Swinging from the Rafters!

"Ummm, we gotta lotta junk."

"Meee too friend!!!"

Text messages between Angea and I this week, as we prepared for the Mineola Antique Fair. 

Where we gonna put it all.??? It's not all gonna all fit...

Yes, it will. It always does... (but,) we gotta go UP! 

 Today was our workday to get our booth ready for the show this weekend. Angea and I have been doing lots of huntin' and pickin' lately and have lots of new (old) inventory for our booth. So we needed to get more creative with our display. The building has these awesome rafters, so we added more overhead display space.

We used a lariat rope to hang this baby bed spring, then we made S hooks (with baling wire) to hang the buckets, pans, butterflies, a cotton scale and a chandelier. The building is 112 years old and was originally a cotton warehouse, so I'm sure there have been plenty of the old cotton scales used in there. The building has a dock and the railroad tracks are nearby, so that cotton was loaded on the rails, back in the day. (The long metal piece with a hook on it and the two weights are the cotton scale.)

 We also hung a grapevine wreath, but it was parallel to the floor, so it became another pot holder.

 We've got so many items that would make great garden planters! You know, all of us junkers and vintage souls are helping save the Earth by rescuing, repurposing, upcycling, and reusing all kinds of things. Used lariat ropes, hay baling wire, chains, rebar, a piece of a wire fence panel, the bed spring, wreath, and twine were all used to at no additional cost to us! No trips to the store for hardware or supplies!

 We are excited about how our booth looks this month! We are open from 9-5, Friday and Saturday. (the show is held the 2nd weekend of the month.) For more info about the show, check out Mineola Antique Fair website or their facebook page.

We've got several chandeliers hanging around as well and have had our tin signs and a few things hanging from the very beginning of our space, so we just added a few more layers. 

I also wanted to hang this chalkboard somewhere, with our social media links, so visitors could connect with us. Thank goodness, our husbands went with us today and helped with hanging ans attaching things up high! Angea and I couldn't do everything we do, without our guys helping out behind the scenes! 

Sustainability in our Home and Business

April is designated at Earth Month and April 22 as Earth Day. Within our business and our personal home, we make many efforts to reuse and recycle items to be more sustainable. I recently listened to an Etsy Success Podcast about sustainability factors and how customers like environmental friendly shops and it made me think about things that we personally do to recycle and conserve resources.

For the love of junk. Reuse, Repurpose, Rescue... One of my favorite sayings and t-shirts from Suzy Swede.  

Things we do to reduce our environmental footprint:

• We work from home eliminating the need to commute daily.
• We coordinate our trips to get supplies, groceries, appointments, post office, etc. We never drive to town just to eat out. (In fact, we cook almost all our meals at home.)
• When leaving home, we always carry on own drinks. Personally, I've used the same stainless steel tumbler for two years! I'm lost without it. Occasionally, I do stop and get a drink if my travels take me out longer than expected and my cup runs dry. If we know we will be gone a while, we will both fill a thermos with additional water, tea, or coffee. 

Decorative tumbler wraps available in my shop. 

• We often carry a "grub bag," as Jeff calls it, when leaving home. Of course its a recycled container with an assortment of fruit, nuts, pretzels, etc instead of stopping at the store for a bag of chips or candy bar.
• We recycle barn tin for signs and my photo booth and many other projects. Most of the tin has been rescued and salvaged from my Granddaddy's old hay barn.

• We used only reclaimed items for flower containers in our yard. (see this post, including a video, demonstrating  how-to plant in rusty bottomless buckets.)
• Our gazebo was rescued from a trash ditch and all of the containers and chairs are second hand. Yes, really! The only thing store bought are the lights, hummingbird feeder, and some of the plants.  (Spring 2018 garden tour coming soon!)

• Almost all of the furniture in our house in second hand. (Only the kitchen table was purchased new and I regret doing that.)
• My camper is a 1959 model and almost everything in it is second hand. The exception being the 3/4 mattress, sheets, and a string of lights. 

• We search the thrift stores and estate / garage sales for vintage lace, clothing, and anything we can repurpose. Some of the lace in the wedding bouquets is vintage or second hand. 

• We upcycle and repurpose clothing. Some of my favorite outfits cost less than $5 and they are usually the ones that get the most compliments! 

