Junk Bonanza Photo Essay #1

Tracie VanWechel-Official Bonanza Photographer and all around fun gal


Rustic Jewelry by Tres Melindas-Crafter originally from my neck of the woods
we bonded right off


Janelle Roberts, The Farmer's Wife
Fun friend from the Junk Revolution Message Board


Humm, Wonder what this is all about?






Peggy Rodriguez, The Painted Porch (loved this booth)


Hunt & Gather's space


More fun with Bus route signs




Ki's sister Karla


Ki's Daugher Taylor


Prizes


Jill Hinson and her beautiful Table display


A Pfew Pfarkle Sisters, tellin' ya how it IS!
Love these gals.




More Tomorrow

Junk Bonanza Day 2

Day 2 started with a tour of the Bachman's idea house, (above a great clock in the Backman house) where we met several other bloggers including Junk Fest Girls Junk-fest.blogspot.com, and 2 other wonderful gals who don't have a blog and I'll get their names later (I'm disjointed as I'm not at my home computer and my cards are all over the place, I'll try to get it all together when i get home). We all decided to have lunch at Bachman's wonderful little bistro and we had a great time visiting, chatting about junk and comparing business tips.

Then Tamara and I spent several hours researching international shipping options, buying boxes and packing materials and then we were off to the bonanza for some power shopping, where I picked up a few more smaller items.

After the Bonanza Jill had arranged a great Blog Party at Dunns Bros coffee house and we visited into the night and I met some great people, which I will sort out and share with you later. It was all great fun.
Here's a little sneak peak at my goodies. Tamara and I spent the late evening packing our stuff. I had only 1 box full, she has 2 plus several tubes. She was up till 4:30 am wrapping and packing, This gal is meticulous, but her junk has a long way to travel. I remember her kissing her terrier as she packed him away and said," See you later".

Love the piece above for display of itty bitties. And I've got lots of smalls, Metal letters, vintage christmas, cloth calenders feed sacks, music scale (a whole package), cute checkered trays, and there is lots lots more.
Cant wait to get it all home and play with it.

More bonanza blog posts:
junkologie

Junk Bonanza Day 1

Once again, the Junk Bonanza does not disappoint. If you want to read about my time rooming with Tamara and introducing her all around, pop over to her blog and you can read her great narrative of the trip as of last night. For now I thought I'd just load a few pics of some great stuff and vendors. Not too many as I'm on my laptop and just don't have time. Above are some wonderful old bus signs from England and some from the US. They were on a roll and would change as the bus traveled to pick up for different destinations. I got the one that Says Trinity on top. I think I may pop back to pick up another tomorrow. They are just too cool.
JB dealer extraordinaire Cammie, will do just about anything for a sale. Here here husband holds up a map that Tamara was considering purchasing, as we turn the pages to look at all the great graphics.
What a trooper he was, and of course Tamara got the map. She has not been without that grin for the whole trip.

Below are Tamara and myself with Gretchen in her booth of lovely repurposed jewelry.
I just love coming here every year and seeing many of my blog buddies in person. It feels kinda like coming home and the bonus is that everyone I meet "gets it!" I'm with my own junking kind here, and it's so much fun. And the weather is cooler and it's so nice to get a break from that Texas heat. :)
More pics soon, I promise. If you want more backstory pop over to Tamara's blog for all the 411.

Oh and I especially want to thank all the bloggers who stopped to say hello. It is so nice to meet all of you and even if you are just lerking, I feel such a connection to all my readers.
Thank you for saying hello, I'm glad you did.

My Very own Redneck Chic Bag

Look What arrived today

All wrapped up in duct tape and twine

My very own, oh so fashionable,
Red Neck Chic-Robelyn Original "Margo" Handbag.

It all started awhile back when I fell in love with some Orla Kiley Fabric

"I have a piece of that", Robelyn said, and I'll make you a bag

Then I sent her my very Picky bag requirements

"I've got the perfect pattern" said she and "it's got the pockets you want",

"The strap you want, the opening you want and
That wonderful piece of Orla Kiley Fabric"

I said, "make it for Fall, and can I have it by the time I leave for the Junk Bonanza?"

"Of course" she said, and she delivered just in time :)

Look at those details, I love the addition of the springs on the sides and the door pulls on each side.

This gal knows what she's doing when making purses. They don't just look good, they are fully functional. Look at the size of those pockets, and those lace details, I love it sooo much!!

