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.)

Junkin' Adventures!

Yesterday, Angea and I had some fun adventures, redecorating our Uniques and Antiques booth space. If you follow on facebook or instagram you know I've been working on a few little projects this week and we decided a booth makeover was in store. Yes, we just fixed our new space up 6 weeks ago, but we are women and we love to rearrange! 

I went to Angea's house to load her goods up and as we were getting ready to leave, I looked back and saw our two "backseat drivers" and we had to take a funny selfie with them, before we got on the road! 

Miss Prissy Petticoats is now in our booth, along with some of our repurposed clothing items (we still have clothes online, as we will keep an assortment in the booth and available for shipping. See something in my shop and want to see it in the booth, message me and I can take it on our next trip over.) 

I made her petticoats from chopping off a couple of vintage wedding dresses - love all the ruffles! 

Angea's scarecrow now welcomes guest to our booth! It's finally got hot in Texas, so we are beginning to dream of fall and pumpkins and scarecrows.

We rearranged the mantle and hung clothes racks chairs on the wall for our clothes and additional shelf space.

The desk and some items were marked down this week. The desk would be great for someone preparing their classroom for Back to School.

I am loving these little necklaces! I have several boxes of vintage linens that are stained or have holes in them, but I just can't bare the thought of throwing them away. Someone worked so hard to create the beautiful handiwork... Well, some of the small embroidery flowers are now one of a kind necklaces! I forgot to get a picture, but there's also a shirt with some of the same linens added for a unique appearance.

Gone Junkin' - our motto for Thursdays or anytime really! There are tumbler wraps online and in our booth in several styles. 

Y'all were all so good to help me figure out what these pink little ditties were and it was decided that they were for Mint Julep or juice cup cozies. (They also fit a root beer bottle or the old snuff jars, as I don't have any cups that size.)

The mantle side of our space is now rustic farmhouse / neutral colors. Angea made the chicken wire frame and wreath combo and it looks great over a mantle! Candle sticks make great pumpkin pedestals!

I made several pillows from the vintage linens I found last week. There was a yellow rose embroidery table cloth in the mix, but it had a red drink stain in it. I cut the table cloth in two pieces and was able to make pillow covers and get rid of that ugly red mark.

As I was making the pillows, I had visions of Sweet Aunt Ethyl at the church picnic and little Jim Bob. I'm sure she thought an ugly thing or two about the little boy who sat his Big Red drink on her embroidered table cloth. With a smile, she said "It's ok Sister Alice, no big deal" as her friend apologized for the little bratty boy who ruined her handiwork.

I hope Ethyl (or whoever made these pretties) approves of what I've recreated with their linens. I feel its my job to rescue the old linens and try my best to find a new life for them

Find our booth inside Uniques and Antiques at 124 S. Line Street in historic Mineola, Texas. They are open Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. 

Some items can also be found in my online shop for world wide shipping. 

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!)

Spring + Love at Uniques and Antiques

It's a new year and time for a little update to our Uniques and Antiques booth in Mineola, Texas.

Some Valentine love and springy items arrived today... Because we are anxiously awaiting spring and need some color in our lives!

So this wooden calendar reminds me of the old church bulletin boards were Sunday School attendance was recorded! ALL of the months and letters are there, in a little bag. I knew if they were all on the calendar and with my luck, I would go to get the calendar off the wall and all the numbers would fall on the floor, behind the desk in our booth. So calamity avoided, bundle together in a little drawstring bag. 

Valentine wreath with primitive style heart and pip berries, white hydrangeas and a single red rose. 

The Gone Junkin' tumbler wraps have been a hit, but now your Yeti wants to have a Valentine makeover! Show it some love, with a new sleeve! (Several in stock at the booth and lots more coming online as soon as I can get them photographed and listed.)

When I follow my heart, it leads me to you pillow with a shabby heart with wings. 

A little French Country Love... 

Angea aka Rooster Tails have a ton of fun working on items for our booth and our road trips to Mineola! We had a board meeting at The Jalapeno Tree and did a little junkin on our way home this afternoon and found more treasures to makeover for our booth! 

Pssst, don't forget to look behind the wall - there's furniture, signs, bags, and more goodies once you look around! 

A pastel spring twiggy wreath, with a birdhouse. 

Oh forsythia, you brighten the wall with your yellow blooms and we can't wait to see you blooming in yards! 

All of the above items are currently available at Uniques and Antiques - 124 S. Line St. Mineola, Texas. Angea and I thank you for shopping with us and supporting local, small handmade businesses! 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Y'all! 

Make 2017 the best year yet, full of love, happiness and hopefully the road leads you to truck loads of fabulous vintage junk! 

2016 Year End Review - July - December

Continuing on with the 2016 Year End Review -

As stated before, thank you to everyone who lets me help with your weddings, special events, and decorate your homes. The second half of the year was an exciting and busy time as we were preparing for our fall markets, along with everything else. 

July - 

I'm appreciative to all the brides who share pictures from their weddings and let me have a part of your special days!

