Flea Market Style Gardening Ideas

I love repurposing items into unique garden containers. Chandeliers, rusty bottomless buckets, chicken feeders, crocks, old tool boxes and the such find their way into my flea market style garden. 

 I found this chandelier at a recent sale. The wiring had already been removed and they had taper candles in the electric sockets. I decided to remove the sockets and knew that succulents would look fabulous in the chandy and I was not disappointed! The succulents don't require much space or water to grow, so this arrangement should work great for them. I've always wanted trees to hang lanterns or chandeliers from and its finally happening, since the tree limbs are getting larger and stronger in the yard. 

Pots of dianthus, Mexican heather, and dusty miller fills a turquoise tool box. Want to know a secret? There's two separate pots in the took box and I simply added a little mulch around the edges to hide the plastic pots. A few years ago, I decided that I would no longer purchase traditional flower pots for my yard and that plastic pots would not be visible. If the plants getting to looking bad, I can easily switch them out. It has been several years since I have had any Mexican Heather, so I am excited about finding some at a nursery this year and can't wait till it fills it some. 

 Lavender in a tin bucket - make sure to drill drainage holes (if there isn't rust holes) or empty out the excess rain water to keep from flooding the plants. 4 inches of rain this week, had some of my plants floating and I'll be moving some more around this weekend, so they find the perfect place for the season.

 An old rusty trash can becomes a plant pedestal. I think these are a mini petunia, but I can't remember the exact name.

 A mixed basket sits on top of an old crock, while a spider plant is planted in part of a chicken feeder/waterer. I think its part of a waterer and part of it is missing. There's no bottom to the galvanized piece. I pulled the plastic hanger off of the basket and then pulled the plant up through the bottom of the bucket and then toed it to the handle, like I have done with the bottomless buckets before.

 Speaking of bottomless buckets. Here's my spring version of these two hanging buckets! Five years later and the same buckets adorn the front of the gazebo, with the same plastic pots wired inside. I change out the flowers each year. Currently lots of herbs, marigolds, periwinkles, and Mexican heather.

 The trailing herb is Orange Mint - any good ideas of how to use it? I love the look of it and it smells so good!

 If you need an extension on your hangers, grab an old spring to adjust the height.

 This same pot of chives has been in the yard for several years! I love cooking with fresh herbs! I made spaghetti this week and went outside clipping away. Smells so yummy to trim the herbs and bring them inside!

I'm looking forward to some more yard therapy soon and planting more flowers, mowing, and getting rid of some old limbs. Some people pay for a gym membership, a yard worker, and a therapist - I garden instead and get paid in flowers and herbs! What's your favorite flowers and herbs to grow each spring? Do you plant in reclaimed planters?  

Inspire

Inspiration is everywhere. I'm inspired by so many others that I have mentioned before, things I see, places I go, ideas that are passed along from others, etc. 

I've never really felt like I'm that inspiring to others, I'm just ordinary me... There was a fellow vendor at the Yamboree this year. She came by and wanted to look inside my camper and we visited a little while. She had been thinking about getting her own camper to travel to shows, as a means to support her family. Her friends discouraged her and told her she wouldn't do it. 

The next day, we met in the walkway, and she brought tears to my eyes. She said you don't realize how inspiring you are to me. You give me a new outlook and determination for my business. The camper she had looked at, had already sold, but she's looking for her another one. I wish I got her name and contact info. If you're reading this, please contact me and let me know what's going on. I meant to come by your booth on Saturday and it just didn't happen. I hope we meet again and your setting up your camper! 

We live our ordinary lives and don't realize how we can have an impact on others. Be an encouraging friend, not a discourager. In a world full of negativity, be the happy. 

(The heart with wings, dream, believe, and inspire lace cuffs are available in my Etsy shop.) 

How to Weight a Flea Market Canopy on Concrete or Asphalt

Last year, before we set up at our first flea market / county fair booth, I did some research on how to weigh down our tents and camper awning. We knew our booth would be on an old tennis court, so there wouldn't be any option to stake into the ground. 

My research proved that 40 POUNDS of weight, PER LEG, was recommended to keep your tents stabilized, when set up on concrete or asphalt. There are several options to go about getting 40 pounds per leg, but I wanted something easy, inexpensive, and fit in with the look of our booth. 

Can you find the weights, in any of my pictures? They are there! 

I use 5 gallon buckets of water! A gallon of water weighs 8 pounds, so 5 gallons equals 40 pounds. But here's my trick - I hide my buckets in the burlap coffee sacks! You don't see blue, red, orange, and yellow buckets here! 

I have plenty of five gallon buckets and they get used throughout the year to hold flowers, animal feed, etc, so that is my practical item to use. I have lids for my buckets as well. With either twine or bungee cords, we tie the tent corners to the buckets. My bearded man is responsible for hiding the buckets and anchoring the tents, but he also has a little fun while setting up!

