Tag Archives: picking

a barning we will go!

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hall treeMy favorite picking barn is chock full of treasures and open this weekend ALL weekend!

Yes, the Smithfield Barn is open through Sunday – 425 Little Conestoga Road, Downingtown, Pennsylvania 19335

photo1I picked up a couple of fun things today – a pair of copper candy molds to hang on my kitchen wall and a little bit of Pennsylvania Lancaster County Tourist kitsch.

The kitsch are little cast iron Amish kids in a little wagon.  I started collecting these figures over 15 years ago when I picked up my first four photo3at the treasures tables of Historic Harriton House’s annual fair for either $8 or $10.  How I found out what they were was at a benefit that had some photo2Antiques Roadshow appraisers at it – you could bring something you could carry to be explained or appraised and I chose the Amish figures – so these little cast iron figurines were big for the tourists the first half of the 20th century – a lot in the 1930’s in particular. They aren’t worth a ton of money but they make me smile.

The Smithfield Barn is PACKED to the gills so if you have the time go check out the treasures to be had over the weekend.  If you like copper molds, she still has a bunch as of this afternoon.  But my favorite thing out there this weekend is something that came in while I was there – it is a fabulous hall tree. Could be late Victorian, but I am thinking more Arts & Crafts.  It needs a little TLC – someone painted it yellow, but if I had the room I would have put that on the roof of the car today!

 

 

barn moments

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So yesterday I was out at the Smithfield Barn poking around (they are open this weekend including today), and I put my purse down to look at a small gate leg table. (I love gate leg tables).  As I put my bag down, I noticed the other people milling about.

There was this amusing pair of babes from South Jersey with matching blonde hair and “country-style” attire who cracked me up.  I am guessing this was a big outing in the “country” for them. They were obviously wearing their “picking” clothes and matching boots. Kind of the types of women I would jack the prices by 30% on if I had to deal with them. (No I am not a curmudgeon, just somewhat intolerant of phonies.)

Anyway,  I had put my  bag down next to me as I examined the table(did not want it to swing off my shoulder and break something)  and one woman says to the other woman “look she even has a Coach bag here for sale” and picks it up! She seriously started to walk away with my purse in her hand. So I said to her “Excuse me? That’s my pocketbook”  The woman just sort of looked at me. Blankly.

I guess I missed the memo where a pickers’ barn also contains designer handbags of the twenty-first century…

Other things of note about yesterday’s barn experience?  The people who bring children who behave like wild indians inside and outside.

I mean, wow, really?  If I had acted like that when I was a kid, my parents would have locked me up for decades.  The barn is loaded with all sorts of things, including toys, yes, but it doesn’t mean they are running a baby-sitting or child entertainment service.  This barn is full of someone else’s property that is for sale, and the prices are good because for the most part people try to respect the barn.

But I will tell you what, if people with kids don’t try to respect the barn a little more and control their kids from just tearing through stuff more things are going to get broken or damaged and then the prices won’t be so picker friendly.

Maybe it isn’t my place to comment on the children of other people, but sometimes you just have to shake your head in wonderment at the little savages of it all.

So yes, the people watching and picking is fine indeed this weekend at the Smithfield Barn.

 

 

barn sale this weekend!

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My favorite barn is open this weekend.  Who is going? 

See:

Hi Everyone!!
     Just a little note to say that the barn will be open this FRI SAT AND SUN from 10-4.  As always we have tons (yes tons!!!) of new items.  Everything from great new furniture and antique pieces, vintage handbags, some new tools, new toys, to boxes and boxes of new jewelry!   So come, stop by say Hi, and find a new treasure or two to take home!  Hope to see you this weekend!!  Smithfield Barn – 425 Little Conestoga Road
                                       
 I actually saw the jewelry last weekend – colorful, retro-funky, and fun. Ditto on the purses.  She also had some fun Depression Glass.

sunday swapping

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S is for Sunday.

S is for Swapping.

I went swapping today.  I had this vintage country quilt and a vintage quilt topper I scored on Ebay a while back.  I decided I wasn’t digging the quilts and rather let them collect dust, I contacted Kris at Smithfield Barn to see if she might be interested in them. She and some of the ladies in her family are quilters.

She was.  So I mosied out today for a swap.

Love that barn, and I had fun!  Scored a vintage blue box purse (I have always had a vintage purse disease), a small tole tray, a couple more antique wooden spoons, and a Heisey jug.

Heisey is a depression glass that is a particular favorite of mine.  This jug I *think* is from the Colonial line, pattern named “Puritan” or “Wide Panel” or something.

A.H. Heisey & Co. closed in 1957. Heisey was a German immigrant who settled first in Pennsylvania, but the Heisey factory was actually in Ohio.

Heisey is to many the king of depression glass.  I always liked it for the clean lines. And the fact that a lot of it is clear like crystal.  I actually met an older gentleman and his wife years ago who were actual Heiseys.  I thought it was pretty cool and they thought it was cool what they termed a “young person” appreciated Heisey glass.

I am not suggesting to go to the Smithfield Barn to swap.  I just happened to know something that Kris likes …actually after speaking to her today I discovered she and I like a lot of similar vintage things. (Sigh,  I see years of trouble ahead….)

I think she said the barn is open next weekend.  If it is, I will post.

The Smithfield Barn is definitely the find of 2012.  I stalked it without going in during 2011, and discovered it in 2012.

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