Emerging from the Lab-OR-atory...

Emerging from the dark, dusty Dominos & Doorknobs Lab-OR-atory, is the deranged Junk Sophisticator...waiting, just waiting, to amass all its curbside findings from YOUR home. Yes, YOUR home! BEWARE THE JUNK SOPHISTICATOR. There is no stopping it. Bwah ha ha ha....


You Have Been BOO'd!

The air is cool, the season is fall,

Soon Halloween will come to all.

Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore...

Tricky witches at your door.



The spooks are after things to do,

In fact, a spook brought this "BOO" to you.


The excitement comes when friends like you,

Copy this note and make it two.


We'll all have smiles on our faces,

When we see who Boo'd who's places.

I was Boo'd by ALVN@WhisperwoodCottage. Now...


The following 4 ladies have been officially BOO'd...

Kathy@SylviasVintageDaughter - Wonderful junking buddy and expert vintage stash and junk locator.

Marybeth@DownHomeDIY - Designer and rehab/repurposing extroidinaire!

GariAnn@TheUndomesticatedWife -Fabulous pet lover and thrifty garage-saler with a witty personality, teetering on the edge of being domestic! ;)

Janis@JunkDreams - Proprieter of pretty things, creator of lots of bling. This blogger is classy!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This BOO party was started by Toni@The Tattered Cottage. Please keep the fun going by following these instructions.


1. You have 24 hours to work your spell

2. Copy and post the Halloween Boo Poem with the instructions for playing.

3. Pick 4 blogs you enjoying visiting and tell why you enjoy visiting them, with a link to
their blog and remember to link back to me.


4. Go to the original BOO Party post at the Tattered Cottage and add your MckLinky.


5. Let's see how fast and far this spreads between now and Halloween.


This was fun! Happy Halloween to all!

As always, take care and keep on junking!

Store Candy Display Turned Spice Rack

Old store displays are always fun to find. I was happy to grab this particular candy display rack for a song during Peddler Day in Peninsula, Ohio recently.
Who am I kidding? I just about went BONKERS when I saw it! And when the vendor explained he just wanted to "get rid of everything", I almost popped! I know that phrase generally means great stuff on the cheap!

The best part is I knew just how to put it to work! Here's a little secret I need to share with all of you...
My spice drawer has organizational issues. It has become such a mess that it has actually spilled into a basket in the kitchen cabinets as well! Shameful! Well, not any longer!

What do you see here? I see organization! ALPHABETIZED organization too!
And it fits on the counter nicely between my gas range and the refrigerator. Perfect!
Now I can go back to living my life the way I've always dreamed. The old spice drawer had been keeping me up most nights, but not anymore! Have you organized with junk? We'd love to hear about it!

As always, take care and keep on junking!

Shop Junk Sophisticate

I am finally open for business and officially a "shopkeeper"! A shopkeeper is the title given to me by Secret Garden's owner, Diane Wilbur. (It's another name for vendor, however, I will work there a couple days a month so essentially will be keeping shop during those days). My space is quite small, but I wanted to get my feet wet before I really took a major plunge.

My space will be filled with many of the vintage style and junk decor wares you've all seen in my blog posts or on JUNKMARKET Style.

My shopkeeper number is #11 and I have placed blog cards in my space if you'd like to grab one. I bet you'll be able to tell it's my stuff though, just by the look of the space. ;) Junk Decor baby!

Secret Garden - Located in picturesque Aurora, Ohio - 196 South Chillicothe Rd. Shop hours currently 11am - 5pm seven days a week. Effective November 1st, shop hours change to 10am - 5pm M - F with extended hours on Thursdays to 9pm.

Next door to Chet Edwards Home Furnishings.
And just two doors down from Three Elysabethe's French Country Shop.
You can visit The Baby & Kids Shop located behind Chet Edwards and Three Elysabethe's!
There is also fabulous shopping 1/4 mile south of us at Aurora Farms Premium Outlets which ironically used to hold one of my favorite flea markets in the area. It is gorgeous now!

If you've traveled far, and you'd like to rest your weary head, make sure to reserve a room at the beautiful historic Aurora Inn which is now owned by Mario's International Spas & Hotels. (I had my wedding and reception here and it's lovely).

I hope to see you at Secret Garden...and please shop Junk Sophisticate!
As always, take care and keep on junking!

Book Nook - The Final Haul

Books with a rusty patina are a wonderful gift for junkers.
While driving through a neighboring city the night before trash day, I spotted an enormous pile of books all tidy-like along the roadside. One problem; this particular city has a law that does not allow pick up of trash items without the owner's permission.


Unsure if the books were for a charitable organization, or if they truly were meant for the garbage man, I decided to go knocking. The sweetest elderly woman greeted me at the door and told the story of keeping a family friend's books at her home for years as a favor, until his passing earlier this year. She and her daughter chose a few books they liked, but didn't know what to do with the remaining. She made it clear she was THRILLED I stopped to inquire about them - even having her adult son help load them into my car.

Our Chrysler Pacifica's lease is at it's end and we are turning it in this Tuesday. It has served me well during my junk hauls over the last 3+ years, but it is now time to say goodbye. Thank you for one final AMAZING haul! You've done me proud.