(The Vintage Queen Collection is coming soon and will feature vintage lace and upcycled clothing, among other things. The fabric for the mocha satin roses in the bridal bouquet was cut from a bridesmaid dress. Also, vintage jewelry / brooches are included in the arrangement.)

  

Did you know:

According to the EPA, American discard approximately 13.1 million tons of textiles a year and only about 15 percent of that is reclaimed for recycling. This means that more than 11 million tons of textiles are dumped into landfills across the country each year. 

Keeping textiles out of landfills would save more than $375 million per year in fees alone. ($44/ ton to dispose of waste.)

Source 

We do our part to help eliminate part of the textile waste!  

Have I mentioned I love rust? (Currently in our Uniques and Antiques booth.)

• If possible, we recycle packing materials such as the air bubbles, paper, peanuts, and bubble wrap. If the packaging is clean and in good shape in boxes we get in, we reuse the packing on orders going out. Several family members will also save their air packs for us. If I come across a box of vintage patterns, I'll use the tissue patterns for wrapping wedding bouquets and pillows, instead of new tissue paper. You would be surprised how many old patterns have never been cut and you can find extra large pieces of tissue in them. 
• Most days, my mail carrier picks up my packages at home, saving me a trip to town and about 25 miles round trip. So thankful for my rural mail carrier and honestly sad she will be retiring this summer! 
• Many times, we use recycled glass vases or other containers for flower arrangements. (I will not sacrifice quality - they must be in good, clean condition or I won't use it.)
• Cans, scrap metal, and batteries are saved to take to a salvage yard.
• We monitor our electricity usage. Jeff is great about watching the sun and opening or closing blinds and doors at certain times of the day to either let the sun in on cold days or keep it out on the hot days. We try to run the clothes dryer at times when the house needs heating up (late night / early morning and avoid the middle of the day in the summer time.) I can honestly say our electric bill has gone down in the last few years, while many complain about higher bills. 
• We hand wash all our dishes. Its much quicker and doesn't use as much water as the dishwasher.
• We have 6 reusable grocery sacks. On top of saving plastic bags, they make it so much easier to tote groceries in the house.  Seriously, no slinking grocery sacks spilling out in the back seat or the pickle jar falling through the flimsy sack and busting on the ground. We usually grocery shop once a week and hit the farm supply store and check on all the farm animals on the same trip. 
• When I do get plastic sacks from stores, I save them up and take them to our favorite thrift store, so they can be reused or line garbage cans at home. 
• I've used newspaper underneath mulch, instead of black plastic in flower beds. 
• Food containers are often reused as paint trays. Just because it says cottage cheese or yogurt on the outside, many times it paint or stain on the inside! 
• We prefer glass jars to plastic for food storage.
• We have a small toaster oven - the best $1 ever spent at a garage sale! Cooking for two, it is perfect for us and many times we avoid turning on the "big oven". Our microwave went out 2 1/2 years ago and we've yet to replace or miss it and we honestly feel healthier without it! 

While I know there are still things we can improve upon, I feel like we do pretty well. We do discuss adding solar panels on future improvements. Jeff and I are constantly asking each other "what can we do with this?"

What are some of the sustainable things you do in your home or business?  

How to Create a Faux Ship Lap Wall and a Unique Clothing Rack

Last week, Angea and I gave our booth space at Uniques and Antiques a mini makeover! We had  been pondering painting the walls (yes, again) and we wanted a new clothing rack.

Our goals for the makeover:

• transform the appearance of our wall
• not disrupt our space for a long period of time, since the store still had shoppers
• use items we already had to create an eye-catching and creative display
• create a better clothing rack, allowing better access to shop our one of a kind pieces

So what did we do?

• A faux ship lap wall
• A clothing rack and shelf  made with old porch columns, a tree limb, and a board. 

You might recall that we painted our walls a whitish - grey color, when we moved into this space last June. You can see that makeover here. We had picked out a light grey paint, but it looked much whiter on the walls in our booth. The two side walls of our booth are made of thin paneling and it makes hanging things on the wall a little more difficult, so we decided the clothing rack would be set in front of the paneling wall, giving us more access to hang things on the back wall (that is much sturdier and we can drill or hammer into it.)

"Junking isn’t just about finding or selling something for us. It’s the adventures we have, the friends we make along the journey, and being able to take something we found and creating something new and different." - Janice

So how did we create a ship lap wall for pennies? Painters tape and some grey paint! 

Angea measured off 8 inch marks and I taped the lines. 

She then took cheap acrylic grey paint (that she already had) and thinned it with a little water.

Then we both went to town painting a thin line, right above our tape marks, to give it the appearance of board planks. 

My lines weren't perfectly straight, but neither are old boards 😉😉

We dabbed our previous nail holes with paint and then I used an envelope as a guide to create the vertical lines. We were just winging it at this point and I found an envelope in my planner, that made it easy to draw the lines, without needing additional tape.

Easy peasy and then it was time to create our clothes rack and put everything back in our booth! 

"You gotta crack a few eggs to make an omelet" - Angea

There's a mess, before its going to be pretty...

We previously had two chairs hanging on the walls, to hang our clothes on, although we decided we needed something with more hanging space and easier to browse through the clothing. I saw a suspended branch clothes rack on pinterest that we both really liked, but we didn't want to have to deal with hanging things from the ceiling or involving our guys having to go help us. We got to brainstorming ideas a few weeks back and decided to take columns to build a display!

A little back story on the columns-
Angea called me one morning last year, that she had found two porch columns at a garage sale for FREE and ask could I come pick them up in my truck! I got dressed and went to rescue them for her! Later on, she found feet for them at Canton Trades Days and we hauled them home with us last spring. Trust me when I say the ornate feet weren't cheap and Angea says it would tale a "pretty penny" if someone wanted them! 😉

A board attached on top of the columns anchored it all together, give us a display shelf , and support for us to hang our tree branch and clothes.

We took some grapevine, greenery, and lace and wrapped around the arch, then started filling her up! 

We must say, we are excited about the outcome and spent very little out of pocket to make it happen! Win-Win, especially when you rent the space and want to make an easy makeover.  

You can catch more of the booth and reveal in our Facebook Live video below. I really like the ship lap look on the one wall, so we may go ahead and do the other two walls soon. What do you think???

The Backwood's Marketplace - Fall 2016 Market

The Backwood's Marketplace, fall 2016 show is over, but I felt like I made new friends to last a lifetime. The spring show, we were the newbies to the market, rain delayed our setup time, and we felt rushed and didn't get to know many of the fellow artist and creators.

This time was different, in a good way. So much more laid back, we visited a lot with others and had a lot of fun this show.  Angea and I had almost a whole day to set up and decorate, so that was amazing, much more relaxing and creatively fulfilling. We have all these ideas floating around in our heads, that we discuss each week at our "board meetings" and we were able to bring some of them to life. Our board meetings involve our (almost) weekly junkin' trip, that usually ends with lunch at our favorite Mexican food restaurant. 

Some of these ideas are things like upside down Christmas trees and wreath chandeliers. 

On a side note - we got a postcard in the mail about safely Christmas decorating, from a local hospital. Let's just say we are rebels out here, because who has ever been able to have two feet and one hand on the ladder at all times and still be able to decorate???

We love the Backwood's Marketplace, because it's truly down the back roads from our house. With the exception of getting on the highway for just a couple minutes (less than 2 miles), it's blacktop road, 20 miles an hour pulling my camper and I still get there in 10 minutes! I also love that it's all about handmade, vintage, repurposed items with a focus on the artist, creator, and collector of fine junk! 

You might be a crafter, if your cell phone is splattered in multiple colors of paint (currently turquoise, pink, and white)! We may be in the country, but we love our technology and must show off what we are working on or answer emails, all while painting!

Of course, we couldn't do it all without our road crew! The roadies consist of Jeff  (in his tape measure suspenders - quite the conversation piece), Randy (Angea's husband) and our nephew Jake, who always just happens to show up in time and ask "need me to do anything?" Why yes we do, Jake!

These two are good at silly pictures too, and you have to work hard to keep them

on task at times, but gosh I love my guys! 

Saturday was gorgeous, but just a tad bit cold and windy.

I was pretty excited about the tin top that Jeff built for us! And for the record: Duck Dynasty is copying Jeff, with their beards! lol Everyone thinks he is trying to be like them, but seriously, we had never heard of that show (we don't have cable) and all of a sudden, these girls at the stores would start reaching out and trying to touch his beard and we discovered they thought he was like the Duck Commander crew. One clerk even thought he was Uncle Si (although I think he looks more like Jase) and about fell out star struck at the grocery store!

