Holiday Good Wishes 2017.....

.... from our farmhouse to yours. Here's to the important things - spending time with family and friends, enjoying a good meal, and cookies and sweets. May you be warm and cosy and safe. 

I wish you the best and thank you all for your support, friendship, encouragement, and kind words. May the coming year bring you creativity, health and happiness. 

XO
Kristin

Around the Farm

It is breeding season for the sheep. In early August the rams were moved into the various pastures where the ewes have been summering. We are hoping for lambs in January. This is our new Texel ram. 

He is in the fields just outside our farmhouse. He is a friendly fellow having been raised in a small flock of sheep in CT that had a bit more human interaction than ours do. Our sheep graze far and wide and after a summer away from the barns they are wilder than heck. Every time I walk into the pastures, he comes up to me for a scratch on the head. This is our second Texel ram and we are looking forward to his lambs to see how they grow. He has a very blocky shape to his body and The Farmer is looking for a lower to the ground animal that is a little easier to handle and move around. 

The ewes have not been shorn yet. Once they return to their winter barns, they will be. Hopefully their fleeces will grow a bit to keep them warm this winter. This is one of The Farmer's new management plans. He is always trying new things. I just go along because the sheep are his thing, not mine. He doesn't tell me what color to paint and I don't tell him what breed of sheep to buy. Could be why we are still married after 32 years. 

I've been working in my pottery shed in the late afternoons until almost dark. The sheep move out to graze as the sun is going lower in the sky. With the windows open, I watch them start to move out down the hill and into the orchard. They are curious about the noise in the shed and we usually talk to each other a bit. (Go ahead Julia - roll your eyes.) 

Here are some more photos around our farmhouse. I know I am a broken record about sunflowers so these photos show you some other things I grow. Everything is looking a bit tired now but I let it all keep going. I haven't decided whether I will buy any mums this year. To me, mums kind of signal the end of the growing season and they make me a bit sad. 

This was my zinnia harvest the other day. The more you cut them, the more blooms they put out. Gotta keep harvesting otherwise they die down. 

Sadie's hair is starting to grow out and she is looking less like a lab and more like a Pyr. She has been very busy at night protecting the sheep all night long. It's dark out there and she takes her job seriously. 

Hope you all are having a good week. 

Brimfield Sightings and Best of Flea Market Style Feature

A couple weeks ago, I went to the Brimfield Flea Market which is only about an hour from our farm. I have been going to this flea market for years and I look forward to it. I go by myself so I can shop as fast or slow as I like. I usually go on Friday because that is the day the J&J Show opens. This show used to be the high end field of all the different fields that open during the week. Unfortunately it has gone a bit down hill and the quality isn't as great. But it is still a fun and inspiring day. After I run through J & J, I head over to a few of the other fields that opened earlier in the week but still have vendors present.

Here are some photos I snapped of things I liked - but didn't buy. Do you see a theme? I do - pattern, ceramics, and sheep. It's what I am into at this moment in time. 

When I got home that afternoon, I found the newest copy of Best of Flea Market Style Magazine in my mailbox. 

And you guessed it - there was our house! 

This is a publication by Meredith and is a twice yearly magazine that is only available at newstands or at Barnes and Noble, possibly Walmart and Target and places they sell magazines. The pictures were taken by Rikki Snyder for Country Home but since Meredith owns Country Home and owns the photos outright, they could write another article about our farmhouse. 

I'd say this house is getting a bit too much exposure! Oh well - I guess I'll take it and be thankful for it. Here is the end page of the magazine with a photo of our porch with my oil paintings. I like the quote from Thomas Edison. 

"To invent you need a good imagination and a pile of junk."

The next Brimfield Antique Show/Flea Market is July 11 to 16. Information here. People travel from all over the world to visit this show. I'm so lucky to live close. 

Hope you all are having a good week. 

Easy Decorations Here for Christmas at the Farm

Last week, I had to make our farmhouse feel festive for the first Open House here at Leyden Glen Farm. I must be honest with you all -- we don't entertain a lot during the holidays. I mostly decorate for us to make the short winter days seem more bearable. We only have a few more days of shortening days and then they will get longer - hooray. 

