Junk Bonanza 2014

Junk Bonanza has been happening for 9 years and I think it's been 9 years that I've been wanting to go.  Last fall my girlfriend asked if I wanted to go with her to Junk Bonanza........ YES!!!!!  So months and months dragged by....... as it got closer I got busier and busier and could hardly think about it until the day before we were ready to leave.   My girlfriend Kristin knows Minnesota like the back of her hand which was super cool for adventure the night before.  We stayed right next to the Mall of America so we headed out for supper and shopping.  One item on Kristin's list was sunglasses, we tried on 100's of sunglasses and laughed pretty hard at them.  I had many people that were wanting to follow along with my trip so Instagram was a must and since we needed to conserve space in the car for "junk" my big camera was left at home.  A junker does not carry a camera bag :)

The biggest, ugliest sunglasses I found.

The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed out to stand in line before the doors opened.  We weren't the first in line but we were pretty close to the door and this formed behind us.  

Being in the front of the line meant we needed to plan our path.  Which was Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Class, first come first to get in........   So when those doors opened we sprinted across all this fabulous junk to the back on the 1st floor, up the escalator and got to the painting sign up along with many other girls on our heels.  Set our alarms on our phones for the class start time and started enjoying the junk.  We so wanted to stop and look at everything while we dashed through but knew we couldn't so I got out my phone and snapped some pictures, which is why they are blurring..... sprinting and iPhone camera don't mix well.  

All day long we didn't have a clue where the restrooms were........ I guess I should have looked at my pictures.  :)

I love the set up that some of the vendors went through just to display their stuff.  These columns with the plants above is beyond cute.   Many, many people dressed the part of the vintage junkie' look.  Cowboy boots, braids and vintage jewelry were pretty common.  

Getting pictures of fun things was as important to me as anything and when you need to get into an embracing position to achieve that photo of course I'm going to do it.  

The vendor of this booth told me {as I was laying on the floor and he was taking my picture} that everyone has tried to get a photo of this light with the curly willow beaches but it doesn't ever look good.........    I showed him mine and he says "that's the best I've seen, but no one else ever laid on the floor to do it"

While walking through booths after racks and racks of vintage clothing {which we didn't usually look at} I see this red jacket and it reminded me of the Medford High School Jackets so I went over and separated them and see this....

So I went to ask the lady where she got it.  She said she picked it up at a garage sale in Medford, Wisconsin.  I told her I was from Medford and what my maiden name was, of course she spent lots of time at my families bar.  She used to live in Gilman and worked at Tombstone Pizza, she remembers coming to our family garage sales and could even tell me what she bought at them.  It's a small world ladies and gentleman, a very small world.  

Junk Bonanza is famous for Bloody Mary's so of course I had to sample one...... yep it's a given you need to get one or two or three of these while you are there.  

It's painting class time.  I bought a quart of this paint in red and I really hope I hate it.  

I don't think that I will hate it at all, I think it might destroy my love for $1 oooops paint from Menards.  The quart I bought is for a dresser that I own and don't plan to sell it, I will give you a run-down when I actually paint an entire piece of furniture with it.  

I totally felt furniture for the rest of the day and could tell which ones were painted with Annie Sloan's Paint and which ones were not.  Huge difference ladies, huge I'm saying.

I loved this chair in this color and everyone had fresh flowers sitting in their booths, it made a huge difference to their look.  Fresh flowers are important this time of year.   This chair was in Cash & Cari's booth.  Do you know her?

She has a show on HGTV called Cash & Cari and I talked to her.  She was terribly busy so I didn't get my picture taken with her........ but I talked to her.

In case I forgot to tell you I talked with Cari.........

This booth amazed me from the moment I saw it and then I realized what I was looking at.  It's a backdrop painted like a vintage camper.  Yep it's plywood with framed windows, real tires, a working door, little steps to get in, a blanket canopy and tons more features.  

And she sold it.  Someone from Thursday wanted it really bad and she ended up selling it.  She was a very talented artist, that flag you can see on the porch is a painting hanging there.

Vintage jewels were covering everything....

I loved this booth for her creativity.  

An idea for what do to with John's deer heads......

Are you kidding me, there is no way he'd let me do that but it does put the shabby chic in rustic.  

Here is my girlfriend Kristin in her favorite booth with a big ole feather duster.  

I'm not a heart girl but these hearts were pretty sweet.  

Have you ever seen West End Salvage?  They were there.........

We had our pictures taken with Don.  He was having a great time and even though he was busy he would stop in mid motion to get his picture taken with all the girls.  When I went over by him I said "I bet your pretty tired of all the girls wanting their picture taken with you" and he leaned over and whispered in my ear....... I can't tell you what he said but I laughed really hard and turned a couple shades of red.   

Our day at Junk Bonanza was all day long, we were tired and sore but had a great time.  After a bite for supper we headed out to Goodwill stores and IKEA, I guess we weren't too sore.  

