last days

Last days of summer...

Last days for Country Weekend, the store...

I should take & a little store in the Catskills off of this blog header.

I'll leave 

Home History Nature.

I can work with that.

Thanks for keeping me company on this part of the journey.

Enjoy your weekend,

Jen

pinup potholders

I'm back from the Catskills, and I took bundles of pictures of water, rocks, wildflowers, frogs, beetles...but I know what you really want to see is the potholders!

 I've given you a glimpse of them before,

and due to your strong interest in them (so many comments!) I took pictures of all of them. They were such a hit in the store the last time I got them, that I had to get one more batch before I close.

Happy Independence Day!

They are made by Meagan, who lives near Boston and who has an Etsy Store, Fussy Gussy (here) where she sometimes sells the potholders, and other fun things. And for you crafty types, she sells the fabrics here.

Enjoy them. I'll be back with rocks and water soon!

Jen

Catskills weekend

 Saturday morning I raced to the farmers market for a waffle (read more about that here) but the waffle people weren't there! I consoled myself with banana bread, cherry tomatoes and strawberries.

 In the store I put out a new batch of racy potholders. Even though I'm closing the store, I had to get them. They are made by a young woman in Boston, and the kitschy outdoorsy themes are perfect for the Catskills.

 Father's Day was Sunday so I took this instant ancestor out of the storage room to enjoy the day. At $35 I think someone with a sense of humor will want him in their home.

 I still have plenty of rustic cabin decor. Everything is now 30% off. I want it gone by the end of August so I don't have to carry it downstairs and store it somewhere!

 I planned on some natural history reading this weekend, but ended up with an old-fashioned spy novel. I am toying with a theory: You want to read about something different than where you are. If I'm in the woods I don't want to read someone else's memoir about rural life, but if I'm in the city I do. Or maybe that's just my lazy excuse for wanting to read a page turner.

This was my Saturday cocktail hour: on the deck within sight and sound of the waterfall-- strawberries from the farmer's market, seltzer, and a Helen MacInnes novel. I've never read her before, but I do have a fondness for spy novels. Alan Furst is a favorite--his World War II novels are understated, dark and moody, filled with train trips through Bulgaria, covert actions in Romania, love affairs in Paris...

weekend in the Catskills

When I was a child in Maryland, our neighbors, who were Quakers, invited me to an outdoor Meeting, under a tree. I thought of that when searching for a phrase more original than "a religious experience" to describe my time outside this weekend. Admiring wildflowers. Wading in the brook. The roar of the waterfall.

An old tree stump takes on a new life as a home for ferns, moss and insects.

A woodchuck popped her head out of this tangle of fallen tree, saw me and disappeared. She popped back out a few times, while I waited quietly, but not quietly enough apparently, because she always spotted me. Selfishly, I hoped to see her venture out and about.

In the store I was like a school child with spring fever. Now that I've decided to close, it's hard to be there, though I talked to friends and met nice people, including several on their first visit to the Catskills. People tried to talk me out of closing, but it's time, I said. 

book love & postcard fun

A German bird guide. I don't read German,

 but it has more that 50 beautiful color illustrations.

Keep, sell, or give away?

If you read German and like birds, it's yours.

Book bundles in the store.

 Alternate bookcase #1: a 19th century cradle.

Alternate book case # 2: an antique cranberry scoop. 

Listing postcards folders in the Etsy store.

I wrote about my postcard conversion here.

What's your take on the subject of old postcards?

 I see that some clever people are posting two pictures side by side on their blogs. Can anyone tell me how to do that?

Jen

weekend in the Catskills

Quiet in the store, but it looked nice. 

There were festivities.

An opening in the art gallery next door;

  a Cinco de Mayo birthday party which involved 

huge quantities of Mexican food, 

laughter, carrot cake, four French bulldogs and a giant full moon. 

Fresh eggs for breakfast. Blueberry muffins. 

A waterfall. Forget Me Nots galore.

Meet Iowa Jewel Julie

Owls of the Night

When I was planning Country Weekend I had to have Iowa Jewel's collage kits—they epitomized my vision for the store: creative, vintage, and whimsical. 

Life on a Dairy Farm

When I contacted Julie she was enthusiastic--she even created special packaging and custom kits for the store. Visting her Etsy store (here) always makes me happy; exploring Lets go Canoeing, Birds in Winter, The Bermuda Triangle, Sherlock Holmes, Fears and Phobias, Circus Dreams, Along the Rocky Coast, Alfred Hitchcock, Firefly Magic, Our Mysterious Moon, and much, much more, fires up my imagination. 

 The Artist in You

You can also find prints and other vintage ephemera on Iowa Jewel. 

owl and bird print

 Julie obviously loves what she does and has fun doing it. I recently discovered that she reads this blog, and was delighted when she agreed to do a little q and a, which I know that you'll enjoy. (As always, click on pictures to enlarge. Captions have links if you want to see more.)

