Primrose Primitives

Well that's what I call it anyway. For now, it is just a small, simple vintage and collectibles business all official and everything with the state of Wisconsin. I've been selling out of a great antique mall in Hixton, Wisconsin. Tried a few other places but not as much success. I'm actual amazed at how well it has been going. The sales for the summer were great. I know things will start to wind down as vacation travelers are now back in the routine of school. Then we have the holiday season and snow fast approaching. I'll be happy if the sales during the slow time just pays the rent. It will pick up again shortly after that.

I Finally Did IT!!!!

I bet your wonder what the IT is? Well I have always wanted to have my own antiques/collectibles store out of our house or if we had a barn. Well our house is too small and we don't have a barn. So I decided to rent space in a shop. I ended up with actually two locations - one is a much more upscale shop with only items that are 1968 and older. The other spot I'm hoping works out well too but they have very few rules on things so I could almost put anything in that booth. They even agreed to let me put a few handmade primitive items. So maybe that will work well too. As soon as I get more set up I'll try to post some pictures. Wish me luck on this new venture!!!! I really just want to pay the low rent fees. Looking forward to the next auction I can attend.

Going Down and Down

Well I haven't posted in awhile. It's hard to keep up with crafting and prim decor while homeschooling five kiddos. So I guess I'll try to fit some in during summer break and then the rest will have to wait til they all graduate.

I've also been busy trying to fit in some exercise both for health and because of really needing to lose some weight. The good news is I am down around 16lbs and I really don't know how many inches but I started at about a size 18/20 and I'm now in 11/12 for some things and 13/14 if the jeans are from those stores that the sizes run small anyway like Aeropostale and Old Navy. I only have about 30lbs to get to my weight watchers goal and then I won't need to pay the meeting fee.

Knee Problems for my Little Guy

My son Micah (age 7) has patella knee where your knee cap shifts out of place from time to time for no reason. The other night at about 10:30 during his sister's sleepover party it happened again. It was the worst I've ever seen it. He was screaming he was in so much pain. I kept trying to shift it back into place, not that I really know what I'm doing, but I've watch the doctors before but it wasn't working so well. Or at least I thought that. I took hubby along because the roads were icy and we headed to the ER. I felt so awful leaving the girls home after inviting two of Natania's friends over to sleep. I felt so guilty but my oldest daughter 16 was home and Natania's friends are very mature and well behaved. They took 4 xrays and the knee was lined up right but they were concerned about ligament damage. So we went home at about 2:30am with crutches and a leg brace that is the size used for a small adult so that wasn't all that helpful but it did immobilize his knee for a few days. Our follow up visit was today with our family doctor. He told him to try to limp around until it felt better and to try to put some weight on it just a little. As long as it didn't hurt. He thought he would be better in a few days but he is also setting up an appt. for us to see an orthopeds specialist. He is thinking Micah might need knee surgery but he wants the specialist to make the final decision because Micah is so young and the surgery is usually done in your teen years. So now we now wait and see.

Giveaway winner!!

Congratulations to Tammy from a Primitive Place. She is the winner of the cute Christmas tea light. Enjoy!!

Blog Anniversary Giveaway

I didn't even realize but one of my blogs is one year old today. I haven't been blogging all that long but have enjoyed skimming around the blog-o-sphere and reading what is happening in your world, in your part of the country or the globe for that matter.

I think in honor of this blogs birthday I will post this picture of a simple give away that you can put aside for next year. I made a few of these this season. The tealight holder is made from black felt and the top edge is sprinkled with german glass glitter. I wrapped some tea stained cheese cloth around the hat and pinned a rusty jingle bell.



All you need to do for this giveaway is become a follower of my blog and leave a comment letting me know that you are following or if you are already a follower just tell me that. Sound good? I'll make it easy this time and a little more interesting the next. Good luck! I'll post the winner around January 17th.

And Happy New Year everyone

Let the Merry Making Begin

It's Christmas Eve and at our house that is when a lot of the celebration begins. We prepare the rest of the food which this year we bought too much so we will have to finish some of it tomorrow while eating left overs. Micah woke everyone up early to open stockings. I manage to put him off until about 10:30am so we could get a few things started.


On the menu this year is ribs (for later or tomorrow), chicken wings, cranberry chicken wings, lots of dips, hummis and few other things. I'm hoping to make tomorrow or the day after a gingerbread cake. So that will be a nice treat.







It looks like we will be snowed in from the storm that is going on outside today and tomorrow. They are predicting 15-20inches for us. I guess this will be a real "white Christmas". One of the girls is a little disappointed about getting snowed in - she was hoping to go to a movie on Christmas day like we did last year. We don't normally do that but with all our family too far away to travel to we decided to try that. I was actually very surprised at how crowded the theater was last year.

Merry Christmas to all of you. Enjoy your time with family and friends celebrating the birth of the Savior of the world.

Lil' Christmas Eve

Today our family celebrates "Lil' Christmas Eve". We adopted the tradition from our pastor back home in New England. His family has Norweigan background and my husband's side has Sweedish. So the day before Christmas, we start baking and doing those fun little things around the house as we get ready to celebrate the birth of Christ. We listen to carols while cooking and maybe a little bit of cleaning gets done. We finish up the wrapping and put the final touches on our decorations. We baked 3 different cookies today. We usually do much more but the time this year seemed to just get away from me and my little guy started to seem like he was getting a sick stomach. I'm praying not, since it will be no fun to have a sick child on Christmas, especially at his age. He's been waiting and waiting with very little patience, but then I don't blame him for that everyone loves presents.

