It may be because I was a kid at the time … but it seems to me no era captured the true essence of Christmas quite like the 1950s. Christmas in the post-war years (1946-1964), was a time of prosperity, when Americans were raising young families, moving to the suburbs and spending newly disposable income …
\ A few posts ago we shared some of the fabulous Quebec antiques we found on our latest trip … but we saved the best for last! For the past three years we’ve been making an annual pilgrimage through Quebec on our way to visit the kids in New Brunswick. On each trip we’ve discovered new …
It’s easy to get intimidated by the wide expanse of a fireplace mantel and stymied as to how to decorate it to make it the focal point of a room. But the truth is that mantel decorating is painless if you follow if you follow these 5 simple steps: 1. Start with a color scheme. Since …
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If you’re anywhere near my age … you’ve probably heard the phrase, “Don’t sweat the small stuff,” many times. But when it comes to transforming your home into a source of comfort and tranquility, the small stuff is actually your path to happiness. In fact, according to Ann Stillman O’Leary, who wrote the book Adirondack Style that was our original …
Everything we love about the Aberfoyle Antique Market. One Saturday in the spring and one in the fall, antiquers of all stripes head for Guelph, Ontario and the Aberfoyle Special Shows. It’s an event that attracts everyone from the fancy antique shops in Toronto to the young couples just furnishing their first apartments and looking for bargains. And …
Can you believe this place actually exists? Well it does, and we found it! Not without a lot of trial and error though. But we’re going to let you in on the secret. Every year we drive from Ontario to New Brunswick to visit our daughter and son-in-law (an now our grandson)! We vary our …
You promise yourself you will go to the gym after work. You pack your gym bag and head off in the morning determined to make it happen. But the day doesn’t go according to plan, you have to work late, and by the time quitting time rolls around all you have the energy to do is lie …
There’s no doubt the rustic farmhouse style made popular by Joanna Gaines of HGTV’s Fixer Upper will continue even though the show has ended (sigh). Like so many others, we love Joanna’s style and have been amazed to see rustic farmhouse decor showing up at mass market retailers like Amazon and Walmart. (You know it’s …
Waiting (and waiting!) for Spring It’s been a miserable March. The days have been grey, the temperature has hovered around freezing, and the lake still looks like an ice bath. It may be spring on the calendar, but here in western New York winter tends to far outstay its welcome. Since we can’t go outside …
In every city, and many towns there is the antique guy. In Buffalo, it was Hank Sontag. Hollywood Hank, as he was sometimes known, was a fixture on the antique circuit in the Northeast for more than 30 years. When we talked to antique dealers from Northern Ontario to Southern Pennsylvania, they invariably knew Hank. His warehouses, first …