Fly vintage campers.

Stacey and I are both fans of Josh's best-selling The Bucolic Plague, and we had our copies signed at the meet-and-greet.  Since I've not seen their Planet Green/Cooking Channel show The Fabulous Beekman Boys (the first season is available on Netflix and it's now in my Instant Queue for watching soon!) or their stint on this season of The Amazing Race, I only "knew" Josh and Brent from their books.  In person, they were the epitome of warmth and graciousness, and happily posed for photos.

Josh, Stacey, Erin, and Brent

Something that made me laugh from the meet-and-greet was that Brent's Southern accent was immediately recognizable as being from North Carolina. Turns out he's from Randleman, NC, which is about an hour southwest of where I live, and also the home of NASCAR legend Richard Petty. I didn't realize until after the fair that Brent attended the University of North Carolina (also my alma mater--Go Heels!) and earned both his undergrad and medical degrees from there before going on to New York, where he later worked for Martha Stewart, and most recently created the Beekman 1802 brand. 

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For all the Internet fawning I've done over vintage campers, I'd never actually seen one in person until the Country Living Fair.  And what a treat it was to visit not one, but four campers from Sisters on the Fly members!  (Again, visit Stacey and see her much better photos.)

The cuteness that's conveyed in photos of these campers is only amplified when viewed in three dimensions.  I couldn't get a shot of any of them without people milling about because the campers were such attention magnets. And for good reason!

A 1963 Shasta with a fishing theme - love the flower box beneath the camper's window!

A peek inside the 1963 Shasta - swooning over that hexagon quilt on the bed

Seriously, these campers are precious times a million and I may or may not have come home and trolled Craigslist for a few hours in search of one for myself that I neither need nor can afford right now.   One can dream, though, right?

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So that was my Country Living Fair experience.  If you've ever considered going and get the opportunity to, GO.   Take a friend, or meet up with one, and I guarantee you will have a delightful time!

Country Living Fair or Bust!

First thing tomorrow morning, I'm headed out and will make the 6-hour drive down Interstate 85 to Atlanta to attend the Country Living Fair.

ROAD TRIP!

Though this will be a road trip for one--which is all good because my car's CD player has a date with several albums, namely Babel by Mumford and Sons--Stacey of A Sort of Fairytale is flying in and we're going to rendezvous tomorrow evening!

Stacey with her adorable Maggie

There will be more than 150 vendors at the fair, the weather forecast is outstanding, and besides looking forward to shopping (I'm totally ready to check out the booth of McMaster & Storm), I'm hoping to see the Fabulous Beekman Boys (a.k.a., Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge), who will be making an appearance on Saturday at a book signing for their Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook.

Photo via Amazon

The cookbook is gorgeous...Santa brought a copy to our house last year...and I also loved reading Josh's The Bucolic Plague, which chronicles, quite hilariously and honestly, how Josh and Brent came to purchase Beekman Farm, return it to its former glory, and ultimately "become" the Fabulous Beekman Boys.

A wonderful weekend is ahead!  Anybody else going to Atlanta?




P.S.--I'd planned on doing a post this week of the fall decorations around the house. You know, since they've been up since September and I photographed them more than a week ago.  My timing is sterling, isn't it?

But...I managed to lose the camera's SD card for a couple of days in a total palm-to-forehead situation that involved misplacing the card between taking it out of the camera and putting it into the laptop.  In my defense, a certain five-year old distracted me at a key moment.  I know many of you can relate!

Fortunately, the card resurfaced a few hours ago. <big sigh of relief>  I'll have some downtime between the end of the first day of the fair and Stacey's arrival, so I'll edit the photos and put together a post then.  Yeah, just in time for November!  Again, Erin's timing = awesome.

The Old Lucketts Store in Photos

If you ever find yourself in northern Virginia, the Old Lucketts Store, just outside of Leesburg, is an absolute must-visit.

The weekend that I met Janet of The Empty Nest in Warrenton, VA, I also visited Lucketts for the first time.  I already want to go back with a truck and trailer! :)

Lucketts is the home of Miss Mustard Seed and numerous other vendors, and it's filled to the brim with vintage furniture, upcycled pieces, all sorts of collectibles, garden decorations, unique smalls, metalwork, architectural salvage, and more.  The shop is magnificent in its variety and quality of offerings, and I'm envious of anyone who lives close enough to go to it on a regular basis.

Let's take a look around...

Even the front porch is overflowing with amazing finds like this zinc-topped drop leaf table.

I wish I'd taken more photos because the personalities and styles of the spaces varied so widely.   What you see below is just just a tiny fraction of what's at Lucketts.  Forgive me, please?  I was too busy ooohing and aaahing my way through three stories of retail heaven.

Get a load of the distressed painted floor and all those leaded glass windows!

The third-floor landing was one of my favorite spots in the store with all its natural light and those insanely comfortable (but pricy) grainsack wing chairs.

