Inspirational New Tees!

 This weekend, we released 3 new tees online! First up was the Just An All American Girl, which also happens to be the Tee of the Week on our website. If you're not familiar with our new tee of the week deal - each week, we will be featuring a different tee, for $15 on our website  (up to 45% off the regular price.)

Our booth at Kickin' K Cattle Co. in Quitman has opened back up and we had debuted the tees over there, before we got them online. Your comments and messages let me know that you really liked this tee, so we got it online and decided it would be this week's tee deal, so that it can be shipped out in time for all the summer family picnics, like Memorial Day and 4th of July. It has all those summer, patriotic, sunflower vibes going on! 

Please note the tee of the week deal is only good on our website, www.gypsyfarmgirl.shop,  and not on etsy. 

Another new tee release is this inspirational tee that says "Scatter Kindness." It's a super soft turquoise bleached tee, with dandelion seeds blowing in the wind, reminding us to scatter kindness always. 

 Grace + Grit... another motivational tee that reminds us with grit plus grace, we can do just about anything we are determined to do.

Here's a couple more pictures from our booth in Quitman - - almost all of the shirts can be found in our online shops or you can send me a message, if you would like it shipped to you. We are happy to help, however we can! In store, online / shipping, curbside, porch delivery, etc. plus our booth at the Mineola Antique Fair is planning to reopen in June.

I'd like to point out, that since we make our own tees, if you see an image you like, but want it on a different style or color tee, please send me a message! I keep baseball tees in several colors, if you don't like the bleached or short sleeve tees. I also try to keep the v neck, and several colors of short sleeve tees in stock, if you don't want the baseball tee. I'm actually getting in another big order tomorrow, so I can replenish our inventory and have more options available for you! I try to keep small-2X in stock most of the time and some styles can be special ordered in a 3X.

For example, I'm personally not a white t shirt kinda girl (we've got well water with iron and it turns white clothing dingy over time), so I made me a baseball tee with the All American Girl image. It has a heather grey body, so it's not a true white. 

At this time, everyone is talking about shopping local and small businesses and saying "when this is over" we should support out locals... That chalkboard sign has been in our booth since the very beginning, because it has long been our focus. Friends, please don't wait to support your local and / or handmade small business friends. Each show we have participated in has always had a sign thanking you for supporting our small hand made business and shopping local and truly, we couldn't do it without all of you who have thought that way, long before this spring. We are so appreciative of you, who support our shop and handmade way of life! If we don't get to tell you in person, we hope you know we thank you and your support means so much to us. 

 Many days when I get dressed, I look at my assorted jewelry and almost all of it was made by creative ladies working from their home studios. I think of each one of them, as I go about my day. This pair of crochet earrings are one of my new faves and were made by Nikki, who has a space at Kickin' K. I always get compliments on them! 

Oh Corona...

Just a little over a week ago, we had our show at the Mineola Antique Fair. While we all practiced extra hand washing, had plenty of hand sanitizer, and didn't hug on all our sweet customers,  I don't think many of us realized just how serious this was quickly becoming. (At that time, gatherings in Texas were strongly discouraged if attendance was above 250 to 500+, while the building we were at doesn't have that capacity at any point.) 

Since then, group gatherings are limited to no more than 10, lots of stores are closing, we can't eat in a restaurant, schools are shut down for several weeks, and the list goes on. 

Since this is the week after a show, not too much has changed in our personal life, with the corona virus restrictions. Now please hear me out! I work from home, almost all of the time! The week after a show, I am always working from home, making sure all the recent wedding and online orders are being made and fulfilled. This week has been all about wedding bouquets and I've been in "the factory" (my small bedroom turned work room) making lots of burlap roses. I would label myself as an "extroverted introvert." I was working in public (our show) and on the go for several days last week and now I am happy to be at home working in the quiet. Jeff and I both work from home, so we've really only been in contact with 4 other people (family members) this week, except for a few store clerks, where we picked up the essentials. 

We also still have to go the farm and take care of animals and that doesn't change, no matter what the conditions are around us: rain, snow, drought, sunshine, or pandemic... the well being of our cattle and donkeys must still be attended to. A couple of new babies have certainly brightened our week!  

