The End is The Beginning

My blog. I'm proud of it and I connect with people in a way that would normally be impossible. The whole world is my chatty next-door neighbor. There is an amazing group of creatives out there and it's incredible that I'm now a part of it.

I started out wanting to be creative. Do something I had been denying myself for too long. The normal story of not having enough time to do something that doesn't involve housework, work, or family kept me from paying attention to my own need to create beauty. Paint something, build something, write something. Maybe show it to the world. Then, the creativity dream morphed into something else entirely. I'll explain in my hugely verbose way - stay with me if you have some time.

All my life I've been a rule-follower. Following rules was safe and having a plan meant if something went wrong, it was because the plan was wrong; not me or my ideas. Always doing what's expected with random flashes of rebellion where I allowed myself to go 'off-script'.  During those periods of rebellion, I took chances. There was always a build up to a rebellion; usually a lot of sadness, anger, and a bit of depression. After some time wallowing, I would finally work up the courage to allow myself to do something. What that something was is irrelevant; it was the act of doing something out of my normal M.O. that was the release; my little F-U to the 'world' (the world that didn't care if I did 'it' in the first place.) I was my own worst enemy.

What would happen next was usually a return to my safe, rule-following ways. Go-along-to-get-along was how I lived existed. Most people can see objectively this is not a good way to live one's best life. Existing in my personal bubble of making sure everyone else is taken care of, happy, and doesn't need anything at all...all the while only occasionally doing something for myself. Doing something for myself  became something bad - oy vey! And don't misunderstand - I can stand up for myself and I could be a complete bitch on wheels, but that only happened if there was some gross injustice, not because of the daily wearing down of my spirit.

Soooooo...after much sadness, anger, and a bit of depression, I started letting myself 'be creative'. Full of ideas and plans for becoming an 'artist'. This is what I wanted and I was going to do it dammit.  I started a painting, started a book, started an Etsy shop, a blog, started a whole new life designed to be fulfilling.

What happened was not part of the plan. Chasing blog success became the focus instead of chasing my dreams. The push for followers, to create more and more projects, to write more posts, to read more blogs, to join as many linked parties and other promotional avenues as possible was taking over. I couldn't find the balance, couldn't do it halfway and I lost my creative spark. If I did something, it was somewhat half-hearted and just 'for the blog'. It became work and therefore I've decided the blog will not be my priority for the moment.

I thank each and all of my readers, and I'm not going away. My goal is to continue to find fun, junky things and respect them as-is or upcycle them if they need it. Projects will be captured in photos and shared in posts, hopefully while being entertaining. I'll continue to read and comment on awesome blogs. I can do all that on my own schedule and have fun figuring out what works and what doesn't.

I have this amazing opportunity to do whatever it is that strikes my fancy at any given moment and I will personally smack myself upside the head if I go off on a tangent again.

Perfection is Overrated

Yay! Every project I finish, no matter how small, is a success! There are quite a few things that have been hanging around my office, just waiting for me to hurry up and finish them.

This little box was the perfect size to hold the pieces of small projects sitting on my desk, cluttering up the place. The original design was not so perfect though.

Basic little wood box

Painted black

After painting it black, it sat in my office mocking me. I was thinking of decoupaging it with something from The Graphics Fairy, or painting it with some decorative words, or something. Nothing seemed to be the right way to go, which means I did nothing.

Today, I was sitting at my desk and looking at the little bits and pieces scattered all over my desk. It would be nice to have it all collected in my box, in the corner of my desk, where I could see it but not have to move it to work on something else.

Stalled project...

Do not adjust your screens, this is my desk AND my project box in its corner...sitting on top of what should be sitting IN it

Well, who did I think was going to finish this project?? I realized I was suffering from project freeze. It had to be THE perfect decorative box and because nothing seemed perfect, it couldn't be done. Anyone else feel like that? As soon as I realized the problem was me, the solution seemed easy.

The box didn't need to be fancy; it needed to be cute and useful. Out came my paint pen, and I thought about stenciling something, but in the end just free-handed the wording.

If it gets crazy, I'll turn this side to face me to remind me nothing is that bad ;)

Ahhh...all those little pieces corralled neatly in one cute box!

Pay no attention to the crowded shelves and floor beyond my desk...

Sometimes, you just have to do it. It's only paint, right? What projects are you stalled on?

A Makeover? Yes, Please!

An awesome (or crazy, depending on how you look at it) woman named Mandi who writes a fantastic blog about craptastic stuff called Vintage Revivals is offering herself up as a sacrifice makeover guru to one deserving person.

