What I Didn't Buy At the Antique Show

This booth at the Hillsborough Antique Show was filled to the brim with linen, grain sacks, mangle cloths and pillows. It made my heart skip a beat!

I passed up this lovely yardage. Now I regret it! It's unusual to find flax linen like this with the caramel brown stripe. It would have been a wonderful runner for the Thanksgiving table!

There were other colors too. Red stripe, purple stripe, blue and black striped runners. Why didn't I at least get a couple of yards?

I thought these Christmas stockings were adorable! They would have been perfect for my #1 daughter's family. Passed them up....

As well as these monogrammed sachets filled with lavender. They would make great little gifts, but no, I left them there!

There were many monogrammed grain sacks too. My BFF, Maureen found a mangle cloth with her initials. Perfect as a tablecloth. I made her buy it! But again, I didn't buy a thing. What was wrong with me?

As much as I love this look, there is just so much that one can have before it becomes too much of a good thing.

For instance, I had slipcovers made for these two captain's chairs out of grain sacks. If I added a similar runner for the table, it would be too much.

I even upholstered my four French chairs out of coffee sacks!

Which went great with the linen and burlap tablescape I did back in May.

The living room is a study in linen!

I even had a French grain sack framed!

As much as I regret passing up all the great European linens at the antique show, I think it was probably the right thing to do. For once, I listened to my gut and told myself, "you have enough of this already!"

I found it interesting that this was the only grain sack I found in Italy!

Seriously, I did not see one bit of burlap or linen there.

Which also confirmed to me that I shouldn't invest anymore in this look!

I did get the dealer's card though, just in case!

That caramel stripe runner is calling my name!