Please say hi to Gracie! I ask on fb and ig for name suggestions - there was so many that I couldn't decide. Jeff's mom saw her pic and a video, then I read her all the names and she said "she looks like a Gracie to me," so Gracie she is! 

Jeff and I also help provide some care and assistance to some family members, so we are helping them all the same. 

We live about 12 miles from town, so we normally only go grocery shopping once a week or less anyways. Tuesday, we did have several important stops in town to make, but we only went into the stores one at a time. He went into the feed store, I went in the grocery store (Have mercy at the empty shelves - it was late in the evening, so it wasn't crowded and I got almost everything I was after.)  We've got hand santitizer in the truck and use it before and after entering each location. I cleaned my desk and even found some more hand santitizer that was a freebie from a booth at the Yamboree last fall - it was like finding gold, lol! 

We seldom eat out together, so we continue to eat at home, as usual. 

Corona Virus has us like "Whoa Nelly!" 

A couple of things that have changed for us: 

We haven't been in such a rush this week and didn't set an alarm on most mornings. I've been saying "I'm tired" for several weeks, so I'm taking this time to get some extra rest. I've also had a "cranky" sore foot that is bothering me, so I'm trying to be easy on it as well. 

Angea and I didn't go junkin' or eat lunch together on Thursday. We usually meet on Thursdays and go pickin' and hunting for new inventory or restock our booths, then have lunch aka "board meetings". We've had a few "phone conferences" but haven't seen each other since we left Mineola last week. 

We know our shows scheduled for April will not happen. Vintage Market Days of East Texas has been postponed to June 18-20 in Lindale. The Mineola Antique Fair will not be held in April and we hope we can all gather there in May. 

We still have items at Kickin' K Cattle Co. in Quitman - although the boutique is not open daily now, but she will meet for curbside service on appointment and is offering free shipping on most orders over $25, till we get through this pandemic. Kadyn is also doing facebook sales or you can contact her for items in the store. Kickin' K just joined instagram too, so please welcome her and tell her I sent ya! 

We are taking extra precautions, washing our hands even more that usual! #washyourhands

Even if our clothes don't seem to be dirty, we are washing them after going anywhere. (you know how you wear a shirt for a little while when going to town and it doesn't get dirty, so you lay it over a chair to wear again - now it's going in the dirty clothes as extra precautions.) 

What to expect in the coming days from us:

We will continue to work on our wedding orders and ship items from our home on the rural route in East Texas. Orders will still be processed in a timely fashion and shipped out. The USPS says they will continue to deliver! I am ordering more supplies online, instead of going into the store to shop. 

I still haven't unloaded my vehicle from the Mineola show and we have some new shirts to photograph and list online. (This is something else I usually do the week after a show, but since we've been getting extra rest plus it's rained a lot this week, we didn't get around to it and my "wagon" hasn't been cranked all week, as we've just been going places in the "farm truck")  We are considering doing a live sale on my Facebook page this week in addition to getting our new things uploaded to our websites. If you are interested in the live sale, please head over to our fb page and make sure you have notifications turned on. 

This is a peek at a few of the new designs to be listed! 

We will continue to wash our hands a lot and hope you will as well! 

We will still maintain our daily positive words of encourage, fun memes, and pictures on our facebook page to help get us through this difficult time. 

We are always, always grateful for your support of our small handmade business and appreciate each and everyone of you!!! We understand there is so much uncertainty at this time and we are so very thankful for everyone who orders a shirt, allows us to design your wedding bouquets, fix flowers for your loved ones or events, or comes to our shows.  We couldn't do this without all of you. Thank you doesn't seem adequate enough, but we don't know how else to say it. We do hope all of you are well and we can't wait till we can see you all again soon!

Until them, we still have our website and etsy shop that you can find lots of our things (and there just might be a sale happening now!)  Send me an email or message on facebook or instagram. We are here to help you, however we can! 

Come See Us at The East Texas Yamboree!

"Some dreams stay with you forever...

