The morning of the Barn Sale has arrived. I have to admit that I am rather excited.
We set out for Mackenzie-Childs but by now, you should realize that we never get from Point A to Point B without getting a little sidetracked or distracted by any number of things...a road we have never been down before that looks like it could lead to somewhere pretty or this particular morning a sign that said “Lake Ridge Winery – Open”. Before 11a.m. seems a tad early for wine tasting but when in NY State Wine Country....
I will tell you, if you are in the area, you must try their apple wine....It's delicious. Get it? Apples? Delicious? Delicious Apples? And we have 6 bottles of it, packed away in the trunk of car to prove it. Beautiful scenery all with a backdrop of Cayuga Lake. We did stop at another winery...the name eludes me.
The town of Aurora is lovely. Federal-style buildings dating back to the mid 1700's line each side of Main Street. Lots of tourists in town and lots of local traffic. I figure that must be typical for a sunny Saturday during the summer season. The lake looks very inviting and I see lots of people swimming and boating and I think, “Oh, there will be time for that later...after the Barn Sale”.
The first thing that gives me some idea that we are not going to be alone at this “Barn Sale” is that the parking lot is filled with hundreds of cars. I am starting to think maybe I am not the only one who knows about this sale. The second thing that gives me cause for concern is ….a line....a line of people that snakes around buildings, under trees, alongside a pond but mostly consists of people standing in the hot blazing sun. The third thing that makes me pause is that I see the people in line but way, way, way off in the distance is where I can see the sale is being held...yes, a portion of it is in a barn but a majority of it is under tents. There is a barbeque stand set up, spewing charcoal laced fumes into the air...more about that later. Just remember I mentioned this for a reason.
I have to tell you. Living in NYC, I have a hard and fast rule. “I don't do lines”. You may quote me. I will not stand in line to get into a restaurant in NYC because lets be real, we have no shortage of terrific places to eat where standing in line is not a pre-requisite. I go to the movies when I know most people are working hence no lines to wait in...you get the idea. But the whole reason for this road trip was this Barn Sale (we should all live in a “barn” like this by the way, with chandeliers and beautiful tile work and such)....so we take our place in line.....and wait.....and wait....Mom and I tag team the line. She spends time in the shade or in a gazebo or in the retail gift shop along the way....I borrow her parasol but still manage to get sunburned....she relieves me from time to time but hey, this is my tuffet acquisition so I feel the onus of responsibility for standing in line falls on me. Hey, I have a conscience and the idea of my Mom standing in the hot sun (oh, yes I forgot to mention it is a balmy 95 degrees on this day) just so I can save 50% on a tuffet??!! I can't do it....and I still have the sunburn/tan lines to prove it. This is my burden to bear...and my gift to acquire. It leaves lots of time to admire the “chicken coop” on the grounds which looks like a guest cottage on someone's estate complete with weather vane on the roof and beautiful windows and makes me wish I was a chicken. I did not even know it was a chicken coop until Mom mentioned it. There is also a Victorian mansion on the grounds that is cellar-to-attic decorated a la Mackenzie-Childs but I figure, “Oh, we will look inside the house a little later...after the sale”.
3 hours later....we are handed the coveted checkerboard paper bracelets that gain one entry into the sale venue. 3 hours of my life I can never get back....this better be the sale of my lifetime. :)
We make our way through the “Barn” which has lots of ceramic items and kitchenware inventory and picture frames and women filling bags and shopping carts with everything from rooster shaped cookie jars to floral -patterned cake servers. I am looking for the tent that houses the furniture and I find it after serpentining around (mostly) women who are buying anything that is not glued down. I find the furniture tent and see about 50 ottomans in many shapes and sizes. But much like the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears....”This ottoman is a great shape but I do not like the shades of brown”...and “This ottoman has great colors but is too small” but finally, off in a corner, wrapped in plastic shipping material is an ottoman that I am assuming someone else has already claimed as theirs. There is only one like it from what I can see....amongst a sea of polka-dotted ottomans and striped ottomans....there is this spiral patterned, multi-colored,. butterfly patterned and ceramic polka-dotted legs and more tassels than I can count ottoman.
