Hello, all!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend.  We were able to take a break from packing to have a cookout with some friends, which was a nice diversion.  I am so ready to just have everything on the truck and be done with it!  There is still more left to do and we’re down to the nitty-gritty, which is the worst part of packing, in my opinion!  It’s almost done, though.  I’ll share more about the logistics on our move in tomorrow’s post. Until then, I thought I would share more detail on a piece I get a lot of questions and e-mails about – this bird painting… It is an original painting that I purchased from a charity auction at my sons’ school about three years ago.  I got in a bit of a bidding war for it, but I still only paid around $40, which I thought

Today, I am sharing a gift one of my sweet readers sent me a few months ago… …these beautiful, little spoons with edelweiss on the handles.  For those who don’t know, I grew up in Germany and spent the first two years in Bavaria and I remember seeing edelweiss up close and in person on a few hikes. I actually did pick one (illegally, I might add), but I was a kid and didn’t know better.  I think my brother informed me and included that I would probably be arrested, which caused me a lot of angst! Anyway, it was such a thoughtful gift and I love them. And second, I wanted to share a preview of our yard sale.  We’re still adding to the pile, but I want to give potential shoppers a sense of what will be there.  First of all, the yard sale will be at my

No, we’re not having that conversation. I’m sharing another pre-Lucketts find that I ended up “shopping” from the pile before we packed it in the truck.  It’s a really lovely original oil painting I spotted in an antique store for a bargain… less than $20. It’s a bouquet of flowers with a bird next to it… …and a bee on one of the blossoms… When I shared this painting on Instagram, a few people commented that they have this print.  I looked up the artist and I didn’t find anything, so I’m thinking they are either similar or this artist painted a study of the work of a more famous artist, perhaps? (Update: Someone shared that it is a study of a painting called “Roses” by Jean Baptiste.  I actually like my copy better!) Well, whatever the case, I love it.  I did put a tag on it, but that

I shared one of my finds, that awesome birdcage, in yesterday’s post.  I thought I would share a couple more things I “bought for Lucketts” and then decided to keep at the last minute. This is a simple, little find, but one that I immediately loved.  It’s a blue and white metal picnic/lunch box with wood handles.  How cute is that? I seriously want to pack some sandwiches in it! And I might just do that one of these days. The other thing I kept is this pretty bucolic print in a gold frame. I love the softness of the colors and the overall style and subject of the print. Hopefully, I’ll have a perfect spot for both of these wherever we land!

With all of this talk about things that I’m selling, I thought I would share something that I am keeping! I have decided that one of the perks of buying and selling antiques is that I get first pick of my finds.  I sell far more than I keep, but sometimes there are pieces that are so special and I am so smitten with them, that I keep them. At least for a while. I found this antique French wall-hanging bird cage on my final shopping trip before Lucketts… (The tag listed it as “French” and that seller may be taking some liberties with a hot buzzword or it might actually be from France.  I don’t know, so let’s just pretend it’s from France, even though it may not be.) Soooo, usually I bounce larger purchases off of my shopping buddy (my mom on this particular day) just to make sure I’m