Notes from A Cottage Industry

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Hello sweet July.

Ah, July. The month that launches us into the second half of the year. (I don't wanna stress anybody out, but there are one hundred and seventy seven days left until Christmas, which means we are officially closer to next Christmas than last, in case you were wondering.)

On the bright side, (if your mind is already going to next Christmas...) July is also the month in which we get to enjoy a little two day online thing called "Amazon Prime Day". (This year it's July 16 and 17th.)

Anywy.

I like July for lots of reasons, and another one is that it's National Ice Cream Month. This also includes National Ice Cream Day, which falls each year on July 16th. (Coincidence that it is also one of the two Amazon Prime Days? Maybe.)

Speaking of ice cream, if you have been a blog reader of mine for a while, you know I occasionally like to make homemade ice cream. It's easy, and yummy, and perfect for hot summer nights.

Probably my most favorite thing about July is the long, warm, (usually) cloudless days, with the sun staying up until around nine o'clock, and all of the colorful flowers blooming everywhere. It's nothing short of heaven to be able to go outside in the early mornings to enjoy my cup of cocoa full of floating mini marshmallows, and just take in the peaceful quiet beauty around me. I love my little house so, and being able to enjoy the outdoors each morning makes me appreciate it even more. (What's your favorite thing about this time of year?)

Welcome to the second half of twenty twenty four!

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

We ride at dawn.

At least I do, 'coz I've got an early flight to the Biggest Little City for my Junker's Jubilee vacation.

And I barely slept a wink last night. Mostly because I was more excited than I am for Christmas, but also, because, very last minute, the day before yesterday I realized I really desperately needed wanted a new pair of fun sandals, so I ordered a pair (okay, I went down a decent sized rabbit hole and ordered three different pairs) that were all listed to arrive "the next day by 10:00 PM.

Eeeeeeeee!

This is what I love about Amazon. It has saved the lives of millions, if not billions of procrastinators not unlike myself.

Well.

Amazon, for the first time in my entire spending history of shopping with them, (which is...lets just say, a lot.) sent me an email late yesterday basically saying, "Just kidding, all your sandals will arrive tomorrow, after you leave for your flight."

Feeling mad (mostly at myself for procrastinating, but also kinda ticked at Amazon for failing me.) and irritated, I knew now that I would have to wear my old, in rather-questionable-condition black flops I got at Target last spring. 

Except, when I looked in my little shoe bins that I keep my flippy flops in, there was a lonely looking shoe missing its mate.

That prompted me to spontaneously reorganize my entire closet floor. (Where does one flip flop go in such a small house?) While it was nice to get the dust bunnies out from under the shoe racks in the closet,(Oh! And I reconnected with some fabulous mustard yellow wedges that I had somehow forgotten I had.) I did not have time to be on a shoe search...yet...there I was.

After over ninety minutes of searching, I gave up, and contemplated where I would be hiding if I were a size eight flip flop that was worn just a week ago when we had a teeny tiny sneak peek at what spring weather might look like, before the rain returned.

Ugh.

It's not the end of the world, I know, but a random missing shoe is the kind of thing that keeps me up...all night. It just bugs me. I even dreamt about it. (Do you do that?)

I can't help but feel that thirty minutes after Ralph leaves me at the airport this morning, he will text me with a picture of my missing flip flop, found in some obvious location, and it will be sitting next to a stack of Amazon boxes containing my all too fabulous new black sandals, that he will have spotted on our porch as he drove in the driveway from dropping me off.

Oh well, it's all okay. I'm going on my much anticipated dream junking vacation, and I can't wait! 

Junker's Jubilee 2024 Roadtrip Edition 2.0 Deluxe Attendee Kit For The Other Tracey.

It's a second post!

Okay, so I shared the loose history of our Junker's Jubilee in my last post, and now I will share this year's over-the-top Deluxe Attendee Kit that I sent to the Other Tracey last week in anticipation of our roadtrip, which we are heading out on tomorrow, April 30th!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek! 

Here is a photo dump of all that went into this year's "Road Less Traveled Junker's Jubilee" Kit, followed by a few details.....

The starting point was the cover...

...followed by the route and stops, which proved to be huge, and the other pages that created this year's flipbook!

Once the flip book was created, I decided we needed shirts, mimicking concert tees....(Okay, note to self for next time, the front artwork needs to be smaller. Much smaller.) 

Once I designed the shirts I wanted to have some flair... and something for us to pin that flair to...fanny packs slash crossbody bags were now a must have. 

Then, we needed Treasure Journals. (Of course.) We learned the hard way last year that our memories are in their senior years now, and no longer can be trusted as to where we bought what and where we need to revisit....

A receipt envelope, and some other must-haves for the trip, tucked inside a cutie-patootie box....

My signature "packing taffy" for the win.

I packed everything up in a box...

The details: We begin the trip tomorrow!!! We are taking a longer route, (The road less travel, so to speak...) going over the sierra mountains to the Sacramento area and heading north from there.

