SUPER BOWL SUNDAY...a junk event?

Since I live with a bunch of males in the house, there's no question Super Bowl Sunday falls under the title of a "holiday" in our home. It's a time for good food, good friends and good drinks. With junking in my blood, my family is used to me incorporating a junk quirk of some kind with any event we host. Whether it's the Christmas buffet dinner spread atop the antique sled on the kitchen island, or the summertime Mexican grilling party featuring a chippy pink door as the table and sombreros filled with chips and salsa, I happily admit: I love to entertain with JUNK!

So, here's a peek at some junk items I'll be using Sunday, but shhhh, don't tell my family, maybe they won't notice! Since I love scales, the large one shown will hold the enchilada casserole, and the small one will hold a family favorite...bacon wraps....yum, yum!

This trio will hold more food...my father-in-law tells me the thing on the left is off a corn planter (it'll hold plates OR dinner rolls on Sunday). Chips and dips will fit nicely on the disc spool/

blade (thanks, dad!), shown on the right, and another hot food item will sit on the hot plate (front). It's actually the base of a lamp and a grate off an old stove...cool, huh?

Normally the corn chopper piece (actually two of them) are the legs that hold an old rabbit cage in our family room. I thought they were perfect! Don't you?

At Christmas the disc spool/blade (shown below) held pretty crystal garland, along with silver and clear Christmas ornaments.... A little shiny plus a little rusty = junk pretty! Isn't your mind just spinning right now thinking of all the neat things you can do with this?! Filled with pumpkins for fall, soaps and towels in a bathroom, and of course, chips and dip! Yes, the possibilities are endless!

And last but not least, this unique plate holder is actually an old album holder for records (remember them?) It sits on my kitchen counter holding my favorite dinnerware. This wonderful find looks exactly how I found it...nice and rusty! The large rusty disc spool will hold all the silverware.

So throw that beer and soda in an old metal tub (filled with SNOW, of course!), sit back and enjoy the junk...oops...I mean the GAME!

SNS #127

Slideshow

Hey everybody...I think I finally got the slideshow posted! It's way down there....at the bottom of the page. Any techies out there that are interested in giving me a mini tutorial on the do's and don'ts of slideshows or anything else blog related....PLEASE email me! Junk is more my thing!! Check out the slideshow....you'll get a taste of what our sale is like (prior to the crowds!!) Enjoy!

Has old man winter got you craving some fun junk ideas....AND CARBS?? Well, let's EAT!!!

Hi All!

In case you've never experienced Junk Fest before, I wanted to wet your appetite with some fun junk creations we showed at a previous sale.

Dressers are such a wonderful blank canvas...I found this baby sitting by my neighbors garbage can, in the rain, with two drawers busted up....bet he never guessed it could turn out this pretty & be this useful again! You can't see it, but it is covered in a wallpaper that resembles tin ceiling tiles and then painted white...there were people who thought it really was covered in tin tiles! How cute in a baby girl's room with quilts or stuffed animals in the basket & necessities in the drawers!...or even a kitchen with the basket holding your most loved cookbooks...







....or if you really want to create a personality piece for a room, the sky is the limit! Apply words,a fun paint treatment, posters, or enlarge your own pictures...this one showcases a poster of the canals of Venice... But wouldn't it be adorable if you applied an enlarged photo of your son swinging a bat or your daughter in her tutu??

Then if you can re-think the use...yes, it can hold clothes, but who says you can't put a unique dresser in your entryway to hold the caps & mittens...maybe even shoes....or in a large bathroom to store the extra tp & towels!...or the dining room to hold linens and an extra platter or two...wouldn't this look fab in a french inspired dining room???...Ooh La La!!!





Speaking of appetites, this COLD winter is making me HUNGRY, how about you??