Heading home on Saturday my drop off point was in Stanley.  A fun visit the kids, Max and Mally tried to talk me into sleeping in their beds and making them pancakes in the morning, too bad Grandpa found his way over to pick me up.  They stood outside on the porch until we left.  

If I said it a hundred times I'd say it again.  I had so much fun this weekend.  You can bet I'll be going back again next year.  They do have a fall sale that I'm trying to talk John into going with me, he could totally do this with me.  There is bloody mary's and beer to occupy him while I search the junk.  

Family surprises

I've been behind on blogging, like really behind but to my defense I've had so many "secret" photo sessions lately that I forget where I'm at.  This session was a surprise for my sister DiAnn's birthday.  Her kids set up a time to come over for some family photos to update her frames.  She's a mother of 3 and grandmother to 5 pretty cute boys..... and 1 super sweet little girl.  

Nina and Mark with their whole family

Nina is a great mom, these boys may be talkative and curious but she has a system and they listen to her.  When they came in the house they all took off there shoes in a line, handed their coats to Nina in a row and off they paraded to the couch.  Pretty amazing!

Nina with her 3 boys.....  

Jesse with his family but Robin's son couldn't come with today.   Jesse was a bit upset with me on this Saturday morning since I picked the time and I guess anything before 11AM is too early and it was a few hours earlier than that.  

Jesse with his little girl.

Monica or who we like to call Mona and her fiancé

All three of them together.  I did take some without Jesse's hat but that's just not who he is.  Jesse is a hat kid and pictures should be who we are used to seeing.

We will wait for warmer weather to take the entire family together and we decided to not do all the grandchildren since one was missing but I couldn't resist this shot.

DiAnn got her gift from them and was knocking on my door the same day to see the rest of them.  Can't wait to fill her wall with these gorgeous faces.  

Frosty Foggy Morning

I know we are all waiting for warm spring weather but Saturday morning was beautiful.

We will get summer soon...... all good things take time.  

DIY Countertop

Over a year ago we changed our flooring and have been talking about changing the countertops so they "fit" in with the new look.  Well after all that talk about the countertops and all that waiting I decided to take this matter into my own hands.  So I got out my tools on Friday night and started this project as John closed his eyes and waited for the moment to tell me........ it won't work. 

I was determined to change this look of 90's Hunter Green.  Here is how the kitchen looks before.  

Yes I know I should have done my dishes before starting and I should have cleaned off the counters but I get excited and can't wait to start and cleaning isn't the fun part.  

Here is my main tool.

A paintbrush is all I need.  Remember John always says if it doesn't move eventually I will paint it.   So since we didn't replace them in over a year I painted them.   They begin with two coats of the base color.  This paint is really sticky and stinky.  We got company on Friday and I totally got all of us high on the fumes as John feed them drinks.  

I ran out of the base coat on Friday night and had to wait till morning to go buy more. 

I was worried about the roller and brush strokes because I could feel them and see them but it's too late to turn back now...... and the change we are seeing already is huge.  Friday night at midnight I'm still painting and didn't realize I only had the spotlights on and not the overhead light.  That's not normal our kitchen is always dark at night but it must have been the dark counters absorbing the light.  

The next steps involved making a marble like pattern with 4 different colors of the paint.  To do this pinterest recommended a sea sponge.  I could not bring myself to buy one of them, that is so 80's and I didn't like that effect back then I'm certainly not going to like it now.  So I used scrunched up paper toweling dipped in the paint colors.  But the paper toweling would get sticky with paint and stick to the counter so I used a plastic grocery bag, worked fantastic.  

This is the point where John left the house, he couldn't take it anymore.  It was looking like a random splatter of colors and the gold color was ugly.  He rode the 4-wheeler out to the woods and said he'd be back in time for us to go out with the kids.  

I used a cereal box ripped in half to make some veining lines.  

I have to tell you that I hated it at this point.  Too defined and chopping looking.  But there is no turning back so I kept going with the last color and the white calmed it all down and brought everything together.  

Here is after.

The paints were chosen from the floor color but I didn't wan't it too matchy.  It looks totally different in these photos because of the change in distance but they match but with the counters being much lighter than the flooring.  

Went out for supper with the kids giving the paint a chance to really cure and the house to air out.  Sunday I put a few items back onto the counters but we aren't using them yet for daily use.  We'll give them a few days to cure......... oh and John can't stop looking at them, he thinks it's awesome.

Don't worry I changed the snow day chalkboard today but not till after the picture was taken.

Next up for paint is that telephone cabinet..... it's stood still long enough in that shabby white state.  

This is a totally different look and so far it's fabulous.  I stop and stare at them every time I walk through.  If you have 90's countertops to replace use the painting method it's much, much cheaper.  If you need to get a closer look before taking the plunge come on over and feel them for yourself.