“Does this one belong to someone?”, I ask one of the sales associates. I keep thinking it must be because of the shipping material around it.
“No, no one has bought it yet”, and then more magic words. “Not only is it 50% off but it was an artist's prototype so there is only one like it because it was never mass-produced”.
“You're kidding me, right? This ottoman is adorable,” I say and am then corrected.
“It's a tuffet”, the sales associate tells me, smiling.
I guess when one pays an obscene amount of money...even on sale...an ottoman becomes a tuffet which no woman should be without :)
I think to myself, “Thank you to all my friends who made this gift possible....and this tuffet now has a new home in NYC”.
7 hours of driving time....3 hours in line....actual decision making time to buy tuffet? 3 seconds :)
Let me share the time-line for today with you so far. We arrived at the Barn Sale around 11-ish....it is now 3p.m....no breakfast, no lunch but that's okay because we are now in line to purchase the tuffet. Mom is sitting in one of the chairs in the furniture tent that has not been sold, even at $3,000 it's tempting but....$3,000?! :) Wafting through the tent air is not only the smell of barbeque meat but the smoke that comes along with it...combine it with the insects that are attracted to that sort of stuff plus the heat plus the dirt and weeds of the ground we are standing on right now to pay for the tuffet and oooohhhh, I am so not comfortable. The tuffet has made its way to the front of the line, waiting for me to get to the cash register....we wait 2 hours for our reunion. Yes, 2 hours in line. People in front of me have enough merchandise piled up to fill up U-Haul Trucks...there is no Less than 10 Items Line...but it is okay because I have a tuffet :)
Mom, tuffet and I make our way to the car. Local time: 5p.m. Many of my feeding times have come and gone but at least at whatever restaurant we end up in for dinner, I have my own seat !...and I am grateful.
There's a beautiful restaurant in Aurora which dates back to the 1700's appropriately named the Aurora Inn. There was no room at the inn to actually stay there but there is a “reservations recommended” restaurant in the Inn. White linen tablecloths, red leather embossed menus, beautiful table seating options indoor and ourdoor with gorgeous terraced views of Cayuga Lake. It is the type of place where one can just see the gentlemen in their linen suits and straw hats and ladies in their summer frock finery. I am wearing jeans, a lace shirt, canvas white shoes....I am hot, hungry and pretty sure I smell like barbeque smoke.
Standing at the hostess' podium at the restaurant, I say “Hi. I know this is a long shot. Saturday at 5p.m. on a summer high-season weekend but is there any chance you have a table for 2 for dinner . I am so hungry I could eat the podium you are standing behind”. I smile and giggle as I say that but I mean it.
The hostess says, as she now noticed the Mackenzie-Childs paper bracelet that gained us entry into the Barn Sale that is still around my wrist, “Oh, you just came from the Barn Sale. You must be exhausted. Did you get anything good?”
I tell her, “Yes....I most certainly did” as I excitedly describe my lovely tuffet.
She tells me it sounds like a cause for celebration and that yes, she has a table.
Mom and I enjoy a truly yummy meal of cold corn and crab soup, more warm bread rolls than I care to admit to eating, pitchers of iced tea, duck with an apricot confit that was amazing and a berry crumble that somehow all combined to make the 6 hour tuffet acquisition a mere funny memory. A great meal in terrific surroundings can have that effect.
We walk/crawl our way down to the lakeshore and collapse into some white wooden Adirondack chairs that are along the lake. We just.....sit. It feels good to simply be ….
As the sun starts to set over the lake, Mom says, “Well, we better make our way to our next bed and breakfast before it gets dark and we can't find it.”
She has a point...and believe it or not, we are going back to Mackenzie-Childs tomorrow to tour the Victorian house that we never had a chance to see. I can not believe we are heading back to the scene of the retail insanity but this time, no Barn Sale....just want to see the pretty house.
With our driving directions in hand, back in the car we go....imagine....the sun setting over the lake, Mom and I pointing the car in the direction of the Bountiful Blessings Bed and Breakfast in Freeville, NY....and as I glance in my rear view mirror?
All I can see is one big beautiful happy tuffet .
