Fall in Love

Fall - its one of my favorite times of year! Pretty colors and slightly cooler weather is always welcome. Add my love for pumpkins, mums, scarecrows, and county fairs and its makes for a happy season. It also means it was time for a yard and gazebo makeover! I moved around some of my junk and added a few bronze and burgundy mums and went with white pumpkins this year. 

My little red rusty wagon has a load of pretty fall goodies. The creeping jenny, coleus and dianthus were already in the wagon, they just got moved around and some new companions. 

We got this old, folding wooden chair from an estate sale a couple weeks ago and it was begging to show off some fall favorites!

Mr. Scarecrow has been helping with some modeling jobs! Here he is sporting a turquoise burlap boutonniere. 

Here's a step back to see all the gazebo. For any of you new visitors, almost everything you see is rescued and repurposed, including the gazebo! We pulled it from a trash ditch several years ago. Of course, all my metal buckets, containers, the wagon, doors, bicycle and chair are second hand as well. Its true what they say: One mans trash is another mans treasure! 

This little scarecrows greets us with a Howdy! 

I've made a couple pumpkin wreaths and Mr Scarecrow helped display them as well . 

The pumpkin wreath above has sold, although the one below will be available at our Yamboree booth in just a couple weeks. 

I think autumn weddings have the prettiest wedding colors! I love the burnt orange, golden yellows, and shades of brown and the decorating ideas are so plentiful this time of year. 

A customer recently ordered the fall bridesmaid bouquet and boutonnieres to match her bridal bouquet she had ordered previously.

So, what are your favorite things about fall? The only thing I don't like about fall, is that winter follows it. If we could only skip the cold winter and go right back to spring...

Come See Us at The East Texas Yamboree!

"Some dreams stay with you forever...

Some dreams keep on gettin' better,

Gotta keep believin' if you wanna know for sure..." ~Eli Young Band 

I've had this dream, this feeling, this desire, these ongoing thoughts for years, long before I started GypsyFarmGirl, that involved a vintage camper trailer and just knew that one day it would be a part of my future. I dreamed about flea markets and wanting to set up at a trades day event and thought I would just be sleeping in my camper. This was way before "glamper" was a term, before Pinterest and Facebook helped popularize vintage campers and mobile boutiques were a thing. 

I looked for years for a affordable camper of my dreams and was so excited when I found one last year. Little did I know in my early dreams, that my glamper would be a part of my full time business, a mobile boutique of sorts, the World Headquarters of GFG!  I was working a full time day job at the time and this was just a little side business. Fast forward a year and here we are!  This year, I've used her some for photo shoots for my new products and next month, Miss Gussie gets to make her public debut and one of my long time dreams will come true! She's been getting gussied up and got a new awning a few weeks ago. (See earlier post.) 

Good Lord willing and the Creek don't rise, my ever so talented and good friend Angea, from Rooster Tails, will be joining with me and we will have a booth at the 

East Texas Yamboree in Gilmer, Texas, in October. 

Together we will be using Miss Gussie as our shop and will be set up at the livestock fairgrounds as part of the arts and craft exhibits. 

I will have an assortment of items including wedding bouquets, pillows, western rope wreaths, home decor, furniture, lamps, chandeliers, fall and Christmas arrangements, dream catchers, tote bags, and the such. There will be items that are not available in my etsy shop and some special sales. Other than a small trunk show last spring (without my camper), this will be the first time my items will be available in person. I've had people ask if they could come see bouquets in person, before ordering. I work from home and don't have a storefront shop, so this will be an opportunity to meet me and see my items in person and I look forward to meeting customers and visiting with you face to face. I'm still working on several new items and furniture makeovers. 

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Angea is a creative friend and former coworker from the flower shop, where we both worked for several years. She's a talented florist, seamstress, painter, repurposer, and junker and she loves to laugh and is a happy person. (See why we are great friends?!?)  We have a lot of common interests and text each other on garage sale days giving each other the "you gotta get there now"  or "don't waste your gas money" advice! Here's a sneak peek of a few of the items Angea will be contributing to our booth. She makes the most adorable scarecrows, pillows, wooden signs and wreaths. She will also have some florals, wooden tool boxes, aprons, fabric pumpkins and so much more. Her business name is Rooster Tails  and she has a few items in her etsy shop, but most everything she makes will be offered in person at the Yamboree. 

