"GypsyFarmGirl Play It Again" Spotify Playlist

While out junkin' this week, I was listening to the radio and Big D and Bubba ask the question - what is your favorite song that you never get tired of hearing? It got me thinking about a few of my favorite songs. 

The first few that came to my mind included

• Baby Blue - George Strait
• Amarillo by Morning - George Strait
• When I Close My Eyes - Keith Whitley version
• On the Road Again - Willie Nelson 
• Country Roads, Take Me Home - John Denver
• The Dirt Road - Sawyer Brown 

A few songs that callers mentioned on the radio (that I remember, since I was driving) were 

• The Gambler - Kenny Rogers
• Delta Dawn  - Tanya Tucker
• Miami, My Amy - Keith Whitley

As they said on the radio - the old songs are the good ones. 

Friday, I was wanting to music to flow through me, wanted to listen to something new / different, while I worked and got to wondering what everyone else's favorite, play it again and again songs were, so I ask on Facebook and Instagram and got some great songs! Some I knew, some I hadn't heard before, some I had heard, but didn't know who sang them. Just like the callers on the radio, it was mostly older songs, but these came from a wider genre - old country, new country, classic rock, gospel, etc. From Dolly and Kenny to Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd with two songs, Brothers Osborne, and George Strait, to Johnny Nash, Shania Twain, Casting Crowns and Matthew West, there is a wide variety of music here! Fishin' in the Dark  and Stayin' Alive each got two mentions on Instagram and a couple of Miranda Lambert  and Pistol Annie songs were included. A little Chris Stapleton and Eric Church, Aretha Franklin, Vern Gosden, Ray Price, Hank Williams, and Drake White. It's a fun, eclectic playlist and I've enjoyed putting this together and discovering new and old music!

Check out all of the songs that have been listed by friends, if you're on Spotify! I don't listen to Spotify often, but it has been a great way to discover different songs and create a playlist. Feel free to follow the playlist called "GypsyFarmGirl Play it Again," with all of  your favorites! 

Have a favorite, play it again, never-get-tired-of-hearing-it song, that isn't listed? Let me know and I can keep adding to the playlist!

The Hardesty's Western Montana Wedding

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Hardesty and see some gorgeous pictures from their rustic and western Montana wedding! Jessica has been a wonderful bride to work with as I created turquoise burlap wedding bouquets, boutonnieres, and centerpieces for their wedding and she graciously shared pictures with me! 

The bride carried a turquoise burlap bouquet with added rhinestones and pearls, while the groom had a two rose boutonniere. 

Boots, Bouquets, and Hats...

 Add in a John Deere tractor and these precious kids...LOVE!

 Jessica ask if I could create centerpieces for their wedding, so I made hand tied bouquets that they could slip in an assortment of different style bottles and jars.

 We also created burlap flowers for them to decorate the cake with.

 A picture of the bridal bouquet with their boots and hat on the outdoor alter.

The Montana sky is a beautiful back drop for the wedding bouquets!

 Burlap bling bouquet and wedding rings.

 Simply Beautiful! I want to visit Montana in person!

 Thank you Jessica for letting me be a part of your beautiful wedding and sharing your pictures with us! Sending my Best Wishes and Congratulations to you both and hope you will have many years of love and happiness together!

*Photos in this post were used with permission from the bride and were taken by Adrianne with Live Montana Photography. 

What's in a Junker's Truck?

What's in a Junker's Truck? I saw this question recently and thought I would share what is in my truck. 

A vehicles purpose is to get you from Point A to Point B. My truck serves as a farm truck, flower delivery truck, making supply and post office runs, and of course junkin', so it has many jobs. Every mile it makes is for a specific purpose and it has 202,000+ miles on it and still going strong. 

First off - ALWAYS my Yeti style tumbler with unsweet tea or water! I don't leave home without something to drink and many times my path does not take me near a store and it's cheaper to take my homemade tea anyways. I love how my cup keeps my drink cold all day in the Texas heat - it really is amazing to leave a drink in the closed up truck and come back to ice tea! 