We set out for Mackenzie-Childs but by now, you should realize that we never get from Point A to Point B without getting a little sidetracked or distracted by any number of things...a road we have never been down before that looks like it could lead to somewhere pretty or this particular morning a sign that said “Lake Ridge Winery – Open”. Before 11a.m. seems a tad early for wine tasting but when in NY State Wine Country....
I will tell you, if you are in the area, you must try their apple wine....It's delicious. Get it? Apples? Delicious? Delicious Apples? And we have 6 bottles of it, packed away in the trunk of car to prove it. Beautiful scenery all with a backdrop of Cayuga Lake. We did stop at another winery...the name eludes me.
The town of Aurora is lovely. Federal-style buildings dating back to the mid 1700's line each side of Main Street. Lots of tourists in town and lots of local traffic. I figure that must be typical for a sunny Saturday during the summer season. The lake looks very inviting and I see lots of people swimming and boating and I think, “Oh, there will be time for that later...after the Barn Sale”.
The first thing that gives me some idea that we are not going to be alone at this “Barn Sale” is that the parking lot is filled with hundreds of cars. I am starting to think maybe I am not the only one who knows about this sale. The second thing that gives me cause for concern is ….a line....a line of people that snakes around buildings, under trees, alongside a pond but mostly consists of people standing in the hot blazing sun. The third thing that makes me pause is that I see the people in line but way, way, way off in the distance is where I can see the sale is being held...yes, a portion of it is in a barn but a majority of it is under tents. There is a barbeque stand set up, spewing charcoal laced fumes into the air...more about that later. Just remember I mentioned this for a reason.
I have to tell you. Living in NYC, I have a hard and fast rule. “I don't do lines”. You may quote me. I will not stand in line to get into a restaurant in NYC because lets be real, we have no shortage of terrific places to eat where standing in line is not a pre-requisite. I go to the movies when I know most people are working hence no lines to wait in...you get the idea. But the whole reason for this road trip was this Barn Sale (we should all live in a “barn” like this by the way, with chandeliers and beautiful tile work and such)....so we take our place in line.....and wait.....and wait....Mom and I tag team the line. She spends time in the shade or in a gazebo or in the retail gift shop along the way....I borrow her parasol but still manage to get sunburned....she relieves me from time to time but hey, this is my tuffet acquisition so I feel the onus of responsibility for standing in line falls on me. Hey, I have a conscience and the idea of my Mom standing in the hot sun (oh, yes I forgot to mention it is a balmy 95 degrees on this day) just so I can save 50% on a tuffet??!! I can't do it....and I still have the sunburn/tan lines to prove it. This is my burden to bear...and my gift to acquire. It leaves lots of time to admire the “chicken coop” on the grounds which looks like a guest cottage on someone's estate complete with weather vane on the roof and beautiful windows and makes me wish I was a chicken. I did not even know it was a chicken coop until Mom mentioned it. There is also a Victorian mansion on the grounds that is cellar-to-attic decorated a la Mackenzie-Childs but I figure, “Oh, we will look inside the house a little later...after the sale”.
3 hours later....we are handed the coveted checkerboard paper bracelets that gain one entry into the sale venue. 3 hours of my life I can never get back....this better be the sale of my lifetime. :)
We make our way through the “Barn” which has lots of ceramic items and kitchenware inventory and picture frames and women filling bags and shopping carts with everything from rooster shaped cookie jars to floral -patterned cake servers. I am looking for the tent that houses the furniture and I find it after serpentining around (mostly) women who are buying anything that is not glued down. I find the furniture tent and see about 50 ottomans in many shapes and sizes. But much like the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears....”This ottoman is a great shape but I do not like the shades of brown”...and “This ottoman has great colors but is too small” but finally, off in a corner, wrapped in plastic shipping material is an ottoman that I am assuming someone else has already claimed as theirs. There is only one like it from what I can see....amongst a sea of polka-dotted ottomans and striped ottomans....there is this spiral patterned, multi-colored,. butterfly patterned and ceramic polka-dotted legs and more tassels than I can count ottoman.
“Does this one belong to someone?”, I ask one of the sales associates. I keep thinking it must be because of the shipping material around it.
