There’s a house on my Opa’s street that captured my fancy when it was first built.  I must have been in middle school, but it turned my head even then. It’s classic.  Upscale, but not too fussy.  It looks cool in the summer and cozy in the winter.  I love everything about the exterior of this home. It’s called The Berry Hill, designed by William E Poole.  The interior floor plan isn’t what I envision for my “dream house”, but if I ever do get to build something from scratch, a picture of this house will definitely be carried with me to the drafting table. I love the curve of the roof, the copula on the garage… …the detail on the windows, the wrap-around porch, the crisp white siding and black shutters. Maybe one day. This house was around the corner and a fairly new build.  It is different, but

We’re having a lot of visitors through the end of June and early July.  For those who are lovers of Civil War history, you know this is a key week in my neck of the woods.  It’s the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg and today was the anniversary of Pickett’s Charge.  My dad went on a commemorative march across the same ground the Confederates (including a great, great, great grandfather) did 150 years ago.  There were thousands of people there – tourists, guides and reenactors and he said it was awesome. Anyway, so one of those visitors was my aunt and uncle.  They wanted to visit, check out some of the events and pick up my old dining set, which she bought from me just before the Lucketts Antique Market.  She drove up to our house and I noticed she had a ton of stuff in her SUV.

 There was an antique market this past weekend in New Oxford, a small town in PA.  They close down the cross streets on the center square (it’s a circle, really) and bring in antique vendors to set up and sell their wares.  My mom and I set out on Saturday morning to see if we could find some goodies. Overall, the prices were pretty high and I didn’t find a ton of things I was excited about, but I did find a few things.  Since the prices were on the high end, I mostly shopped for myself. My favorite find was this blue & white quilt.  It’s a little worn in a few places, but the hand quilting is intricate and beautiful and I love the design.   I also found a couple of ironstone sugar jars, a milk pitcher and a bowl… I was smitten with this German tea

Saturday morning, my youngest son, my mom and I set out “treasure hunting” at yard sales.  As is our custom, I asked my son (who is 4) what he hoped to find.  Without hesitation he said, “A Batman watch.”  He had seen one when we were scoping out Amazon for things he might want for his summer birthday. “Well, buddy, that’s a pretty specific thing. I’m not sure if we’re going to find that, but maybe we’ll find some Batman guys or something.” We were on the way to pick up my mom and I could’t help stopping at a yard sale along the way.  We hopped out of the car and perused the sale.  It was the usual junky yard sale stuff and nothing of interest to us.  I hurried my son along, eager to get to the next sale.  As we passed by a table we looked at