I will fly into The Biggest Little City in the morning. The Other Tracey will pick me up at the airport, and from there we will hit every thrift store in the Reno Sparks area until we hot them all, or they close, whichever comes first. We will then go to her home to unload all of her treasures thus far, and head to Donner Lake to spend the night at her cabin. 

The next morning we will make the trek over the Sierras (stopping at several stops along the way!) and make our way to the Sacramento area. We have no idea how far we may (or may not) make it that day, but we do know it will be fun!!

I'll be posting updates, so stay tuned.....

A historical look at the (now) annual Junker's Jubilee

If you've been a long time reader (is anyone out there still hopping over to my blog? I've been beyond dreadful about posting for longer than I want to check the calendar for...) you should remember The Other Tracey, and you might recall the first "official" Junker's Jubilee we had, back in 2018. (Refresh your memory with my cover photo here, of click here.)

So, anyway.

While we have been getting together for visits ever since I moved up here to the Pacific Northwest, it used to be a three-sh day long, more loosely scheduled list of activities, full of laughs, and creative moments. That visit in 2018 started us down a path of seeing how we could possibly outdo the previous year in terms of what all we wanted to accomplish during our visit together, and our get together became an official event with the name, The Junker's Jubilee."

The more we got together, the longer time span we felt we needed, to fit in everything we wanted to do. We also tried changing up the time of year we got together, whereby we ended up doing a holiday themed Junker's Jubilee in the fall of 2022.

Last year, as we were planning our annual Jubilee, talk of going to Texas to the Round Top Show, or somewhere else for a Junker's Inspiration trip began. At some point in the conversation I shared the idea of me flying down to Reno, and the two of us road-tripping back up to Vancouver Washington, hitting thrift stores along the way, and the first Junker's Jubilee, Roadtrip Edition was born in June of 2023.

I realized a while back that I never shared anything online about last year's Junker's Jubilee, so I am going to today.

Once we came up with the concept of taking our Junker's Jubilee on the road, I began plotting stops all along the usual route we have taken for years between Reno Nevada and Vancouver Washington. 

Oh. My.

There were so many places we could stop and hunt and gather! The next thing I knew, I had our route planned, complete with junk stops in all of the towns along the way, and I created yet another "Attendee Packet" which by this point had become one of the things I look forward to creating for each of our get togethers....

See how fun that little "Attendee Kit" was???? Did you notice the theme of using salt-water-taffy-as-packing-bubbles that I always color coordinate with my kits! I get them by the pound at my local Winco!

Oh, and the Other Tracey came up with her own fabulous addition to our Junker's Jubilee, with a "Snackle Box" for the road....(Brilliant!!!)

Needless to say, we had a fantastic time on our roadtrip, and we have been counting the minutes until we could plan the next one...which starts tomorrow! (I'll share the "Deluxe Attendee Packet" tomorrow!)

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Rain, snow, or sunshine, it's the official first day of Spring, 2024.

When you looked out your window this morning, what did you see? It's absolutely fantastically sunny and warm here! Perfect weather, if you will, as today is the official first day of spring....however....according to our local television weather expert, Dave Salesky, today is the last sunny day here in the Portland/Vancouver area for the next couple of weeks.(or more...ugh.)

The cloud's silver lining here (see that weather pun that I did there?) is that the chance for actual rain is pretty low most of those days. (under fifty percent! Yay!) 

Now, most of the time the rain and the cloudy days don't usually get to me, (the darker days make me enjoy being inside my cozy home that much more) but this year has just been a bit too much even for my liking.I mean, just look at the forecast here....

Rain, rain, even on Easter...rain. (I know. It's not that bad at all, as many of you are up to your eyeballs in snow at this very moment.) I'm slightly obsessed with the weather right now, because Easter will be here shortly (on March 31st) and that always gets me wondering about the weather because I associate Easter with sunshine, outdoor egg hunts and flowers of all sorts.

Whenever Easter is earlier than later, like mid April, the weather is much more uncertain. Anyway, I am rambling here, when all I meant to post today was that it is now Spring, and that causes my heart to lift, as we are looking towards sunshine and longer daylight hours, and enjoying being outside much more....so, happy Spring to everyone reading this!

Weekly words to live by.

Happy St. Paddy's Day! Let's all go out and make our own luck today, shall we?

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Monday sneak peeks...

This work-mostly-from-home week is starting off disorganized crazy busy for me. I have a to-do list more than a mile long, and quite frankly, I'm feeling majorly stressed out. (Insert very long, deep breath here.)

One of the many things on my to-do list is to corral my inventory for the March Vintage Rodeo/Birthday window at Camas Antiques. (See what I did there, with the rodeo and corral thing?) I said I was going to share a sneak peek or two this week, and so here is a little somethin' to (hopefully) get you interested. Here's my main inspiration piece, both for colors and feel...

Then, I found a shabby-to-perfection small-ish green dresser that to me is just screaming to go into a cabin den with a lamp and books, or a little boys bedroom, or on a patio and a serving buffet...the possibilities are endless! Here's little close up of it...

Lastly, any ideas on what I might be gonna do with these guys? Remember the window theme is Vintage Rodeo/Birthday....

Hmm? Share your guesses with me!

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.

Weekly words to live by.