I. Need. This. 

Look at my office, inherited from my Gator husband

c'mon - orange and white with a blue stripe??

no storage to speak of

an attempt at decorating...epic fail

my work (?) area

a normal day in the life of my office

work lights, light boxes, mailing boxes, and a cat perch - everyone sing "one of these things is not like the other, one of these things, doesn't belong..."

the stuff is now 2 rows deep

yep, this is really how it looked this morning - inspiring, right?

I'm trying, really.

The pictures say it all. I have no room to work, to blog, to create. I have orange, blue and white walls. I'm not sure there's a primer invented that will cancel those colors out. I've inherited his 'executive' desk, which is also where the CFO of the family (me) has to pay bills, file bills, shred bills. I would be open to ANY idea to make it more functional. It's depressing just looking at the pictures.

Thank you if you do vote for me. My eyes especially thank you.

For Sale by Owner

I love writing this blog, and am working on opening up my creativity to whatever comes my way. One of my favorite things to do, other than blogging and painting, is junk vintage shopping. I'll go way out of my way to shop an estate sale, or to find a new Goodwill :) Some items are perfect as is, and some get upcycled into prettier or more useful items.

This amazing site - Remodelaholic - hosts a "For Sale by Owner" party every week to help get the word out about small shops and business owners. I was hesitating about putting my link up there, but no more! I'm proud of the items posted for sale in my Etsy shop and if it gets some exposure through this link - YAY!

Here's the link to the party where you can browse all the shops:

http://www.remodelaholic.com/2011/04/for-sale-by-owner-46-shop-link-up-party.html

and here (again) is a link to my Etsy shop (in case you didn't see the link in this post, and the 'My Etsy Shop' page above...)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JunkyVagabond

and some pics of what you can find in the shop:

Vintage Folding Binoculars

Vintage Safety Glasses

Vintage Regent Sheffield Serving Pieces

Vintage Candy/Lozenge Tin

Vintage Cut Glass Vanity Trays

Vintage Folding Ruler 

Vintage Saucer

I hope you enjoy browsing all the wonderful shops (including mine) featured in this link party!

Office Makeover - Part Deux

Here's what I was up to today as it relates to the Office Makeover. 

First up was to get rid of the big plastic storage bin. It was sitting in the corner, waiting to be sorted and then put in the basement. It was put in the most convenient basement location…which isn't its permanent location. But that's another project for another post. 

Plastic bin and tools to be put away (or at least out of the office)

Second project was to put my tools away (maybe I should say out of sight). Boy was I on a roll.

Only project for the day: hang up my pegboard. It was precariously perched and wasn't very practical in that location. I knew it needed to go on the wall next to the desk, but I was holding off on taking down my husband's 'I Love Me' wall. He had lovingly framed and hung some of the magazines in which he had written articles. That wall was needed for my own uses, but still I hated to take them down so only a few frames came down. The rest will stay for awhile.

The pegboard and framed magazine covers 

What about that paint job, you ask? Again, this was my husband's office. He got his MBA from the University of Florida in Gainesville, and these are Gator colors. He was sooooo proud of that paint job. It's going away, but not yet. Goodness, orange and blue - can you say serious prime job? 

So, back to the 'easy' job of hanging my pegboard.  I framed out a piece of pegboard last year when I learned how to use my table saw. (Sorry no pictures; that was before the birth of Junky Vagabond.) This was also before I got a real office and it was going to go into my converted closet-to-craft-area. It didn't need to look good, and I put the screws through the face of the moulding, through the pegboard, right into the paneled walls. Wasn't painted or anything. Functional only.

If it was going in my office, it needed to look nicer. And function better too. If you've ever made or hung a pegboard, you soon realize there needs to be space behind it in order to put the pegs in. It can't sit flush to the wall. 

Hmmm...spacers. Since I am a packrat tend to keep stuff that might be useful, I took a look through my useful stuff pile and found wood that holds the bottles apart inside wine crates. With a little trim, they were perfect as spacers on the back of the pegboard. Gluing seemed to be the easiest way to attach them. And it was, but a little weight and time was needed for drying. Off to make some lunch.

Spacers out of wine bottle holder thingees

Vintage books make great weights

Stomach full and glue dried, it was time to put the pegboard up on the wall. Since the screws went through the wood already, I held it up on the wall, leveled it, and pounded on the front of the frame so the screws made a small hole in the wall. After checking to make sure the holes really were level (double and triple checking is always a good idea), the anchors were installed and the pegboard hung. Not too bad as a project. 

Functional and hanging pegboard, but not pretty yet

Now to make it look pretty. When I first made this frame, I had countersunk the screws a little to make them sit at or below the frame level. Since they were sunken, I spackled the screw holes and joints with lightweight spackle so they didn't stand out so much. This stuff is easy to use, no tools needed, and it smooths down with a damp rag. 