Some dreams keep on gettin' better,

Gotta keep believin' if you wanna know for sure..." ~Eli Young Band 

I've had this dream, this feeling, this desire, these ongoing thoughts for years, long before I started GypsyFarmGirl, that involved a vintage camper trailer and just knew that one day it would be a part of my future. I dreamed about flea markets and wanting to set up at a trades day event and thought I would just be sleeping in my camper. This was way before "glamper" was a term, before Pinterest and Facebook helped popularize vintage campers and mobile boutiques were a thing. 

I looked for years for a affordable camper of my dreams and was so excited when I found one last year. Little did I know in my early dreams, that my glamper would be a part of my full time business, a mobile boutique of sorts, the World Headquarters of GFG!  I was working a full time day job at the time and this was just a little side business. Fast forward a year and here we are!  This year, I've used her some for photo shoots for my new products and next month, Miss Gussie gets to make her public debut and one of my long time dreams will come true! She's been getting gussied up and got a new awning a few weeks ago. (See earlier post.) 

Good Lord willing and the Creek don't rise, my ever so talented and good friend Angea, from Rooster Tails, will be joining with me and we will have a booth at the 

East Texas Yamboree in Gilmer, Texas, in October. 

Together we will be using Miss Gussie as our shop and will be set up at the livestock fairgrounds as part of the arts and craft exhibits. 

I will have an assortment of items including wedding bouquets, pillows, western rope wreaths, home decor, furniture, lamps, chandeliers, fall and Christmas arrangements, dream catchers, tote bags, and the such. There will be items that are not available in my etsy shop and some special sales. Other than a small trunk show last spring (without my camper), this will be the first time my items will be available in person. I've had people ask if they could come see bouquets in person, before ordering. I work from home and don't have a storefront shop, so this will be an opportunity to meet me and see my items in person and I look forward to meeting customers and visiting with you face to face. I'm still working on several new items and furniture makeovers. 

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Angea is a creative friend and former coworker from the flower shop, where we both worked for several years. She's a talented florist, seamstress, painter, repurposer, and junker and she loves to laugh and is a happy person. (See why we are great friends?!?)  We have a lot of common interests and text each other on garage sale days giving each other the "you gotta get there now"  or "don't waste your gas money" advice! Here's a sneak peek of a few of the items Angea will be contributing to our booth. She makes the most adorable scarecrows, pillows, wooden signs and wreaths. She will also have some florals, wooden tool boxes, aprons, fabric pumpkins and so much more. Her business name is Rooster Tails  and she has a few items in her etsy shop, but most everything she makes will be offered in person at the Yamboree. 

Now for some show details - the Yamboree is our HUGE county fair and will be held October 15-17, 2015 in Gilmer, Texas. Our small town of around 5,000 swells to 100,000 visitors during the week as many activities are held in celebration of all things Yam (or sweet potato). There's a Yam Queen that is crowned at the pageants, 2 parades (Friday and Saturday), band stand, carnival on the square, band marching contest, car shows, fair food, lots of yam pie, a barn dance, and my favorite - the livestock shows, yam pie contest, art and photography contest, among so much 5more. Google the East Texas Yamboree for a schedule and see pictures from past events. If you need more info, please feel free to email me and I'll be happy to help you. 

We will be set up near the Yamboree exhibit building at the livestock grounds, located on US Hwy 271, just north of Wal Mart and the Gilmer / Upshur County Civic Center. So if you are anywhere near East Texas, we would love to meet you! The exhibits will open at noon on Thursday, and be open all day Friday and Saturday of the Yamboree. 

I'll be sharing more info as times gets closer and follow us on Instagram (@gypsyfarmgirl and @roostertails55) or GypsyFarmGirl on Facebook for some sneak peeks of what we are working on and will have available for you to shop from. 

We certainly hope you'll come see us and Miss Gussie! 

Katie's Vintage Barn Wedding Pictures

Katie's Vintage Barn Wedding Pictures

 

Katie tweeted me last week and shared a picture of her burlap and lace wedding bouquet. I looked at her twitter pictures and fell in love with this vintage barn scene.

 

 

@kt_cook922  tweeted the following picture and said: "@gypsyfarmgirl Loved my bouquet from my September wedding! & Janice was super nice to work with! Thanks again!! :)"

 

We tweeted back and forth a few times and I ask her if I could feature her wedding pictures here on my blog. She said yes, and sent me a few more pics!

