Let Me Tell Ya About this Texas Tee... and Roots

Let me tell you about this Texas tee - This is one of our original designs and we are pretty, stinkin' excited about this one. We love our State of Texas and everything that makes up this great state. We took graphics along with pictures we have taken, to fill up the Texas collage. It took a while to design, but once I came up with the idea, I had to make it happen! 

East Texas peaches and sweet potatoes, pine trees, a sunset over FM 555, barbed wire fences… bluebonnets and Longhorns in central Texas. Windmill and big sky in the panhandle. Dirt roads and cactus in the west. Throw in old barns, pickup trucks, rodeo Cowboys, boots, hats, sunflowers, and a lone star. What's not to love about that? 

The sunset is a view from the place where Jeff grew up and where we both feel at home  - the 555 Road Sign also comes from there - a curvy farm to market road with a great group of community and family. Side note - Jeff and I grew up on opposite ends of the same mail route and my family baled lots of hay all along the route, so I had driven a truck and tractor all over the area, long before I met Jeff or even had a drivers license. His family also baled lots of hay in the same community and true story - we talked about tractors and hay on our first date! Roots, it's just simply our roots and what we both grew up doing. 

Sweet potatoes - our town in know for the East Texas Yamboree (a huge fall festival / county fair with a Yam theme) and there is a basket of sweet potatoes in the back of the truck. Our area is also known for peaches and pine trees. The Yamboree was were we set up for our very first event and we even won the Yam Pie Contest a few years back. Jeff and I both grew up showing our animals at the fair through FFA and 4H, although not at the same time. Once again, it's part of our roots. 

I took the picture of the longhorn in the bluebonnets along the Ennis Bluebonnet Trails several years ago. 

We think of cactus in west Texas and that's actually Jeff's mom's horse standing out there. My niece Brenna (who is also a cousin) took the horse picture (which is also on our Support Your Local Farmers and Ranchers Tee) Here's another crazy side note - my grandparents and my niece's Great-grandparents were all from west Texas and all ended up on the opposite side of the state, without planning it. So yeah, I should probably explain that a little more, huh?!? My granddad and Brenna's great-grandmother were brother and sister. Now you should know that Brenna's dad is Jeff's brother. Brenna's mom and I are second cousins that married brothers, but we really didn't see each other much, till we became sister-in-laws. Wild huh? 

Ok, moving on! Big sky moments for the panhandle with a windmill and a barn. I took the sky picture on some of my travels. 

You can't think of Texas without thinking of boots, hats, and rodeo cowboys. Throw in some sunflowers, a horseshoe, and a single lone star and we filled up Texas. 

Oh, I should also mention that I started making coffee mugs this week! The Texas images show up in even more detail on the mug, opposed to the shirt. 

The collage reminds me of high school, when I cut images from magazines to cover my folders and posters. Twenty something years later, I still have my ag folder, where we had to cover it with clippings to describe ourselves. Here it is, describing me in 1998ish. Look at how many of the same type elements made into our Texas collage! I just opened the folder and it has pages of quotes in there, back from our FFA leadership days... on the right side of the folder it says raised to work... roots, I  tell ya, roots. I foresee some of those same quotes showing up on our daily Facebook post in the near future. When I created agendas for our 4H and FFA meetings, there were always motivational quotes included and now we share them daily on our social media pages. 

You can find all three of the Texas tees on our website: www.GypsyFarmGirl.shop
You can also find them when we do our local events, such as the Gilmer Area Farmers Market and the Texas Collage, Home Grown, and some of the mugs are currently in our space at P20 Land and Cattle on the square in downtown Gilmer, Texas. (I haven't got the mugs online yet, but if you want one, please let us know and I can ship.) The shirts are all super soft and the design is actually dyed into the fabric, so you can't feel it on the shirt. 

Hey Y'all! Answering a Few Questions About Us

Hey Y’all! We’ve had a few questions lately and lots of new faces, so let me introduce myself and answer a few of those questions.

•I’m Janice East. 10 1/2 years ago, I started this as a Etsy shop at night/weekends, while I worked at a flower shop. This coming Christmas will mark 7 years of being self employed and this has grown so much more than I ever imagined.

•I was one of the first to make a burlap and lace wedding bouquet on Etsy and that’s all I did for several years. I have 40+ colors of burlap and have shipped to all 50 states and multiple countries.

•I have a 1959 vintage camper, “Miss Gussie” that we use for some of our events. I thought Yamboree 2015 was a one time show, but we left there with an invitation to do another and it’s kept going from there.

