FARM CHICKS - PART 3 - THE MAIN EVENT

Finally, the day we have waited for has arrived!  I was so excited to be exposing my cousins from California to the Farm Chick experience, and not wanting to scare them with the intensity of the Saturday opening day, we opted to go on the more relaxed, and much less crowded Sunday show.  Granted, a lot of great stuff had already been snatched up the day before, but we were none the wiser, since we had no idea what we might have missed out on.  Win/Win in my opinion.

I will have to wait to show you my treasures that I purchased until tomorrow when I return home and place them onto the repurposed dresser I painted while in Walla Walla, but I did win the award for the first and quickest purchase of the day.  One can never wait too long while at Farm Chicks to make that first incredible purchase.

Cori and I both noticed that some of the major vendors from previous years were not present this year, but the show did not disappoint.  There was an abundance of all thing vintage, from furniture and jewelry, along with industrial metals and lighting.  We even saw a few things which we are chomping at the bit to get our teeth into and try for ourselves.

My cousins were impressed and overwhelmed as is usually the case with a first time Farm Chick experience, but it didn't take long for them to make their first purchase as well.  We spent well over 5 hours walking through four large halls at the Spokane Fairgrounds, and by the end of that time our feet were telling us it was time to call it a day.

Once back at the hotel, it was fun sharing all of our purchases with each other and the fun and interesting things we saw while walking around. We're already making plans for another Farm Chicks get together.

FARM CHICKS - PART 2

So today we warmed up to the whole Farm Chicks experience by going shopping at Kohl's.  I know, not exactly vintage, but a girls gotta shop when she can when she is in the big city for a few days.  After Kohl's we hit Monroe Street in Spokane and the many little antique/vintage/salvage stores that where scattered up and down the street.

Cori scored a few things at several of the stores we went into, including some roper boots and a great dress which I hope to be able to capture while we are shopping our hearts out at the fairgrounds.  My cousins from California arrived at the hotel this evening and we immediately commandeered the lounge area of the hotel and were chatting away until we finally had to call it a night.

We are all looking forward to a full day at Farm Chicks tomorrow and seeing all the great stuff and hopefully finding a good buy or two.  Be ready to view a lot of photos of some great displays in my next post!

FARM CHICKS WEEKEND - PART 1

The start of my 2012 Farm Chicks weekend did not start out as planned.  Yesterday, I received a phone call from one of our neighbors, who informed me that our hot water heater was spewing water out and around our the side of our home.  Certainly not the phone call you want to receive when you are 240 miles away from home. 

The aforementioned neighbor was nice enough to shut off our water and switch off the electricity to the unit before any major damage could be done.  What they couldn't shut off. was the cost of a plumber and having the hot water heater being replaced by special order and priority shipping, to keep the inconvenience of no hot water to a minimum.

So instead of having a fun pre-Farm Chicks day of thrift store shopping in downtown Spokane, Cori and I drove up to my house and met the plumber and receive the news of the untimely death of my hot water heater.  We were however, able to salvage the trip we had planned to Chaps for dinner.

Chaps has long been a haven for Farm Chick attendees, and their salvage/vintage decor did not disappoint.  The food and cocktails were also a big hit and as Cori and I finished up our meal with a very decadent dessert, we noticed the growing number of hungry customers lining up outside to begin their own dining experience.

After dinner we checked into our hotel, but only after stopping at the Safeway across the street to partake in the inaugural purchasing of  some liquor to start our weekend off.  As of June 1st, we no longer are limited to purchasing our favorite adult beverage at state run liquor stores,  The clerk even commented that it looked like it was New Years Eve with the amount of people that were purchasing alcohol today.

Safely tucked into our room, we toasted to a great weekend and ended up chatting away for 4 hours.  It's now almost midnight and time for this Farm Chick to put the chickens to bed and rest up for what will not doubt be a great day of shopping in the morning.

