making rebecca lynne: Weekend Jaunt to the Amish and Good as New Consignment

This weekend we spent some time away from packing to check out the area. The first place that is of definite interest is the large Amish population that lives nearby. Yes, I said Amish. And...those of you who know anything about quilting must know that Amish Quilts are amazing! Aaaand...guess whose mother-in-law located the nearest Amish Quilt Store? That's riiiiight!

So Saturday morning I piled my family into the car to drive out into what appeared to be the middle of rows and rows of corn to an Amish farm where they also have a quilt store. Miss E was fascinated with the smell of manure and the multiple cows she kept seeing outside her window, to be honest, she was a bit annoyed that she didn't see any pigs! Anyway, the store is located on the farm in a small building that looks like a little cottage to the right of the farmhouse...basically if you aren't looking for it you Will miss it.

The quilts we saw were stunning! There was a huge pile of them folded on a table like a large glorious fabric book. To view the quilts the woman who runs and owns the shop, Mattie Hostetler, patiently unfolds each quilt in the pile and goes all the way through until the pile is refolded onto the other side. Just picture a huge book and each page is a quilt! Amazing. This pile was on a table and reached my chin in height...that is how many quilts there were. The details in the quilting have inspired me, I am itching to get finished with one of my quilt tops so that I can actually dive into some quilting. The quilts I enjoyed best were the ones that were mostly white with amazing quilting designs...all done by hand of course! But, if you are into piecing, you would not be disappointed because the color choices were out of this world - colors I would never have imagined putting together. Plus, the piecing was so tiny and the quilts were HUGE. Completely inspiring.

I did not take any photos because it is rude and from what I have learned in my short time here the Amish aren't exactly psyched having people take photography of them or their lifestyle. Think about it, what if someone visited your home and started taking photos of you washing your dishes? Exactly. There is no website for the shop but if you'd like to learn more about it and the Amish community in this area try visiting here.

Our next stop this weekend was to a consignment shop called Good As New. This place rocked. We are in the market for two extra chairs for our table. Now that we don't have the table wedged up against a wall we actually have room for enough chairs! We stopped here hoping we could find some cool vintage chairs and whatever else... I am constantly on the hunt to add some vintage and antique furniture to our house and often can't afford it - so when my husband agreed we needed more chairs I jumped on the chance to add something shabby chic to the house!

There were so many cool things I took shots of a few items I'd love to take home with me...but couldn't find a good excuse to do so (i.e. couldn't convince my husband we needed it even though I so obviously think that we do). I didn't have a proper camera as I wasn't intending to take photos that day...so excuse the quality of the pics taken from my phone.

Antique Silverware

Cast Iron Stove (I mean who doesn't want this just cause in their house??)

Old School Desk

I wanted the Table all this stuff is on - it was $60

Milk Bottles

Luckily we did find some chairs! We own a "French Country Farm" style table. Which is a fancy way of saying a simple big solid chunky square chopping block kind of table...which I wanted because I love that we can beat the you know what out of it while the girls grow up and later use it as a prep table if we decide to get something fancier. Right now the table has four matching simple square chairs and I wanted to buy some cool head chairs that were different and vintage. We finally found them! Look at the carving on the seat back and the seat itself...plus there are gold grommets...yes, how cool?

Carved Chairs that Came Home with Us

Plus, now that all the chairs that belong to the table are being used at the table...I also needed and extra chair for the sewing room. Voila! Another cool carved wooden chair...and it was on sale for $25. Score.

Sewing Chair

Here are some at home shots of the things we brought home...

A Victorian Sewing Box. I thought this would be perfect to throw one of my jewelry projects inside and take around the house with me to work on as I go. I used to cart a whole bead container with me before and this is just so cute I couldn't pass it up!

Victorian Sewing Box

Inside Victorian Sewing Box

A carved birdcage for the Squishes' Room. This birdcage looks amazing in their room...which is not ready for a photo shoot yet... Isn't this cage awesome? It was the first thing I saw when we walked into the consignment shop and I dragged my hubby to it and said This is a Must. Luckily he agreed without much of a fight - smart man.

Carved Wooden Birdcage

Detail of birdcage carving

And of course I can't pass up on a fabric deal. Two yards of Holly Hobby fabric for $2 will make such a cute baby quilt in the future, and I just love large floral prints and this one was just $1 a yard!

Here is a shot of our chairs in action at the table. Don't they look like they were meant to be there? I love them! The carved seats also mean I don't have to go crazy finding seat covers to match the one we have because who would want to cover up the beautiful carving details and grommets?

Because I took out Miss V's high chair for a nicer composition...I promised her to include a glam shot of it. It is an example of my love for older shabby chic loved furniture as it is a painted wood high chair with hand painted details. It is considered a hand me down from my husband's Aunt. They thought we were a little crazy for wanting this old chair but I l-o-v-e it! I'll be so sad when we have no more babies to sit in it...sigh...