A recent pic of my floor board - sunglasses, staple gun, pliers, a comb, note pad for taking orders on the road, and craisens. I always pick up the little random feathers I find as well.

• ratchet straps
• bungee cords
• old sheet or blanket
• tarp

You never know when you are going to slip up on furniture or other things that need tying down and protecting or you have a load of feed and it starts raining. When I pull out the ratchet strap at a sale, I always get "you've done this before."

The back seat of my truck has been folded down for several years, to carry more stuff. Angea and I were loaded down, headed to our booth recently. A piece of plastic covers my back seat, because I could easily carry flowers, plants, junk, or any number of things and I attempt to protect the seat. 

I have a bucket with bungees, floral wire, old towels, and a flash light. Said bucket can also be used, if I need to pick up flowers and keep them in water till I get home, or emptied and carry small items that you need to pick up from somewhere. When we are headed to our booth, there's also a bag with nails, screws, tacks, and extra tags and cards and a step stool.

On this particular occasion, I was delivering a casket spray and then headed to the farm to haul some calves, so my truck has many jobs. 

My truck is usually dirty due to driving in the pasture... the calves were trying to help wash it one afternoon this week! 

Feed and furniture!  After we got a truck with a bed cover, I found several pieces of furniture that wouldn't allow the cover to close all the way. It didn't take long to figure out that a bungee or hay string would loop through that black handle and hook to the bumper and keep it closed. Where there's a will, there's a way!

Occasionally this sweet girl insist upon going and you'll notice the leashes on the dash in one picture. 

A few other things you will find in my truck:

• jumper cables (Daddy gave me a pair when I turned 16 and said you'll never know when/if you need them, but be prepared.)
• gloves
• wet wipes
• hand cleaner
• tape measure
• duct tape
• a bag with an extra change of clothes and shoes
• mud boots
• wire
• wire cutters
• screw driver 
• hammer
• scissors
• knife
• tire tool
• hoe
• shovel
• cell phone charger
• napkins / paper towels
• spoon (occasionally you pick up some ice cream along the way and need a bite or 10 before you get home!)
• card reader (if I need to meet customers and take mobile payments.) 
• baling wire (on a farm, almost anything can be fixed with baling wire or duct tape!) 
• a few other random farm tools

I think that's the gist of it! Anything that's in your vehicle that I should add to mine? 

Junkin' Adventures!

Yesterday, Angea and I had some fun adventures, redecorating our Uniques and Antiques booth space. If you follow on facebook or instagram you know I've been working on a few little projects this week and we decided a booth makeover was in store. Yes, we just fixed our new space up 6 weeks ago, but we are women and we love to rearrange! 

I went to Angea's house to load her goods up and as we were getting ready to leave, I looked back and saw our two "backseat drivers" and we had to take a funny selfie with them, before we got on the road! 

Miss Prissy Petticoats is now in our booth, along with some of our repurposed clothing items (we still have clothes online, as we will keep an assortment in the booth and available for shipping. See something in my shop and want to see it in the booth, message me and I can take it on our next trip over.) 

I made her petticoats from chopping off a couple of vintage wedding dresses - love all the ruffles! 

Angea's scarecrow now welcomes guest to our booth! It's finally got hot in Texas, so we are beginning to dream of fall and pumpkins and scarecrows.

We rearranged the mantle and hung clothes racks chairs on the wall for our clothes and additional shelf space.

The desk and some items were marked down this week. The desk would be great for someone preparing their classroom for Back to School.

I am loving these little necklaces! I have several boxes of vintage linens that are stained or have holes in them, but I just can't bare the thought of throwing them away. Someone worked so hard to create the beautiful handiwork... Well, some of the small embroidery flowers are now one of a kind necklaces! I forgot to get a picture, but there's also a shirt with some of the same linens added for a unique appearance.

Gone Junkin' - our motto for Thursdays or anytime really! There are tumbler wraps online and in our booth in several styles. 