So last week before the Open House, I did some quick holiday decorating. I never have a lot of time and don't go over the top. I prefer a natural look with little bits of our Christmas traditions added in. And I love little lights. I leave them up some places all year long. I think in the UK they call them fairy lights. I usually buy extras when they are at a deep discount after the holidays because for some reason, when i pull out the old ones, they never seem to work. Quality? 

My favorite part of decorating is to take my pruning shears and go out into the woods and clip lots of pine boughs, spruce, hemlock and whatever other green-ish stuff I can find. I throw it into the back of the truck and lug it indoors. Then I fill vases with greens and it just makes the house seem more alive and ready for the holidays. Nothing fancy and very reasonably priced - free. 

Mom brought me some pine roping at Thanksgiving and my brother-in-law Pat helped me hang it on the house. I love pine roping - it lasts a long time and it just says Christmas to me. Sometimes I make roping but I didn't have a lot of time this year. My family and I made some wreaths after Thanksgiving on our craft day. I ripped some silk scraps I had to make really pretty ribbons. Even the lamb shack and chicken coop get some roping and wreaths. 

I pulled out some of the little antique sheep I have collected over the years and grouped them on a desk with my Staffordshire statues.

The pom pom garland has been a staple this year at our house. You can watch my YouTube video and make your own. 

And because we are into pom poms, I dressed up some other sheep things I have around with pom poms. 

Out came the birch houses and my glittered sheep and pig. I have quite a collection that I have made over the years. I lined them up on the mantle in the dining room and added some votives. The candlelight makes the glitter sparkle. Here is a birch house tutorial. 

Here is the total scene - The oil painting above the mantle is done by a friend's husband who passed away. She gave it to me because it was a farm scene. He painted for years and years and never had a show nor sold any paintings. He just painted for the joy of painting. I like to have it as a reminder of what is important in art. 

I started a bunch of paperwhites just before Thanksgiving. They are blooming now. I was hoping they would be open for the Open House but they weren't. Just having the greenery though makes the house feel warmer. I ordered a bunch of them from Van Engelen so I keep potting them up all winter long. Nice quality and a reasonable way to keep up some cheer and life all winter. 

Here are some on the windowsill. The thing in front of them is Kate's dog crate in the kitchen. It is such a big ugly thing but she likes it and feels safe in it so it stays. On top is my sunflower fabric design which you can get on Spoonflower here. There was a lot of interest in it at the Open House. 

I also brought out the glittery ornaments I made out of cardboard when Julia was little. I love these things. More sparkle and really easy to make and cheap. All you need is recycled cardboard, glitter, scissors, Elmer's glue, and a paintbrush. 

So that is pretty much it here for decorations until we get our tree next weekend. I hope you all are enjoying the festive season. 

And if you missed it - my Etsy Pottery Shop re-opened on Friday. There is still a good selection of my colorful pottery left. Check it out here. 

This Past Weekend's Hugely Successful Open House at Leyden Glen Farm

Well, we made it through! We weren't sure what to expect, or even if anyone would come to our first Open Farmhouse/Open Studio Event here on Glen Road in little old Leyden in western Massachusetts. Last week was a whirlwind of activity, decorating the house in a Christmas theme, cleaning it up, making signs, pricing goods, thinking about the traffic flow through our house, figuring out what to sell and where to merchandise it. I was awake for several nights, trying to figure it all out over and over in my mind.

In between it all, I was still glazing pottery. (There is some left and I am working on getting it onto my Etsy shop.)

The kiln had to be unloaded Saturday morning because it was still cooling the night before. These mugs came out warm and pretty much flew out the door. 

I sewed tea towels made out of my own fabric designs. They all sold out by early Saturday afternoon - yippee! Next year I will increase my fabric order and sewing and hopefully schedule my time a little better. I had several late nights which I am still recovering from. I must admit - I am not as young as I used to be and late nights aren't as frequent.

