The cure for the common old

The past half of a week, we have been fighting the common cold, which turned into the common cough, which turned into an awful and painful cough for me and my littlest little guy, and a bonus ear infection for him. In the midst of the yucky days and sleep deprived nights, I have begun to attack the pile of brown boxes sitting in my office filled with decorations, both vintage and otherwise. My goal was to go through them one by one to clean out: keep what I truly will love to put up in my new home; to sell that which I love anyway, but won't fit with my new home. The impending date of my annual spring garage sale is next week and our Funky Junk spring show (our 5th!!) is April 9 & 10. So much needs to happen between now and then, and I know how much I love delivering postcards and posters and won't have much time at home, so these sick days and now snow days are my chance to search for treasures!

While looking in bins and bins of scrapbook supplies, I found these funky hippie letters to spell out Funky Junk...but as you can see I'm one U short. So a caption will follow when I post on Facebook: "Funky Junk" isn't Funky Junk without all of "U"!" I also found Ziplocs full of pens and office supplies, many cute ones to keep and some that I didn't clean out until now, including my vintage inspired Smart Women set of notepad, "Smart Women make a list and Check it twice"; pencil, "Smart Women Stay Sharp" and eraser, "Smart Women Make Changes". I have a bookmark too somewhere. While going through our too many toys, I discovered one of the little people little guys who must have traveled from my mom's house to ours, and put him by my pink clock, to remind me of my three little loves. (Thanks to Green Cricket for her constant inspiration!! Check out her blog!!)

On my cleaning journey I found a box full of framed pictures, many needed changed out and freshened with new pics or new frames, so distracted me did some updating. Among the stacks I found what has been missing from our new home: my family. A vintage picture of my grandma holding me and one of me shopping with my great-grandma, grandma and mom when I was a little girl are now sitting in my office next to a pattern flower created by Jennifer of Unexpected Necessities. (I had to take a picture of my cute Finn with a garage sale sticker on his head-he found the box with garage sale toys and suddenly fell in love with them.)

I used pretty frames to house new pictures from our family photo shoot with Cary Burnett of Burnett Photography this summer and re-discovered some of my favorite old pamphlets on using the telephone and building with plywood, as well as a prized pink paper Steno pad (a mother's day gift from my sister Heidi one year). Another vintage enlarged picture from Heidi is of me and my mom and dad in a gorgeous frame reminds me of how loved I was and am. (Adorable vintage pink clock from my mom this past December birthday too!). I finally filled a cute Miss Clickety Clack yellow frame with a picture of me with my two sisters and our dolls, sitting on our grandma's patio. And one of my prized pictures of me peeling peaches with my great Grandma Kuchenbuch in the old farmhouse sits on my office shelf with the gorgeous H crown fashioned by the crafty Junebug ladies Celia and Gladys (another amazing birthday gift this year!)

So,the cure for the common cold, or common same old junk? Beauty, crafting, creating, re purposing, decorating and reconnecting in new ways with old finds. I realized this morning that the vintage-y looking picture I took late last night of my Funky Junk letters was actually upside down and spelled Junk Funky. Well, that will work too.=)

http://www.greencricketsalvage.com
http://www.junebugfurnitureanddesign.blogspot.com
http://www.unexpectednecessities.blogspot.com