After the show, we can pour the water out (or use it to water flowers, reserve for when the electricity is out, or the water well malfunctions) and stack the buckets back up and out of the way, opposed to concrete filled buckets which will only have one purpose and always be heavy to transport. I've also read about concrete becoming a dangerous projectile, when severe weather strikes, whereas the lid would most likely come off the bucket and spill the water out.

At all of our previous markets, we have experienced at least one day of windy conditions and so far, our tents have not flipped over or blown around, unlike some of our neighboring vendor booths. Last week, I saw several booths literally being held down by people, tires, concrete blocks, cases of water, or walls simply falling over, since they weren't weighted. Last year, one completely flipped over and the booth behind us had those little weights that hung on the poles and it "walked" around all day long.  I think those weights were 5-10 pounds max. 

Our doors are also secured in with the tent poles and serve as additional weight to anchor our booth. On the windy days, clothes racks and mannequins are placed and strategically tied to points to prevent them from falling. 

As a added bonus, in case of emergency, we have 30 gallons of water, on sight. (4 buckets on white tent, 2 on camper awning.) Will this keep the booth weighted if the tornado /severe storm comes through, most likely not and I would pack up all my stuff, if I knew bad weather was coming! Although so far, we haven't blown away under windy conditions. Please, for the safety of you and customers alike, make sure you use some type of weights on your tents. It definitely makes for a more enjoyable market experience, when you don't have to worry about your tent flying off and you can focus on visiting and helping customers!   

Yamboree Day 2

Yamboree Day 2, we have more fun than anyone! 

So we get our booth all set and ready to open and we eat yam pie for breakfast again, but this time in the glorious sunshine! Not sure what tomorrow's breakfast will be, since that's the last of that pie! 

Jeff had come to help us open up and move the heavy stuff around and we were having this discussion about recycling and how we all find and repurpose many items, then Angea and Jeff were talking about things you don't recycle. Angea knew someone who washed ice and put it back in the freezer, then said "there's just some things you don't recycle..... Like used toilet paper." Of course I had a big bite of pie in my mouth and just about died laughing, choking, and crying so hard! I about spewed pie everywhere. A little while later, the lady across the way said she wanted to join us, because we were having too much fun! 

So a while back, I shared a sneak peek of my Saturday night sewing. Well here's my flannel and vintage lace duster I made! This one is mine, but we do have a few more similar ones available again tomorrow (and soon in my Etsy shop.) 

My mom has made some crochet hats, ear warmers, and scarves for our booth. She's got ninja turtles for the boys and these cute little pig tail toboggans for the girls! My niece and nephew love their hats granny made them! 

We are grateful, thankful, and blessed by each and everyone of you who stops by. A lady across the way has been looking at Miss Gussie and we've been talking each day. She really wants a camper, to travel to a few markets, but had met discouragement from her friend. After talking with and giving her a tour of my glamper, she said I had inspired her so much. This evening, she told me I had know idea how much I have encouraged and motivated her and helped give her new direction. I had tears as we spoke. She had looked at one camper already and after talking with me, she called the owner to only find out it had already sold. I hope one day she finds her own little camper and we meet again! 

This was the cutest and sweetest little shopper! Her mom bought the purse for her on Thursday and she had to show me her new purse, when she came with her mom today! Then she decided that she needed the pink zebra stick horse and she rode away on her! 

We had lots of fun and will be open again Saturday from 9:00-5:00. 

We will have several good sales going on, so please stop by and say hi! Also, as a reminder, we do have gift basket items available for buyers thank you baskets for the livestock sale. Grab a  basket, pick out some fun finds and we will wrap it up pretty for you. 

Why Gypsy Farm Girl?

Why did you name your shop Gypsy Farm Girl? It's a question I get from time to time.

Lets rewind to the winter of 2010/2011. I stalked the Junk Gypsies website like crazy! Late nights on slow internet, but this website I found was creative and different. None of my friends spoke of it. It was like my own little secret crush. It was inspiring. There was the Miranda Lambert air stream they had done and well, in a word amazing. It was repurposing, rescuing, making something fabulous out of something ordinary. This spoke to me. BIG time. It was that junky, gravitational pull...

I knew, somehow, someway a camper would be a part of my future business. I had the love of the flea market and forever wanted to be a vendor at one. I figured I would have a booth and stay in the camper, but I knew deep down inside, I must get one, but it had to be affordable and older and fun. This was before everyone had a glamper and "glamping" was a big thing. I looked at every place I passed by, I would check out craigslist, but nothing affordable appeared. But still, I just knew I would get one. 

Back then, I had a huge pile of magazine's every month and Mary Jane's Farm was a must read for me. (Its about the only one I still pick up on a regular basis.) I stalked their website too and there's the line about the FarmGirl Sisterhood "We're country, we're city, and every texture and stripe in between. It's not where we live, but how we live." Add in Mary Jane was the queen of glamour camping... 

