Spring Junk Buying Trip To Lincoln

My dad and his wife live in Lincoln, twice a year their neighborhood hosts a weekend of garage sales.  Click here and here to see past Lincoln neighborhood sales. Traditionally it is a great opportunity to: take a road trip, visit my dad, buy some junk and eat good food.  Plus I always take a friend and have a lot of laughs. 

This is the third Nebraska junking trip with Katie, how brave is she?

We arrived Wednesday night, and visited my friend Cindy.  We know her sale will be set up and ready to roll.  Usually that one stop makes it worth the whole trip, and this year she certainly did not disappoint.  (This is her husband Steve attaching treasures to the top of my van!)

 

We purchased about 1.5 vanloads of junk from her, problem is -- we only have the one van!  And there were two more days of junking ahead!

"Hey Dad!  Can I leave a few things with you?"

The next morning we rolled out early for our garage saling marathon.

 

We strapped even more to the top of the van.

 

We wrapped up about lunch time, just in time to enjoy a Nebraska tradition -- Valentino's Pizza.  This is where the fun traditionally ends...but this year it was only leg one of junking.   Stay tuned for part 2.

Fresh Flowers In My Outdoor Junk Booth

After visiting the Junk Jubilee in Des Moines last weekend (post still percolating) I was inspired to get some fresh flowers  in some of my fresh junk in my outdoor booth.  I had a little time Sunday to cruise by Walmart garden center -- and they had some plants on clearance.  I still do not know why they were discounted, but they certainly served my purpose.

Can you see the bluebird of happiness that was perched in my booth when I pulled up?

You can see my empty calf buckets on the right.

Here they are with flowers plopped in them!

Huge improvement.

I love the calf feeder buckets because they already have a hole for drainage

and they have a "lip" to hang on a fence or porch.

The one on the right says "Calf-eteria" HA.

This is my first "planter chair" this year

Assembling A Junk Wall At The Rusty Chandelier

The Rusty Chandelier, located north of St Joseph, MO is where I sell my junk.  They were interested in redoing their café eating area, located upstairs.  Barb asked if she could bounce some ideas off of me.  We both thought a primitive junk driven theme was the way to go.

 

The walls started out this light gray with the darker gray wainscoting.

 

 

Walls were painted...a rust color of course (see color on left).  Traditional wainscoting was removed and replaced with old corrugated tin.  What a great blank canvas!

Kevin & Angie (the business owners) brought in a load of interesting bits and pieces.
It was heaven having cool stuff to choose from, to create a great backdrop.

But the best part was having someone with the skill and tools to get is all hung.  Rusty (I kid you not, that is his name) very patiently waited for me to arrange all of the junk artfully on the floor.  Then it was time for him to work his magic, getting all of the rusty stuff on the walls. I actually left for a trip and didn't see the finished walls until I got back...

What a beautiful sight to return to!

 

Rusty did a great job hanging, and the rusty color

really made all of the stuff pop.

 

This is just "phase one" of the junk renovation.

Rusty had to go turkey hunting so phase two will have to wait.

Come see the renovation at the Rusty Chandelier's "Rusty Café". 

I'm Out Junk Container Gardening (Finally!)

 Mondays are my gardening day, weather permitting.  Now when my father talks about gardening, he is talking vegies.  Now when I "garden", it almost never means vegies.  But it could mean digging out dandelions, edging, trimming bushes or trees, planting or tidying. 

And this time of year it always means planting succulents in vintage containers for resale.  I have an "outdoor booth" where I sell fun vintage yard and garden décor,
which includes a booming business of succulents in junk containers.

This colorful reptile has been a resident in our yard for at least a year.

He made an appearance today when I was outside.

Our cat thinks he is part of a catch & release program.

About once a week the cat finds the garter snake,

chases it around for awhile and then lets it go.

Fun for at least one of them.

 

So the temps have finally moderated enough that I

braved planting my first succulents of the season.

Who knows where I got this faux wringer washer planter.

 

I added the enamel pan planter

and a nice helping of rusty junket.

Perfection.

