Coastal Virginia Home and Garden Show

Hello 🙂 I thought it’d be fun to pop in today to share what I did over the weekend. There were a lot of projects I spent the entire weekend avoiding. A few important ones got done. And I went to the Coastal Virginia Home and Garden show!

I’ve never been to a home and garden show before so I’m really glad my mom asked if I wanted to go. We went yesterday, which was the last day of the show. I only had my phone with me and the camera is pretty well gone, so please give the pictures some grace.

We showed up at 10am for the mimosa and bloody mary tasting. It was pretty quiet, the drinks were good, and we scanned the center to get an idea of what we wanted to look at first.

Right beside us was a booth full of gorgeous Polish pottery. I’m a sucker for these kinds of things. Because I’m already a die hard fan of Le Souk Ceramique and Imari Ceramics I went ahead and stayed small with my purchases. A small adorable elephant with it’s little trunk up and a small tea bag tray.

And right beside that was Symphl Creations. They have an Etsy shop with quite a few handmade personal care items, but I was drawn in by the massive collection of soaps. I chose 4 soaps- Sensuous Sandalwood, Inspire, Activated Charcoal & Tea Tree Oil, and Monkey Farts. Yes, monkey farts, and it smells amazing- like candy!

Right around the corner from those two booths were a bunch of really fun hippies. They were selling handmade jewelry, tie dye shirts and handmade soaps, scrubs, and body whips. I am starting to develop a problem and I bought, yet again, another soap (this makes more than 30 bars in 2 months).

Then I beelined for the handmade baskets booth. The man running it said the basket I chose took 8 days to make and was made by an elderly woman in her late 60’s. He said that making the baskets gave her something to do and purpose in life. He also made baskets, his were smaller and less intricate, but stunning nonetheless.

Before we could even get down a full aisle of booths, we realized we were late for the Chickens: Pets With Perks. The speaker was very easy to listen to, reaffirmed my desire for having my own chickens, and is an author of a lot of really cool books about chickens.

After that was finished, we went to a small class about Feng Shui and it’s benefits in solving challenges in home spaces. Bonnie Primm was a joy to listen and interact with. I took some notes to share just in case you’re interested in diving into Feng Shui:

Mirrors bring energy and surroundings in.
Mirrors are a water energy.
If you live near water, take away some mirrors.
Mirrors push space back and enlarge it.
In dining rooms, round and oval tables are preferred.
Corners cause bruises, don’t bring in items than can harm you.
No corners in corners. Squares taken in the energies rushing at it and redirects in out with force back into the space.
For example, a corner nightstand can point energies back towards your body and cause knee pains, back pains, elbow pains, etc.
Turn square/rectangle pieces at and angle to avoid the pointed energy effect.
Lamps in corners are a must because they raise energy.
When cleaning a house, clean from the back to front.

After the Feng Shui class was finished we were approached by Rebecca Bushway. She invited us to join in on her Make and Take workshop. We made storage caddies out of old fence posts and spindles from old furniture.

We ended up visiting her booth later and saw that she makes over lots of furniture. And while a lot of it wasn’t my particular style, there were a pair of made-up Chromecraft chairs I could totally see in my house. I’m a thrifter though and couldn’t justify $60 a chair.

Then I got wrapped into agreeing to a window replacement consulation next weekend. I guess I’ll let you guys know how that goes. We really need to replace our roof before we worry about the old windows but I figure it’ll be a good idea to have the quote… and I entered to win the $10,000 in window and door replacements so keep you fingers crossed for me!

I saw plants at a booth nearby and bought a new plant. What’s new… It’s a Staghorn Fern which I’ve seen so much of this past year. I hope to try mounting it and hanging it on the wall and I hope I can keep it alive :/

Unfortunately we just barely missed the animals that were there for the SPCA. They had a lop eared bunny! We’re hoping to adopt one this Spring so that was very fun to come across.

The final exhibit we visited were the Habitat for Humanity ReStore “She-Sheds.” Sheds were donated, and the designers were provided a $1,000 budget to Habitat for Humanity to decorate and furnish the sheds with the “she-shed” theme in mind.

Shed #1 had the designer present and she shared a lot about how she created her space. She is a DIY diva I tell you. I wish I could remember everything she told me she did with the space. She only spent $300 of her $1,000 budget. Impressive!

And here’s the second shed. Also stunning! I imagine they used a bit more than $300 of their budget for this space.

Throughout the entire show there were intricate landscaping scenes. Here are some of the displays:

And that was my Sunday. What did you do?