Junk Gypsy Inspired Photo Booth at a Farm Wedding! 

I was drawn to the Junk Gypsies and Mary Jane's FarmGirls (of course, coming from a long line of farmers, that part made sense) and the two collided to become GypsyFarmGirl. 

I was reading the new Junk Gypsy Book this week and was introduced to the poem by Rumi in it 

"Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray."

Wow! That's IT! Looking back, I NEVER expected things to turn out the way they have. I started my etsy shop with the idea of making a little extra money, in addition to keeping my job at the flower shop. A way to feed my creative spirit and share it with all of you. It's been an amazing journey. I worked at night and weekends, building up my little shop, not telling my friends and family (because of fear of failure). My products changed from the early beginnings. I found the camper I envisioned and fixed her up, I quit the day job at the end of 2014 and last fall we set up at our first market / county fair booth, along with our friend Angea aka Rooster Tails. Our very first booth, with Miss Gussie the glamper, of course, and other vendors couldn't believe it was our first ever show and said we should be doing the big Dallas shows and we heard several say "This looks like something the Junk Gypsies would do!" Of course, that was about the best compliment we could get! 

I've shipped bouquets, clothing, and home decor to 47 states and 6 countries! We are working towards our Yamboree booth again next month and will be joining the Backwood's Marketplace for the Winter Wonderland show November 19 - 20. I do freelance floral design and events and we have a farm. I love junk, cows, horses, tractors, and Jeff! Gosh, how he's believed in me all the way and always encouraged me to do my own thing! 

So there you have it - I was silently drawn to the gypsies and the farmgirls and they've led me to where I'm suppose to be today! 

The Junk Gypsy Book

Wednesday, I received an email saying that I was officially part of the Junk Gypsy Book Launch Team or the #theJGblt!  Jeff did not understand my excitement. I had applied in August and nearly forgot about it, figuring I had got skipped over. Only 100 people would be chosen to help Amie and Jolie launch their new book and I was fortunate to be one of them and received an advance copy of the book! What this also means is I stayed up way too late reading Wednesday night, well Thursday morning, because I could NOT put it down. Seriously, inspiring! Of course you all know that they have inspired several of my previous projects. The Junk Gypsies are extremely creative and hard working. So many of their stories, describe me. It's like we are soul sisters, together rescuing and transforming all the cool junk, traveling the back roads, and putting a unique touch to events and campers, except they are on a much larger scale than me. But let's not compare my relative new beginnings to something that has been 18 years in the making for them.

"So what is Junk Gypsy style? We love the unexpected, the glorious chaotic combination of a million different elements. We love things that have history. We're not looking for perfection. If we love something, we will find a way to make it fit. 

We love rock n' roll style as well as farmhouse. We love boho and hippie and country. The truth is, we're a little of all those things combined." 

Can I get an amen and hallelujah and pass the buttermilk biscuits?!? Oh yeah, Gypsy Daddy's buttermilk biscuit recipe is included in the book! I should be a good wife and try the recipe - that would excite Jeff. 

They discuss "granny economics." 

"It's the idea of using what you have instead of buying something new. The belief that new isn't always better. Like how our granny used the same worn out tin can for more than fifty years to cut biscuits instead of buying an actual biscuit cutter. Because to her, that worn-out can worked fine, so why buy a new one?" 

We must be kin, I mean we are all east Texas girls. I regularly use all my Grandmama's kitchen utensils (the kind you find in antique stores now), because they work just fine and why get new ones? Same with her scissors and pin cushion. I hold on and use those things with history and without plastic. 

We share a dislike of panty hose "We came to realize two essential truths 1) Our trying to conform to typical office dress codes was a lost cause. And 2) panty hose are the province of Lucifer." For years, well pretty much all my life, I've said the man who invented panty hose, should be hung by them. 

They are pure torture and I shall never wear another pair. 

Upon leaving their city jobs in the rear view mirror, and they "returned to our natural state of style (jeans), our spirits were uninhibited and our creativity was freed like a wayward antelope to his natural habitat." Amen, amen! This speaks to me and so relatable. 

There are so many gorgeous photographs, stories, and design projects, along with several DIY projects (stay tuned to some I'm already working on), road trippin' music playlist (I must download the ones I don't already have) and so much more. The book comes out in October, but you can preorder yours now and enter for a chance to win an all expenses paid vacation to Round Top to stay in the Wander Inn, a $500 shopping spree and meet Amie and Jolie. But you must promise to take me with you! Ok... just joking on that last part, but it would be super nice and sweet of you! 

These girls are the real deal and I promise you will love the book and be super inspired by the time you finally set it down. What are you waiting for? Hurry and go get it now!