Memorial Day in Small Town America!

Happy Memorial Day!
I just got home from the local parade in our small community. Jamestown is a "suburb" of Hudsonville (pop. 9000). Jamestown is a small area out in the country, but they throw one mean parade!

Ready and waiting!

It's all about these guys.

Every paradae needs a drumline.

Depicting Jamestown's first ever schoolhouse -- an old one-room building still standing today, but not used in years. They hope to convert it into a museum.

Churches are a big part of our community and a big part of the parade. (No, the church that has the float is not the one you see in the background).

Tractors were everywhere and, of course, John Deere rules.

Local businesses had to get in on the act, too.

My favorite float! A guy who lives down the street from me (and coincidentally goes to my church AND we graduated from high school together) has a farm and many siblings. So they decorated one of their trailers and provided their own family band. I think they were playing "Battle Hymn of the Republic" or something. I LOVE SMALL TOWN LIVING!

Anyone wanting to join in was welcome.

Oops, can't forget about the horses.

All done. Time to go home and fire up the Weber grill!

Have a wonderful day. And thank you to all the troops, past and present, and the sacrifices made for our freedom.

Midge

An Award from Kathy!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my friend Kathy from the blog -- Sylvia's Vintage Daughter. Kathy is a shabby chick who loves going on junking adventures and has a real talent for repurposing and merchandising. Be sure to check out her blog. She received this "Kreativ Blogger" award from the JunkFest gals and has now passed it on to me. I'm very touched and grateful (and excited,too).




The receiver of this award must do 4 things:

1.) List 7 things that you love

2.) Link back to the blog that awarded this to you

3.) Choose 7 blogs to pass the award on to

4.) Comment at each of those blogs to let them know you've given them an award



So, okay, here goes my "7 Things that I love".....

1.) God, the Creator of the Universe, and His Son and my Savior, Jesus Christ -- without them I would be and have nothing

2.) My family, of course -- husband-Chris, daughter-Erin(25), daughter-Becky(21), son-Andrew(18), son-Ben(16)

3.) I wasn't sure if I should include him with my family, but I love my dog, Samson -- Old English Sheepdog (6 or 42 in dog years)

4.) My community -- I live out in the country just outside of Hudsonville, MI. A small town I grew up in with freshly mowed lawns, lots of churchs, was "dry" until last year, a love of football and sports in general, and I've never been to the grocery store without seeing someone I know. I love my town!

5.) Okay, I've got to keep it real here -- I love to eat! Spaghetti, mashed potatoes, Diet Pepsi, Chicken ala King, Mexican food of any kind, steak, Chinese buffet, and ice cream are among my favorites.

6.) A Steamy Hot, Lengthy Shower in the morning -- nuff said.

7.) Last, but definitely, definitely, definitely not least -- JUNKING! That encompasses a lot of things: my shop where I do my junk thing, finding cool junk (preferably free), thinking up creative ways to use junk (usually in the middle of the night when I supposed to be sleeping), talking junk with other junkers, and using my tools (they're NOT junk -- just junky).

And now to pass the award on to 7 other blogs. The 7 blogs I'm passing this award on to are:

1.) chiccottagejunk
2.) theramblingsatchippewacreek

3.) jillruth
4.) prissynprimtiques

5.) redneckchic
6.) thesalvagestudio
7.) 365dayorganizer

These are all fun blogs to visit. Be sure to check them out.

Midge

Glass was the word!

My April sale was the first one post-GR Press article. It was a great success and I was very pleased with the turnout, the feedback, and the sales. But now I had to do it all again for
the May sale -- I really want to make sure I'm offering fresh products at each sale to keep em coming back for more. I was so busy making, that I didn't take a lot of time to blog, so this is catch up time.



The week following the sale, one of my customers brought me these adorable "spring" flower candleholders. She made them using some bed springs I had given her at the sale and said she'd be willing to make some for May. Since time is finite and I wanted lots of items, I thought that was a great idea. And it fit in perfectly with my focus for May's sale: smaller items centered around gardens and Mother's Day.

