The New Wine Out of Texas

Not what you think.  This is the whine my friends have been putting up with from me.

"I just want to wear a sweater!"

I've probably got more sweaters (and wool blankets, for that mater) than any sensible person living in Texas ought to have.  But I'm a sweater girl.  Always have been always will be.

So we've finally been having some cold weather, yeah!  People are saying, "Oh, the weather!" and I'm like, "I know!  Isn't it great!"  When the weather outside is frightful (sing it with me now) I just feel all cozy in a sweater.

Speaking of cold weather.....over Thanksgiving I was in the mid-west.  Was there for my little girl when she finally got her wisdom teeth out.  Also got to see a pretty good chunk of my family.  Did some black Friday shopping.  Where, bonus!  I've been vindicated!  My family has been giving me a hard time saying that I've been getting in a fight with the clerk at the Target food court for the past 2 years.  Well, I ran into another woman who apparently was having the same issue.  She was saying  to her family, "I come here once a year and that woman just hates me!"  We were both happy to know we were not alone, it's the clerk, so there!  Just had to get that out there, thanks for indulging me.

Anyway, back to my sweater dilemma.....
While in Minneapolis I went to Unique Thrift where they had rack upon rack upon rack of Christmas sweaters, but I refrained.  Meanwhile my sister in law is telling me about the swants her friend made.  The what?!  So when we get back to her place she shows me the swants they made on facebook.  Hilarious!  Still I don't think I need another sweater until I get home to Texas and realized our Keno party will have an ugly sweater contest.  Argh!  But I was determined to win the prize.  Just about mission impossible to find a good swants candidate here in Texas.

Here's me out trying to find one.....

Um, excuse me ma'am, would you mind if I buy the sweater off your back?!  You see, it would be oh so perfect for my swants project?!

In the end this is me on the right.....in case you couldn't tell.

And yes, I won the prize!  Thank you, thank you very much!
Merry Christmas everyone!

On the Road to Gonzales

So excited to be part of the Rusted Gingham Barn Sale next weekend!  Finishing projects and getting all my goodies packed up.  Hoping the rain will stay away so I can leave the truck bed open to load up more good junk.

Watched this news clip this morning.  Check it out and take the road trip with me to Gonzales!

Mid-West Adventure

Home again after a month long trip to the beautiful mid-west! 

First stop to my sister's in Illinois, to prepare for Gold Rush.  Cleaned, tagged, and loaded all kinds of goodies in her horse trailer.  Okay fine, we went to an auction too.  We loaded a trailer there too but not to worry, it was all for my nephew.  So of course, I got to visit with my nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews.

Then on to Oronoco, Minnesota for Gold Rush weekend.  I used to live just down the road from this show so it's my all time favorite. 

Actually got the nerve to drive up our old driveway to see what we could see.  They changed out the deck my husband build 20 years ago, I guess it's about time, for a beautiful huge one.  Would have loved to check out the inside to see if they made some of the improvements I would have like to make if we were still there.

Two of my sisters did the show with me.  I think we had enough fun to try this again, we'll see.  Here's our booth with an early shopper the night before the show officially opens.

 
On the way back to Illinois we stopped at one of our bother's houses in Baraboo, Wisconsin, for a late night visit.  Thanks to my failing Tom Tom navigation and a dead cell phone and Wisconsin's love of round abouts, I almost didn't make it!

Then I had a nice visit at my Mom's in Upper Michigan.  Also seeing an other nephew and uncle.  My mom's side of the family had a mini family reunion in Green Bay.  Mini meaning it was just for the 'local' Kalishek's.  So I guess I was a crasher.  But I did see some relatives I haven't seen in a very, very long time.

My youngest sister didn't do Gold Rush with us so I stopped to visit with her a couple days in Wisconsin, too.  Her young boys just crack me up.   And of course we squeezed in a little thrift shopping while we were at it.

The last 2 weeks were spent in Minneapolis with my little girl.  Helping her move into a new apartment.  After graduation this spring, her internship turned into a real job so she's staying in Minnesota.  The logistics of moving out of one apartment the last of the month and not being able to move into the new one until the next day, toss in the truck rental company not providing as large a vehicle as promised and a new roommates larger than anticipated bed, and did I mention it was move in weekend for college students.  Ya, quite the adventure!  Thankfully, my sister-in-law lives in town and we had someplace to stay overnight and unload to make 2 loads.

But here are a couple pictures of the partially decorated new apartment.

 Her color scheme was salmon and gold.  She looks happy but exhausted!  I brought the headboard from home.  It was a prop I'd used in the past.  She has an idea to put photos in the windows but first making a mirrored mat on the glass to frame them.

Speaking of mirrors.....I bought most of these from home, but it was her idea to do a mirror wall in their dining room. 

Most of my treasures I got on my trip are unpacked and put away, either here or in the storage unit, ha!  Here's one of the finds I got for the boy.  Hope to see him tomorrow.

I just thought it was an interesting piece and if he doesn't want it I'll put it in our upstairs TV room.  I've got some old game boards on the walls up there and this might be fun up there too.

Nice to be home, sleeping in my own bed again.  I always like to count the beds, couches, I sleep on while I'm gone.  9 this trip, ya, good to be home. 

On the Road Again!

