Escalon's Country Cottage

Escalon has two antiques stores. This one also belongs to a "Sandy."




Sandy has been in Escalon for nine years in this old church school house. She has been in the antique business for many years and does a fine job of treasure hunting and displaying them in her store.



She has many vendors and they also display some great treasures.




I was in Sandy's store for a few years until I opened my own place. Sandy was so helpful and encouraging for me to get started with my store. Our goals are the same--- to have fun at our work and to enjoy our customers.

Hope that you find some time to stop by and take a look for yourself! Here's where you can find Escalon's Country Cottage at:

Country Cottage
2189 Jackson Ave
Escalon, CA 95320
209-838-1933
Open Thurs-Fri, Sun 11-4 pm

Another Sewing Room Update

I had told my daughter that I would leave her alone for awhile and quit blogging her pictures. Then this last weekend I met some wonderful ladies from San Francisco who specifically traveled to Escalon to visit The Green Pea. They were following my blog and they were loving how my daughter's sewing room was turning out. I couldn't help it---I promised them I would put some more current photos up because that sewing room got even more beautiful.

So I called my daughter to get permission to share more pictures. Enjoy!

This room is upstairs, across the landing from Mr. Pea's guest room. This is entering the room:

My favorite little sconce

This the general layout of the room now. There is a sewing table and a raised table that is dedicated to cutting. This room is very functional and practical.



My daughter got her pegboard painted up. She added a double layer of a Minwax clear coat to help prevent scratches from scuffing up her paint job. She bought some thread holders from Joann's while they were on sale and painted those to match. She also purchased some clear, plastic pegboard bins off of Ebay that are currently en route. She'll store her needle packets and embroidery bobbins and safety pins in them and they'll be easy to see.

Notice that she also painted the matting around her framed maps! The previous green just wasn't doing it for her. It was a quick and inexpensive fix, and I think they blend so much better.


And here's another view with those drop-dead beautiful custom bookcases!! I'm loving that dark chocolate color on the insides---I think it makes them look so rich. My daughter also plans on adding more maps to that wall as she collects them, and hanging them floor-to-ceiling. She and her husband are travellers, so it fits them well.



I'm really liking the functionality of this pegboard. I must admit, when she first told me about her plans for it, I was worried it would look like a garage display.


Here are some of her fabrics folded up in her bookcases. The textures are so wonderful! I'm inspired to get back into sewing!


This is her same toile linen that she used in her father's guest room. She took the palettes in this room from this fabric and will make a window drape and a window seat cushion from it. Hmmm. I guess she will have to share more pictures with us when that comes down the pike!



This is her lovely view outside her window! She has two sparrow families living in the stacked stone behind those corbels. They make a lot of noise out there as they have been prepping their nests.



And lastly, this is the wingback chair that she picked up this last week off of Craig's List. I think she is toying with the idea of slipcovering it in linen as well, and it can interchange between this room and the guest room.


I just wanted to let those sweet ladies from San Francisco know that I appreciate them coming to meet me! What fun!! I hope you continue to follow my blog!

In my next post, I am working on sharing pictures of a local home that was built during the Civil War. Stay tuned! It's beautiful and quite fascinating!

My "Working Vacation" in Texas

When my four children were growing up we either lived on a dairy or on a ranch. We had lots of acreage and there was always maintenance to be done. Throughout the years we kept the kids busy with manual labor on various projects---constructing a three-horse barn from the ground up with a tack room and full bath, welding miles of corrals around the property, and laying acres of irrigation systems. We pitched in as a family and, as funny as this sounds, it was a way we shared time and made memories together.

Well, it's all come back at me. When I visit my kids now they put me to work.

Mom at work!

This is not the most flattering photo of me, but in my defense, this was a late night. On my recent "vacation" to Texas, my daughter and I spent a day cutting and trimming the shelves for her sewing room. Remember those beautiful bookcases that Mr. Pea made for her? (If you missed that post, look here!)

Construction zone

My daughter had leftover fabric from her toile headboard that she made so she planned on using it in her sewing room too for a window treatment and cushion for the window seat. She picked up the earthy brown in the fabric to paint the inside of the bookcases with---doesn't it look fabulous? I just love that dark color in there! Then on the right side of the photo, you can see a sample of the beige that will be the wall color.

We caulked and sanded the bookcases some more. My daughter and I had an assembly line going this night; she sanded the edges of the shelves down so the trim would fit. I glued and nailed the trim to the front of the shelves.

Here I am trying to hide my flannel pajama pants from her!!