She even let me keep one for myself. This one was my favorite. But now I had to get busy making things, too. As it turned out, I seemed to have a glass theme going on last month. I started by pulling out all my picnic baskets filled with plates, saucers, cups, and glass in general.

I made quite a few cup and saucer bird feeders. Then it was time to try something new...

I'd seen a few of these posted around some sites. These garden totems are just a fun way of dressing up a garden space. They aren't very hard to make. The hardest part for me is.....

decisions, decisions, decisions. I'm terrible at making a decision anyway, but with a room full of glass pieces everywhere and trying to guess what people will like, well let's just say it was a bit overwhelming. That was true all month since most of my projects were combinations of glass pieces. I felt that I didn't make much progress, but I was so happy with the finished products.

Once I determined what pieces to use, it was just a matter of epoxying them together. I used a LOT of epoxy last month. It's great for gluing glass-to-glass, metal-to-metal, or glass-to-metal.

I get the kind that kind of looks like a syringe. This tube was $2.44 from Walmart.

Then you just push down, goop comes out of each tube, and you mix the 2 together for about 30 seconds. You don't usually need much and it needs to be used pretty quickly, so squirt in small batches just what you need.

I wasn't quite done yet. I also put together several cake/dessert stands using vintage plates and glasses, candlesticks, or misc. metal pieces. Of course, it had to come complete with a batch of "mom"ster cookies.

And I also HAD to have some cloches. I've been seeing these everywhere. They must be very "in" so... you KNOW what a trendsetter I am (and if you DON'T know me, you should know how facetious I can be). I'd never even heard of them up until 2 months ago. And by the way, it's pronounced Closh (long "o"), not Cloe-shay -- I had to do a little research for that one, apparently no one in West Michigan was familiar with the word either.

It's basically a glorified glass dome for showing off interesting things or collections. Mine are quite small, but each has a top knob of some sort and rests on a pedestal of some sort (more epoxying), but I've seen them done in a variety of ways.

Anyway, my glass stuff has been put away for hopefully quite a while. My May sale was last weekend, and it certainly was nowhere near the level of April's, but now I have to concentrate on June's upcoming sale. I'm anxious to pull out my power tools and get back to some bigger and more creative things for that. I'll keep you posted and I'll get back to my Tuesday Tool Schools while I'm at it. Maybe we can get the whole world junking! (Oh, and did I mention I'm also a bit of a dreamer).

Midge

Anyone for a spot of tea?

Okay, so I'm a little behind on my blogging. I've been a bit preoccupied with my junk and trying to get more things made. And on top of that, our women's group at church (W3--Women Without Walls) held a Garden Tea Party this Thursday night which I was involved helping with. But what a fun, relaxing, girly night it was.


The star of the show, of course, was the tea itself. Three kinds were served -- Egyptian Mint tea, Sapphire Earl Gray, and a cool Raspberry tea. I tried them all, but I'm not really a tea drinker. And I don't think I've ever been to a "real" tea party before, just the kind with fake tea (koolaid) and cookies.

The tables were beautifully dressed for the occasion. And we used some of my 3 tiered dessert stands. Who knew junk could be so beautiful! The top tier held scones (course #1), the middle held chocolate dipped strawberries, mini cream puffs, and petit fours (course #3), and the bottom tier is empty in the photo, but shortly afterly I eagerly took this photo, out came platters of egg salad on rye mini sandwiches, chicken salad croissants, and cucumber sandwiches for the bottom tier (course #2).

Even more important than the food and beverages served was the bringing together of the women young and old who were there.

Mothers and daughters reconnected (Amy and her mother).

Young girls had the opportunity to get dressed up, experience new things, and practice their table manners -- naturally, using their best British accents. These young ladies were guests of my daughter Becky.

I finished my latest project -- a ladder arbor -- just in time to include it in the festivities for photo ops. An array of hats and boas was provided and the ladies certainly used them to their best advantage.

Grandma, mom, and daughters had pictures taken together all gussied up. These 4 cuties
(Sally, Beth, Alyssa, and Brianna) shared a table with me that night.

Anyway, the night was really fun and special. Love-a-ly!

But now I've got some serious blogging to do. Tah tah.

Midge