Vintage Junk and a Finish! Big Edit.....

 SO  my sister called me up to tell me she was coming around to do some shopping and I could go shop with her if I wanted to. SO I met her at Costco! She told me she was getting the camper ready to go. We saw they had a fanny pack for sale for like $18, but it was pretty big-and kinda ugly, and I said, well I can make a fanny pack!, SO I did!

 
This free pattern is from Sallie Tomato, here's the link to the video. Sallie Tomato You tube Video 

I thought she might like an outdoorsy looking fabric and I love this batik fabric and I lined it in purple cotton fabric.

The pattern was not too bad to follow, but you do have to watch the video to get the assembly correct. I struggled with getting the buckle on the right way-you might notice I had to cut and sew the one end of the webbing! LOL!

It was basically a free project, I used some belting web I had on hand too, and the buckle is from a chewed up dog collar. Recycling/reusing at it's best!

I mailed it off on Monday and she got it on Tuesday! I was surprised she got it so fast! 

I picked up DD and we went to the Spring Vintage Market Days in Eastern Iowa up at Hawkeye Downs. 

Lots of stuff to see there and A BIG crowd! 

The line to get in at opening time was all the way along the length of the building and back around again! It was crazy!

That's a painting on an old screen-pretty cool. 

I'm thinking I might need a couple of these roasting sticks! They are sure heavy duty!

There was such a big crowd-and it was going for 3 days!

We had a good time looking at all the stuff! Still not very good at these selfies! LOL!

I forgot to mention the final stop for our day! We went to the Goodwill Outlet!

So neither of us had ever been to a place like this! They have these big tables/troughs/boats/? that they fill with stuff in the backroom. Then they roll out a new trough every 20 minutes into this big room where people are waiting to see what's in the trough, and the trough is covered with a table cloth- like a magic trick-the employee whips the cover off the trough and it's like a feeding frenzy with the people diving in there and digging around and pawing through the stuff in the trough! And when you first come in there are signs that say GLOVES ARE REQUIRED-huh? The guy at the check out stand told us they are for safety because they "don't clean or inspect any of the items" that are in the troughs, "you don't know where it came from"!  Well I can see why after just watching for a few minutes!! Most of the people there were resellers, who look for stuff to re sell in ebay or whatsap or whatever. Quite an experience!

Back Roads Junk It Trail With Mom

 So it's that time again-the Back Roads Junk It Trail! DD, Mom and me went last year and visited quite a few shops. We cut back this year and only visited a few of the more North East shops. One stop not on the map was Kathy's Barn-jeepers does she have stuff!! Building after building of stuff!

 Then we stopped in Gladbrook for lunch at a newer place called Spanky's.

 Mom had the meatloaf special.

 I had Francis's  grilled cheese Pizza sandwich. Our server told us they had a little contest going where they all thought of a special,and this sandwich was one they came up with. It was quite good!

 They are very reasonably priced and the building used to be a movie theater in the olden days. Our service was great and the food was very good. Excellent stop!

 We stopped at a shop called The Old Mill Road-lots of nice things there-they are closing the shop after this event though. Then I felt like we should have a little fabric fix.

 So we popped over to Conrad, Iowa and stopped at Hen & Chicks Studio. I had never been there, but it's a cute shop. It's in an old store front, and I am in love with the floor and the grate in it as well as the front door!

 They have lots of nice fabric and they are famous for their retreat space.

 And of course we had to stop at Ken's Collection! My Aunt Francie's husband Ken has a huge collection of stuff. His is the cleanest, most organized collection you will ever find! He had this little anvil-too expensive for me though.

 And his entire shop is just full of good stuff. And not a speck of dust anywhere. 

 

 I did get a bag of tennis balls from him for only $8-he was asking $10!LOL I think I'm the only one who got a deal!!

Such a fun day cruising the back roads with my Mom. Looks like we need to make this an annual event now!

The Back Roads Junk-it Trail

SO Darling daughter and me went and picked up my Mom and we headed out to see some junk.

 We didn't go to every stop on the trail-that would be a serious road trip!

 We stopped in Haverhill, Iowa first. What a cute shop at Picker's Emporium and Reclaimed Treasures. Look they even had some jadeite!