•We have expanded to have our own website {www.GypsyFarmGirl.shop} plus our Etsy shop (although I’m not adding much new stuff to Etsy.)

•I knew when I left the flower shop, I would have to diversify beyond burlap and lace, I just didn’t know it would be clothing.

•We make all the shirts you see in our shops. I’ve taught myself about graphics, building websites, and pretty much everything it takes to run my business.

•We have a large selection of our tee shirts in @p20landcattle on the square in our hometown of Gilmer, TX. (check their social media pages to confirm daily hours, as they do fluctuate some.)

•We also participate in the Gilmer Farmers Market during the summer and will have several fall events.

•When I left the flower shop, I didn’t intend to do fresh flowers, but you ask and referred me to your friends, so I do freelance floral design. I don’t keep flowers on hand, but can get them for events, funerals, or weddings.

•Each day, I create motivational, inspiring, or fun graphics for our pages.

•We love to repurpose and have a very rustic gazebo (that was literally pulled from a trash ditch) and garden. It’s how many of you have found us! I did a tutorial on planting in a Rusty Bottomless Bucket and it got featured by some big bloggers and was a hit on Pinterest. Still my top blog post at www.GypsyFarmGirl.net

It’s a lot, my schedule is crazy, and for the most part I’m a one person show, but somehow it all works out!

•Oh, and we have a farm!

Ma

We would love for you to follow along on our journey and you can do so at

www.facebook.com/thegypsyfarmgirl

Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest @gypsyfarmgirl 

Find us at the NEW Kickin' K Cattle Co. Boutique!

2020 has been off to a busy start! Just a little over 2 weeks ago, I got a message from a friend that she was opening up a new boutique / vendor market and would I like a booth? Ummmm, I thought about it for a little while and finally decided to take a leap of faith and just do it! Then we had to get busy!  I really didn't have any extra display shelves that I can leave in a store all the time and of course, I had to get busy making inventory to stock the booth, before the Grand Opening on February 1, 2020. I had 12 days y'all and of course lots of other work to do in the same time frame. We got creative and pulled it off! 

Everything has a story and I must share about a couple of my fixtures. I've known Kadyn, the owner of Kickin' K, almost as long as I've known my husband. We are family friends and her mom says I'm like a sister to her. We purchased several things from Pop's estate (Kadyn's grandfather) about 5 years ago, including the locker. It's been sitting beside our shed, just waiting for a place to go. I've intended to take it to Mineola or another show, but it just didn't happen. I knew I wouldn't have a ton of hanging clothes in this space and the locker would be the right size and give some height to the space, so on a cold January morning, I was outside giving it a bath, before loading it up and taking to the boutique.

 Now for a 5 foot t shirt rack - what could I do??? I thought about a shutter shelf, but then I left two of my tall shutters at the Mineola Antique Fair last month... Jeff said "hey, we are suppose to get the shutters (closet doors) from mama's house." Years ago, a little invention called the microwave called for a kitchen makeover at Jeff's grandparent's (now parent's) house and the sliding pantry doors were removed and stored in the attic. A recent insulating job uncovered the doors and the were moved to the shop, waiting for us to take them home to do something with them! Whewee!  So I painted the doors white and then Jeff cut up a privacy fence panel and removed a few of the slats in the doors to make shelves.

 Clotheslines on the top and bottom allow us to display several shirt styles and then we can have stacks of shirts on the shelves. I've gotta say, we are pretty ticked with how it turned out and didn't cost us anything out of pocket!

Our friends at the thrift store say if you want something, to wish for it. So I wrote my list of wants down, hoping they would come true! The list included a mirror, rug, chandelier, shelves, and drapes.

Well, in a little over a weeks time, we came across all of those things! The ladies at the thrift store called when they got a rug in, that just happens to be the right size, an awesome texture, and color to go with our products. We actually found two mirrors, two pieces of furniture, and some leopard gauze-y, drapy fabric between a couple of estate sales and the thrift store! Angea found a chandelier at a garage sale and sent me pictures wondering if I wanted it? My answer was yes, because all booths need a pretty chandy!

 Jeff was good help in getting all my props built and set up!

We got everything made and ready for opening day on Saturday! although we won't be working inside the store on a daily basis, we did go back and stay for most of the Grand Opening. It was a busy day at Kickin' K and I've already got to make more shirts to restock! 

Here I am with Kerri - she's wearing a serape dress from Kickin' K and a denim jacket that I upcycled (It has a leopard cactus on the back of it.) Of course, I am wearing one of my new Cactus Motor Inn bleached tees. 

