Carole’s Country Store Blog

I have spoken before about my friend Louise and her gorgeous hooked rugs. She has been working on a rug for our friend Carole for a few months now and just recently finished it. We got together at Carole’s house yesterday for some girl talk and to see the finished rug. Isn’t it beautiful! That’s Louise on the left and Carole on the right. What a lucky girl to have such a gorgeous rug made by a good friend. Here is Louise with the rug she made for me several months ago. It still gives me so much pleasure every time I look at it.

She does such a beautiful job and takes such pride in her work. More of her rugs can be seen in the Artisan Store

This photo didn’t turn out good. I should have taken another one, medical but I wanted to show it anyway, sale so you could see the dining room.

The hooked rug is going to hang on the wall on the right, drugstore over the chests. It’s the perfect spot to hang it. The handmade shutters make the room feel so cozy, while keeping the hot summer sun off of the newly reupholstered bittersweet sofa and chair.

It was fun, as it always is getting together with good friends. Never a dull moment and always a good laugh.
HAPPY DAY
Carole

Sunday was such a glorious day. Perfect for a drive to Lancaster County, there PA. I left at 7:30. I always try to get an early start, pills so many of the flee markets open at 6:00, but that’s way to early for me. The farmland looked especially beautiful today and I couldn’t resist taking a few photos.

I found a few things, but not as much as I hoped I would. This little vintage table and chairs is so adorable, I couldn’t resist buying it. The old blue paint and the little decals made it especially appealing to me, and the gateleg table was too irresistible.

I bought this old daguerreotype, is that what they are called, maybe not? I don’t know much about them, but I thought this young boy was so cute. I love the old egg sign and the vintage folky bunny basket. Wouldn’t flowers look perfect in it! Finding this early Amish doll made my day worthwhile. Isn’t she just fabulous. I especially love her cape.

There was one last shop I wanted to visit on the way home. I also wanted to drive past my mother’s house just to see it again. We left a large brand new American flag in the living room. I was happy to see that the new owners bought a flag pole for it, and it was proudly waving in the breeze. As I drove along rt. 322, it became clear that there was a bad accident ahead and all traffic was detoured. I had no idea where I was heading on this road, but what a beautiful drive it was! I passed so many beautiful old restored houses along the way.

The road were winding and narrow at at once point I had to guess that I was heading in the right direction. I did managed to get a few nice pictures. This was such a lovely road. A beautifull old house was by the side of the road but I couldn’t get a good shot of it because there were so many trees in the way. I could only get the side of it, but isn’t the stone beautiful? Finally I got to where I wanted to be. I’m glad I had to detour. It was so worth it. I’m thinking I should start finding more back roads to explore.
All the goodies I found will be for sale in my store this week. So if you are interested, you can email me at caroleholt@comcast.net.
HAPPY DAY
Carole

I have always loved early treen woodenware. I love the timeworn unassuming quality, patient it just makes me feel good.

This large early treen bowl has been on my dining room table for many years. I never get tired of looking at it. I wonder who owned it before I purchased it over 30 years ago. How many families owned it and what did they use it for.

This wonderful early bowl is for sale in my store. I love the way it looks when filled with summer fruit, treat stone fruit is perfect too if you collect it. I wish I had just the right place for it, but I don’t, so I put it in Carole’s Country Store for someone else to buy and enjoy.

Woodenware, or treen, items were necessary for early American settlers. Many kitchen items were made from wood. Maple, ash, birch or pine were easy to come by in the dense forests. Hard woods like maple and birch were perfect for items like mortars and pestles. Softer woods were used for spoons or boxes. Utensils could be made cheaply by anyone that could whittle or carve, and especially easy if you owned a primitive lathe. I love the way flowers look in this old treen sugar bucket. Sugar buckets are also known a firkins. For me, there is nothing that says “country” more than a collection of mellow, well-worn woodenware.

HAPPY DAY EVERYONE!
Carole

A friend gave me a couple of old shutters to paint. I finished it and thought you might like to see it. It’s been a while since I have done anything like this and it felt good to get back to it again. I set up my easel on the sunporch and got out all of my paints and began to think of ideas. It brought back memories of when I painted murals. We would spend much time planning on what to do, advice sketching it out on paper, ask but when we got to our customers houses we never used it. We just started painting. The house seemed to tell us what it wanted. I was looking over some old photographs and when I saw these, store it reminded me of some of the jobs we did. One of our customers had a scaffolding built for us. What a difference a few years make. I can’t imagine standing with one foot on a stool and one on the railing!

This customer had very high ceilings and a very long hallway. During our consultation, while discussing how his mural would be painted, we suggested bringing the mural all the way up to the ceiling, but he wanted it to go only so far. The next morning he left us a note saying how much he loved the mural and had decided that he would like it to go to the ceiling! It was a little tricky blending the two areas together, but I did and thankfully it turned out just fine. I wish I had taken a photo of the entire mural but it was had to do because the hallway was so long and narrow.

In case you missed this post of about murals, here’s a link.
Next week I’ll be painting another shutter. I’ll show you when it’s done. Thanks for stopping by.
Happy day
Carole