Goin' junkin' with Darwin on a sunny Saturday
We left Saturday morning out into the world of sunshine with Darwin's GPS telling us where to go. Our destination was the Barn House Sale up near Battleground, Washington. I had heard about the Barn House Sale from several friends and had looked forward to a day when I could get away to attend. Joe and Jermonne are the producers of the sale (which really is in a barn). I also knew they would have guest artisans/antique dealers, Cindy Dockins of Queen of Tarte, Diane and Donna of Annie, Fanny and Abigail, and Julie Verberg of The Withies (all these ladies had been Stars dealers at one time or another).
The drive through the rural countryside is a bonus--beautiful meadows, rolling hills, farms, barns, all decorated by spring. Carmen (our GPS lady) led us right to the spot. We were going to meet up with our friend (and Darwin's former antique partner at his ETC shop), Carol Kelly, who incidentally lives about a mile away from the Barn House sale. We saw Carol's shiny red pickup parked and knew we were at the right place.
There was quite a crowd already (that's Darwin at the sale entrance in the photo) and even a line-up for people to check out and pay for their goodies. I had to just hustle in and start looking. Right at the door was Julie Verberg cuddling a small hen--how picturesque can you get!!!!! And naturally the sale was as wonderful as we had heard about--great stuff, good prices, well and most creatively displayed. If I weren't so full up (I have a "collecting" habit after all). I could have taken it all home with me.
Carol Kelly bought tea-leaf pottery for her collection, I bought a wonderful framed collage of broken bird eggs, nest, etc., and Darwin bought a tattered early quilt that really will look like contemporary art when he hangs it on the wall. He calls these things a "lack of fear" object (it means that even though it is worn to pieces he is not "afraid" to buy it).
I was quite taken with their hand-washing station--after all we all must wash our hands often now with the pandemic and all. I concluded that it could have been in a Ralph Lauren advertisement. Very unpretentious and not cutesy a bit.
Carol had invited us to lunch at her lovely country home situated on a man-made lake, and we headed there after our junking. Carol's garden is the stuff of dreams--a woodsy acre or two and she has carved out myriad vistas of various areas, ponds, garden art, a hillside rock garden,a flowering meadow garden and much more. I took the photo below in the bright sun and it doesn't begin to do justice, but I thought with the glare it almost looked like an old hand-colored photo.
Carol's garden art is amazing and her newest purchase is the spread-winged owl done by a young metal artist she discovered at a Hardy Plant Society sale. We ate our delicious lunch in the many-windowed kitchen overlooking the owl among the trees.
We drove home and finally turned "Carmen" off so we could visit about our day, and both agreed that we had had a really, really good time....
I sign off thinking how humbling it is to be among such talented folks....
Gayle@starsantique.com