 

Burlap Bouquets and  Cowboy Boots!

Katie chose a Cream and Tan Burlap and Lace Bridal Bouquet from my etsy store. Pearl accents were added to the center of each rose.

 

 I love all the photos that were taken at the country barn setting! All photos in this post were taken by Amberly Foster Photography.

 

 

Thank you Katie for sharing pictures of your wedding day and allowing me to design your burlap and lace bridal bouquet! I appreciate your positve feedback for my store and work. I wish you and your new husband many years of happiness together!

 

Krystle and Jared's Burlap and Lace Wedding

Krystle and Jared's Wedding

Krystle contacted my etsy store recently about ordering burlap and lace bridal bouquets for her wedding.  I have an open invintation for any GypsyFarmGirl bride to have her wedding pictures featured here. This week, Krystle sent me pictures from her and Jared's recent Maine wedding. It's exciting to see one of my bouquets in the hands of a bride.

From the looks of it,  the groom is a firefighter and she added the firefighter's badge to her bridal bouquet.

 Krystle carried a medium size bouquet with turquoise, tan, chocolate, and cream colored burlap and ivory lace. The bridesmaids carried the small size bouquets.

Krystle let me know that her bouquet was featured on the Real Maine Weddings Facebook page as well.

I want to say thank you to Krystle for allowing me to design her wedding bouquets and for sending me pictures of your special day. I wish you and your husband many years of happiness together.

All photos of Krystle and Jared's Wedding where taken my Sarah Marble Photography.

Heather's Wedding

A few weeks ago Heather sent me a convo asking how I could incorporate purple with the burlap and lace bouquets in my etsy store. I replied that I could use purple material to create flowers, small tufts of tulle could be used in a similar fashion to the lace, or I could use purple ribbon in the bouquets.

 

 

Instead of giving me specific instructions on how to use shades of purple and plum in her bouquets, Heather said "...I would rather give your creativity free reign and let you produce what you think will look best."

 That confidence and trust in me made me fill good.

 Heather also ordered 4 wristlets. While working on her order, I would send her pictures to see and get approval before making all the items. When I sent her the picture of the wristlet, this was her response "Very nice! I was curious as to how these would look as a wristlet. Exceeds expectations!"

 Each wristlet had a chocolate, ivory, and tan burlap rose, lace, tulle, pearls, and purple ribbon.

 The bridesmaids bouquets were made with the same colors and materials.

Heather's wedding is in a few weeks at the edge of the woods on a farm, yet another wedding I wish I could see in person!

 

Congratulations and Best Wishes for your wedding Heather!

 I appreciated your trust and encouraging words while working to create your bouquets.

 

 

 

 

Headed to a Canada Barn Wedding!

Earlier in the summer, Jody contacted me on etsy asking if I could include turquoise burlap  in a bouquet. We convo'd back and forth this summer about creating burlap and lace bouquets for her wedding next week.

 

I searched and found the turquoise burlap and designed a custom bridal bouquet for Jody.

She decided to have chocolate burlap roses for the quys to wear in the wedding. The three bouquets below were created for her bridesmaids to carry.

 Last week Jody ask me to call her on the phone to talk in more detail. It wasn't till this point that I realized she was in Canada, since my cell phone wouldn't place an international call. We played phone tag and finally got to talk over the weekend. In several years of online selling on etsy and ebay, Jody was the first customer I had ever talked to and it was much more personal than just an email.

 These small rustic bouquets were made special for the flower girl to carry and a throw away bouquet.

 When I talked to Jody, she told me her wedding was going to be in front of an old barn. I really wish I could have hand delivered all her bouquets to Canada and see it all in person! I told my husband if we weren't married yet, I would want my wedding on the farm, by our rustic barn and since Jody's bouquets are made out of all my favorite colors, I would want to carry bouquets like these.

His response was, well we are married and maybe your job is to help others create their perfect wedding day. I like his thinking.

Today I boxed all the burlap and lace bouquets up and sent them on their way to Jody. I have invited all the brides I'm working with to share their wedding pictures with you and me here on the blog. Jody said she would send a picture and I sure hope she does.

 

It was a pleasure creating these vintage style bouquets for you Jody. Congratulations and Best Wishes for your wedding!