Checkin' Out the Chair

I snuck away from work yesterday, just long enough to run up the street to a garage sale. The folks have an occasional sale and its where I found my little chippy chair earlier in the year. Well this time they had this awesome vintage yellow chair. I made an offer and then I loaded it in my truck with all my feed sacks, tools, and ropes.

 After work I headed to the farm to check on my cows. All the cows were grazing or resting under the shade tree, so I decided to get my chair out of the truck and stage it in the pasture. I could vision the cows in the background... Well as soon as I opened the tail gate, the cows rushed to see if it was feed day.

 "Pretty Horns" checked it all out and gave her nod of approval!

Several of the cows had to investigate the chair before they figured out it wasn't edible!

 The cows made the photoshoot fun and then just a chair sitting in the open field wasn't near as interesting. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with the chair. Right now its sitting in the middle of my little living room, blocking my view of the tv. Hopefully sometime this weekend I can move furniture around and find a place for it. It was just one of those things I couldn't pass up when I saw it. My husband said I was crazy and then said he tried to get me to have have furniture like that when we first got married. But vintage wasn't cool then... and the furniture he was wanting to get, wasn't pretty like this!

Digging in the trash can

If you follow me on twitter or instagram, you might have already seen this picture. I have been waiting on this tomato to get ripe so I could say this:
"Yes, I got supper out of the trash can!"

In keeping with my junk yard theme, I planted this tomato plant in a bottomless trash can. A large plastic pot sits inside the rusty, junk pile rescue.

Oh and that tomato was delicious!

"Precious Memories" Shabby Chic Lamp

After recently hitting up an estate sale and a few garage sales, I decided to use my "new" finds to create a very shabby chic lamp. I found this old Mason jar lamp base in my stash recently and knew I wanted to do something very creative with it.

I placed the lamp on my bed side table. I have a jewelry holder located on the wall above this table, hence all the necklaces hanging in the background.

Remember this picture from my road trip Saturday? I printed it out on my home printer and then matted it with chocolate burlap, with the help of mod podge glue.

 
I used lots of pearls, buttons, burlap, and vintage lace inside the large fruit jar.

I had some vintage style scrapbooking stickers (the calendar and stamps) that I glued to burlap and lace.

I grew up in church singing hymns out of the Heavenly Highway Hymnal and when a friend give me one of the old hymnals from his junk pile, I knew I would use the sheet music in craft projects. I'm calling this lamp "Precious Memories," because I used the hymn to create two paper flowers that are inside this lamp. I layered all of the elements till I had it just like I wanted.

 I will admit I bought the lamp shade new {gasp}. I wanted to finish the project over the weekend and just didn't have a lamp shade that would work. I used spray adhesive on the lamp shade then rolled burlap over the shade. I then used the lace trim around the bottom edge. I decided to loop more pearls over the lamp shade and took burlap strings (ravels) to tie the pearls to the burlap.

 I elevated the lamp by sitting it on top of the Heavenly Highway Hymnal and a vintage dictionary. I'm excited how my little lamp turned out!

This Old House

I had to take a little business trip into the neighboring town yesterday morning. I threw my camera in the truck, not knowing what might beg to be photographed on my road trip.

Right before I got to the sale barn, I spotted this rustic old house. I stopped, grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures!

I LOVE those turquoise windows! swoon

Here's a little sepia version of this old house.

It was a great little road trippin', country music blastin' on the radio, boots and holey jeans, gypsyfied, garage sale huntin' (only found one), business trip kind of day! 

Burlap and Lace Bride's Bouquet in a Hay Barn

I'll be honest and say I haven't felt very creative in the past few months...Life gets complicated and busy sometimes and seems to leave little time for crafting. Something changed this week and all of a sudden, I feel inspired and creative again! I'm not sure what got the creative juices flowing again, but this burlap and lace bouquet was the first thing I made!

 I decided to take the shabby chic bouquet the the farm and photograph it in the old hay barn. It is now listed for sale in my etsy store.

I had fun shooting in the pics in the barn. The barn needs some renovations to part of the structure and roof. I hope we can fix it up sometime and one day have a barn sale at the farm.

The barn sits by this pond, where I love to sit and relax. Remember me saying a few weeks ago that the pond was getting low? Well since then we have received over 4 inches of rain, praise the Lord! The ponds are full again and the grass is growing.

Orange Lilies and FOLK Magazine Winner!

Out in the yard water Sunday morning, I took these pictures of my favorite orange lilies.

 This lily has three layers of petals in vibrant orange shades.

Just about all the other lilies have finished blooming, but this lily continues to bloom.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for! The WINNER of the FOLK Magazine Giveaway is...

Donna from Cottage Days! Issue V, the Southern Issue is coming to you! (I'll email you for your address.)

Thank you all for your encouraging words and support for me as my first pictures were published in FOLK.

Pond Reflections

After a very busy Saturday, I was finally able to stop yesterday afternoon at the pond and relax for a few minutes after I checked on the cows. I had my camera with me so I took a few pictures at the pond.

 I love the rustic barn reflection in the water and the crooked tree. The water was still for this picture, while the there was ripples on the next one, really creating a water color feel.

 As I sat on the bank, dragonflies fluttered about and occasionally landed on the stick in front of me.

 This green heron lurked around the water's edge while I enjoyed the various reflections and quite time at the pond. We sure could use some rain. I'm not liking seeing the water level dropping like it is.

While I was at the pond, I recalled the time my college ag teacher ask what each of us called a body of water like this. I instantly said "pond," with lots of looks from the others in the classroom. Then all the locals said "pools" and one said "tank." I told them, where I was from a pool was a swimming pool and ponds for cows to drink from. So now I'm curious, in your area, what do you call a body of water like this?

