Fall Foliage and Antiques Make a Winning Combination!

I've often wondered why "leaf peeping" and "antique-hunting" go so well together....

On our way to the apple orchard a couple weekends ago, we made a stop at one of our favorite little country antique shops, Dokter's Treasures & Trees. The neat thing is that it is a tree farm in addition to an antique shop. In fact, we get our Christmas tree here every year. But let's not think about the winter holidays just yet. I'm still enjoying the beauty of autumn!

I thought I'd share some of our photos of Dokter's wares, the fall foliage, and a few interesting sights from our autumn excursion...

Oddly enough, I have green lawn chairs similar to those in the photo.

This gives new meaning to "outdoor hot tub."

On the table of goodies in the background, I found a black feather chignon clip still in its original round clear plastic box!

It seems somehow more substantial than a "clip."

A bit of fall decor next to the doorway to the shop.

Since there were quite a few people inside this tiny shop, I didn't take any indoor photos. However, there were lots more good things, as well as a refreshment table with apple cider, donuts, and cookies.

We also found a couple yard sales on our sojourn. I didn't see anything to buy at the first one, but they had these adorable little burros in the pasture just waiting for their picture to be taken.

And somewhere along the way, we spotted this tiny vintage camper hiding way back in the woods.

A bit spooky, don't you think?

Geese, who will soon be winging their way south.

And here are the vintage goodies I brought home from the antique shop and one of the yard sales.

Cookie cutters and head gear - does that seem an odd combination to you too?

Speaking of odd, I'll leave you with a photo of my swell bumpy pumpkin, acquired at the apple orchard we visited...

I love my weird pumpkin - can you tell?

I'm Getting Sentimental...

Well, the decorations are (mostly) packed away, the cookies are eaten (or, rather, the leftovers are in the freezer), and the colorful lights have stopped blinking (we turned off the outdoor timer), but I just wanted to share a few of the gifts I received from my parents for Christmas in 2009.


As a child, I always helped my mother make the holiday cookies. My usual job was to decorate the cut-out cookies with colored sugar. And those tiny silver balls that had real silver in them and weren't supposed to be eaten. Do you remember nearly breaking teeth eating them anyway? I most certainly do, although thankfully I never sustained any dental damage. Getting back to the topic at hand... My mother has a quite a collection of cookie cutters in a giant popcorn tin, and from this vast collection, she picked out the older ones, wrapped them up, and gave them to me for Christmas. There are a Santa, reindeer, star, and angel in red plastic, and a metal heart and hatchet, both with red wooden handles. Now, I can't wait for a good reason to bake more cookies!


I also received two boxes of vintage Shiny Brite ornaments that have been around longer than me - and I've been around for quite a long time. How well I remember placing these ornaments just so on the fresh-cut Christmas tree. We always got a blue spruce. My favorite ornaments were two that had reflectors and one with a hand painted pinecone on it. Oh, and the hand painted snowman ornament was a favorite too. The fragrance of the tree, Christmas music on the record player, the sparkle of tinsel.... just to see these boxes of ornaments brings it all back to me most vividly.


The most sentimental gift for me, though, was the baby quilt that my mother and grandmother made back in 1965. My grandmother did the quilting and my mother embroidered the little pink bunnies and yellow duckies. Before giving the quilt to me for Christmas, my mom gave it a gentle cleaning and added a label with my name, hers and my grandmother's names as the makers, and the year they made it. This quilt is something I will treasure always.

Thank you, Mom and Dad, for all the wonderful holidays we've shared!

"I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all." ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder