Junk and Love - Rust and Romance

Junk and Love - Rust and Romance

That pretty much describes our style. We love junkin' and repurposing things, but we also really love getting to help create wedding bouquets and florals for everyone who is celebrating life's special moments together. 

This shirt design had been one of the top sellers recently. It's got lots of things we love all rolled into one graphic tee - turquoise and rusty old truck, galvanized buckets and crates of flowers, burlap, lace, chippy wood and lights. 

We were out junkin' one day and doing some picking in a old barn. We got excited when we found an old wheel. The lady said she would "love to see inside our head" so she could understand what we saw and why we got so excited about the random things we found. Well, I was seeing a funky junk wheel wreath! It sold quickly and everyone loved it. Jeff produced a couple more wheels from his junk stash out back and we made a couple more! This wheel came from a golf club caddy - how and where those came from, I really can't tell you, because we don't golf! 

This was a burnt orange burlap toss bouquet that I made for a recent order. 

 Boots and Burlap Boutonnieres!

 These colors! The antique gold rodeo tee and sunflower bridal bouquet make me ready for summer time! 

For the love of all things vintage, chippy, rusty, romantic, and shabby! This is our booth at the Mineola Antique Fair  last week (we share the booth with Angea at Rooster Tails.) It's ever changing, but always has a rustic flare! 

This new tee pretty much sums it all up:

I love all things:

• tattered
• shabby 
• cracked
• old 
• chippy 
• worn
• rusty
• weathered
• vintage

We've added so many more shopping options this month, hopefully making it easier for you! 

• Our etsy shop is still open and that's where you can always find the custom / made to order wedding items and almost everything else. www.gypsyfarmgirl.etsy.com
• We've added a new website www.RustandRomance.com whic included the ability to:
• Shop directly on our Facebook page. Got to facebook.com/thegypsyfarmgirl and you should be able to scroll down and see some of the items. Click to expand or go to the "Shop" tab. 
• Some items can also be found on ebay, if that's your preferred avenue (mostly tee shirts, boots, and ready made wedding items.) 
• Shop in person at the Mineola Antique Fair held the second weekend of the month in Mineola, Texas. The June show will mark our one year anniversary with the fair! 

Remember, if you don't see your size in stock on a t shirt, send me a message and I'll be happy to make one for you! I didn't have enough of the new "Love all things" tee for this weekends show, so I have been making more and shipping them out this week. We are a small business and don't keep a huge inventory in stock, although we can get more blank shirts in stock pretty fast. 

Same goes for wedding bouquets - always happy to create custom bouquets in your colors. Please reach out and we can discuss your ideas and needs. 

Chippy, Peely, Vintage...Be True to What You Love!

This time of year, we see all the post about trends for the new year. Such is the case with a podcast I recently listened to. All the painters interviewed said that distressed white was a trend of the past and 2018 would be a year of bold colors. I nearly caved into their thoughts. Should we start incorporating bold colors in our home, even though I'm not crazy about them? Maybe I should repaint my desk, the walls in our booth, yada, yada, yada??? While I love navy blue for clothes and wedding bouquets, I don't think I want it on my walls or furniture. Same for black or hot pink... I'll admit, some of the designer pieces are fabulous, but I they don't match me and my personal taste.

Then I saw this post on Facebook by Junkin Addict and reminded all over again that the vintage, shabby, chippy, linen and lace look is absolutely gorgeous!

I've even got a whole Pinterest board called Chippy Peely Vintage Love, devoted to all things chippy white, with a little color thrown in. It's the things that make my heart go pitter patter! I love this style and must remain true to myself, no matter what big time designers say the "trends" are. Our homes and style are suppose to be the things WE love, not what someone else says we should. If you can pull off the bold colors, do it. If you love distressed white, own it, keep it!

I've had white cabinets and furniture way before Fixer Upper Farmhouse Style was so popular. I went through a faze where I painted my kitchen cabinets deep green, because I saw it in a magazine and thought I liked it... A couple of years of that and I was so sick of it and went the peaceful vintage white look. I still love the look till this day, with no plans to change anytime soon. I have many of my grandparents and great grandparents kitchen gadgets displayed on my walls.

