Life can get very busy, but it's your job to make sure that it's not all busy. The holiday season is always a super duper busy time for me and Aaron. And don't get me wrong, we count ourselves lucky to have such a heavy workload. But every so often, especially if you're a creative type, you just need to take a break, get out there, and see some stuff. And there couldn't possibly be a better venue to see great creative and seasonal stuff than at the Country Living Holiday Bazaar.
A while back we very uncharacteristically made plans with some friends to actually leave the house! And the friends were the key to getting us out of the house. So many times if me and Aaron make plans for just the two of us, we're likely to kibosh the whole thing at the last minute because we have way too much work to do here at home. But going to the CL Bazaar was different because we made the commitment with three friends of ours weeks ago.
Despite the forecast for cold rain we just couldn't way to get up to Tarrytown, NY to do some shopping. The location of the event was barely over an hour away and we hit zero traffic on our way there. The property that it was held on was beautiful...tons of old trees, rolling hills, and stunning misty views of the Hudson River. From the entrance we took a shuttle bus down to where the Bazaar tents were. In the center of everything was the Lyndhurst Mansion...which is pretty much a 19th century castle. I saw a sign advertising tours of the mansion...but in all honesty...we weren't there to admire architecture! ha! We had holiday shopping to do!
So it turned out that the forecast of rain was really all talk and no action. We barely got a drizzle, and the temp was pretty mild. So taking a leisurely stroll down the hill from the mansion wasn't bad at all.
At the bottom of the hill was our chosen first stop. We had looked at the program to find out which tent Earth Angels was located in...and that's how we selected out first stop.
The tents were actually heated. And heated well...super warm, and not even a single draft.
So yes...first stop was Earth Angels. Which is where you'll find the awesome Jen O'Connor, who is so cool and always seems to be turned up to eleven. She hosts an amazing array of fab artists...she's every collector's favorite curator.
Just a glimpse of some Earth Angels magic.
And another glimpse.
And a mini Mudcake, just for good measure.
Loved this gal...just a fellow shopper...but oh gosh was she photograph worthy. I had to stop her and compliment her on her Iris Apfel glasses! Isn't she fabulous?
There were so many pretty vignettes throughout the show, like this one at the Findings booth...who just so happen to be from here on the Jersey Shore. We found some great things in their booth that we just had to have. You'll see them at the end of this post. ;)
Jenni Bowlin's booth was super duper FUN and Festive! This Jolly St. Nick greeted you as you entered.
And this is only a small sampling of the vintage Santa mugs that were on display.
She's got the cloches with the mostest. (that rhymes if you slur you words a bit)
We had our eye on this truck and so did our friend Marlene. But if you snooze you lose...it was long gone by the time we made our return to Jenni's booth.
Loved these little "rudolphed" photos.
The above three pics feature the holiday magic of The Painted Fern , which is owned by Jocelyn O'Gorman and her hubby. Their booth had so many beautiful pieces. Lots of victorian era imagery, collages under glass...And Jocelyn is so sweet. She had recognized me and Aaron by being a follower of this here blog. I love those small world moments. I'm not sure if Jocelyn has an etsy shop or sells her items online...I'll be sure to share a link if so.
There was a building sandwiched between two of the big shopping areas, and this is where the little cafe was. Me and Aaron took a break for lunch and ate in one of these booths that were repurposed old horse stables. Everything about the place was so festive and fun! There were not many booths at all, but just as soon as we got to the front of the line one opened up. Since the booths were huge and there was only the two of us we figured we'd wave anyone down who was looking for a seat and offer them half of our booth. Which is exactly what we did halfway through eating. We met three nice gals, shared shopping stories, talked about what we all do, what we collect, etc...
Ummmm, how about this cart in the South Porch Antiques booth?! In a perfect world we'd roll this thing straight home with us, fully loaded, as is.
More from the South Porch Antiques booth.
I love these paper wreaths. They're just so perfect. They've got the perfect amount of texture...so simple, but they bring exactly the feel I'm looking for at home.
We loved this little medical cabinet stool. We debated buying it, since we were so close to home this time we could definitely afford to transport slightly bigger stuff...we didn't have to worry about the tight squeeze in our luggage like at the CL Fair in Atlanta. But our home is still totally a work in progress and we feel like this beauty would sit on the sidelines for a pretty long time while the bulk of the painting and decorating happens. Anyway, we said we'd think on it...but after walking around and coming back we saw that it had a Sold sticker on it. Ah well...we hope that it went to a happy new home!
These brushes as artful objects were great. Loved this vignette. Aaron wanted all of them.
Loved how the person who put this booth together packaged these necklaces in vintage Christmas Ornament boxes...what a creative and festive idea.
Our friend Heidi from Georgia mentioned that the gal who owns the antique shop she works at would be at the show...and wouldn't you know...she happened to be the gal behind a booth that we loved! You may recognize this Good Eats window sign from our recap of the CL Fair in Atlanta. It was so cool to see it turn up here in Jersey! And even cooler that it belonged to our friend Heidi's friend from Atlanta. Another small world moment.
I just loved this weiner dog pillow set!
After walking back up the hill we went to the big tent at the mansion to see our new friends Stash Style. It's always great to see very cool peeps here on the East Coast! We need NJ and NY to be on the tour schedules of more people like Stash Style.
Their airstream full of perfectly curated fashions was parked right next to the big tent. Aaron was loving the vintage motorcycle and military jackets.
And he seriously kicked himself for not taking more time to look through their top notch selection of flannel.
No really...can you even handle how much style this duo has?!
These are some shots of their booth, which they had in addition to their airstream.
The t shirts were a big hit.
I seriously love everything about their esthetic. Their set up was so finely tuned...you could tell that they tour all over the country and that this is in their blood.
So now me and Aaron both have morning coffee mugs to represent some of our favorite brands...Tumbleweeds Handcraft and Stash Style. We will drink our coffee from these mugs or we will not drink coffee at all. We've got standards by jove.
And finally, after a long, New Jersey traffic filled drive home...we were able to unpack our shopping bags and get a good look at at our haul!
We love love everything! Especially our corner shelf! We'll be sure to share pics of everything once we find the perfect spots to display them.
The moral of this story???
If anything with the name Country Living comes to your area...do yourself a favor and go to it. Contact three or four friends, pile in a car, and go.
Thanks for reading!
xo Jenny & Aaron