“No, no one has bought it yet”, and then more magic words. “Not only is it 50% off but it was an artist's prototype so there is only one like it because it was never mass-produced”.
“You're kidding me, right? This ottoman is adorable,” I say and am then corrected.
“It's a tuffet”, the sales associate tells me, smiling.
I guess when one pays an obscene amount of money...even on sale...an ottoman becomes a tuffet which no woman should be without :)
I think to myself, “Thank you to all my friends who made this gift possible....and this tuffet now has a new home in NYC”.
7 hours of driving time....3 hours in line....actual decision making time to buy tuffet? 3 seconds :)
Let me share the time-line for today with you so far. We arrived at the Barn Sale around 11-ish....it is now 3p.m....no breakfast, no lunch but that's okay because we are now in line to purchase the tuffet. Mom is sitting in one of the chairs in the furniture tent that has not been sold, even at $3,000 it's tempting but....$3,000?! :) Wafting through the tent air is not only the smell of barbeque meat but the smoke that comes along with it...combine it with the insects that are attracted to that sort of stuff plus the heat plus the dirt and weeds of the ground we are standing on right now to pay for the tuffet and oooohhhh, I am so not comfortable. The tuffet has made its way to the front of the line, waiting for me to get to the cash register....we wait 2 hours for our reunion. Yes, 2 hours in line. People in front of me have enough merchandise piled up to fill up U-Haul Trucks...there is no Less than 10 Items Line...but it is okay because I have a tuffet :)
Mom, tuffet and I make our way to the car. Local time: 5p.m. Many of my feeding times have come and gone but at least at whatever restaurant we end up in for dinner, I have my own seat !...and I am grateful.
There's a beautiful restaurant in Aurora which dates back to the 1700's appropriately named the Aurora Inn. There was no room at the inn to actually stay there but there is a “reservations recommended” restaurant in the Inn. White linen tablecloths, red leather embossed menus, beautiful table seating options indoor and ourdoor with gorgeous terraced views of Cayuga Lake. It is the type of place where one can just see the gentlemen in their linen suits and straw hats and ladies in their summer frock finery. I am wearing jeans, a lace shirt, canvas white shoes....I am hot, hungry and pretty sure I smell like barbeque smoke.
Standing at the hostess' podium at the restaurant, I say “Hi. I know this is a long shot. Saturday at 5p.m. on a summer high-season weekend but is there any chance you have a table for 2 for dinner . I am so hungry I could eat the podium you are standing behind”. I smile and giggle as I say that but I mean it.
The hostess says, as she now noticed the Mackenzie-Childs paper bracelet that gained us entry into the Barn Sale that is still around my wrist, “Oh, you just came from the Barn Sale. You must be exhausted. Did you get anything good?”
I tell her, “Yes....I most certainly did” as I excitedly describe my lovely tuffet.
She tells me it sounds like a cause for celebration and that yes, she has a table.
Mom and I enjoy a truly yummy meal of cold corn and crab soup, more warm bread rolls than I care to admit to eating, pitchers of iced tea, duck with an apricot confit that was amazing and a berry crumble that somehow all combined to make the 6 hour tuffet acquisition a mere funny memory. A great meal in terrific surroundings can have that effect.
We walk/crawl our way down to the lakeshore and collapse into some white wooden Adirondack chairs that are along the lake. We just.....sit. It feels good to simply be ….
As the sun starts to set over the lake, Mom says, “Well, we better make our way to our next bed and breakfast before it gets dark and we can't find it.”
She has a point...and believe it or not, we are going back to Mackenzie-Childs tomorrow to tour the Victorian house that we never had a chance to see. I can not believe we are heading back to the scene of the retail insanity but this time, no Barn Sale....just want to see the pretty house.
With our driving directions in hand, back in the car we go....imagine....the sun setting over the lake, Mom and I pointing the car in the direction of the Bountiful Blessings Bed and Breakfast in Freeville, NY....and as I glance in my rear view mirror?
All I can see is one big beautiful happy tuffet .
Thanks for the pics ... I was not to sure what a tuffet was, although I know that little Miss Muffet sat on one.
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