As always, take care and keep on junking!

Junkologie Blog Party - Oronoco Gold Rush 2009

Man, oh man, did Amy host one FABULOUS blogger party! Good friends and bloggers, good junk and good eats are the perfect combo, and she did it up big! It appeared to have gone without a hitch.


Sue Whitney of JUNKMARKET, set up shop using the coolest boogie board table ever! I believe they were props from Amy's Junkologie booth. Perfect for a good book signing I thought.



Kimberly Melamed from JUNKMARKET was the sweetest thing ever, just as I had imagined!

Sue shares some junk tales with Kim Adams of Rockler Woodworking and Hardware along with Kim's daughter.


I got to share some time with Marge of Emma's Nook and Granny, including time around a campfire later that evening! Good times.


I know, I know. You're thinking been there, done that. But how can you resist striking a Junk Angels pose whenever Cheryl with Tomboy Tools is around with all those cool pink tools? Here she is with with Sue and Kathy...ready to take on the all bad junk in the world! (Is there such a thing?)


Sorry for the mini photos, folks, but my twitpic decided to mess with me while twittering over the weekend. If you squint, you can see the Kountry Junkers with Sue and Amy as well as Amy inside her booth.


A sampling of the fabulous JUNKMARKET Style contributors - Kathy, Lani, me and Gretchen!


Isn't this an amazing piece of gas pump junk? Sue found it at a young junker's booth and snatched it right up! It was definitely the hit for photo opp props.


Let's EAT! Amy organized such a wonderful junker's potlock, I tell you. Bloggers were asked to bring along a snacky snack placed inside their favorite piece of junk. Boy were there some great ideas!


The Kountry Junker's claim to fame during the potlock was the coolest salsa and chips spread I've ever seen. Their food was fab and the old grill they used as a table was equally fab!


The Pfarkel Sisters provided everyone an amazing rice and bean salad. Check out the chilled wines underneath. Very nice!


Kathy with Sylvia's Vintage Daughter also won a wonderful prize for her creation. It's a vintange lamp with an old glass globe used as the dish. Lovely!

Cheryl got many chuckles with this one (check out the close up). Let me tell you her zucchini bars were TO DIE FOR!


She definitely keeps things clean.


There was also a cool little tray of cookies from JUNKMARKET that was so versatile.


And then there was my conconction. I didn't realize it until later I may have stolen the flowers from the Pfarkel sisters. Oops! Sorry ladies. Thought Sue bought those at the store when she picked up our goodies!


So as you can see, fun was had by all. Check out my 2-minute snippet below that I took during the party. You can hear the cool music Amy had playing! It all rocked!

Oronoco Gold Rush Days Stash

My trip to Minnesota this past week can be best summed up using Darren with Junk Mafia's favorite word.

Whooodawgies!

I will share a series of posts in the coming days detailing my experience across state lines. There was just way too much going on those five days to fit everything into just one measely post! The first in the series focuses solely on my AWESOME finds from Gold Rush Days and some of the sweet junky gifts I was given during my stay.

Speaking of gifts, in addition to her offering the amazing comforts of her home, the genuinely kind Sue Whitney of JUNKMARKET Style, provided me this, ahem, keychain. (Don't you see cool pendant written all over it?) This "fitted-jean" chica knows how to make a person feel welcome and I hope to one day be able to exchange the hospitality.



Got me a great black and white sign at Amy of Junkologie's booth! I'm hoping to confuse the heck out of people when I use this sign in the coming weeks. ;) I bought a few other junky pieces from her amazing booth (which was seriously one of the BEST booths in the entire place) and I made sure to purchase one of her awecome ijunk tees! Head to her website to check them out after you finish up here. Very, very cool!


Fellow JUNKMARKET Style contributor, Gretchen, was such a sweetheart and gifted me one of her beautiful creations. I didn't remove it during my entire stay! Her blog, Mimi-Toria's Designs features some of her gorgeous jewelry which is a must see! I can't recall hearing so many people talk about a designer's jewelry as much as I heard this past week. Way to go, Gretchen!






I was in search of feed or burlap sacks to use with a couple projects and boy did I hit the jackpot! The price was right so I snagged up all they were selling except for two. Finished project to come...




These brass letter press stamps were the coolest things ever! I was particularly drawn to the "9s" since the #9 is our family number. (It stems from my birthday being 9/9 and my husband's 9/27).



Can you see using this SPARE PARTS ROLL for an M14 as a fleamarket tote? I can, and it was a nice little freebie a vendor included with my purchases.



This street sign says Junkologie all the way! Amy gave me the pick of the litter as a gift and of course my 10 year old agrees with me this is the coolest thing ever!


My road trip friend, Kathy of Sylvia's Vintage Daughter, was sneaky and remembered a previous post of mine online that said I'd love to have a vintage stamp holder but I felt they were always so spendy. Along with a bunch of other little goodies, Kathy included this cute little number that I'm just dying over. Love it!




So these are my goods from Oronoco. How'd I do?

I'll have more posts to come. I'd love to hear from others that attended Oronoco Gold Rush Days and hear what your experience was! My first time was amazing!