Picasso

Tell us a bit about yourself and what led you to making collage kits.

I live in a small town in Iowa with my husband and three kitty cats. My biggest dream is to travel the world but until that day comes I am happy to visit everywhere my imagination can take me in collage kit land. 

Let's Go Camping in the Desert

When I was little, my sister and I would make collages out of pictures from magazines and make up stories about adventures we would have traveling. It made the whole wide world come alive for me.  I have always found great joy and contentment in creating.

Where do you get the materials for the kits? 

I go to garage, library and book sales. I also shop on eBay and Amazon. Most of my books are children’s, science/reference and travel themed and are from the early 1900’s through the 70’s.  I have way over a 1,000 books, they are in every nook and cranny of our small house; let’s just say I have a very understanding husband!

Julie and her books

Where do you get your ideas for themes?

Mostly from my never-ending imagination! I am inspired by romantic places around the world. California is special to me. My love for animals and nature shows up a lot! I also love science and old Hollywood. I combined two of those in my Mad Scientist and Evil Doctor kits which are inspired by 1950's horror movies.

Mad Scientist in the Laboratory

A lot of times I come across an image that I fall in love with and end up building a whole kit around that one picture. That happened with my San Juan Capistrano kit. Also I get many requests from my customers for custom kits, and they have ideas that I would never have thought of on my own.

The African Queen

Tell us about your work space and work habits. Do you work on several kits at once or one at a time?

I have a small (10x 10) studio that I share with my husband. Since I don’t have a lot of room, I am always looking for more efficient ways to store all the things I use making my kits. I also do my packing and shipping here so sometimes I set up a portable table and use our dining room table for overflow!  I have 2 long tables that my husband made for me and many shelves to hold my supplies.  I spend most of my time here so I am happy to have a big window that looks out over our beautiful backyard and lets in lots of natural light.

I usually listen to music on my laptop when I am creating.  Sometimes I watch movies and they influence the kits I make or I watch the movie that I am making a kit of to help me with images I will add. Example: when making Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound kit and watching the movie I included a real fork to go along with a famous scene where Ingrid Bergman draws lines with a fork on the table cloth.  I enjoy writing stories to go along with my kits too.

I am always working on many kits at once!  Right now I am making a journal for a friend and woodland animal kits for a custom order.  I keep a list of each kit I sell so I can remake one like it and I have a list of all the kits I want to make and am collecting images for too.

Julie in her studio

Do you ever hear from people who've bought your kits?

Yes!  I get lots of feedback and it’s all been positive!  I am so blest to be able to create something I love as a job that brings so much fun and happiness into other people’s lives.

What amazes me is all the different things my customers use my kits for.  Scrapbooking, travel journals and collage art are probably the main things but just recently one of my skunk kits was used at a skunk rescue fundraiser and mad scientist kits for decorations at child’s birthday party in Australia!

I Want to be an Archeologist

the easy way

You don't find many decorating tips here on Country Weekend, because....I don't have many. But today I have the Easiest Decorating Tip Ever.

 The wall outside of the store was looking a little dingy. I was thinking about stenciling some vines, which I've done before. But I'm always so busy...I took the easy way.

Stickers. My friend Gerry was selling them in his store. 

Please don't sic the decorating police on me.

 I guess I should be embarrassed, but I love them. 

If you click on the pictures you can get a larger view.

 (That's the art gallery next door.)

In the 1980's the windows of hundreds of abandoned city-owned buildings in New York City were covered with vinyl decals of curtains, shutters, and flower pots. I lived in NYC then and remember them well. They got a lot of well-deserved ridicule. I thought of that when I put up my hydrangeas. Why is is bad for the Bronx but okay for me? Maybe because I'm not pretending anything. Just doing a little short-cut pick me up. (That's probably what Mayor Koch said too.)

Gerry had a package of pink ranunculus that I strongly considered, but I'm happy with the hydrangeas.The company has a huge variety available. See here. I'll try to remember to take a close up picture next time so you can get a better look.  If you're still talking to me after this.

weekend in the Catskills

 The garden festival was a success. Lots of food

 flowers

fresh produce

 kids

kids with kids

 music

and more. (See here.)

 In the spirit of things, I oh so artfully displayed gardening books,

  and planted violas in milk glass containers.

 Seed bombs made an appearance.

They are gumball size clumps of soil mixed with clay, earthworm castings and seeds, created for throw and grow ease. Seed bombs originated with urban guerilla gardeners to be used on empty lots. (More on guerilla gardening here.)

I have another flower thing to show you, but I'll save it for later in the week.

I hope you had a good weekend.

Jen