I'm a mid-west girl at heart.  Texas has got some good junk but my all time favorite flea market is GOLD RUSH DAYS in downtown Oronoco, Minnesota.  And that's were I'm headed PDQ!

Maybe get a glimpse of Ki.....

Maybe get some jewels to re-purpose, cause I've used up all I've got, ha!

We lived just down the road from Oronoco for 11 years (we've been in TX for 13, omg, time flies!)  Gold Rush was a family get together for us, at our house.  Some of my brothers and sisters would come with their kids and we'd all have a ball.

The guys would go golfing, one day they hit 3 golf courses, wt?!
My niece Nikki would babysit the younger kids, now she's a mommy to her own twin baby boys.

And us girls would go junkin!  Oh, we didn't call it 'junking' way back then, we called it 'antiquing' but let's just call it what it is.....lookin' for some good junk!

The end of the day we'd all get together for dinner on the deck.  Maybe take in a Honker's game.  One year we planned a big day of canoeing and picnicking on the Zumbro River.  Boy o' boy, that was fun!

Well, the last few years I've been able to visit my family in the mid-west around Gold Rush Day's.  Now, isn't that convenient?  So here's my itinerary, sort of, Illinois, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Upper Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.  Far enough and long enough that I'll need to get my oil changed while on vacation, ha!

So what I went and did was talk a couple of my sister's into having a booth at Gold Rush.  Ya, seemed like a good idea at the time.  Not so much once I started packing up all the good junk to sell, ha!  Fun can be soooo much work.  We did this once before at a sale in Illinois.  My Sister's Treasures rides again! 

If you're lucky enough to be heading to Gold Rush as well, stop in and say 'hey'.  We'll be in the area they call the Pines, hope we'll have shade in our part!  Well, I'd rather have sun than rain.  Omg, that's some crazy memories, stomping around in the pouring rain.  Good times!



Now that my little girl has done graduated university, she's decided to stay in Minneapolis.  All the more reason to visit the mid-west.  Insert happy dance here.

So proud of our little girl!

Wish us luck and happy hunting!

Windows and Doors

   

I made several of these for craft sales last fall and decided to make a few more when I found some nice windows at the Habitat store.

 

Now some good news and some bad news.....

The bad news.....the antique mall I had a small booth in went out of business last December. 

 

 

 The good news.....I got a great deal on a couple old doors.

 

 This one I hung in our guest bath.  

I just took the wreath and towel bar off the wall and attached them to the door.

I just love the colors and natural wear and tear.

Here's the other door with a paper wreath.

Ya, another idea we've seen all over Pinterest and blogland.

Oh, well, it was fun to make.

Gotta love all this chippy goodness!

 

 

Thanks for visiting!

 

How Long Was I Sleeping?

Sorry, that was from a joke last night.  But I do feel like I've been sleeping on the job here.  Not going to count the months it's been since I last posted.  

And etsy, ya, that's looking like a permanent vacation.

How about a New Years resolutions, ha, February already, let's just say I'm a late bloomer.  I really do enjoy my time here in blogland and etsy so I'd love to get myself back into it all.  

I haven't just been sitting here sleeping, I've been up and at 'em, out and about, here and there, 

just look.....

Made some jewelry for one of my niece's wedding party.

 All 8 of us brothers and sisters were at the wedding, but this is just us girls.

 

 Ah, ya, the wedding was in Wisconsin, had to tour a brewery, duh.

One of my sweet nephews posing in front of the tree I helped my little sister put up.

Of course I spent as much time with the little girl as possible since the only time she was home was while I was still gone.  

Hum, how did that happen?

 Made some hanging things for her and her roommates stuff.

 And for the jewelry as well.

Auction treasures?

 

 But I did dodge a different bullet while up north, moving my son into a new apartment.  Ya, not a fan of that kinda schlepping.

Hosted a going away party for some friends, boo hoo.

 

Kinda went overboard making cuffs.

 

And some of these.

 

 And a few of these.

 

 Cause you know I do these in the fall.

 Another niece had these 2 handsome gentlemen.

 

And visited more nephews.

 

The defunct antique booth, piled to the ceiling, where to put all that good junk now?

  

Then there was Christmas, birthdays, a cold, New Years, and the super bowl!

Really.....ain't nobody got time for that!

Jute Webbing Seat - How To

I don't remember where or when I got this cute little chair.  It had a broken out cane seat, I'm not a huge fan of caning and I certainly don't know how to do it so I just tore what was left off.

Saw this idea on Pinterest

via Pinterest - upholstery webbing

and thought I'd give it a try.

Not quite the before picture.

 Tacked the back first and cut strips to fit.

Next the front.

One side and then the other.

All done! 

Also, I wanted to show you the sweet apron I got from 

Casandra from Sleeping or Sewing.

Remember she won my 2 Year Blogiversary Giveaway.  Well it turns out she lives very close by, so we agreed to meet up.  She gifted me one of her handmade vintage sheet aprons, so cute!

Reversible!

Funny story about my first 'on purpose' blog meet up - when I told the little girl I met with someone from blogland she scolded me, "What?!  You don't know who they might be!"  Come to find out later, Cassandra kept the information from her mother as well, for the very same reason.  Too funny! 

Be sure to visit Cassandra's etsy shop and blog

Sleeping or Sewing.