Three more gems from the Hastings trip.

Yes, I got my antique stamps out for them too.

See more of my planter stamping obsession here.

These are nice small hanging chicken feeders

(in their old life).

If it ever stops raining,

I'll be able to get some more junk planters potted up.

 

These plants are at my outdoor booth at the Rusty Chandelier

Herd Of Repurposed Coffee Tin Planters

This is my favorite season of the year.  Maybe my favorite gardening week of the whole year.  Everything is bursting with bloom.  The birds are chirping with joy. If you can dodge a few rain drops, the temps are still cool enough to spend hours digging in the dirt.

So this is what I came up with today.  I decided to go ahead and plant all of my vintage coffee tins at once, because they look so great in small groupings. 

I have had this coffee tin for years and years (I loved the colors), but it was time to thin out some things...so someone else will have a chance to enjoy it.

I am sacrificing some of my "Rusty Bits and Pieces" (see more about them here), to fill out my planters this year.  You notice all of the plants are succulents?  Tough and hardy, gotta love them.

Can't wait to take them in to my outdoor space at the Rusty Chandelier.

4.11.15 Saturdays Swap Meet Vintage Finds

This is kind of part two of the Fur & Feathers blog post, click here to read it.  We came home with about half of a load, which is pretty good.  But last year was great pickings, click here to see that post.  Still, we managed to snag a good assortment.

Lots of nice metal items which will do great in my

outdoor space by the Rusty Chandelier.

 

The little blue striped oil can on the right is darling

In addition to the metal loot, I also purchased three

old yellow wooden boxes and an ancient trunk:

 

I painted one of the two larger wood boxes for contrast,

and to cover some "magic marker markings".

 

They still looked a little plain,

so I added these old license plates which I had laying around.

 

I loved the primitive old trunk with original chipping green paint.

It needs a little cleaning, and maybe some clear wax.

 

On the front of it you can barely make out a name --

"Rottermann".  Hopefully the cleaning and wax will

help highlight it.

Fur & Feathers & Flea Fun

Twice a year a small town nearby sponsors a "Swap Meet".  It is one of my favorite events of the year.  One reason it is so much fun is because there is a large assortment of farm animals for sale.

"They are so fluffy, I'm gonna die."

Some are so darn cute. 

Some are beautiful.

All are interesting!

All these feathered and furry critters were trying to distract me from my true purpose -- helping out the locals who are trying to clean out a barn or outbuilding.  My husband and I braved cool 40 degrees temps to hunt for some rusty treasure.

We love this guy.  He is always there early and has reasonable prices.

  

My husband in the background "negotiating".

I had to get a close-up of this girl's cow PJs with cowboy boots...

 

Quite a contrast from the prom dress she'll be wearing tonight!

 

I caught up with Katie,

she snagged the wire gate laying on the bed of the pickup...

 

killer, right?

 

Yeah, I am tired too.

You'll have to tune in later to see what finds I came home with.

Collecting Antique Windmill Tails

I told Katie the story about finding the five windmill tails (rudders) in Nebraska. (Read about that story here. )  Naturally, she thought she needed one of them.  So I displayed them for her to see when she stopped by.

Once I set them up, I couldn't help but take photos of them.

Aren't they a handsome collection?  Wow.

Three Dempsters (two different sizes)

which were manufactured in Beatrice, Nebraska around the 1930s.

What a great (if somewhat huge) Nebraska souvenir.

Love the graphics on this one too.

.

This is my keeper.

So what if I only have three left for resale?

Easter Flowers: Real & Enamel

HAPPY EASTER.  Easter seemed to have fallen on the perfect weekend for our region.  Everything is bursting with new life.  The trees are sporting their delicate blossoms.  Forsythia bushes are blinding. God is so creative.

Daffodils are at their peak.

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These little cuties have naturalized all over my yard.

I love how they herald the very tip of spring.

The natural spring flowers put me in the mood to sell some cheerful

enamel ones on ebay. 

Love the colors. Love the shapes.

Love me  a whole bouquet of enamel flower pins.