I’m Tickled Pink

I’m tickled pink – I really am! From Westfalcon Farm preparing for the Unique Boutique and Antiques Tour, to a cute pig, and another award nomination (not the Sunshine Blogger Award that I previously wrote on) – all have combined to make a pretty great past month or so. Let’s start with the Unique Boutique and Antiques Tour.

Westfalcon Farm Boutique

Westfalcon Farm has been working diligently to prepare for the Unique Boutique and Antiques Tour – a new adventure for the family farm this spring (2019). This year 11 farms in the city of Cambridge will open up their barns to showcase unique handmade items and antiques. To prepare for the sale at Westfalcon Farm, the kids and I have spent a few days at the farm washing old doors to use as display tables,

picking out 100+ year old barn wood pieces to use for painted signs,

cleaning old milk jugs to use as table supports,

and helping with whatever else my parents may have needed.

My dad recently sent me a photo of a wrapping paper holder and cutter he created out of old barn wood, a piece of iron, and an old saw. How fantastic is this? I can’t wait to wrap our customers’ purchased items using this cutter. I love rustic, upcycled creations.

When the tour commences, Westfalcon Farm will feature hand painted signs with unique sayings, beautiful stone vases, rustic barn wood furniture, mixed container gardens, succulent gardens, handmade jewelry, potted perennial plants, fresh baked Swedish bakery, hot coffee, Minnesota Swede Fish – a homemade gummy candy, rag dolls, doll beds, maple syrup, and my watercolor paintings – both originals and prints. Because my paintings will be in the barn sale, I wanted to focus my paintings on one of my favorite subjects – animals. More specifically, farm animals.

Tickled Pink

I’ve been wanting to paint a pig for a few months now, and the Westfalcon Farm Boutique gave me the inspiration I needed. My great-grandfather’s (who grew up on the farm) family used to raise pigs on the farm, and I had a vision of creating a happy pig – a pig that would make the viewer smile. I imagined the pig to look like Clarabell, the pig that my great-grandfather’s family cherished back in the early 1920’s.

Here is a photo of Clarabell:

A photo of Henry (my great-grandfather’s uncle who lived with the family on the farm) holding Clarabell:

This photo is not of Clarabell, but I have to share something my grandpa displayed in his scrapbook. Myrtle, my great-grandfather’s sister, is seen here holding a piglet. My great-grandfather wrote this beside her photo in his scrapbook:

“Pigs had mumps. Myrtle came back from the city a week later very sick with mumps. Pigs died.” -1920

My great-grandfather was also a wood carver, and carved this humorous figurine preparing a roast.

Here is my version of Clarabell in watercolor. Do you think she looks happy? My husband came up with the name “Tickled Pink” – it suits this painting perfectly.

I’m hoping that our customers can connect with the animals I paint. Perhaps our customers live on a farm with animals in Cambridge, maybe their family used to own a farm, or perhaps they just love animals – like me. I can’t wait for the sale!

Finally, I’d like to take just a minute to write that I’m also tickled pink to have been nominated for the Best Lifestyle Blog Award.

Best Lifestyle Blogger Award

An anonymous friend of mine has nominated me for the Best Lifestyle Blog award. A title that is awarded once a year at the Bloggers Bash Awards in London. Thank you kindly to whomever nominated me, I’m very grateful.

If you’d like to vote for my blog, please visit The Annual Bloggers Bash Awards to place your votes. I have to say that I am among many other wonderful bloggers, so please take a moment to look around and visit some blogs that catch your eye.

Thanks so much for your support!