4 DAYS & 13 PROJECTS

Cori and I have been on a creative, painting, repurposing 4 day binge.  We started early last Saturday, and work 4 days straight, for 12 hours each day.  We were tired, we were sore, we went without eating a few meals, but when we were done, we had accomplished so much...... 2 coffee tables, 4 side tables, 2 benches, 4 dressers, and one sign.  Whew....just recalling all of that makes me tired.

I already showed you the license plate side tables, (which were one of my favorite things we did), so here in no particular order are some of the other fun stuff we did.

With all that work behind us, it's now time for some fun.  We are off to Spokane to spend the weekend at the Farm Chicks Show at the fairgrounds.  An added bonus will be having my cousins from California driving up to experience the show for the first time.  Here's hoping we don't end up needing bail money when the weekend is over!

YARD SALES

The first thing Cori and I did when I arrived in Walla Walla for my visit was to hit the yard sales on Friday morning.  She really didn't need any more furniture to repurpose, but when the girls feel like shopping some yard sales, buying furniture, needed or not, was the the order of business for the day.

We hit a rather large yard sale on our first stop, and found the prices to be a bit high for our liking, but when I spied a large box of license plates, I nearly shrieked with joy.  In fact, both Cori and I had to almost fight another shopper over the rights to these treasures.  I politely told the other buyer that we were taking all of them.  Yep, there was over 50 license plates, and they were only asking $1 a piece for them.  Even better?  We got them all for only $40.

Cori managed to purchase quite a bit of furniture, and at one of our last stops, the sellers were more than will to part with a few last remaining pieces, which included three of these glass top side tables.  Right away we knew what we wanted to do with them and asked if they would take a reduced price offer if we took all three.  With a price agreed upon, we made what little room we have left in the vehicle and packed them in.

Once home, Cori's husband cut us a piece of plywood to cover the opening where the glass once resided, and we went to town painting them.  With a little graphite gray chalk paint, and then some clear and dark brown wax, we then covered the top of the side table with some license plates.  This was definitely one quick and easy redo of a side table that had been lost in the 90's.

VINTAGE INSPIRED WINDCHIMES

I've seen silverware wind chimes out in Blog land for some time now, and have always filed that idea into the back of my brain with all the other ideas that have yet to be created.  But when I was at a recent yard sale, and had the opportunity to purchase some old vintage silverware, I knew that the wind chime idea was going to become a reality.

 With some wire, beads, and my handy needle nose pliers I went to work.  First I had to charge up the trusty drill and then find a drill bit to do the hard work.  I picked out six different pieces of silver and when the drill was charged up, I went to town drilling my holes.

Then it was just putting all the pieces together.   I didn't have anything lying around that I could use for a center piece, so I just used one of the forks and bent the tines to use as the base for all the other pieces.  About an hour later, I had it assembled and was very happy with my first attempt.  I know now to be on the lookout for something unique to use as a center piece, and then there will be no stopping my imagination on creating some future chimes.

WHO LET THE GIRLS OUT?

Craig and Justin were in Spokane Friday morning making a delivery, when they were beeped with a message to come into the yard when empty to have the truck serviced.  Seems there was a recall that the Kenworth Dealership needed to complete on the driving suspension, and then the company shop wanted to do a service on the APU.  When Craig called me with these developing details, I hopped into our pickup and made my way into Spokane to meet up with him.

We ended up following Justin in the truck to the dealership, where they said it would only take about 30 minutes to do what they needed to do.  We took that opportunity to hit Craig's favorite Chinese buffet and enjoy a nice lunch.  Then it was back to Kenworth to drop Justin off to take the truck back to the company shop, while Craig and I took in an afternoon viewing of the movie Battleship.  We both couldn't remember the last time we had seen a movie together, but thoroughly enjoyed spending the afternoon together.

By 6pm, Craig was dropped off at the yard and I made my trek back home to rest up for an event in the small town near us, Newport, WA for what they call "Who let the girls out?"  This morning, 7 different antique/vintage/boutique stores hosted a shopping party for all the women in town.  Honestly, I didn't think there were that many women around where we lived, but a good time was being had by all.

