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This Friday and Saturday Canton artist, Vicki Boatright, (BZTAT), Ohio Arts and Crafts Guild president and owner of Art Adventures Studios, will be at Lehman’s with her Whimsical Dog and Cat Art. I guarantee her colorful, playful style will put a smile on your face and brighten up your day.
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By Jurgen Haver
Editors Note: Jurgen Haver is the husband of Judith Costello, one of Lehman’s Country Life long time contributors.
I went to New York as a young man, with dreams of becoming the next great American novelist! Living in the big city, I noticed something about what makes people “real”.
At that time, I was hanging around people who thought of themselves as “cultured”. At literary gatherings and art shows the conversation always seemed to revolve around which authority you could quote. Nothing was said about what they personally believed. It was always a quoting contest. “So-and-so recently said…”
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In today’s fast moving world of blogs, cell phones, and CNN, you may be wondering how we find the thousands of old-fashioned products that pepper our site, catalog and retail store. Who hand dips candles and weaves picnic baskets? Where can you find someone to create custom wrought iron, or make furniture out of old church pews?
And thus begins a series where I introduce you to a selection of our favorite vendors.
Scents of the Season:
I was in Lehman’s the other day, watching customers react to a lovely display of Lehman’s jelly jar candles. With fragrances like mulled cider, pure vanilla, and pine needle, each customer was first drawn to the attractive packaging (an authentic Ball jelly jar with a color-coordinated label), and then to the scent. Without fail, customers would take off the lid and sniff the candle, not once but twice, before repeating the process with another candle. Then, and only then, could the decision to purchase be made.
“Not all candles are created equally,” explains our favorite local chandler, who created this line for Lehman’s. “You might think it just takes some wax and a wick, but there is much more to it. There are specific characteristics of waxes, wicks, scents and colors. A chandler needs to know the science behind the materials.”
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I always think of November as a sort of “gateway” month – a special time between the last of the October harvest activities and the onset of true winter in December. It’s a time of cleaning up the garden and putting it to bed, pruning the roses and flowering trees, having vehicles winterized and perhaps even changing to snow tires, pulling out the sweaters and tweeds, and of course, shifting from pastimes that avoid producing heat in the house to those that definitely do, on purpose. “Leaf Peeping” brings out the photography novice in me, and a rare major grocery shopping trip produces a frozen turkey.
This month, however, also held a rather startling realization this year.
Journal Entry November 4th – Election Day
Got out early to vote – home by 9:00 A.M. Started measuring for the new window quilts and got sidetracked looking out at the most amazing color. Spent some time with the 35 mm and hopefully, got some shots that will faithfully reproduce the light that the trees seemed to have, shining out from inside themselves. Between these and a half-dozen taken at lunchtime this past week in Dover, I’m nearly through a whole roll of film.
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As I have been working in the marketing area of Lehman’s, I have found one thing as a powerful selling point: word-of-mouth. People respond well when others who have used the product tell them their experience. A whole blog community has been started up on that concept. As a result, I have something I want to share.
This weekend at our store in Kidron, one of the artisans that is going to be there is Seat of my Pants. Jen Kindbom creates beautful and durable bags by the “seat of her pants.” She doesn’t use a pattern: they are original. The best part is you can customize them. She has different websites that she orders fabric from and she can even do a custom design.
When my mom and I went to check out what she had, I was blown away. I have a friend that has one and I loved her bag. I asked her where she got it and she gave me Jen’s card. My mom wasn’t sure if she was going to get one, but she saw some fabric that she loved and a design she really appreciated and ordered one. I picked one from some that were already completed. It is big enough to hold my wallet, planner, a small digital camera, card reader, and a few other items and it still has space!
If you happen to be in Kidron this weekend, stop by Lehman’s and find Jen. If you are interested and won’t be around this weekend, you can find her at www.SeatOfMyPants.etsy.com.
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Amish Landscapes
Rug Hooking Demo
Fiber Art Demo
Beeswax Ornaments
On a typical Saturday at Lehman’s you can find an Ohio Arts and Crafts Guild member conducting educational and entertaining demos for visitors to the store. We’ve been fortunate to draw from local talent and offer a wide range of demos from fiber arts to woodturning to Amish landscape painting and lots in between! Tomorrow Holly Frantz of Two Sister’s Wool will be in to demonstrate wool rug hooking. Dennis Lipp treated us last week to winterscape Amish scenes in oil painting. Angela Seymour of Longehedges Fiber Farm shared the steps needed process raw alpaca wool into hand dyed and spun yarn. Theresa of Mind Our Beeswax used Lehman’s molds to make heirloom quality beeswax Christmas ornaments.
Still to come on the schedule is whimsical cat and dog art, working with pewter, ‘repurposing’ with vintage fabric and more. The Events Calendar link at the top of this page can be used to help plan your trip to Amish Country. Spend the day, enjoy the sights and be inspired!
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Lehman’s is proud to offer Simpson DuraBlack through our retail web site www.Lehmans.com. Our preferred chimney system for installation of our premium line of wood and coal stoves offers you excellent construction, ease of installation and a variety of options.
DuraBlack
For an economical, drip free, single-wall stovepipe, DuraBlack is an excellent choice. Built to Simpson Dura-Vent’s high standards, DuraBlack is constructed with die-formed end fittings. Adjustable lengths eliminate the need for cutting and crimping.
Lehman’s has carried Simpson Durablack stovepipe for years in our retail store in Kidron, Ohio. until now we have not sold this quality stovepipe on the web.
As with all of our heat/cook stoves, for your safety, Lehman’s highly recommends you have your stove and chimney professionally installed according to local ordinances and codes.
Lehman’s stove specialists are available to answer your questions. Call 888-438-5346 between the hours of 9:00AM and 4:30PM EST or Email stoves@lehmans.com
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Thanks to author Sherry Ellison, we have pictures with the article Making Old-Time Window Quilts
I do apologize for the delay in getting these pictures reposted.
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Did you know that pumpkins are really a fruit? They are members of the Cucurbitaceae Family (how’d you like that for a last name?), the same family to which cucumbers, gourds and melons belong. Indigenous pumpkins have probably been growing in the United States for at least 5,000 years. Not the same pumpkins of course. Unless you count the one grown by Dave Stelts of Leetonia, Ohio that weighed in at 1,140 pounds.
So, the question of the day is, if you were Mr. Stelts, and you had over 1,000 pounds of pumpkin sitting on your front porch, what in the world would you do with it? We asked our employees, friends and family here at Lehman’s for some of their best pumpkin stories. We will include some recipes, but we are talking unusual pumpkins stories.
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Our neighbor is 96 years old and she still goes for a walk several times each week. Very slowly she makes her way along the pasture fence between our properties. Then she turns around and goes home, carefully avoiding the ruts in the dirt road. I have gone out to greet her only occasionally.
A simple hello always means a commitment to thirty minutes, or more, of conversation. I know that’s not much in the larger scheme of things. And, it means so much to older people when you give them the gift of time. But these days life seems to be all a rush and time is a precious commodity. Often my husband reminds me that I’m not keeping up with everything I have committed to do. I get stingy.
That’s why I’m pleased to share what I’ve learned about another gift we can give each other. It’s the gift of Story. Yes, it takes time. But it’s fun too and it fuels the imagination. Here’s how I learned about it.
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