~~HAPPY LABOR DAY~~

 

Tim and I hope you all are enjoying your Labor Day. We both are spending the day working on wood projects for the Shop.

Whatever you are doing today we hope you are enjoying the last official day of Summer. I am happy to see Summer come to an end...BRING ON FALL!

~~Trying something new~~

I finally got up enough courage to do something that I have been wanting to do for a long time......here it is...my very first painting. It was suppose to be a picture of Queen Anne's Lace but I do think it looks more like dandelions. :) I think I need to practice some more and maybe even take some art lessons...I will admit though that I did have fun painting this picture.

~~Creating~~

 After a long hot, dry and very humid summer I woke this morning to a bit of a nip in the air. It was just a bit but I could feel it...maybe it is just wishful thinking but I can feel Fall in the air. I also woke up to a beautiful sunrise.

 Last evening Tim and I had a meeting with Jake and Dean, the owners of Armstrong Valley Winery and Vineyard. We were meeting to go over plans for the upcoming Fall Festival which will be on September 29 & 30. We will be there along with over 25 other vendors/crafters. We hope to see you there...make sure to stop by our booth and say hi. 

We have been busy crafting and creating new goodies. I am enjoying finding treasures to repurpose and adding them to our Shop. The only thing is that they hardly ever make it to the Shop. I post pictures of the new creations on our Facebook page and next thing you know they are sold! Not complaining, though :)

repurposed an old door knob



Another old door knob



Glass insulator

A fun craft...snowflakes made with clothes pins

A grungy snowflake

Tim has been busy in the woodshop creating wonderful things for our customers, like this cubby box.

Cubby Box created by Tim

So you can see we have been a bit busy here at the Brickhouse.

Room Redo on a Budget

Yesterday I decided I had enough of our ugly, blah and very boring living room so I went SHOPPING. Now don't hate me when I tell you that I didn't spend a dime on my 'new purchases'. I went shopping at the Leitzel Store...yep I shopped at home! Now there are a few things that I recently purchased at a yard sale, but everything else I found here at home.

2 throws that were each $3



2 brass hearts for $3



I paid $7 for this pitcher

lamp that I paid $7

knick knacks and doo dads found around the house

I wanted a little touch of "whimsy" so I had this old shutter and added some old family pictures

Moved a little table from the hallway and placed it behind the sofa. I used a little bench to raise up the lamp and pitcher.

An old ladder and a crock filled with sticks from our yard

Decorated a corner of the living room with an old shutter and placed an old family picture onto the shutter

Stacks of old suitcases.

We had an UGLY coffee table, so I decided to use two end tables as a coffee table..I like this so much better.



My bit of whimsy..old shutter with pictures



Shutter

Our living room...still looking for an area rug and curtains

An old copper canner holding old quilts

My magazine box

I like using old books to decorate

This shows the sofa table and how I used a little bench to raise up the lamp and the pitcher



Our new coffee table made with two end tables




Old dry sink now used as an end table. I placed an old cutting board on the one end of the top of the dry sink



Old dry sink used as an end table




 

Top of the "other" coffee table



another picture of the picture shutter



  I hope you enjoyed the little tour of our living room. Now onto "shopping" for more things for other rooms in our home...

~~Simply The BEST!~~

Our friend here at the Brickhouse, Judy, has been nominated as the official Brickhouse Picker! She finds the best treasures and I mean BEST! She also gets the BEST deals and some of these deals are even FREE! You can't beat that!  Yesterday she arrived with these goodies.

  



~~Some enamelware pieces and keys~~



~~I LOVE this red egg basket~~

~~Check out the little stools!!!~~

~~A box filled with soon to be CLEAN old bottles. Any tips on cleaning these bottles? ~~



~~Baskets~~

So what do you think? Did she do good job picking? I think so! Thanks Judy!
 Speaking of BEST....Tim and I have the BEST friends, customers, family, FB followers and blog followers! THE BEST! Everyone of them worked so hard to get us the votes for the Small Business Grant. We found out late in the game about the contest so we only had one week to get 250 votes. We came so close but we just weren't able to get all the votes in by the deadline which was midnight last night. We are cool with the outcome even though we would have loved to win the grant.  Let me tell you, I had the Grant money already spent in my head....oh the dreams I had if we would have won...but like I said we are cool  about it.....we will continue to dream about the plans for our little Shop.
Tim and I want to thank EVERYONE that cast a vote for us, who went above and beyond the call of duty to find votes for us and who have supported us along the way....All of you are the BEST!!!!  And we love you guys and THANK YOU SO MUCH!
NOW one more thing....I have a BEST friend and she just started a blog....I would love if you could stop by Ree's blog and welcome her to the wonderful world of blogging. Ree is one of the BEST persons I know..she really is the BEST!  Here is the link to Ree's blog: http://raggedyreedesigns.blogspot.com/  and make sure you check out her Etsy shop...she has the BEST stuff!!!!

NEED YOUR HELP!

We are coming down to the wire..only 11 hours left to get the a total of 250 votes. Chase and LivingSocial are sponsoring "Mission: Small Business℠" a grant program awarding up to $3 million to small business owners nationwide.The Program, which will provide up to 12 individual grants of $250,000 was developed to provide small businesses with resources needed to make a positive impact on their business."   Here's where we need your help..we only need 110 more votes by midnight tonight. If we could have your vote we would so appreciate it. All you have to do is click on this link: https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/  page down to where it says: Log on with Facebook to support your community. Then search for BRICKHOUSE CRAFT SHOP (Millersburg Pa) then cast your vote.
A big thank you to eveyone that has voted for our little shop.

Dear....

Dear Mother Nature, If you are going to send a storm our way could you send it during the day, NOT in the wee early morning hours. I get cranky when I don't get enough sleep, just ask Tim!  And also could you please take away the heat and humidity. This makes me cranky, too! AND most important could you send cooler temps, lower humidity and RAIN to the areas of the country that are dealing with the horrible wild fires.
We thank you for the mild Winter we had, but now we sure could use a mild Summer, too...preferably temps in the low 80's with NO humidity. And one rainy day a week.
 Thank you,
Patti

 Dear Customers at the Brickhouse,
  The shop will be open today 10~5. The A/C will be running all day in the Shop to keep you cool while you shop. We want to thank all of you for your support of our little Shop. And we want to thank all of you that voted for us at https://www.missionsmallbusiness.com/  We need your help to get us up to 250 votes. Today is the last day for us to get the votes for us to even qualify for the Grant that they will award to 12 small businesses. SO if you voted we thank you so much, if you haven't voted...it is so easy. Click on the link and page down to where it says, LOG INTO FACEBOOK TO SUPPORT YOUR COMMUNITY, then page down and search for BRICKHOUSE CRAFT SHOP and cast your vote. AND please tell all your family and friends that we are looking for their vote, too.
Thank you all so very much,
Patti & Tim

 Dear Facebook, I am thinking of breaking up with you if you do not go back to the old way. I hate you and your new changes..this is not working for me.
 Sincerely,
Cranky Patti


Dear Blogger, Thank you for not changing and thank you for allowing me to come back to our blog. I promise to never leave you, again.
Sincerely,
Patti