What a big boy!

My little man turns four years old today.

Happy Birthday Lowell!

I haven't been blogging this week because I've been busy getting my etsy orders shipped. Thanks to everyone for purchases. Most of them have been mailed and the rest will be in the post tomorrow.

While we were over at Lowell's school this morning to have a little party for him, of course we took some time to stop by a few garage sales. I found this fabulous antique chair. The owner said it was about 100 years old. It is perfect outside my front door. I have a fun little project in mind to transform it for Halloween into a witches chair. I'm going to drape cobwebs from it, add a witches hat, some spiders, grunge it up a bit and viola!. Should be fun:)Also got these wonderful dried gourds for 10 cents a piece. I love gourds. Anyone have any great gourd craft ideas?

Have a wonderful weekend!

So much love....

The shop update is complete. See all the goodies here! Thanks so much to those of you that have already made purchases. Your support is unwavering and so very much appreciated:)My head is still spinning from this past weekend. It's so hard to even put it all into words. So much love and support for my art and my blog. Amazing! First I had such a fabulous cheering section of everyone here in blogland boosting me up, helping motivate me. Then I got to the show and so so so so many people commented on my blog and my work. They said such amazing things as, "you are so inspiring", "you are really thinking out of the box," "I love your blog" and many, many other fantastic comments. It's so humbling, so uplifting, just down right fantastic! Thank you all for everything!I wanted to share with you an artist that was at the show that I was so incredibly inspired by. She does the work pictured above and below. Her name is Davonne and she doesn't have a blog or web site...I know, she must get one! Her company is called Saint Nicks and Sticks. She makes the most fabulous pumpkins (seen here) and santas. She was such a delightful person to talk with and I knew that you all would appreciate her work. She can be reached at davonne@iw.netSpeaking of Halloween, the much anticipated Oct. issue of Country Living magazine is now on newsstands. I am quite pleased with the issue. There is a very cool article with wonderful pictures featuring Bruce Elsass's extraordinary collection of vintage Halloween.

Also noticed that on Mary Engelbreit's site she has some teasers of her Oct. issue of Home Companion looks fabulous! Love seeing Halloween stuff popping up all over the place!

Cheers!

Junk for YOU!!

I'm back, I survived the Junk Bonanza and had a fabulous time!! I didn't take any pictures yesterday, because I was too busy selling things. Yay!! I had really, really good sales, all of your supportive energy worked. Thanks! I'm happy to say that I do still have lots of fun stuff to share with all of YOU. So my etsy shop will be updated with tons of new "junk"

Tuesday, September 11th at 10 am CST.

Here are some peeks.

Another day, more junk....

Today was another really fun day at the Junk Bonanza. My sales were brisk, especially in the morning and then things slowed down in the afternoon. That was ok, because that gave me a chance to sit and chat with so many wonderful folks who stopped by.

Definitely the highlight of my day was meeting so many kind folks that had such kind things to say about my work. Many people would come into my booth, smile and say "I love your blog". That means the world to me. Thank you!! The lovely Allison (below), of My Cozy Home came for a visit. It was so fun to meet her in person. Kristin and her adorable son spent some time in the booth and talking about swaps and round robins and this amazing blogging community made me feel like we had been friends forever. Patty also came by and is an absolutely delightful person. She had so many fun ideas and thoughts about inspiration. It really made the whole show for me to be able to meet so many kindred crafty spirits. Love it!Since so many of you live too far to make it to this spectacular show, I thought I'd give you a nice dose of eye candy and inspiration with photos of the amazing junk that people are selling. Enjoy!

Another view of my booth on the far left and my booth neighbor.
I'll be back for one more day of the festival and of course will be back here with more for you tomorrow!

I did it!!!

I made it through the first day of my first craft fair/festival ever!!! I'm still standing, ok now I'm sitting and still have a smile on my face. Lessons learned from day one: a.) give yourself plenty of time to set up your table. Four hours was barely enough...believe it or not! b.) do not sell vintage buttons for 25 cents each. Someone will snatch them up and sell them in their booth! It was a really fun day and I got tons of great feedback from people. Here are a few horribly dark pictures. I promise more tomorrow. I'm off to bed and back to the bonanza in the morning. My table was next to The Junk in My Trunk. Such fun vintage buttons she has. I could have looked at them all day long. Thank you all for your bloggie love. I really felt your support today! Love having a cheering section. I appreciate it so very much:)

Ready or not....

