Handmade U Semester 8 - Day 2 - Class with Melody Ross and Antiquing!

Hi Friends,


Our teacher for Friday morning and Saturday morning was Melody Ross, who by the way is amazing, I'm sure you know this, but in case someone hasn't been touched by the Brave Girl's Club, please go and check them out.  It is life - changing, soul - stirring, healing stuff they do over there.  Love them....

We did miss having the other half of the founding duo of BGC with us, Kathy Wilkins, but so happy she was able to spend time with her newest grandbaby!  So we'll look forward to her visiting us during another semester!!

Melody brought a fun project with awesome techniques that use many household items such as foil!

She made a fun little birdie that holds a special message, as well as a plaque....

This project also involved plaster, which is messy, wet, and all together awesome.  Luckily we have a water spout next to the barn, so we all took a little field trip to fill up our cups.

Julie, like a pro....

All the birdies came out differently which is always the best!  Each one unique like each of our students!  Laura and Ali, a part of a fairly hilarious table...every time I walked by someone at the table was cracking a joke or laughing like crazy.....

Always a good day to wear the HU t-shirts when there might be a little mess, and an apron if they had one!

Melody was so fun to have at Handmade U.....we want her to come back again and again....

The birdies were built on top of candlestick holders that we all found and brought with us to HU.  

After a busy morning of our hands in the plaster, we took a break for lunch prior to our antiquing afternoon!!

Beginning last semester I thought it would be fun to have a box lunch one of our days.  Since this is a school of sorts, why not bring out lunches in the vintage lunch boxes I hunted down for HU??

Luckily I had Cora McGough to help direct me finishing up the packing and making of the lunches....and  of course Jim McGough in the AM to help!

Each lunch box is packed with a croissant ham and swiss with special dressing, an apple, a cookie, string cheese and what else but a bag 'o chips! 

 Thanks to Jayne for

gifting me with a couple vintage lunch boxes that she found down in Florida too!!  So fun to share these with the students each semester!  It takes you back!

Melody enjoying her lunch on the lawn...we are pretty casual at Handmade U!

After lunch we all packed into cars and headed to two of my favorite antique malls.  I gave them a heads up a couple weeks before HU to staff up since I was bringing in about 30 women, who may like to shop!  Both did, which was so appreciated when it came time to check out!!  

Dawn and Jayne with their purchases waiting for the rest of their carload to head to the next stop...

 Check-out time....

Just about everyone found some special treasures to take home with them to remember such a fun weekend.

I could get lost in here for hours....

The next stop was just like the first, tons to see, and treasures to find...

After the last penny was spent and we packed it all into the cars we headed back to the Homestead.  Jim McGough had started the preparations for dinner.... Cream Cans.....  What are Cream Cans you ask?!  It is one of my favorite favorite meals....not only for the experience but for the tasty food!

You fill an old cream can (that has been cleaned out of course!!) with corn on the cob, sausages, potatoes, carrots and cabbage.... fill it with beer to steam it all in, and once it steams to perfection dump them into these tubs to serve!  Just like that...a meal to savor!!  Nice job Jim!

Yum....

 The happy gals sharing a meal and stories...

Love seeing these happy smiles!  I miss them so...

Feels like camping a little bit....

Dig into the corn!! I love it Nicole!

Full from the food and the friendships formed this day.....

Appreciate the love and support from this guy, my #1.

 Before dinner was ready we spent time trading our swaps....oh my, that is a whole post in of itself!  The swaps, ahh, love them, love the LOVE each gal puts into sharing a special surprise with their partners.  I took TONS and TONS of pictures of each one.... I'll share soon!

Hugs,

Rach

Packing Up and Moving On Out - Exciting Change

Hi Everyone!!

Hope Summer is going great for you!  Our summer is flying by with lots of exciting things happening....not the least of which is a move in 2 days!!

We began looking at acreages last year to find a space outside of town with a little more room to breathe, a place to have our Airstream onsite, some land for a puppy to run, and if possible a barn to host Handmade U Art Retreats.

We immediately fell in love with a property,  a well-maintained Historic Registered house built in 1895 with an outbuilding for our cars and Airstream, and an AMAZING Red Barn.  We looked at it 3 or 4 times, dreamed about it, worked the numbers over and over, and made an offer.  After our initial offers were declined, we gave up and started looking elsewhere.

We searched and searched the surrounding areas, even Iowa for something even close to our original #1 choice, but to no avail.  We waited out the winter and towards the end of Spring the sellers of the our #1 property came to us and said they were going to lower the price and would we be interested in making another offer.

We visited the house again and knew we would not find anything that would surpass this in our eyes, so we went all in and our offer was accepted!  We quickly got our house ready and put it on the market, and within a day of showing sold it!  We felt elated that after our prior two individual houses were such bears to sell we made up for it with this one.

So we have been knee deep in all the "FUN" stuff of a move like inspections, appraisals, negotiations, packing, calling movers, utilities, etc.  It is all going to have to be done soon as we give up our current house Friday morning, and close on our new home right after!!

This will be our first home we buy together which is really exciting!  We are looking forward to the beautiful land, peace and quiet, a neighboring organic farm and restaurant, hosting Handmade U onsite in the loft of this beautiful barn, and just making all kinds of new memories here.

So if you are wondering where we are in the next week or two, we'll most likely be taking a much deserved break right there on the front porch swing.

Hope to see you this Fall at Handmade U.  Sign-ups will begin soon.  Watch all the moving action on Instagram @rjmcgough

Wish us Luck!

Rach