  I mean, vintage kitchen gadgets against a loud wall... I don't think so!

Last week, Angea and I rearranged our booth and took down the Christmas decorations. We went with the rustic, vintage romance, shabby look on the mantle this time. I had been dreaming of the big chunky frames on the mantle for a few months and it finally happened on this trip. Along with the frames, we added several heart themed items, wings, and vintage lace.

A few other new pieces in our booth include this vest / kimono / duster. The lace added to this denim vest was originally the skirt of a vintage wedding dress! The rosette brooch pin was also created from the lace and tulle skirting of the dress. 

 Old hankies, vintage lace, and linens were added to the pearl snap flannel to create a one-of-a-kind duster.

 Be one-of-a-kind and don't feel like you have to follow what everyone else is doing.

 This mantle makes me giddy... not bold paint colors or some trends, I'm told I should like. Granted, we are discussing painting our booth again, but I can tell you, it will be something Angea and I both love and will have that timeless feel to it!

We've got big plans for creating a new feature in our booth, so stay tuned to see if we are able to pull it off like we envision! 

So tell me, are you planning to paint or makeover your home this year? Will you be using new bold colors? 

Or are you planning to keep or paint white or lighter colors?

What ever you do, I hope you remain true to what you absolutely love! 

(The last five pictures above are from our Uniques and Antiques booth in Mineola, Texas. 

You can shop there Tuesday-Saturday 10:00 to 5:00. 

Some items are also available in my GypsyFarmGirl etsy shop, with worldwide shipping.)

The Farmer's Almanac Desk

It's just three days till we set out with Miss Gussie the glamper and set up at the fair! I'm getting excited and just a tad bit nervous! I've been working overtime getting everything ready and have just a few more things to mark off the to do list this week. Here's a picture of just a few things I've been working on this week. 

This desk, it makes me happy and I love how it turned out! 

There are pages from a 1953 Farmer's Almanac on the top and fronts of the desk drawers. 

Now let me tell ya a story about this desk! I found it at a moving sale last year and it's been in my shed ever since, waiting on its time to shine. It was dirty white and had floral paper lined drawers and knobs. I saw through that and knew it was real wood and well made and even had dove tail joints. It's sturdy and heavy, a classy desk, with some pretty lines. 

Jeff helped me unload it last year and move it out of the shed to work on it. It wasn't until he came along and saw me painting it, that he really saw it's value and this is the point where he said "you shouldn't sell it, I need that in my office." 

"Ummm, no, it's going in my booth next week."

I painted it ivory lace all over and stopped for the evening. At this point, I wasn't sure how I was going to finish her up. I thought about book pages, sheet music, graphics transfer... I went to a few garage sales and the clothes closet (second hand store) and looked for old books or music pages and didn't find anything I liked. I came home and got to rummaging around and found these almanacs in my file cabinet! That was it! But first, I had to make sure they didn't belong to Jeff. You DO NOT tear up one of his books! He admitted it was not his and I went to work on the desk. It makes him sad to see books torn apart for projects. One time I bought an old book at a garage sale for a project. When Jeff saw  it, he confiscated it and it went to his library. 

So now he says he hopes no one falls in love with it and it gets to come back home. Although, I hope y'all fall in love with her, just as much as we like it! There's all kinds of vintage advertising, helpful hints, zodiac signs, and articles all over the desk and let me tell you, the farmers almanac had some racy and perculier adds in it for 1953! I omitted some of the adds, since I didn't know where she would eventually call home. I know she would look fabulous in your farmhouse, rustic home office or can even be used as a dresser or vanity table. The previous owners were using it as a dresser in a girls bedroom. 

The desk will be available in our Yamboree booth, this Thursday through Saturday. Jeff pointed out that his birthday is this week, so if she gets to come back home, I guess she will be his birthday present! ;)