Give this yummy recipe a try...you'll feel like you are sitting right in the middle of the Food Court at your local Mall!
Ha Ha :)

BOURBON CHICKEN (very similar to what you get from the food court at the Mall)

2 lbs boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces

1 to 2 TBSP olive oil

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/4 tsp ginger

1/8 tsp ground red pepper (add more if you like it spicier)

1/4 cup apple juice

1/3 cup light brown sugar

2 TBSP ketchup

1 TBSP cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup soy sauce

Heat oil in a large skillet, add chicken pieces & cook till lightly browned. Remove chicken.

Add remaining ingredients to skillet, heating over medium heat till well mixed & dissolved.

(I liked my sauce thicker so I added 1 TBSP corn starch mixed with 1/4 cup cold water to

the skillet and boiled it all together for 1 minute stirring constantly) Now return the chicken

to the skillet and stir to cover with sauce. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Can serve over rice or make some garlic mashed potatoes to serve along side it.

GARLIC MASHED POTATOES

1/2 of a head of garlic

1 1/2 tsp olive oil

1 lb potatoes peeled & cut up for boiling

butter

milk

salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Cut an entire head of garlic in half...peel away the skin & pile the cloves on a piece of tinfoil.

Drizzle the garlic with the olive oil. Seal up the tinfoil and bake for 45 minutes. Boil your potatoes till soft. Mash with butter, milk and salt & pepper to taste. Remove garlic from oven, mash softened cloves with a fork & stir into potatoes.

Delicious!...... ALMOST as delicious as Junk Fest on a beautiful, sunny day!

STAY WARM. Lynette

I let "her" go...

I set her free. She was such a good friend, a confidant, a junk assistant. We spent so much time together, traveled together everywhere. Sometimes we'd listen to the radio and she didn't mind if I laughed out loud, and she didn't laugh when I sang out of tune. She listened to my every idea, she was with me when I needed to cry. She was mostly dependable...but a bit tempermental at times. Okay, I'll admit it, over the years she became a very "high need" friend. Well, "friend" might be a bit strong for our real relationship. My friend...ummm...my VAN. Well, the time had come. I had to bid my dear old van adieu. It went down the road this week. I have to admit I will miss the thing, it could haul alot of junk!



This is "middle child". (Will work for food)



Don't worry about me. I'm not giving up my junking habits. VAN has been replaced with SUV, and 4 wheel drive to boot! Now, it was a bit interesting cleaning out a vehicle that's been around awhile. Doodles and writings of the children, $4.64 in change (that includes 79 pennies). An array of fast-food-high-quality-toys. Maybe they're worth money now! One sock, three fingernail clippers, and a single rose petal from my brother's funeral (has been with me every trip since... superstitious-no; sentimental-absolutely!). I'm looking forward to seeing how jamb packed I can get this vehicle...and now a hitch for the trailer...hmmm. This is going to be fun!

From a little bit "junky" to COOL & FUNKY...

It took me a minute to realize what this crazy looking "find" was when seen on a junk adventure well over a year ago. Can you guess what it is...or shall I say, was? If you guessed the frame of a croquet holder (minus the mallet and balls), you guessed right! It caught my eye because, I must admit, I have a "thing" for wheels and rust. It sat in my garage for months with zero ideas coming to my mind on what it could be. I even consulted my three very creative JUNK FEST girlfriends for input, and I don't believe even they thought this little "find" had much hope! Then, as luck would have it, while I was moving it for the 100th time in my garage to make room for some new-found junk, it accidentally fell over on its side...then came one of those fabulous "OMG" moments...
Yes, folks, the vision became obvious to me - this would make an ideal WINE CADDIE! It just happens to hold two bottles of wine and five goblets perfectly! I believe this true "Junky to Funky" find has found its final home on my dining room buffet...

This just goes to show that after a good cleaning, a spray of poly (a junk girl's best friend, by the way), and a little imaginaton, any rusty item can be transformed into a good thing - a really neat junk thing! Love this motto:

Live Well * Love Often * Junk Much

A Toast...

What an honor! A new Year, a new Day, a new President. May faith and wisdom guide the decisions of our new leadership and may these changing times strengthen and unite the America we love. God bless the....