Becky and Kerri were both wearing one of my jackets and look super cute modeling them! 

It was a great opening and the store was busy all day! If you are near Quitman, Texas, make sure you stop by. There are at least 18 different vendors in the shop, so you are sure to find something you like! The shop is located right next door to the Dollar General and in the same parking lot as the police station on Highway 37 (main street) and a couple blocks from Highway 154.

 If you aren't local, we still offer our goods on our website and etsy. Plus you can still find us at the Mineola Antique Fair each month.

Getting Ready for Vintage Market Days of East Texas!

So (almost) every Thursday, Angea and I get together and go junkin'  or work on items for our booths. The next two weeks, we will have back to back shows at the Mineola Antique Fair, followed by Vintage Market Days of East Texas in Lindale. This week, we did a little junkin' and decided to drive over to Lindale and prowl around, figure out exactly where the venue was at, which route would be the best travelling, and shop at a few stores we've heard so much about. We figured this was our last opportunity to check it out, before we get really in the thick of things. 

 Picker's Pavilion was very easy to find and the drive wasn't bad at all (about 33 miles from home). It's right off Hwy 69 and FM 16 in Lindale and just a couple miles from Interstate 20. Miranda Lambert's store, the Pink Pistol is caddy corner from the venue.

 We stopped at the Pink Pistol, then ate lunch, went to Main Street Market that we've heard so much about, and then stopped at this quaint little candy store called Kaitlin's Confections.

I can't even recall what this thing was called, but honey hush, it was good! 

We made a couple more stops and I know everyone in town is excited about the event moving to Lindale. (It was previously held in Nacogdoches and will be held in Lindale for the first time.) 

 So with our busy show schedule coming up, we have been working like crazy getting things ready. We've been ripping up wedding dresses and sewing lace on jackets and shirts, we've been creating t shirts, and distressing flannels since June!

We are in the process of getting everything organized and ready to go for our next two shows... This is  is maybe  a 1/3 of the inventory scattered out on my bed! I'm trying to get everything labelled, tagged, and sorted by designs. 

This week we will be at Mineola Antique Fair and the following week in Lindale! Busy and fun times! 

Sneak Peek at Our New Space at the Mineola Antique Fair!

We are so excited about our NEW place at the Mineola Antique Fair! Last week Angea and I closed the door on our booth at Uniques and Antiques and moved down the street to our new location at the Mineola Antique Fair. The fair will be held the second Friday and Saturday of the month and we will actually be there to work it and meet all of you! Working predominately from home with my online shop and then having the booth in the store (that we restocked once every week or so,) we miss getting to talk and connect with our customers and friends, so we are definitely looking forward to getting to meet  and visit with y'all!

We've still got a few more things to take over to Mineola this week, before opening day, although we wanted to share a few sneak peeks of our place. The building is 111 years old and located downtown Mineola, Texas (behind the Sonic on Hwy 80 or can be reached from the street by the depot and railroad tracks if coming in from Hwy 69.)

We've got more room to display our items and have several themed vignettes with our Shabby Chic section, our repurposed clothing, a patriotic / 4th of July and turquoise section, vintage kitchen gadgets and pottery and some furniture pieces. Garden pedestals, containers, and yard art along with some floral arrangements are mixed in our display. There's a little something for everyone! Jeff and I have made more of the tin Mason Jar signs and will have them available on Friday when we open. I think Angea has a few more things she's working on as well!

Please don't let the name of the show fool you - there are antiques including this 1950's Hall 'Heather Rose" pitcher and platter I recently found that came out of an old farmhouse, although there is a nice mix of handmade, repurposed, paintings, jewelry, and new items from local artisans. This month there is a BBQ food truck scheduled to be there and live music at various times. 

We've also got an antique bed and Angea has that gorgeous lamp from the 1940's that will be available.

All of the vendors we have met are super nice and everyone talks about how fun the show is! We are thrilled to be joining the fair this month. 

We shared this short Facebook Live preview Saturday morning giving you a glance around the building and a walk through our area.  

Here are all the dates for the rest of 2018 and the address if you are plugging it in your GPS. We will be open 9:00 to 5:00 each day. Hope to see you at the fair and if you're a blog reader, please stop by and introduce yourself!