..here we go!!! And I am SO ready! One last glimpse of some of the goodies that I'm selling at Junk Bonanza starting tomorrow!! I have shown lots of the art I'm selling, here are some fun supplies I will have on hand to sell. Everything is packed up and ready to go. Just doing some last minute preparations. Feeling nervous and excited. This will be my first time selling my work in person, outside of the internet. Yikes! I feel like my booth will definitely have the ArtsyMama vibe going on. I've even thought about what I want my booth to smell like. Am I crazy!?! I will give an update from the first day of the show tomorrow night. I promise to take lots of pictures. Wish me luck!

Like Junk?

Some of you have been asking what exactly is this Junk Bonanza thing I've been so avidly talking about all summer long? You may have heard of JunkMarket, maybe you've seen the book or magazine. If you read Country Home magazine, you probably see Ki and Sue's junk column in every issue. These ladies seem to be everywhere and I'm lucky enough to say where they call home is only a short jaunt from my own humble abode here in the twin cities. Junk Bonanza is their annual flea market and this year I'm going to be a vendor there, starting this Thursday, Sept. 6th.

They have a very cool new web site and are now starting an online "junk club". The club is an on-and-offline community for junkers, antiquers, flea-marketers, and basically anyone who has an interest in vintage-chic design. It includes a growing national flea market/event sale directory and project archive and some very active junk-sharing community forums which provide great community feedback (including the personal feedback from Ki and Sue).There's the American Junk Club quarterly newsletter, Junkmail. It has the same JUNKMARKET stylings, projects, tips, and wacky commentary that junkers have come to expect from Ki and Sue. Then comes the annual Junk Bonanza. I was lucky enough to attend last year and had a blast. There were 20 vendors selling, flea market style. Lots of fun junk and some handmade goods. The junk ladies are all about re-purposing items that most people would consider throw aways, but they give them new life. This year the event will include 100 vendors and my first time having a table. Should be loads of fun!
I sat down for a chat with Ki before the big event.

When did JunkMarket officially start?

We opened our doors April 2000 having Occassional Sales once a month. We sold primarily vintage furniture and accessories along with repurposed junk.

What's a typical day like for you?

Since we are now in the business of teaching people what to do with their junk finds our jobs have changed dramatically. Fortunately we still get to shop for junk at Flea Markets, Antique stores, Salvage Yards, Used Equipment stores and yes, Dumpsters. We spend much of time in our workshop building and refinishing projects.We write our columns and books along with producing all the photography.Public speaking has become a big part of what we do so Sue and I spend a lot of time on planes and in hotels.

The American Junk Club has finally become a reality so we enjoy answering questions, giving advice and just chatting with our fellow junkers!

How did you get the idea for Junk Bonanza?

JUNKMARKET sales have been extremely successful over the years...realizing we couldn't continue do it all we invited our Favorite vendors to help us out.

This is the second year and the event has really grown, from 20 vendors to over 100. What is your vision for the event?

BIGGER & BETTER every year. Next year we would like to include demos and workshops and maybe even some junk tunes.
How would you describe the event? What can we expect this year?

Fun!!! Our favorite vendors will be selling an incredible variety of Primitives, Vintage furniture and accessories along with loads of good junk. Of course JUNKMARKET will have a booth as well. There will be yummy food and we are hoping to rustle up some music.

So there's a little background into this junk event of the year!

Goin' to the fair...

It's definitely fair season. Alicia wrote about the Oregon State fair and Kyra wrote about the same fair that I went to, the Minnesota State Fair. So now it's my turn. We used to live so close to the fair that we would ride our bikes, now we live a city away, but we still try to make the trek each year to the "Great Minnesota Get Together". As you can see, we were there at a relatively quiet time, early on Sunday morning. Lowell got a big kick out of all the tractors on machinery hill. My mom and I always love going in the Creative Arts building. Many, many gorgeous quilts and lots of other inspiring crafts. Remember this sock monkey dress from Craft-O-Rama last year? Look at what Rebecca Yaker had at the fair! Check out sockmonkey.com for more.

There was also an informative apron display. I learned more about aprons than I know what to do with. I included pics of a few of the signs for all of you apron lover's out there.Another favorite is the Horticultural Building, especially the seed art room. Look at these amazing pictures entirely made of seeds!!And the vintage seed bags were cool.The honey room and all of the products made of honey just make me smile:) Yummy!And the colors of salt water taffy are true eye candy. All in all, quite a morning at the fair! I can almost start counting the hours until Junk Bonanza. Stay tuned next post for my interview with half of the dynamic duo who are the JunkMarket ladies!