Y'all were all so good to help me figure out what these pink little ditties were and it was decided that they were for Mint Julep or juice cup cozies. (They also fit a root beer bottle or the old snuff jars, as I don't have any cups that size.)

The mantle side of our space is now rustic farmhouse / neutral colors. Angea made the chicken wire frame and wreath combo and it looks great over a mantle! Candle sticks make great pumpkin pedestals!

I made several pillows from the vintage linens I found last week. There was a yellow rose embroidery table cloth in the mix, but it had a red drink stain in it. I cut the table cloth in two pieces and was able to make pillow covers and get rid of that ugly red mark.

As I was making the pillows, I had visions of Sweet Aunt Ethyl at the church picnic and little Jim Bob. I'm sure she thought an ugly thing or two about the little boy who sat his Big Red drink on her embroidered table cloth. With a smile, she said "It's ok Sister Alice, no big deal" as her friend apologized for the little bratty boy who ruined her handiwork.

I hope Ethyl (or whoever made these pretties) approves of what I've recreated with their linens. I feel its my job to rescue the old linens and try my best to find a new life for them

Find our booth inside Uniques and Antiques at 124 S. Line Street in historic Mineola, Texas. They are open Tuesday - Saturday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. 

Some items can also be found in my online shop for world wide shipping. 

July News

Hope your summer is going great! Several things to tell you about in today's update.  It's now more convenient to order different size bouquets for your wedding! From drop down menus, you can choose quantity and size, bouquets on the most popular bouquets in my shop, without having to message me first. Custom Orders are still available if you want different color combinations or styles. I always send pictures for your approval on all made to order items. Etsy guest check out now offered, so you don't have to have an Etsy account to purchase.  Several new styles of ready to ship bridal bouquets are available for immediate shipping.  Rush orders can usually be accommodated, if you need something quickly, so don't be afraid to ask!  Bouquet sizes (left to right) - Bridal, toss / flower girl, medium size bridesmaid, small bridesmaid bouquets. Angea @ RoosterTails and I moved to a new booth at Uniques and Antiques last month! Same store, we just moved down the row to a larger space, so we can share more of our junkin' finds and creations with you! Shop Tuesday - Saturday, 10:00-5:00 at 124 S. Line St. Mineola, Texas The turquoise hutch makeover can be viewed here.  Christmas in July and the Super Summer Sale is happening NOW! New rope wreaths in stock and lots of other one of a kind items!  Shop Now If you missed the Summer Garden Tour on my blog, you can catch it here.  Dream BIG, my friends!

P.S. You might have noticed I changed my logo again! I think this one better describes some of the things my business / life is all about - burlap, white chippy frames, chasing wildflowers, old trucks and glampers, mason jar everything, cactus, and turquoise. Whatcha think about this one? 

Scenes from the 4th

Hoping you all had a Happy Independence Day! 

Occasionally I like to cook and get creative in the process. I found this recipe for a Patriotic Pie on Pinterest and decided to give it a try and it turned out great! You might have seen my picture before it went in the oven on Instagram or Facebook.

The recipe called for fresh blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries. I couldn't find fresh raspberries at the grocery store in town (that's a whole other story in itself) and I refused to use frozen ones, so I just added more strawberries. It still turned out great - yummy, juicy, tart, not too sweet, pretty, and patriotic!

Oh, and I didn't make my crust, but Jeff said it best "but you did roll that crust right out of the box and made the stars and stripes at home", so it was Home Made! That boys a keeper! I would definitely make this pie again - if it wasn't for the 4th, I'd probably mix all the fruit together and use a lattice top. It served up kind of messy, but I was able to dish out the blueberries and strawberries on each plate. Our family has decided that messy desserts taste the best anyways!  

Jeff and his brother replace their mom's flag for her. 

It was suppose to be supper and someone said "we will be home by dark." Ha! We had no idea that they were planning to pop some fireworks. If I had known, you can bet I would have taken my better camera and tripod, but I didn't, so here's a few pictures taken from my phone.

I love that I was able to get the new flag in a few of the firework pictures! 

We had a good time and glad we got to spend some time with family on the fourth.