P.S. Don't forget the FOLK Magazine Giveaway ends tonight (Sunday). Head over and leave a comment to enter now!

My Vintage Travelmaster Camper

Over the Memorial Day weekend, we went and picked up the vintage camper down the road from us. We know little about this camper other than she is a Travelmaster. Hooking on to the camper and pulling her out of this junk yard was much easier than I expected. We aired up one tire, hooked up, moved an A-frame, and headed out.

 We only had less than a mile to our house.

 She really is a hot mess! Whew...I started cleaning when we got home and can report the rat poop, sink, counter, and most of the cabinets are now GONE! I cleaned out all the trash and swept really good. Someone had added sheet rock to the walls and ceilings and I'm now in the process of ripping that out. The sheet rock and metal roof that was added to the single axle camper creates more weight than needed for going down the road. The structure needs some work, so the messy, ill-hung sheet rock needs to go anyway, in order to do things right. Its more than I really wanted to tackle, but I know things must be done right. Patients...

 She's parked near the yard, so that it will be easy to work on. An extension cord lets me plug a fan in while working inside and I have a window unit air conditioner that we plan to hook up soon. See that duck tape on the camper? Its gone now! I went to an estate sale yesterday and found several things "for the camper"! I know its a long way till I can decorate, but I can't pass up the perfect rug and a very antique cedar chest that could be turned into cabinets or storage.

 I have been searching online and haven't been able to find out much about Travelmaster or any original pictures of the camper. I have been able to find this ad from 1965 and the camper in the picture looks just like ours.

If anyone has pictures or links to other Travelmaster travel trailers, I would love to see them and learn more info about this camper. I have a catalog coming for camper parts, can anyone recommend a great and affordable place to get replacement parts?

I know we have a lot of work ahead of us, but it will all be worth it in the end.

Celebrating Being in FOLK with a Magazine Giveaway!

I am still excited about my pictures and submission being in FOLK Magazine! I learned about FOLK through Donna from Funky Junk Interiors and saw their call for Southern stories, pictures, and travels for their Summer issue (issue V) on Facebook.

We had travelled to the Ennis (Texas) Bluebonnet Trails last year and had previously shared the pictures here on my blog and with some of my Facebook friends. Several people encouraged me to submit my pictures to magazines, so when I saw the call in February, I started typing and submitted my pictures and story. Ben, the Editor of FOLK, emailed me almost immediately saying he loved my piece! All kinds of squealing and jumping up and down commenced at that point, as it had always been a dream to have something published. At this point, I only told my husband and kept the secret for 2 1/2 months. I was scared something would happen, my pictures wouldn't make the cut, or something crazy like that...so I didn't tell anyone. I never expected to have my first submission to be accepted by a magazine.

I watched my mailbox with anticipation. I was off  work the day the first magazine came. I ran back from the mailbox like a kid, ripped open the package, and opened the magazine to where I thought my article was. It wasn't there...My two page submission had been moved from the original location that I saw in the proof, but I found it near the back of the magazine instead. At this point there was lots more squealing and excitement when I saw my pictures in a national magazine! The very first time I submitted a story and pictures, I got published! It was a dream come true and a check on my bucket list!

I purchased additional copies of FOLK for some of my friends and family and will be giving away one copy right here to YOU, my blog friends! You are the ones who have supported me with all of your sweet comments and words of encouragement when I share my pictures, projects, and stories, so I want to give back to you. All you have to do is be a Gypsy Farm Girl follower (Blog, Twitter, Pinterest, or all 3) and leave a comment here, telling me you would like to win a copy of FOLK Magazine. I'll pick a lucky winner next weekend.

Please note the Giveaway is for one copy of ISSUE V of FOLK Magazine and is sponsored by ME. I will mail the magazine to USA residents only. The magazine is available at Barnes and Nobles or you can check the FOLK blog for independent bookstores near you.

Our sweet dog, Trixie even made it into FOLK!

12 Creative Junk Flower Containers

My yard has a rustic, junk yard theme this year, using recycled items for creative flower containers. I have shared several of my junk planters this spring and wanted to give an update on the flowers and share some new planters. Donna from Funky Junk Interiors is hosting a garden themed linkup this weekend with the opportunity to win a subscription to FOLK magazine, so I thought now would be a great time to share 12 of my creative flower containers.

While using this style chicken feeder for a light fixture has been popular recently, I planted flowers in mine! I honestly never though this shallow container would hold up to the east Texas heat, but it has done really well and become one of my favorite containers in the whole yard.

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 This wheelbarrow holds a whole flock of hens and chicks! Do you see the chicken feeder hanging from the rose arbor?

 The rustic bottomless bucket is still growing good and the petunias have really taken over the wash tub. I originally had planted ranuculas in with the petunias, but they didn't hold up very well.

 My nepthytis seems to like living under the gazebo in this trash ditch rescued water jug.

The pansies occupy this old crock, but I feel as if the June heat will soon over take them.

The springeri is nestled in this old Gulf can and the water jug and watering can holds spider plants. An old rusty popcorn tin holds the aloe plant.

 The spider warts are blooming in the mornings and the oregano is harvested occasionally from this washing machine tub that is hiding a plastic pot.

I rearranged things this week and moved this English Ivy to the gym locker basket on the old vintage bicycle. I'm excited to see the zinnias and cosmos blooming beside the bicycle.

I am glad I went with a junk theme this year in my yard. I like seeing all the rusty containers much better that a bunch of plastic or styrofoam pots, plus they cost much less than purchasing new planters!