Now for some show details - the Yamboree is our HUGE county fair and will be held October 15-17, 2015 in Gilmer, Texas. Our small town of around 5,000 swells to 100,000 visitors during the week as many activities are held in celebration of all things Yam (or sweet potato). There's a Yam Queen that is crowned at the pageants, 2 parades (Friday and Saturday), band stand, carnival on the square, band marching contest, car shows, fair food, lots of yam pie, a barn dance, and my favorite - the livestock shows, yam pie contest, art and photography contest, among so much 5more. Google the East Texas Yamboree for a schedule and see pictures from past events. If you need more info, please feel free to email me and I'll be happy to help you. 

We will be set up near the Yamboree exhibit building at the livestock grounds, located on US Hwy 271, just north of Wal Mart and the Gilmer / Upshur County Civic Center. So if you are anywhere near East Texas, we would love to meet you! The exhibits will open at noon on Thursday, and be open all day Friday and Saturday of the Yamboree. 

I'll be sharing more info as times gets closer and follow us on Instagram (@gypsyfarmgirl and @roostertails55) or GypsyFarmGirl on Facebook for some sneak peeks of what we are working on and will have available for you to shop from. 

We certainly hope you'll come see us and Miss Gussie! 

This week

So it's been a busy week around here, making some different things and running like crazy! 

Saturday morning, I decided I was going to work on furniture transformations and got the first coat of paint on two pieces and the phone rang "you've got calves out." Oh no, painting party cancelled and off the wrangle up the calf (luckily just one) and fix fence. 

Thank goodness this cute dude and his daddy (my brother) came to the rescue and helped out! The chain saw was loud and he was covering his ears. 

Then some dear friends lost their dad and pop, and ask me to make floral tributes to honor their cowboy. The casket spray was made on his horse saddle! They mentioned wanting sunflowers and yellow roses and trusted me to take care of the rest. 

I also made easels from the children and grandchildren. 

After leaving the flower shop last year, I thought I was leaving behind the funeral work and even homecoming mums, but as someone told me recently "once a florist, always a florist." It was an honor that the family ask me to create a final tribute for them. 

I've seen the sunrise more this week than all year, as it's been on the go all week! (I'm usually the night owl, chasing sunsets instead.) We found army worms at the farm this weekend, so there's been the added job of spraying them, in order to protect our grass. We think we won this go round. 

I had a few other calls for other funeral wreaths

 and cemetery vase arrangements as well, 

combined with homecoming mums, along with running my shop and shipping out orders.  

After the funeral today, I went to check on the cows, still wearing my dress. Working from home, I don't get dressed up as much, so it had to be documented and some of the calves wanted in on the selfie business, making it a #felfie (farm selfie!) 

Now, my house needs a good cleaning after making arrangements in my living room and all the extra running this week, the furniture needs to be finished and I've got to get busy on a custom wedding order, all while creating some new inventory for my shop and a show next month. 

It seems like it should be Friday already, yet it's only Wednesday! Hope you are all having a great week! 

New Paint and a Gussied Up Ceiling

Gussie the Glamper is getting lots of attention lately! She's got a big date in October and she's trying to get all gussied up in time for her public debut! You may have noticed, I've never really showed the ceiling. It was the one big thing that I hadn't tackled. I've had all sorts of ideas about covering it's ugly spots. I've been on the look out for tin ceiling tiles at garage sales or anything cool to repurpose and I've found nothing. 

Also, the kitchen cabinets had remained original, till last night. I decided they needed a couple coats of ivory lace (that's the paint color). Last year, I had debated whether to paint them or leave them in their original state. Still not sure about the green counter and the two sliding doors. I'm liking the cabinets so much better with fresh paint and I think I'll leave the doors green. What's your thoughts? 

This afternoon, I put the second coat of paint on the cabinets and pondered the ceiling again. Then I remembered I had the burlap coffee sacks and knew they would be attached to the ceiling, but how? 

I grabbed my spray adhesive and mod podge, thinking I would glue it up there. Although, when it came down to it, the staple gun got the workout! If I do find something I like better, (although, I'm really loving this), it will be easy to change it out. 

 I've accumulated several doilies with stains and tatters and felt they should have a place on the patchwork ceiling. Because Miss Gussie is perfectly imperfect and she doesn't mind a few imperfections and we both love her mason jar lights! 

It came a crazy thunderstorm while I was out there stapling away and then I redid my chalkboard sign. 

I peeked out the door to catch the sunset after the rain! The rain and wind blew my awning around, but it survived. Better weights are definetly on my list of things to find. 

So, do you follow the adventures of Gussie the glamper and me on social media? If not, we'd love for you to travel along with us and watch for our upcoming news!