The building / barn is beautiful and rustic on the inside. The brick walls make a perfect backdrop for our space. The overhead timber beams are great to hang things from - Jeff made us some big over-sized hooks to hang chandeliers from. It is summer in East Texas, so dress cool and comfortable, just as you would if you were going to Canton Trades Days or heading to the ball park. There are big doors that are open for the breeze to come in, lots of fans in the building and all of the vendors are bringing fans for their spaces (we've got two and may add more), and they are adding new ventilation this week. Free water will be available as well. With it being under cover, we will never have to worry about the show getting rained out, our tent and displays blowing away, or inventory getting wet! That's a win in our book as we always dealt with rain or wind on set up day! Oh and it's FREE parking and entrance!

Exciting News: We are Joining the Mineola Antique Fair!

First off, in case you missed our earlier announcement this month, we decided to close our Uniques and Antiques booth in Mineola at the end of May. Everything in our booth is currently 1/2 off till we move out. 

Now, for the good news! When we decided to close our Uniques booth, we really didn't have an exact plan. Angea and I discussed Facebook sales, ramping up our vintage finds section of our etsy shop, and doing a few fall markets. Kinda take the summer and revamp, work on new stuff, and see how things went. Honestly, we were just going to wing it, until we got an invitation to join the Mineola Antique Fair last week! 

A few messages back and forth and a trip to check out the venue this weekend and we signed papers to move in for the June show!!! When one chippy vintage door closes, another one opens up, so now we've got to get busy! 

We got a new booth to build from the ground up. The fair is held in a 111 year old building and its about 12 foot to the rafters! Angea and I are sketching ideas and consulting our guys for help to build props and displays. Jeff is pretty excited about the project and we are happy to have his help! 

The Mineola Antique Fair is held the second Friday and Saturday of each month, with our first show being June 8-9, 2018. We will actually be working this booth, so we will be excited to see and visit with each of you! So mark your calendars now and make a plan to come out!

Check out some of the pictures that they posted on Facebook from the May Fair! Seriously lots of eye candy!

While you're in Mineola, you've also got to visit Farmhouse Fried Pies - that is one thing we were going to miss, when we decided to close our booth! We stopped to get some pies after we had signed our papers and checked in on our Uniques booth. We sat there to eat one and sketch out a few ideas. Of course, I get to talking with my hands, my mind running wild with ideas, and I nearly hit a woman when she walked past our table! Oops! Fun times are ahead! Everyone we visited with talked about how nice Joyce and Deanna (owners of the venue) and all of the vendors were. We are looking forward to joining the group! Now, excuse me, I've got to go get busy on weddings and preparing items for the show! We'll start sharing some sneak peeks closer to time and hope you'll come out to see us. 

Mineola Antique Fair

115 Lankford

Mineola, TX 75773

Behind the Sonic on Hwy 80
(just a few blocks off Hwy 69 and close to the depot / railroad tracks in downtown Mineola.)

Our New Booth at Uniques and Antiques!

Yesterday, Angea and I moved into our new, larger booth space at Uniques and Antiques! We have had a little funky, triangle shaped booth in the corner, but had the opportunity to move into a bigger booth. It's just two spaces down from where we were at  previously. When we realized the new space would have the "rafters", we were very excited, because we knew we had stuff that could hang from them and there was already hooks in the ceiling for us to hang lights or chandeliers! 

But, first things first, we knew we had to paint the space! Here's what it looked like when we got there Thursday morning. The back wall had two colors and the paneling was just ehhh. So one gallon of paint, two coats over the paneling, one on the back wall, then we went to lunch and let the paint dry. Ice tea and Mexican food was so refreshing! But we still had a big job ahead of us.

We went back to work and started setting up the new space. We had to move some furniture from our old space down the aisle and we had both brought a lot of new items to stock our booth. We used Angea's ladder for shelves and lost the grid wall that we previously used in our other space.

We took the mantle as a focal piece for the back wall, but we didn't know exactly what theme we would use to decorate it - but this excites me now, especially with Fourth of July coming. We had stopped at one of favorite little places and found the four tea stained buntings on our way to change booths and it was a perfect fit on the mantle, so it all came together with an American theme.

I debated on keeping one of the buntings for myself, but we left them all there (3 more are folded in a basket.)

The left wall has lots of farmhouse style pictures and decor. chickens, cows, a pig, garden signs, etc.

The ceiling hook was perfect for hanging this vintage macrame I found a few weeks ago! Angea added some quilts that are estimated to be about a 100 years old.

There's some shabby French Country items...