Charlene and Preston's Western Wedding pictures were gorgeous! (You can see more pictures by clicking the links for the featured weddings.) Photo by Stacey Hansen. 

Work continued on the repurposed clothing line that unveiled in late summer. 

As stated in my earlier post, I have decided pretty much any color goes with turquoise and this wedding order proves orange and camo can be added to that list! 

Breanne's Wedding was featured in August. Photo by David's Gallery Photography.

Out delivering fresh flowers...

First Baptist Church flowers! A former flower shop customer scolded me for not calling her and telling her that I was working with fresh flowers again, so now I'm back to making her church flowers. 

Misty's shared a picture from her turquoise and red wedding. How cute are all the little dresses she made for the girls?!?

Labor Day weekend found Angea and I designing flowers together again.

Coral and Navy wedding bouquet - Always love when bride's share a picture with me! photo by Elise Photography. 

Fall is Homecoming time for the local football teams.

Turquoise burlap wedding flowers.

September brought news that I had been selected to be a part of the Junk Gypsy Book Launch Team! So much fun and inspiration came from being a part of the book team! 

The cactus collection was unveiled in September for the wandering, gypsy soul and I just happened to have a wedding bouquet that perfectly matched the furniture for the photo shoot!

Miss Gussie, my glamper, got her picture in a magazine! I held on to the secret for a while, because I wanted to make sure it made the final publication. I was over the moon excited when I got my Mary Jane's Farm Special FarmGirl DIY issue with my picture of my glamper in it!

Fall fabric pumpkins and flowers.

Alex and J.D.'s navy burlap wedding was featured in October. Photo by Kirsten Pribula.

Loved the romantic themed wedding flowers for this wedding bouquet.

I finally got to meet the Junk Gypsies! 

They were at the Pink Pistol in Lindale for a book signing party and Sharlette and I made the trip over there! 

Yamboree 2016! 

He may not admit it, but Jeff does have fun helping set up our shows! He came each morning to help us open up and he thought Angea's scarecrow needed to ride my hobby horse! lol

The two of them kept me laughing and nearly killed me from their "what not to recycle" conversation. I almost choked on Yam Pie while laughing at Angea and Jeff, who started laughing at me... Good times! 

Cheyenne and Brant's Wedding 

Luke and Andrea's Wedding - I loved all the textures and rich colors of the bridal bouquet. For sure, one of my favorite fresh flower weddings to design! 

Church flowers in all white for Baby Dedication Day. 

Pretty in pastel pink and lavender burlap and lace wedding bouquets.

Old truck and campers make me happy!

Backwood's Marketplace in November was so much fun! Love setting up over there and my peeps that help make it all come together!

Angea and I were cold that night, but it was a great time to wear my 25 cent coat! 

Best ever road crew! We couldn't do what we do without our men to help load, unload, set up, and take down all our stuff. Occasionally a little mumbling, but they agree to build us pretty cool displays! 

Our Gone Junkin' / distressed flannel shirts were a hit at the fall markets. Several of our fellow vendors at Backwood's shopped with Angea and I, so we had to get a group shot of everyone who was wearing our flannels! 

Fall is a gorgeous time to take a drive in the country. Work brought me to the cemetery joining this church. I had always wanted to photograph  the church and while I was there, I took the time to do just that.

Fall on the backroads.

I decorated Christmas trees for a family and this one was 12 foot tall! It took many trips up and down the ladder to pull this western tree off!

I love working and living on the Rural Route. After decorating the Christmas trees, I happened upon this old barn and had to stop and photograph it! 

Jeff and I took Christmas pics with Miss Gussie! My camper door has become a collage of pictures from our adventures.

Mid December, Angea and I opened our first store booth inside Uniques and Antiques in Mineola, Texas. You can now shop in person for some of our popular items, junk, and furniture items that we don't ship. See more details and info about our booth in this blog post. 

A caravan of vintage campers and trucks made their way to my etsy shop and this became my most liked photo on Instagram for the year! 

Shana's wedding on the waters edge - I always love sunset pictures and this one is spectacular with the bride and groom. Shana carried a navy burlap bridal bouquet. Photo by Ashley-Lynn Photography.

My upside down Christmas tree in the gazebo - read more about it here.

RaLeigh's wedding was featured from her December wedding. Navy bouquets were a popular choice for bride's this year. I haven't done the count on turquoise vs navy weddings, but I have to say they were very close and navy might have won the year. 

Mr. Dish Pan Snow Man! Love him, but he melted in the heat wave this week! The after Christmas cleanse feels so good and I'm ready to bring on the new year! Wedding season is upon us again (there's a slight break in the late fall) so I am getting back in my work shop and working on some new designs and item to come out in my etsy shop, very soon. I'm looking forward to helping everyone with their 2017 (and beyond) weddings, events, floral needs, and of course doing as much junkin' as possible along  the way. Plans are being made for our shows for the coming year and of course we will be restocking our Uniques and Antiques booth on a regular basis. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who let us have a small part of your 2016 events. We are forever grateful and thankful for each and everyone of you!

Good night 2016, Happy New Year 2017! May you be the best yet!