 I don't remember where I saw these picnic baskets, but they are sure pretty!

 We checked out the iron at another place...I really should make notes.

 This was probably the prettiest shop we went to. It was out on a gravel road near Baxter, Jonnie's Red Barn-every door you opened had an adorable display in it. There was no dust and she had such pretty things!

 ANother picnic basket-see how the top is different? Cute, huh!

 I think this lighting was at another shop in Baxter-Bushel and a Peck on Main street.

We had such a great time. It's always fun to talk in the car and choose where to go next. We made several other stops, but the rain moved in so we headed home. We just might need to do this again in the fall.

Mowing the Lawn and Sandy

 So my Darling gardener had lawn mower trouble. The belt came off- I thought it was a crop circle and she was abducted by aliens. But thankfully , no!

 So I got right after this little job, loosened the pulley

 and got the belt back on the correct way....see I'm a genius, because I made a copy of the belt diagram and keep it handy in the garage for just such an occasion. I think if she would keep the deck at a level 3 instead of level 2, the blades will not get hung up and cause the belt to jerk off the pulley. We'll see.

 THei is what we're doing on Saturday! Going to look at JUNK!

 Oh and Sandy got mowed too!She's so happy with a little buzz cut.

Junk Jubilee

 So we started out with a little rain and a little delay...but soon DD and me were on the road to pick up my OLDER sister, Julie and head to Des Moines Iowa for Junk Jubilee.

 Yay! We made it! And located our Dear Cousin! You would not believe the CROWD! WOW! So many people and so much junkie wonderfulness!

 Cute jewelry-these are glass soldered with bits of vintage textiles inside.

 Look at the creative use of a spoon handle for this pendant.
 And look at these made from old maps with the cities named in them.$18 each.

Here's a clever re-purpose! They cut the tops off of leather boots and made them into these little shoulder bags.

 There were a lot of industrial style pieces for sale. This looks great I think- But HEAVY!

 And of course a lot of garden type of decorations.

 This booth had almost anything you could think of wired to be a lamp.

 Check out the tailight lamp, and the whole bumper hanging on the wall lamp too!

 These chairs were made from old skis. A little too pricey for me--or as Cuz said-"what you don't have a beach home for these chairs?" LOL!

 More of the industrial look that seemed to be very popular...

 Love this table! We did notice there were quite a few things that were rusty, but not necessarily old...more like imported...BOO!

 These rocking chairs were the real deal though! The horseshoes keeping the wheels in place caught Older sister's eye of course!

 These old fashioned gates were everywhere we looked. Folks were using them for decorative spaces in their homes.

 And Lord help me...look at the FABRIC! Oooooo, lovely fabrics made into really beautiful quilts, with my beautiful Cuz.

 These purses were very nice too. They were made from old leather coats and such them matched with old textiles. Each tag told the story of the materials used. I really loved the style, but for $200ish, they had to stay there.

 Julie and I both thought this paint-by-numbers picture looked familiar-maybe it used to be bigger?

 And look another gate-a double one this time and only $145!

 The corrugated Iowas  were great to see. This booth had letters and all kind of things cut from old corrugated metal.

 How about the "truck" bench. It lights up too! $3750 and it's yours, including cup holders! I bet it weighs a ton!

 Lots of little kitchen nick-nacks all over the place. I always liked this kind of metal trays.

 Now take a look at the very cool purses/bags. Made from seed sacks and heavy duck cloth. They were very nicely made and has brass snaps that allowed the small bags to be connected for easy carrying. Unfortunately, the small bags were $65 and the large $185. Probably worth it because the workmanship was wonderful. But not in my budget.

 hmmm, maybe one of these lights would be good over our kitchen table? Or not...$200.

 I teased Julie about these wood slabs they had for sale. $12 each. I told her she has hundreds of dollars just laying out in her timber. I better warn Dad, she might be wanting him to cut some up next time he's out there....

 These were unique lamps and electrical art. I think they are pretty wonderful, but I just wired my lamp!

So we came home with some fabric, and an addition to the jadeite collection, and a good time was had by all!