A miniature garden in a tray

The Lucketts groundhog mascot greets you at the checkout

Besides the shop itself, there are also multiple open-air outbuildings filled with even more goodies.

Loved these little sheds!

As tempted as I was by many of the beautiful items the Lucketts vendors offered, I practiced restraint and came home with two boxes of Miss Mustard Seed's new milk paint--in Linen and Kitchen Scale.  I've already painted an old wood frame in Linen and I'm deliriously in love with the way this paint crackles and flakes.  More on that later...

Miss Mustard Seed's milk paint booth

Hope you enjoyed this little peek of a gem of a store. My photos only scratch the surface!

If anyone else has blogged about Lucketts, could you leave a link in the comments?

Happy Friday!

Home again, home again...

...jiggity jig.

(Yes, I'm a dork who quotes nursery rhymes.)

After two trips in the past three weeks, I'm totally out of sorts in regards to blogging.

There's so much I want to share and my mind lurches into warp speed when I consider what to write about first. But in the end, all I do is work myself into a mental tizzy and walk away from the computer. Ha!

Fear not, coherent posts will be forthcoming. I've been sewing and tinkering with much gratification in the craft room between trips.

And we also brought home a litter of piglets--which are all kinds of tiny adorableness--and a momma sow the other day.  (I never blogged about raising pigs last year, so be prepared for a couple of retroactive pig posts.)

Plus, I've finished several projects around the house I keep meaning to write about, but need to photo first.

So, in an attempt to get back into the swing of things, here are a few pictures from the first of the two recent trips. 

Jacob and I traveled to Bryson City, North Carolina--located in the gorgeous Great Smokey Mountains--and we met up with one of my dearest friends and her little daughter for an extended weekend.

We stayed in a rustic, green-tin-roofed cabin situated on a sunny dirt road deep in Bear Country in the prettiest mountain hollow.

The view from the front porch, overlooking another homestead in the hollow, made my heart swell a little bit.

As did the property's barn, vegetable garden, whimsical landscaping, and wildflowers flowers growing at will. (Is it weird that I enjoy vacationing in the country when I already live in the country?)

I was totally envious of the healthy corn and red tomatoes

Succulents in old boots

Hibiscus on a hillside

Swan planter shot for Ali

Marigolds in and around an old wheelbarrow

Trickling creek that fed a spring on the property

We hiked in part of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park and visited a waterfall. Then we tubed down the Deep Creek.

My birthday was a week before the trip, and my talented, creative and generous friend also presented me with this beautiful embroidery that she made!  It now resides proudly in the craft room.  Isn't the detail wonderful?

It was inspired by this art quote I'd pinned several months ago and I couldn't adore this handmade present more!

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But mostly we let the kids play while we gabbed in our jammies, drank coffee, and ate cobbler.  :) Which means this was a most excellent trip.

Where has this summer taken you?

Coming Up for a Breath of Air

After much relaxing last weekend, this week has been a busy one.  How is it already Friday evening?!?

I'm way behind on blog-visiting and comment-leaving.   Needless to say, I've totally neglected this blog, too!

Part of the reason for that is we weren't home for the first half of June.  We took an all-out family vacation to Florida with stops at Disney World, SeaWorld, and LEGO Land.

LEGO Land may have been my favorite theme park

Cinderella's Castle at Disney World

Cypress Gardens in LEGO Land

I think you can tell this is from SeaWorld :)

And while at Disney, I met Cindy from Cottage Instincts!  She's an absolute delight--which you can already tell from her blog--but meeting her in person just confirmed that.

All the theme-parking was followed by a relaxing stay on the white-sand beaches and translucent jadeite waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

And a visit to Ybor City in Tampa where I took far too many photos of the charming casitas found there.  Because I want to downsize and live in a casita.

So, upon coming home, I had reality to return to, several candle orders to fill, library meetings to attend, and those sorts of thing this week.  Good stuff, but busy stuff nonetheless.

I've also been prepping the house for an appearance in A Sort of Fairytale's Bloggers' Home Tour, held by the lovely Stacey, on the first of July.  Which means I've decided to try to hammer out several projects leading up to that and cram too much into too little time! :)

Seriously, I'm beyond tickled to be participating.  If you haven't seen the series, check it out here.  Such a lovely variety of beautiful homes to behold!   And while you're visiting A Sort of Fairytale, pop in and visit Stacey's new design services business, Cottage Industry.  She's holding a giveaway through Monday to celebrate the grand opening!

Back to the home tour though...since I can't leave well enough alone, I'm madly repainting beadboard, trying to finish a few small furniture projects, and putting the finishing touches on the craft room.  (Which, with God as my witness, will be done in time to go on the home tour!)

So here I am, coming up for a breath of air, to say hi, and hoping that your week has gone well. I'm looking forward to catching up on your blogs and seeing what you've been up to!

Take care,
Erin