Primitive Memories

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

One of my favorite places

This weekend I took at trip with my grandmother and mom to a place that I simply love. It's a little town in the Adirondacks called Willsboro and it's right on Lake Champlain. Willsboro is such a simple town.It has less then 2000 people.
My grandfather was born and raised there. It's where he met my grandmother at the young age of 14( i believe) and it's where my great grandparents had a camp which now is owned by my great aunt. So I am proud to say I have a lot of family ties to this little town in the Adirondacks.

Views in Willsboro

As a kid I remember going up to the camp. Usually my grandmother would take my cousin Jessie, my brother Tyler and I up there for a few days at a time. We always had the best time. My cousin and I would take the little row boat out on the lake and feed the seagulls, while my brother just sat there nervously waiting for us to tip the boat over!! Awww...... what memories!

I also remember the time my cousin and I tried to convince my grandmother that it was a good idea to take home with us the minnows that we had caught from the lake! We didn't understand what the big deal was. They would have been fine on the 2 hour car ride home in the back seat!

Another fun memory of my time up in Willsboro was the time my grandmother made us walk back to the camp. We had gone out for ice cream and on the way back my cousin and I kept bugging her to let us walk back to the camp, never thinking she would ever let us. Boy were we wrong.

She stop the car and said ok go ahead. Well I'll tell you that was the longest walk ever! She had dropped us off at the end of our street which had woods on both sides, we were going along fine until we saw the bear crossing sign! At that point we hit the ground running! From that time on we never once begged to walk anywhere!

Okay enough down memory lane! So anyways this weekend we went up to visit. My grandfathers sisters and brothers still all live in the same town they grew up in. My Uncle Shrimp ( he's the shortest of them so that's where the name comes from!) and his wife live in the house where my great grandparents did and they were having a barn sale.
It was fun going thru the old barn and seeing some of the old things. I didn't get a picture of the barn. Don't know what I was thinking, but I did get a few of their house and the river that runs behind it.

It always such a calming feeling I get when I visit up north. There is just something about that sleepy little town. For all the years I have been going up there it never seems to change. Everything moves at a slower and simpler pace up in Willsboro New York and that's why I love it so!

I think Jackson agrees too!

Here are a few more pictures from there.

Pictures at the camp
Willsboro Bay

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time.

Heather

Thursday, August 19, 2010

I have a problem..........

I just can't take my craft room anymore! It needs a total makeover! I have tried my best to prim it up and make it functional but it just isn't working. The house was my husband's grandmothers house. I believe it was built back in the late 1940's and she lived there up until 2 years ago. So needless to say the house has many characteristics of a 1940's house. 1940's colors and all!

My craft room is in the basement. It's a good size basement, I have one side and my husband has the other. Someday we will do the whole thing over but who knows when that someday will be! So for now I have to make do with the way it is. Somedays that's not easy to do!

One good thing about the basement is that it has these big windows. The windows help it not feel so much like a basement, at least on one side. The side where I do all my crafting is a different story.

I have the cement walls and one tiny little window that looks out to the ground! Doesn't bring in much light. But that's one thing I know I can't change and I can live with the tiny window.
The one thing that I can't live with is the UGLY green linoleum tile that is on the floor. It's simply hideous!

Can you feel my pain?! It's awful isn't it?! My ideal flooring would be hardwood, but the hubby doesn't want put anything nice down there due to the fact that every once in a hundred years (okay really more like every 5 years) the basement walls leak. So on the small chance that this might happen he is against doing anything down there until we can guarantee that the walls won't leak!

So as you probably gathered that I won't be getting my wood floor anytime soon! Plus my husband thinks it looks just fine the way it is now! I think he just says that hoping that I'll agree!

Knowing that I might never get hardwood floors still hasn't stop me from dreaming of doing something to this floor. I am open to suggestions if there are any out there. I have thought of painting it but that would be alot of work and I'm not sure how I would like it after it was done. But then again anything would be better then what I have now.

Back of the room

Front of the room. The green just isn't working for me!

I know this probably wasn't a very exciting post but it's been on my mind lately and I just needed to get it out! I wish one of those makeover shows would just show up at my house and redesign and redecorate my whole basement! I can dream can't I?

Until next time,

Heather

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Back from Pennsylvania!

I survived the Litiz PA craft show! My oh my what a show! It went on for miles and miles. They had over 700 vendors! I never saw such a sight. It was a crafter's dream. We got there about 10 and didn't leave till 4 and I still don't think we hit every booth!

One street lined with tents and people!