Since I have returned home, my daughter has painted and sent me some photos. In the picture below, she got her walls done in the beige. She and I made that pegboard to go behind her sewing table so she could hang her notions. She cut trim to go around the board to make it more aesthetically pleasing.


In this picture, she got the pegboard painted a couple of shades darker than the walls.



My daughter has some antiques around her home too. One of my favorites is this old British filing cabinet she picked up. She cleaned it and painted a clear varnish on the insides of the shelves to protect and store her fabrics in. Isn't this clever? The scooped drawer fronts allow her to see what's inside each drawer! This is what she used to organize her sewing until she started to run out of room and needed the additional bookshelves.


This is the room as it is right now:



And here's all fourteen shelves painted and drying in her garage. In another week, she will be able to actually put them to use!

Update: my daughter's guest bedroom

While I am here in Texas visiting my daughter, I wanted to show you an update to her guest bedroom. I posted here about her padded headboard project that she was working on. Remember this picture? Boy, a lot has been done since then!!

The guest bedroom last fall

When we last saw her room, she had already padded the headboard and she was having me help her tuft it. Remember this?

Helping my daughter tuft the headboard

Perfectly placed buttons!

So here's what it looks like today! What a revolution!

The room today

My daughter made a matching linen pleated bedskirt out of the same fabric as the headboard. Then she sewed a duvet cover in the same colorway as the toile background, and trimmed it with gray velvet. The bolster pillow is also made from that same gray velvet, and she embroidered an "O" for their family initial. She is using gold accents. The pillow is bordered with gold silk, picking up on the gilded watercolor frames.

Doesn't this look comfy?

Mr. Pea hung the headboard for her on the wall when he came to visit her a few weeks ago. He also hung the swinging arm lamps on the wall on either side of the bed. My daughter made drapes for the windows out of the plain linen and edged the leading edge with the gray velvet. She is in the process of upholstering the cornice board that Mr. Pea made for her to go over the double windows. (I'll have to show pictures of that later!)

Room still in progress

Right now she's on the prowl for a second bedside table and artwork. This first table we see in this picture was a nice find. I actually spotted it in a store that was getting rid of its display props. It's a capital column made out of a heavy resin and she bought it for $10. She took it home and spray-painted it a glossy black. It's hard to photograph; the pictures just don't do it justice.

Mr. Pea did a lot in this guest room! Last fall he made her this headboard out of wood. Then he made her the soon-to-be revealed cornice board. He installed the headboard on the wall and installed the lamps. So my daughter has dedicated this room to him and, to his delight, made sure he was the first one to get to sleep in it when he visited last month.

And remember that rescue puppy that my daughter had just brought home the last time I visited her?

Judge at 6 months

He's almost a year old now and he just recently graduated from intermediate obedience classes! He started his advanced class this week.

Judge the graduate!

Bloggers at the Canton Trade Market

I am visiting my daughter right now in Texas. This last Friday we drove out to the Canton Trade Days early in the morning to do some shopping. There were also some other bloggers that I wanted to meet and introduce you to.

This is Maggie from the Veranda. What a sweetie she is!! I sure appreciate her spending so much time with me and talking!

Maggie and Sandi (me)

I love her shop! She is so talented when it comes to creating vignettes! I took some pictures of her place to share with you.

Collage of photos in old picture frame

Look at that sweet little chair and beautiful gilded frame!!

My favorite display

I love this table and its place settings!

Lots of eye candy!

Beautiful Victorian lamps flanked both side of this little, white dresser.

Dresser with old Bibles

This looks like a page from a magazine!

Wish I had my truck with me!

A close-up view of the vintage bed.

Look at all those petticoat slips hanging above the bed! Aren't they fun?

Maggie takes her show to the famous Round Top Antique Faire in Texas too. One of these days I hope to get there and visit Maggie's shop there too.

The other two bloggers I met were Lillie from the JunkPalace and Donna from the Curious Goods Antiques.

Donna, Lillie, and me

Now these ladies were sweet! I didn't get any pictures of their shops but boy, did they have some treasures!! Both of them have a knack for finding unique items and putting together a beautiful ensemble. Thank you, ladies, for your time! I hope to see you both again!

Darling Dottie

Oh, here is a rescue doggy that we met while perusing the trade markets. This is Dottie and she was getting lots of attention for her stylish and very chic eyewear! We had to take a picture of her but she didn't want to sit still for the camera very long.

Laurie's Porch

On our way out of the trade market we stopped off at Laurie Anna's. She also has a space inside the trade market. Her shop is very popular and very busy! We didn't want to take up too much of her time so we just introduced ourselves and then headed home. It was so nice to meet you, Laurie!