Children's Christmas Program

Tonight was our church's Christmas program. We had a really good turn out for attendance and some family visitors coming to see the grandkids, neice or nephew of their relative. My daughter Natania had a two verse solo in one of the songs. I'm very proud of her. I think she is a little disappointed in how it went. She got kinda nervous on the 2nd verse, so I think she feels she could've done better. But I'm so glad she even tried. Bev, the lady who handles this each year kept asking for more volunteers and no one was willing to take on a solo verse or two. I know Natania can sing really, really well when no one is looking at her. So this is good practice for getting over those nerves. The hymn had about 10 verses, maybe more I lost track and it isn't the easiest song to sing even the congregation had trouble with their verses. We can't take photos during service so I'm posting a couple from the kids Christmas concert with our homeschool choir. The first is a picture of Natania with her friend Mackenzie. Natania is the blond on the right.

This one is from our concert. She really loves to sing so we are encouraging anything musical for her. She is part of the choir, takes voice lessons twice a month and piano.

Decking the Halls

I finally had a few moments to take some pictures of this years decorations. I'm not completely done. I'm still hoping to work on the kitchen a little bit more but that room is always full of school books or dirty dishes.

This year I did a little bit of outdoor decorating with the sled and the box of greenery under the window. I've wanted one of those sleds for a while now and found one at a reasonable price at the antique store down the street.




Onto the livingroom/dining room area.














After getting the tree up and decorated we lost some lights. I hate when that happens. A few years back we had the same problem just on a different tree and in a different house. We were living in Indiana then.




We have another tree in the dining room. It's a collection of victorian ornaments that we've bought over the years. We've come a long way since the first few years of marriage when we didn't have alot in the way of decorations.


Let's not forget among the fun of decorations and gift giving the real meaning of Christmas.


Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Luke 2: 7, 11, 14

And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.

If you'd like to post photos of your home go here and join the fun.

You can also join another tour at the inspired room.

A cute little story

Yesterday my husband, my son and two older girls went to Sam's club while I took the younger two girls shopping for new Christmas dresses. They finished before us and tried to call my cell but it wasn't ringing. My husband decided to send Arianna and my 7 year old son into Kohl's to find us. They had a hard time finding us in the store and the funny part is Micah's conversation with Arianna which went like this

"Mommy is lost, that's why mommy shouldn't go out alone" Arianna told him I wasn't lost.

Micah continued with "If Mommy doesn't come home then she's grounded."

He says the cutest things.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy the day with family and friends. Some of us are still a little sick but it was requested we still try to cook a turkey with all the trimmings. so we will do that later today and then we usually start our Christmas decorating. Stay tuned for pictures in a few days.

What Ya Working on Wednesday-11/25/09

Here are some pics of the things I've been working on for a few weeks now. They were from some free patterns of various places, one item was from a pattern by Sweet Pea Primitives and another from Moonchild Prims. I've really enjoyed working on so many different things. My 7 year old son tells me that we have to keep some of them for ourselves. I'm thinking he might be right.

These candy canes were quick and fun. I baked them in the oven and scented them with coffee, vanilla and a little cinnamon.






These little guys look so great in my wooden bowl with some primitive greens.


These prim snowmen were fun but I'm not completely sure if I liked how they turned out. I didn't coffee stain the pure and natural batting, I only tea stained it. I think they should maybe be a little bit darker.






I made two of these one in green and one in red.

These were also baked in the oven. I left them a little crinkled. I didn't iron them I just smoothed out a little bit and then stuffed them. I think the crinkled look helps them look a little old. I love the graphic that is pinned with rusty pins.





I made 3 of the following little ornaments. I think they came out really nice. It was my first attempt at sculpted noses.


These little tea light holders were really fun to make. The brim is sprinkled with german glass glitter. I'm pretty pleased with these.


I made three of these also. I finished them up last night.
Now I'm finished for a few weeks and have boxed up my supplies. It's hard to find the space in a small house to keep the projects I'm working on out until they are completed. It's been awhile since I did so much crafting but these are for a good cause. Our church is doing a fundraiser on 12/5 a cookie and craft sale. I don't really think they will get what they are "worth" the way you would at a craft fair or a prim shop. I think whatever is left over I will try to sell here, on ebay or maybe even open an etsy shop of my own. When my oldest girls were little I had a very successful crafting business doing fairs and renting booth space in craft malls. That was a long time ago or at least it seems that way so it's been fun working on crafty things again.

I'm thinking too that I might do a Christmas giveaway. I've been enjoying reading other blogs and seeing what they have to offer this time of year. So check back around December 7th or so I might have it together by them. I certainly need more blogging friends/followers - it's lonely out here in a small town. I'm not a small town girl, somethings just won't change, no matter how much one tries.

Old Road Primitives

Kim is having a really wonderful Christmas give a way for a set our Christmas Mice from one of her very own original patterns. I just love her stuff. Go on over and check it out, who knows maybe you'll be the lucky winner.