(we literally finished up at 5:00 / closing time.)

and birds...

vintage kitchen gadgets, and quilted angels...

doily banners, old suitcases, floral arrangements, Farmhouse signs, the desk, some large frames, and even a burlap wedding bouquet. There's lots of old enamel pans, kitchen scales, a vintage gumball machine, and a 3 tiered rolling cart with a removable serving tray. I know a lot of the glampers like them to set outside their campers as an outdoor bar / serving table! 

We are pretty excited about how it all turned out! We hope you'll stop by Uniques and Antiques, if you get a chance sometime soon - Its one of the largest antiques stores in East Texas! They are located two blocks off Highway 80 and US 69 in downtown Mineola. Open Tuesday - Saturday 10:00-5:00 at 124 S. Line St Mineola, Texas. We didn't have a chance to  get our fried pies on the way home, so you can bet next time, we will be getting them! (If you missed the convo last month - our husbands decided we can't work on our booth, without bringing home fried pies from a nearby shop and I think we will sample all the different flavors this summer!)

Find Us at Uniques and Antiques Mall in Mineola, Texas

Angea and I often get asked, "when are y'all going to have a store?" Or "where can I see your stuff?" Up to this point we've had our online shop, set up at vintage markets 3 times this year, and work from home or on location for special events. Today, we finally added a store space to our offerings! You can now find our booth at Uniques and Antiques Mall in historic Mineola, Texas! 

We made our announcement Live on Facebook today! You can watch the video below to see our booth space! Hopefully we didn't sound too dorky! It's our first live video, so maybe we'll get the hang of it and try to do some more. (I've been sick this week, so I was just happy to have a voice and be able to talk without coughing or sneezing.)

Mineola is a fun town to visit, located less than an hour from Dallas or Tyler, Texas or less than 20 miles from Winnsboro, Lindale, or Quitman and about 40 minutes from Gilmer. 

Uniques and Antiques is one of the largest antique malls in East Texas. The 2 story mall is 1 block off Highway 80 or 2 blocks from Highway 69 and near the railroad tracks and train depot at 124 Line Street. Amtrak stops twice daily and Jeff says he's going to hop the train one day when we are over there! The store hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. We highly recommend stopping at East Texas Burger Company too! Let's just say awesome burger, fries, and PIE! 

We've got an assortment of our handmade, repurposed, and vintage items in our space. We are located on the lower level of the store in the back left corner. We hope you can stop by and see our space. Since we won't be there all the time, please take a pic and let us know you stopped in! Tag us @gypsyfarmgirl and @roostertails_55 on Instagram or  @thegypsyfarmgirl on Facebook. 

We decided to take our farmhouse style desk. Some of you may remember it from when I fixed it up last year, with pages from a 1953 Farmer's Almanac. There just wasn't space in our house to keep it, so we hope someone loves her like we do and wants to take her home. All of the furniture and props are for sale (minus some gridwall and draping fabric) so if you see something you are interested in, let Skip or someone working in the store know and they can help get it out and loaded up for you. 

We're also pretty excited to have a space available all the time that we don't have to worry about rain or wind affecting our products. Don't worry, we still plan to participate in our vintage markets with Miss Gussie the Glamper. She would feel really left out, if we stopped doing shows with her! We've also made some room at home to work on more items, as all our storage space was busting at the seems! 

The back wall was conveniently painted turquoise by previous tenants of the booth and we added a large pieces of vintage lace to create a new look for the space. Of course, I love the turquoise peaking through the lace! 

Add a vintage wedding dress... love!

For customers who want to see a burlap and lace bridal bouquet in person - I have a bouquet in our booth that is available to see and purchase in the store. Of course custom orders are always welcome and I can ship world wide. If you need matching bridesmaid bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, etc. I took burlap inventory this week and realized I had 44 colors of burlap to choose from, so bouquets can be made in many different color schemes. 

The yeti style tumbler wraps / sleeves are available in our booth as well! Mineola is the perfect town to Go Junkin' in! I can't wait to have more time to look around all the other booths and shops downtown.

For the last minute Christmas decorating and gift giving, we do have several Christmas items in our booth at very reasonable prices.  

The space in the left of this photo is not part of our booth. We have the "L" shape on the right side and back wall. There's a staircase to a supply closet that divides the booth. Be sure to step up on the staircase, so you can get a good look at the items on our top shelf!

We hope you can stop in and see our space sometime soon. If there is something you would like custom made and would like to meet or pick up at the store, please let us know and we can help you out!

As always, we thank you for shopping and supporting small, handmade business!

Janice and Angea
aka GypsyFarmGirl and Rooster Tails