RED...

WHITE...

BLUE!

Junkyard Dog

Meet Mollie. Mollie is our 7 year old bichon. Not your typical junkyard dog. But then, Mollie doesn't live in a typical junkyard. She lives in the house....much to my husband's dismay. You see, my husband (from here on out referred to as 'the great white hunter') was very adamant about not getting a pet. I over-ruled. For about the first three years of Mollie's existence in our home (basically the puppy stage) the great white hunter was civil, yet cool to me. As time passed and he saw how much our two girls grew to love her, she became a permanent fixture in our family. He tolerates her, and on occasion I've even seen him petting her. (Don't tell him I said that.)

Occasionally I let Mollie come with me to the junk work-shop. She was the official "seat tester" for this bench I made out of an old headboard. In that photo she looks more like a junkyard dog than a bichon. Nevertheless, she approved of the bench and it was ultimately sold at a previous JunkFest sale. Fortunately I've never had any encounters with a real "junkyard" dog, but I'm willing to bet it might be worth it...all for the sake of some good junk!!

WINTER GREETINGS FROM ANDREA'S HOUSE (a/k/a Junk Girl)

Hello everyone! Here goes my very first post! Just wanted to share a few photo's of my home decorated for Christmas/

Winter. I have taken down the big trees, but the little ones are still up! My family room is done in chocolate brown, Robin's egg blue (love it!), antique white (mostly chippy stuff), along with a tad bit of olive green thrown in for good measure. Hopefully you can pick out some of the good junk pieces I love! It's my favorite room in our home. Since it's downstairs, I wanted to keep it light and cozy. My boys won't be happy for me posting it, but that's a picture of them (hanging above the fireplace) which I took a few years ago. I attached the photo to an old grain bin door my dad saved for me. Hope you are all staying warm and cozy!

Here's a simple Winter centerpiece...

Have a Happy and Joyful 2009!

What's it all about...?

For those of you who are new to this "JunkFest" thing, I'd like to share a few photos from last year's sale. Because I'm new to Blogland, and the world of computers for the most part, I have not been able to figure out attaching a slideshow to my post, so you'll just have to scroll down and view the photos one at a time! This is just a small sampling of what our sales are like. We started out small with our first sale, held in my garage at our home in the country. The turnout was wonderful and we had a steady stream of customers all day. There were only two negatives: the wind (did I say country? I meant "wide open prairie!) and the parking. We did not take into consideration the fact that it was harvest and there would be farmers trying to navigate their farm machinery down the gravel road past our house. Then again, we did not anticipate the need for overflow parking....causing customers to park their vehicles single file down both sides of the road. The only casualty was my white mailbox, which was still standing, but with a fresh new "scraping" of John Deere green over the top! Our sales have since been held at our local fairgrounds and we have included a flea market. The four of us junk girls occupy the largest building on the grounds, and the flea market vendors (there were 50 last year!) are located in two other buildings and outside the grounds. And of course....we have food vendors! Gotta keep that shopping energy up!

The last photo is of our "staff," our wonderful family and friends that volunteer to help us pull this thing off every year. Without them, we could never do this on our own! Who knows, maybe next year we'll do more than just buy them lunch!!

Brrr.... it's a nasty -33 below or so here in the heart of North Dakota (thermometer kinda gave up a few degrees ago). What better time to introduce ourselves to the world wide web of BLOG! So......HERE WE ARE!!!! :) Wow, it's about time. WE are the JunkFest Girls, hosting an annual sale to share our repurposed, reinvented, reborn finds with the world. We are eager to get to know you better and hope to find some great new junk friends in the process. Awe, junk. Yes that's the word we love. We dream it, live it, thrive on it. There are four of us and we will do our best to bring you some of our "junky" ideas, our awesome finds, and share some of our adventures...and misadventures, in the quest for cool, funky, vintage, trashy, one of a kind, sweet, sweet JUNK. I hope you enjoy following along and we'll be looking forward to hearing from you soon! SweetMelissa