The roof top was a rustic entrance to one of our tents and was really all about hanging another chandelier that I thrifted. I can't pass up chandeliers, even if they are brassy, need to be wired, or only cost $4.00.

A couple coats of textured spray paint, some discount beads, and a new cord from my burnt up glue gun, and it was ready to shine bright! I go through 5-6 glue guns a year - after extended use, they will die and shoot a flame out and smoke in the process. Jeff cut the cord on the last one to die and put it on the chandy! In the words of my favorite t shirt "For the Love of Junk Repurpose ~ Reuse ~ Recycle." 

Oh and the tin for the roof was from my granddaddy's old hay barn, the wood board in the top is a scrap pallet board and one cedar limb. Roof top all made for $0.00! Read more about the inspiration for this piece, here. 

Have tools and glue gun, will work wherever the road takes me!

We changed up our booth design this time, so Miss Gussie could be more visible. We decided at our board meetings that we didn't want her hiding behind the doors this time.

Angea rescued this big frame from a dumpster, repaired it, and added the chalkboard for our sign. It's huge and often gets ask if it's for sale!

Angea and Randy built us each a mantle for our tents. She went more French country black and I went rustic, shabby chippy, farmhouse style. I love the new salt wash technique I used on the mantle to create that old chippy peely look. (Many of these items are now available in my etsy shop and I can ship to you.)

Saturday night got cold and we had our first frost of the season, but hey, I got to wear my new (to me) 25¢, long, leather coat! Seriously, this coat came from our favorite thrift store and came with loads of personality and sass with it!

The glow of all the lights was worth staying open late and it became a magical Winter Wonderland at dusk. 

A thrifted string of net lights, became my "fire" in my fireplace!

Miss Gussie fits the vintage criteria, since she's a 1959 model, but she still likes to sparkle and shine. 

Looking down the hill from our corner. 

Even the paint brushes, we forget to wash out in time, get repurposed into Santa Claus ornaments! Psst - there is a set  of these available in my shop.

Sunday at Blackstone Ridge - 

Yes that is Jeff, with a dust broom in his hand! Remember I said wind on Saturday? Well our furniture was a bit dusty and he volunteered to clean! Say what? 

 
 No one can ever be mad at a man that is cleaning!

We've neither one felt like we have ever been the "cool" ones, but others tells us we are the cool people at the shows we go to. It's like we've finally found ourselves in the backwoods, among the fields of junk, and along the back roads we travel. We've become collectors of memories, preservers of history, while rescueing the remnants of others.

As the Junk Gypsies call in the their new book, Designing a Life at the Crossroads of Wonder and Wander, Junk Karma "It's the righteous rescue of something that was bound for the burn pile, the spiritual renovation of that piece. and then the passing of that piece to another person's home. The salvation of one person's trash into another's treasure." 

Sunday mornin' porch sittin'.

Some of our new friends and fellow artist, shopped our repurposed flannel shirts, so we all had to get a picture together! 

If it wasn't for this sweet lady right here, the show wouldn't go on! Mrs. Carla does an amazing job organizing the show and bringing it all together! We certainly do appreciate her and Mr. Tommy for all they do and allowing us to be a part of their Backwood's group! 

And the winner is... 

Mr. Tommy's small engine shop donated a leaf blower for a door prize and all the vendors created a basket of goodies for another give away. 

We finally got a picture of Angea and Randy together!

And all of a sudden, the parties over and what goes up, must come down. 

Thankful for the extra help of my niece, nephews, and my brother and sister in law for helping take it all down and pack it up to hit the road again. Lisa was head of the 4-H concession stand, honey hush those desserts, beans and cornbread, and BBQ! I bought some leftover BBQ and we may still be eating it this week! Jeff works for desserts and bought a whole Spice Cake with Maple Spice Frosting, but it didn't last long. Mmmmm mmmm good and he's a happy camper!

Till we meet again in the spring, in the words of Garrison Keillor on Prairie Home Companion:
"Be well, do good work, and keep in touch."
Our houses and sheds will be busting at the seams and we will gather together once again to share our treasures and creations. Now, we must get back out on the junkin' road and find new goods to transform.