Todd's Farm Sundays

My mother and father-in-law were in town this weekend to help us with lawn work. We kicked some serious lawn butt, and got some good family time in along with it. They are amazingly selfless people, and I absolutely love and appreciate everything they do for us. Bean is addicted to her grampa Poppy, as we call him. She was Poppy's girl this weekend, and didn't want anything to do with gramma Meme. Poppy is an exceptional grampa, and gets more on the kids level than almost anyone I've ever seen. This weekend Poppy trimmed Bean's fingernails and toenails, and even painted them pink which she is very proud of. What grampa do you know of who would do that?


Junk at Todd's Farm

A tradition that I've had with my mother-in-law since we moved here is going up to Todd's Farm flea market in Rowley on Sundays when they are in town. I'm lucky to be close to my mother-in-law (Meme), and I love our trips to that market. We both have things we're looking for so part of the enjoyment is hunting for "bahgans" for projects and decorations. It's also so interesting to see all the different characters. There's such a mix of people, from the leisure bargain hunters like us looking to Martha Stewart up our houses, to the serious antique dealers looking for anything they can sell at a profit. Being in the Boston area, very few R's are spoken and the accents are thick. But the best part about Todd's Farm is just wandering around together, looking at all the interesting things from the distant and recent past. I've learned a lot about my husband's family from those trips, because some object or another will spark his mom to tell a story about something from her past. We only ever go to Todd's Farm when it's nice out, so every memory I have of the Farm is of beautiful, sunny Sunday mornings. Today when we got there we realized that the land the Farm is on is being sold. Half the parking lot was closed off and freshly planted with grass, ready to be sold. There was barely any parking so there were lines of cars, and there were sale signs all over the rest of the Farm. Meme and I were both upset when we left, and we hope that whoever buys it will keep Todd's Farm going. It will be a major bummer if we don't have those Sundays together. I can tell you, we will keep going until the last vendor closes. I try to take a list with me every year of the junk I'm looking for to decorate my house, to help me focus and avoid buying too many nic-nacs which I have a tendancy to do. This year I want to find some vintage letters from old movie billboards, an Eames style chair for my office, heavy vintage suitcases to create side tables in our living room, and a vintage school world map that pulls down for my office.