Thanks Robelyn, I'll have the most stylish bag at the Bonanza

You owe it to yourself to pop over to her blog and view her Etsy store, she's got some great bags already made up, and soon the "Margo" bag will be available.

Everyone needs a little Red-neck Chic in their life.

I'm off to Minnesota

So much to do So Little Time

It Has Been such a busy busy week. I leave on Wednesday for the Junk Bonanza, and get back Sunday evening. I've got to drop all my stuff off at the barn on Monday for the Gresham Barn Sale that starts on the following Wednesday evening. So I've been working to get stuff made and cleaned and priced, so all I have to do is load it up.

I've got lots of Burlap Pillows for the Gresham Sale


And I managed to make 3 more of the bags I talked about in the last post.


I've been bending wire for my Wire Christmas Trees. Gotta start thinking about those Christmas Sales Now.

I've also been making lots of chalk board tags, as they are selling real well on Etsy, and I have a new smaller size as well.


Organizing, buying, marking, cleaning lots of junk for the sale as well as my other booth locations. I'd show it to you but junk piled in a barn just is not that pretty ;D
The green tags mean it's going to the Barn Sale. And this is just one little corner of my barn.

So I guess I'll just keep doing more of the same, as well as getting ready to leave town and trying to keep my house and real job duties caught up as well. Whew!!! I am sooooo looking forward to my Junk Bonanza Vacation.

Fun Tote Bag Project

I've wanted one of these bags with the old linen calendars on it since I saw some at last year's Junk Bonanza. As I am only an amateur sewer, I was unable to make my own bag, so I started with this great canvas bag from Target.
These are not sold in their usual bag department. They are found as re-usable shopping bags and they have

A Target Logo on one side, (seen here from the inside of the bag) The logo does not matter as we will be covering it up. They are $5.

I like these bags because they are very large, and they have 2 strips down the front that we can use to insert our fabric into without doing too much deconstruction to the bag.

Many different things can be used to dress these bags up. Old Burlap coffee sacks, Old Linen calendars, feed sacks, flour sacks, vintage fabric, you name it.

With a seam ripper or sharp pointed scizzors, you'll need to carefully rip the INSIDE seems only all the way down as shown in the illustration above.

cut your fabric wider than the opening and longer than the opening, Tuck the fabric into the openings on each side, pin and re-sew following the old seam line. I suggest doing one side and then flattening out your fabric, then pinning and sewing the other side.

Then I folded the fabric over the top, between the 2 handles, folded the raw edge under and sewed it down, you can see the seam on the inside and outside of the bag. It gives it a finished look from the outside. As you can see I didn't bother sewing down my raw edges on the inside, I'm not a perfectionist if I'm just making something for myself.
At the bottom, I simply turned the fabric under a titch and sewed it down. I didn't even try to hide the seam, as the bottom edge of the bag will hide that part.

Now for bling. Use your imagination, attach vintage jewelry or door hardware, old locker tags or whatever you can think of. I used a couple of hinges I had.
I simply inserted some folding brads through the hinge holes at the top and bottom, and folded them down on the inside. For added strength I placed a dab of E6000 glue on the folded down part inside the bag so they won't pull out easily. If you have access to a riveter that would work as well, but it is not needed.


On this one, to hide the Target Logo from the inside I simply pinned in a pre-made pocket that I had hanging around. You could remove one from an existing bag, or simply leave it off. It's your choice.

Thats it, if you can sew a strait line you can do this project.
this bag is big enough for my lap top, files and lots of extra stuff if needed.
I will be carrying it at this year's Bonanza and filling it with all my treasures.

Cindy wrote in with some good tips, my comments are in ().
Some suggestions for future bags...you don't NEED to rip up the one side of the strap, you could fold under edges on long sides of the calendar and topstitch right onto the bag. OR lay the calendar on top of the strap and sew trim over the raw edges and strap...

Also I would have suggested attaching the hinges before you sew down the strap so that your brad ends are between the bag and the strap and don't catch on anything you put in the bag.
(this is a good suggestion, but I could not do it on my bag as the hinges lay over the seam I needed to sew, and my sewing machine does not sew through metal :). The glue that I use, seals the hinges and prevents snagging. But next time I may do as Cindy suggests and see if I can sew around the bling)
Thanks Cindy for your help.