Another street with more vendors

It was a great show but the one thing I was a bit disappointed about was the lack of handmade crafters. Sadly I know this has become more and more of a trend at craft shows. Many many of the vendors had stuff that were ordered from a certain primitive catalog. So needless to say I saw alot of the same items over and over again. My Aunt who has been to the show said that in the past it was all handmade items not China made things were allowed. I sure wish it would get back to that, but I guess people don't want to pay the price for handmade items when the can get a similar looking item that has been massed produced and is cheaper. As a crafter it is a sad thing!!
I was so excited to meet Teresa from Teresa's Primitive Treasures.
http://teresasprimtreasures.blogspot.com/
I had found out that she would be there through Patti from the Brick House Craft Shop. http://porchsittingtime.blogspot.com/ Teresa's things were fantastic! I couldn't resist buying this adorable little snowman star.

Here are a few of my other treasures I found along the way. I had been looking for a bench to put out in the garden and I finally found the perfect one!! Now if I can only find the time to get it out to the garden!

The show was great and I would do it again, but the best part of the trip was visiting with my family and just hanging out and having fun. My aunt and uncle live in Mt. Gretna PA so every year we go down for a visit. This year my cousin and his wife from Ohio were there as well.

I must say staying with my relatives is like staying at a bed and breakfast! Every morning we would wake up to the smell of bacon, eggs and pancakes! It was wonderful! I am already looking forward to our next visit!

Well I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend! It's hard to believe that we only have 2 more weekends left in the summer (unofficially!). But for many of us that means that the best time of the year is coming up soon FALL!! Yippy!

Until next time,

Heather

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Summer Garden

It sure has been a hot summer in my neck of the woods! I think it's been close to 90 most of the summer. We have had little rain too which doesn't help my garden. I try to get out and water every night but with water restrictions it's not so easy to keep my plants happy! Luckily even with the hot temperatures and lack of rain my gardens still seem to be doing well.
My favorites are Black Eyed Susan which seem to tolerate the heat and drought. This year they have taken over my one garden! It's my own fault I wanted the Susan's to spread and they sure did! This fall I plan to divided them up and place them in other spots in the yard. One of the reasons I love the Susan's so much is that they are hard to kill. No matter where I put them they seem to grow, as long as they get a good amount of sun. So if you are looking for a very low maintenance flower, Blacked Eyed Susan's are for you!
Here are a few pictures of my gardens. At this point in the summer I don't work too much in the gardens. After a few months of constantly weeding, planting, watering, and pruning now is the time I like to just sit back and enjoy the view!

Flowers picked from my garden

Back Garden

Front of the house

One lonely little Holy Hock!

Now that I am not spending most of my free time in the garden I have been busy working on more fall creations.

My newest is this guy, Pumpkin Jack

I finally got a chance to finish a few of these black cats. They were patiently waiting for me to finish them up!

And last but not least I made up more of my Harvest baskets. They always seem to sell well at the shows.

This weekend I will be heading down to Pennsylvania to visit family. Of course visiting family is the main reason I will be heading to PA but it's not the only reason. We are also going to the Lititz PA craft show!! I have wanted to go for years but something always got in the way of us going. But this year is the year! This isn't your everyday craft show. This one is miles and miles of craft vendors! I'm sure there will be lots of good prim crafts to choose from too! Pennsylvania seems to have many talented prim crafter's and I am hoping that many of them will be at this show!!

When I get back I hope to have many pictures and goodies to share with you!

Until next time,

Heather

Friday, July 30, 2010

Thinking of fall................

As much as I love summer and don't want to wish it away I can't help but thinking ahead to fall! I've been busy making my fall creations so sometimes I just can't help but be in a fall mood. As I read other blogs and posts on facebook I see alot of you are also itching for fall. I love it!

One of the ways that helps me get in the fall mood ( not like I need much help) is watching movies that take place in autumn. Some of my favorites are.......

BABY BOOM

I always wanted to live her life (after the whole NYC thing).How nice would it be if you could just quit your job, move to a gorgeous farm house in Vermont, have your own pond and apple orchard and stay home and make baby applesauce for a living! How great would that be?!

Another great fallish movie is Funny Farm! Again the movie is set in Vermont. Chevy Chase quits his job moves to a lovely country home, has his own pond and decides to write a novel! Of course things don't go as smoothly as he would like. I guess if it did it wouldn't make such a funny movie, now would it?!

Stepmom is another movie that takes place around fall.

In this movie no one quits their job or moves to Vermont but they do have a really nice house!!

Yes, as you can see I like movies that have nice country homes in them!!

My last movie I'll share with you is my all time favorite. You've got mail!!

Although this one does not have any nice country houses in it, it does have a cute little book shop called the Shop Around the Corner. I just love that name!!

One of my favorite lines in the movies is "Don't you just love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address."

I just love that line!!

Thinking of all these wonderful movies makes me want to watch them all! Maybe this weekend I will have a chance too!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Until next time,

Heather