I taught Julia how to use the Clover Pom Pom maker and she made pom poms to sell. She is still counting her riches. Pretty cute. I'm really proud of her because she hasn't been able to do anything like this before. I had to tie the ends so they wouldn't fall apart. And she vacuumed up all the colorful wooly mess in the morning.

My handpainted lampshades and antique lampbases looked fantastic at one end of the living room. 

My friend Deborah set up on our porch. It looked like a textile bazaar full of beautiful rich colors. 

And her incredible handmade jewelry. Exquisite. Across the street, Alicia was displaying and selling her art. I didn't get there for photos unfortunately. In fact, I barely had time to take many here.  

Outside, my neighbor Debbie and her grand-daughter Marissa were making and selling wreaths all day long. It was pretty cool - as people walked in, Debbie would be beginning a wreath. When they left it would be done and they would buy it. We are pretty resourceful here in the country, aren't we? 

At 10 a.m. the first guests arrived. Or should I say that they arrived before as I was still scurrying around and vacuuming. We had a steady flow of guests all day long on Saturday. Many were curious about the decoration of our home, asking lots of questions. I was so happy to be able to share my techniques with them and point them in the direction of my book Crafting A Colorful Home so that they too could replicate the look of our home. (Signed copies of Crafting A Colorful Home is available on my website for Christmas gifts - $27.95 + free shipping.  Makes an awesome Christmas gift if I do say so myself.)

I couldn't believe how far people travelled from. Two women came from California - planning trips around our Open House. Two women drove 6 hours from Syracuse, NY - they had discovered me on Houzz.com. One woman came from Minnesota combining her trip with another event. Three friends (above) came from New Jersey. Many more came from CT. One woman came from PA and many folks came from northern VT, New Hampshire, Boston and eastern Mass. Many locals and further afield western-Mass'ers came too. It was great to meet many new friends and have the support of old friends too. 

In our farmhouse kitchen, my friends helped out with the purchases and wrapping. Here is Clara manning the kitchen island/aka retail sales space. She did a great job on Saturday and Gail and Stephanie were awesome on Sunday. Thanks you all. 

Outside, The Farmer sold our farm-raised lamb (we had to miss the opening day of the Amherst Winter Market - I will be there this Saturday though). On Sunday, The Farmer, Ness and Kate did a herding demo. There was so much interest in the dogs, the sheep, and what it is like to live on a sheep farm. We had several sheep farmers come too - I think they wanted to see what we are doing here. Many of our farming friends and lamb customer friends from the different markets we do supported us also. Here Nessie resting up in the morning before her demo. 

The "puppies" and collies were kept in a fenced in area so they didn't cause havoc. They were a hit and everyone went to see them and say hi. Aren't Beau and Sadie getting big? 

It was an awesome two days. We will probably do it again next year although we will not have the caveat of the Yankee Magazine article which is what prompted me to get this together quickly and do it this year. I know many people came because of the article and I cannot thank Yankee Magazine enough for running the story on our home at Christmastime. 

It was a festive atmosphere and everyone was happy to be here. Some of my yarn industry friends even came to support me. It was an awesome experience all around. And we couldn't have been luckier with the weather - it was sunny and in the 50's. Amazingly warm for early December. 

As I am thinking back on the weekend this morning, I thought - what a nice way for folks to do some Christmas shopping and leave inspired about decorating and color. Certainly beats the mall and all the sameness out there. 

I've been working on listing the remaining pottery on my Etsy Shop which is still on "vacation mode." It is a super time-consuming process but I am chipping away at the photos, the descriptions, the pricing, etc. I'm trying to get it all done by Friday. I'll announce the re-opening of the shop here on the blog, on FB and IG - hopefully sometime on Friday which will give me time to pack and ship orders next week before Christmas.

Tomorrow, I will share some of the easy holiday decorations I threw together for the Open House. Funny thing is, I never decorate this early but this event forced me into it. Except for the tree, we are all set now for the holidays. That will come sometime next week.