Each shopper was given a passport to be stamped by each store you visited.  They made sure to entice you in with lots of goodies and drinks, and when your passport was completed, you turned it in for a chance to win a $100 shopping spree.  Along with the seven different featured retailers, most every business establishment up and down main street had their doors open for business.

What was really nice, is that several diners had specials for the women including drink specials.  Nothing like a bit of alcohol to induce you to open your wallet to spend.  Later in the evening, they are offering live music and the local theater, The Roxy, will be showing  a "chick flick" just for the women.

It's really nice to live in such a small town, where they create such a fun atmosphere to have the community come together.  They do a "who let the girls out?" twice a year, and I already have my calendar marked for the next one in November.

SPRING CLEANING

I have been enjoying Craig being home on vacation probably a bit more than he has.  Let's face it.  It has been four years since we have done anything to the outside of our property, even as tiny as it is, and with such great weather, we decided to do a little bit of planting and sprucing up.

Craig rebuilt the cover to our propane tanks and I couldn't be happier.  I managed to try and see if I just might have a green thumb, and planted some dwarf snap dragons and a couple of azalea bushes in the front flower bed.  We found these pretty hanging baskets on sale at the local Ace Store and couldn't pass them up.  It's just the right amount of color to the front of the house.

We brought out the pavers and the bark ground covering to be squared with the side deck.  After going rock hunting to find enough rocks to continue our border, we planted a few plants that the nursery said would be hearty enough to survive on their own during the winter and the following years after they get established.  Lord knows, we are never around consistently enough to plant something that needs constant attention.

Craig built me another flower bed along side the shed, which gets the morning sun.  I've had more than a few people tell me that this will be the perfect spot to grow some vegetables.  I'm starting out with some tomatoes and squash.  We'll see how it goes.

In the little pots on the shed porch, we planted some strawberries, and we can already see the beginning stages of some fruit!  It was also the most perfect spot for the only pet we have have, Spot, who stands guard 24 hours a day.  My brother made Spot out of scrap metal pieces, and has made a menagerie of animals that have brought joy to a lot of people.

Lastly, we finally planted a dwarf spruce tree behind our house.  We think it is the perfect location and it may just find itself decorated sometime in the future when we will actually be home for the holidays.

All in all, Craig and I have paced ourselves with all these chores and have still found time to sit back on our porch and enjoy a beer or two.  I'm not looking forward to taking him back into Spokane to go back to work, but I know it will be a short 28 days before he is home again!

DENVER BOUND

One of the allures of going back to team driving for a short time, was the information that teams were going to be running more loads going East.  We had heard of runs to Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida.  As of yet, Craig and his team driver Justin, have been kept extremely busy running the normal route of the Interstate 5 corridor, until today.

Craig had been running solo the last 5 days while Justin took his home time, one of the wonky things when you have team drivers that live at opposite ends of the country, Craig in northern Washington and Justine in southern California.  So when they finally met up this morning in French Camp, when Justine hitched a ride with another TWT driver, they were give a load going east, just not at east as they would have hoped.

Tonight they are picking up a load of chicken from Foster Farms in Livingston, CA and making a delivery into the Denver area.  Craig and I both commented, when he told me the details of this run, that we were happy that the major winter weather was well behind us, and that snowy conditions shouldn't be an issue on this trip.  Of course, now that I've said it, you just know there will be a freak snow storm.

The load delivers Saturday morning, and from other teams we had talked to, the normal load coming back out is beer delivered to the LA area.  That should then set them up nicely for a run up to Washington, where Craig will take a week of vacation time for some R&R, but not until we complete a few home maintenance projects.

I can't wait to hear about this new run into Colorado, and with hopes of a few more new runs east in their future.

FEELING VERY BLESSED

While Craig is busy traveling the Interstates between Arizona and Washington, I've been enjoying being at our little piece of Heaven, along the river in Usk, WA.  I truly pinch myself several times a day to make sure I'm not dreaming, as it really is just that beautiful here.  I feel as if I must have done something right in my lifetime to deserve the happiness that has come into it, especially after meeting and marrying Craig.

