Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's hoping you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving Day with friends and family. It's the quintessential all-American holiday and while everyone seems to rush right past it anymore, I hope you all find time to sit back and think about that first Thanksgiving. The early settlers were already demonstrating the spirit, strength and character that went on to make this country great. We should always be mindful of their struggles & their sacrifices.

After a peaceful day of giving thanks tomorrow, I know some of you will head out to the mall for so-called "Black Friday" (isn't that a terrible name for it??) For those of you who are skipping the middle-of-the-night madness, and even for those who venture out but have energy left over, feel free to stop in at ForeverMore this weekend. Our Christmas Open House is Saturday from 8-4 and Sunday from 11-3. We haven't made huge changes since the Holiday Gathering, but if you missed us then, you have a second chance to enjoy our vintage and primitive Christmas selection. Of course, you're welcome to come back even if you visited us a few weeks ago!! We'll have a little treat for you this time, too! These will be our final open days for 2010.

(And remember, those of you who need a little help with shopping can always pick up a gift certificate good for 2011!)

Another great primitive show

Check out these scenes from the ForeverMore booth and a few views of the show floor just before the shoppers poured in last Saturday. So many amazing finds to be discovered -- hope you didn't miss it!

20th Annual Georgetown Holiday Gathering

Hi everyone...it's time again for the annual Georgetown Holiday Gathering, this year celebrating its 20th year. The yearly event features a number of local businesses and crafts people offering holiday decor, gift items, handmade crafts, baked goods and more.

ForeverMore participates in the first weekend of the event, starting next Friday, November 5 and continuing on Saturday and Sunday as well. Stop by ForeverMore first and pick up a map to all of the other locations. At each vendor, you can enter a raffle -- $50 given away each weekend and another $100 from all the entries.

ForeverMore's shop will be brimming with our regular selection of country antiques, primitives and old handstitched quilts. In addition, we will offer vintage and antique Christmas items, handmade ornaments, handmade quilted pieces and other "ready to give" country gifts.

We'll have some neat 2011 calendars with great photos of primitives each month, ad some lovely greeting cards by the same photographer. As usual, we have Judy Condon's latest book - Simply Country, Simply Greens -- it features a number of homes deocrated for Christmas with natural items. Inspiration on every page! Plus we expect to have the new issue of "A Primitive Place" magazine -- this is the holiday issue and we're looking forward to our copy for sure!

(All books and magazines will be specially priced during the Holiday Gathering!!!)

Indian Summer!

Wow! What a great time at our Harvest Open House! Such a pleasure to see everyone -- old friends and new! Who would have thought it would be 90 degrees in mid-October?? But any open house at ForeverMore without rain is a good thing!

Even the neighborhood trees cooperated to give us some perfectly timed lovely fall color.

Tonight -- with this balmy weather and having just spent the last couple of days surrounded by pumpkins and straw bales and mums and gourds -- it's almost impossible to think "Christmas" but that's what's coming up next time we're open. That will be the first weekend of November during Georgetown's annual Holiday Gathering. Can't even imagine that being just around the corner but it will be here before you know it. We've been finding great old Christmas stuff all year long and for those red and green lovers -- you know who you are!! -- there will be plenty of that as well! We know you'll be shopping for gifts, too, and will have plenty of unique little items. But, like I said, can't "go there" mentally while we're still basking in Indian Summer. Maybe after the first hard frost...or on a rainy day (if it ever rains again around here!)...

Anyway, thanks again to everyone who attended the Open House! Come back and see us again!

Sneak Peek

As promised, here's a glimpse inside the Harvest Open House. There's plenty more inside and lots of great stuff outside too! The weather is going to cooperate (for once!) so we hope you'll take some time out of a beautiful fall weekend to join us and see what you can find!

Next Weekend...

What are you doing next weekend? Going to Indiana to shop the Covered Bridge Festival? Want to jump start your Saturday with some antiquing before the Illini game? Looking for a pleasant Sunday drive in the country? Whatever your weekend plans, make ForeverMore's Harvest Open House a part of the fun. We'd love to see you!

Saturday, October 9, 8 til 4

Sunday, October 10, 11 til 4

Watch our blog for a "sneak peek" with photos later this week. Our middle room is chock full of primitives. Another room is all country with plenty of blue accented with fall colors. The third room will feature textiles but also some cottage-style vintage pottery, a great Mission style rocking chair, and some cool old post office finds. There's SO much more, too much to list here so check back soon!

p.s. Don't forget -- we have the premiere issue of the brand new magazine "A Primitive Place" and also Judy Condon's latest book "Simply Country - Simply Greens" which is brimming with holiday decorating ideas for primitive lovers!

A Primitive By Any Other Name...

Wondering if any of you have seen the great new magazine "A Primitive Place"? If you like Judy Condon's series of primitive decorating books, you'll love the magazine too. We have the first issue -- a great fall issue -- available for our Harvest Open House & Sale in October. It features several homes and some really interesting "how to" articles, a column on collecting and even some recipes. Judging by the first issue, it will be around for awhile. If you can't wait for your copy, drop me a email (forevermoresale@aol.com). Meanwhile, check out their website: http://www.aprimitiveplace.org/APP-Magazine.html

Writing this post to let everyone know about this new magazine caused me to think about just what we mean when we use the term "primitives." The word seems to have lots of varying definitions.

I heard a local antique dealer -- one of my favorite people but one whose shop carries more general line antiques -- recently quip "there's a fine line between primitive and junk." To him and many others, a "primitive" piece of furniture is one that is dilapidated and either seriously needs to be refinished or is beyond repair.

Several local auctioneers have been known to list "primitives" in their sale bills when they are offering hay hooks and other such rusty farm tools out of a farmers' barn. They can't imagine any of the women at the auction even looking at their version of primitives, much less bidding.

Then again, some of the cute little gift/decor shops around Champaign and Vermilion County who advertise that they sell "primitives" are referring to grungy candles, berry wreaths, wooden crow cut-outs, and painted signs that say things like "Welcome Friends." But that is not just a local use of the term. Catalogs like "The Country House" feature so-called primitives of the same ilk. "Country Sampler" magazine offers that kind of merchandise for sale in the back half of the magazine (while sometimes featuring original "primtive" antiques in the articles up front).

Some folks like to decorate in a grungy style reminiscent of a log cabin, with little or no color, low lighting and with tea-stained textiles; guess what they call that style? Primitive, of course!

So what does "primitive" mean when ForeverMore uses the term? The same thing that shows like Pure & Simple (an annual event in Kokomo, IN) and Gathering on the Prairie (twice a year in Arthur) mean when they use the term -- "unfancy" furniture and accessories from the 1800s or earlier in original surface (preferably old paint or a dry, attic surface) that have simple lines and were "using' pieces as opposed to decorative items. Perfect examples include early dry sinks or pie safes, painted hanging cupboards, wooden dough bowls, hogscraper candlesticks, old handmade baskets, pantry boxes and firkins.

When we mix in early salt-glazed pottery or a red/green applique quilt from early 1800s, we're probably stretching the concept of primitive a bit toward what some would call "early" or "Colonial". And when we display an old scrub bench topped with a row of mismatched sprinkling cans, some see "primitive" and others see "country". (My dealer friend quoted above probably just sees "junk"!) Is an old harvest table with chippy white over blue paint "primitive" or "farmhouse"? Who knows for sure!

So many different images conjured up by the same simple word! In the final analysis, whether you call it primitive" or "early" or "Colonial" or "country" or "frontier" or "farmhouse" or even "junk" doesn't matter. All that matters if if you love and want to live with it!