Monday, September 26, 2011

"Ooh, I'm going to go milk my cows."

I am not a huge fan of reality television, so I get really excited about new shows like this one, New Girl. If you missed the first episode, you can still watch it on fox.com. It airs every Tuesday at 9/8c. It's hilarious, don't miss out!

Friday, September 23, 2011

Autumn Spirit

As the weather gets cooler and the leaves start changing, I can’t help but get excited for H.T.C. time! (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) And when I say excited, I mean I start countdowns, wear sweaters when it’s still 80 degrees outside and I blast Christmas music in my office. Yes, including Harry Potter Christmas music. It’s my favorite time of the year! Besides being surrounded by my wild family and finding all my presents under the tree and stacking them in “opening order” and eating my body weight in Swedish meatballs…something I really enjoy about the holidays is all the decorations!

Usually I get to so caught up with Christmas excitement, I forget to enjoy fall. I have to remind myself to slow down and crunch some leaves under my feet because before I know it, it will be 2012 and I’ll be stuck in a snow bank and the holidays will be over! So right now I’m taking a deep breath…in…and out…(thank you Pilates)...and going on the hunt for some really cool decorating ideas for fall. Who knows, maybe my Mum will let me go hog wild on the house and decorate!

I’ve started looking for pumpkin carving ideas and here are a few I’ve found that gets my Autumn spirit a dancing! Ol' Martha sure can carve a pumpkin:







All patterns from marthastewart.com

Now all I need is a nice crisp autumn evening, a couple giant pumpkins to carve and Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin playing on the tube. Happy carving!


Thursday, September 22, 2011

Screen Print Loves

I absolutely love Etsy! You can get lost in that website. Today I was clicking away, looking through some screen prints. I'd like to share some of my favorites with you.

 


By MinkaSvarcs
   


By FriendPrices
  



By Manvsink

 

By boldandnoble

By BearFollowsCat


Monday, September 19, 2011

A JuNkin' GoOD Time!

Is your epic theme song still playing? It should be! My friend B and I just got back from our trip to Shakopee, MN and I am bursting to get the word out about the Junk Bonanza. Never before have I been to a place like this! I've seen plenty of craft fairs in my day but this one takes the cake. I mean really, the whole cake and licks the frosting off the plate afterwards. If you are a fan of vintage treasures, old and new, you have to--I repeat HAVE TO--attend this annual flea market!

I cannot begin to explain to you, dear reader, everything that I saw. The first second I walked into the door I was overwhelmed and captivated by everything handmade, re-painted and patched up. There are just too many things that I encountered to list here, so I will tell you about my favorites...

I am a huge fan of trunks and you can about imagine my enthusiasm as I walked the crowded aisles between vendors and saw that almost every booth had a trunk in it. Big and small, wood or metal, all different colors and textures. I was beside myself. Of course I was drooling over the jewelry as well; there were so many unique varieties, from vintage collections to pieces made from inner tubes. Anything you can imagine for house decor was there, wonderful old wardrobes, all sorts of shelves (one of the coolest was a corner shelf, made out of an old door sawed in half), and of course vintage paintings! I think one of the most unique things I saw was a piece from an old carousel in NYC, that was turned into a wall hanging. How great is that?

Another extraordinary thing about this show is the booths themselves. Each vendor was set up in their own little magical space, usually separated from the others by old shudders or doors. They created brilliant little scenes that drew you in and when you left your eyes were sparkling and there was a new bag in your hand!

Thus for my first real flea market experience, the Junk Bonanza was a winner! I can't wait to go back next year. I got so many ideas for what to make with my own barn wood...I'll be busy for a while! It's hard to explain how wonderful this place really is, you just have to see it for yourself. So grab a great junkin' friend and start planing your trip. But be warned...you should bring a pickup because you might be hauling a truck-load home after spending a couple days there!


http://www.junkbonanza.com/


Thursday, September 15, 2011

Calling All Junkers!

Tomorrow I leave for Shakopee, MN to attend the Junk Bonanza. (Insert you're own version of an epic theme song here.) It will be my first official flea market experience and I cannot wait to come home with a trunk full of glorious, rusty relics. I get all giddy when I have the chance to sort through junk piles and now I will be surrounded by organized junk? Things are going to get crazy and my wallet might want to beat me up afterwards...

Let me tell you a little bit about what junk does to me. When I see a junk pile, there's no telling what I will do. I dig and dig and come up for air holding the most random and dirty objects, all the while reciting what unique treasures they will become. I swoon over old barn wood and rusty buckets. "What a great picture frame this will make!" or "I could plant flowers in this!" I am a junk enthusiast and proud of it.

One of my favorite junk piles is located at my great-grandparent's homestead. I always find some interesting objects there...like old tobacco tins, rusty coffee pots and glass bottles. So many options and ideas! But what I love most about this junk is the history of it. I love to wonder...did my great-grandma use this coffee pot every morning? Did my grandpa, as a young boy, carry fresh milk in this bucket?

Although these are little things, thrown away after years of use, they mean a lot to me. Because they were used back in the good ol' days, when things were simple and you worked hard all day long and went to bed tired. By finding these 'treasures' that my great-grandparents used, I feel like I have a piece of them...the people I never got to know but admire so much.

Left: Searching for junk runs in the family...here is my fearless aunt rummaging around the caving-in cellar of the homestead house.

Right: The Johnson Homestead (In the field just behind the barn rests the junk pile!)


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