My go-to hole filler/patcher

No tools necessary in JunkyVagabond world!

Dries in minutes too! Love it! Within a few minutes, it was primed and painted with some trim paint that was leftover from some other project. Doesn't  it look good now? And it's within arm's reach too and off the floor. Success!

All primed and painted

The finished pegboard with some of my tools

There's still a lot to be done in the office to make it my happy and productive place, but there are other projects to do; art to be created, thrift shops to be shopped, and an Etsy shop to be filled.

Oh, and check out this signature! Many thanks to Donna at FunkyJunk Interiors for the tutorial and for other great blogging tips!

How the Name 'JunkyVagabond' was Coined

I love thrift shopping, and the thrill of finding a good piece is addictive. Some things are pure vintage and some might not be true vintage, but have potential to be charming with a little transformative love. My hubby has termed the vintage pieces in my office 'junk'…and along with my restless nature…JunkyVagabond was born. I'm always on the hunt for good JUNK!

Some of my Junky treasure 

Soon, the pieces that don't need transformations are going into my Etsy shop. Until the weather starts cooperating, there's a lot of things to be painted piling up in my office! C'mon Spring!!!

My Office Does Need a Makeover

In my first post ever -  Welcome to JunkyVagabond!, I stated there wouldn't be many posts about my own home projects. Well, here is my first flip-flop…probably the first of many. 

My office started it's life as my husband's home office. Since he worked from home for several years, he got the third bedroom as a dedicated office. About 6 months ago, he got a new job that requires him to actually go to an office outside the home. He graciously gave me the office for my own dedicated space! Woo-Hoo! Who was super excited? Me, that's who!!

I spent probably about a week getting it so that it worked as a craft room. I bought a storage unit from IKEA, rearranged the furniture that was in there - desk, computer cart, file cabinet. It's my craft room, but is also the home office for the family CFO (that would be me).



My Creative (?) Space

It's also used for Christmas storage, a cat hangout, and was starting to look like a storage room. Here are a few pictures of what it looks like 4 months after I moved in: 



stuff accumulating in corners



more corner stuff





wine crates work as storage shelving,
but I seriously need about 10 more 



projects in progress and filing piling up



At one point, my husband jokingly referred to me as Fred Sanford. I seriously need to work on this, but need to take it one project at a time. More to come…

Planning, Doing, Redoing, Back to Planning...

Meh. I've been so busy creating Facebook pages, blog posts, Etsy storefronts, figuring out all the settings, reconfiguring settings, deleting and redoing settings…arrrrrgh! There has been no time to actually PAINT and CREATE!  

Had a minor panic attack when I changed my Amazon email and lost a lot of information on my account. Changing the email seemed to change/lose some information, and not other. Very strange. They have a neat little chat service that hooked me up with help right away. Now I have even MORE work to do in order to get my information associated with the new account - my Kindle, Android, pc and Mac, my gift card balance (!)…this is a major time-sink!

Maybe time management skills would have been something to learn earlier. What's that book? Habits of Efficient People? Do they make a Cliff Notes for that??


Oh, and I realize the banner photo makes it hard to see my blog name. Take new picture - check. Even more work - check. Not that I'm feeling cranky this Sunday morning or anything, but...  I'm so excited about my new venture! 

Setting up an Etsy Shop - JunkyVagabond!

Well, Etsy seems to be a good place to start. My shop name is JunkyVagabond...why you ask? Because it sounded good to me at the time. I know, I know...there should be a deep-seated connection to my name and the shop and what it embodies. Um, right. I like junk from thrift shops and a vagabond seems like someone who doesn't settle down to one thing. Describes me and my shop after all.

Why can't someone write a book called Etsy for Dummies? Maybe I should research that to see if it's already been done. One of my biggest problems is that I need a step-by-step instruction manual to get things done. Doing things by the seat of my pants is a surefire way to overwhelm me and kick in my procrastination phase.

Oh sure, there's a Seller's Handbook. It lists lots of options. It explains a lot of options. What it doesn't seem to do is have a chapter called "Setting up a shop for lazy folks, with the absolute minimum of effort." Now that is a much needed chapter! Who's with me?

So, after much plagiarism of other shops' policies I have come up with the basics of shop policies. I had a paypal account already, and now all I need is a banner. There are a couple of good how-to's on that, unfortunately I either don't have the tools or the know-how to actually do it as described. ARRGGGHHHHH! For now, there's a generic banner which isn't me or my shop at all. Bear with me while I figure this out get help from my hubby on this. 


The shop now needs items to sell; vintage (junky) items, painted canvasses, and mixed-media plaques. Much work is in my future...