We've been doing a lot of planning, now that I am so close to finally receiving my retirement benefits at the end of the year.  I'll be joining Craig back on the truck as we take multiple little trips throughout 2013, taking home time up and down the west coast from California to Washington, and with a mandatory trek to Las Vegas one year from now to celebrate Craig's birthday in style.

Yes, we have made plans for the future, but we are grounded firmly into enjoying our lives together today, knowing just how blessed we are to have found each other, and to have put down roots in a place we had only dreamed of living before.  Every day, as I take my walk, I say a prayer of thanks, send a heartfelt kiss up to Heaven to my Mom, and find joy in each day that God has given to us.

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

I've been scouring our nearby local small town newspaper the last couple of weeks in hopes of finding a yard sale or two.  I've come up empty handed, mostly due to inclimate weather and morning temperatures still hoovering around 30 degrees, but I prevailed yesterday in finding a moving sale and a rummage sale.  With having to drive the 15 miles into town anyway to pick up a few items at the grocery store, it proved a good way to conserve gas and fulfill my need to go on the hunt for some vintage finds.

If it hadn't been for a teeny, tiny sign pointing to a gravel and snow covered road, I might have missed the turn off.  My mind always thinks when I go down these tiny little roads, that maybe I should have let someone know where I was going, and more importantly, hoping that I don't meet another vehicle going the opposite way, as there was barely enough room for our big ole truck.  Luckily, I made it to the home, and found enough parking area in which to turn around to make my exit back out into civilization.

I wasn't too impressed with what they were offering, the usual clothes, tools, and electronics, until I spied out of the corner of my eyes these beauties:

I felt as though the Heavens where shinning down upon me, and when I found out what the owner wanted for them, I could have kissed her!  These three pieces are made entirely out of heavy duty leather, with numerous shipping labels still clinging  to life to it's sides.  They have all the beauty of aging and patina that over 75 years will give to a piece.  I'm estimating their age by a tiny scrap of newspaper I found shoved in a crevice inside one of them, talking about President Roosevelt speaking to Congress in the 1940's.

If only these pieces could talk, the stories they would be able to tell.  The owner said she purchased them in Maryland at an auction many years ago.  The shipping labels only give hints of where they have been, sporting destinations of New York and Philadelphia.  A residential address in Washington D.C. leaves clues to one of the owners which looks like a last name of Campbell, and there are initials of JCW stamped into the leather.

I don't know if I can part with these beauties, as they have found a spot in my heart.  For now they are in my living room with the option of taking them to Walla Walla to sell in Cori's consignment space.  I'll have to see if during my future yard sale hunts, I find something that wins me over more than these did.

OH DEER!

When I'm in the truck with Craig, and I see the remains of a recent roadkill of Bambi, I always say aloud "Oh Dear" which actually means "Oh Deer, did you ever make a mistake running out onto the roadway".  I've always been happy to say, other than a glancing scrape to our pickup from a deer zigging instead of zagging, we've been very luck in our travels of avoiding hitting a deer............until last Thursday.

I was taking a short nap at a roadside rest area, during my 17 hour straight drive from California to Washington, as Craig was making his way into Spokane to make a delivery before taking some home time.  Then, while on Highway 14, a rather large deer made the tragic mistake of running out in front of his truck.  Never a good idea if you're a deer, and this would not have a happy ending either.  It took awhile before Craig could find a place to pull over and access the damage, and ever the McGwyver, with duct tape in hand, was able to put the bumper and headlight somewhat back in place.

A phone call to Road Service, and then in the morning the mandatory call into the Safety Department, the truck was sent off for repairs.  According to the person Craig talked to in Safety, they get about 3 deer hits a week this time of year.  Thankfully it was an easy fix for the truck, and no one was hurt, other than the deer.

Craig and I have been enjoying being at home where the snow pack has melted, and what snow we have had never stuck to the ground.  It has been windy and rainy though, but neither one of us minds that at all, we're just happy to be home together.