i remember the day i quit my  job as an academic advisor at TeXAS A&M…i remember sitting before my graduate committee, finishing my masters degree in health & nutrition…and then telling our department head that i was moving on. not into fields of empirical research at institutions of higher education. but moving on to become a junker. to officially become partners-in-crime with my mom and sister.

i remember not knowing what the future held, but knowing that i had big time faith in junk gypsy. big time faith in my sister’s dream (which also became my dream). big time knowledge in the fact that family was the most important thing to me and that, in our family, the sum is greater than the parts. and that although i might be making a mistake, i would never know if i didn’t jump.

so i jumped. t-smitty (my husband) jumped. we all jumped together. and y’all jumped with us. we all jumped….because of one word.

FAITH.

and because of 2 words we knew when to jump.

carpe diem.

we jumped not knowing how long our fleamarket days would last…we jumped knowing that some thought we were crazy. we took it one fleamarket at a time…without a business plan and without knowing all the answers. but we kept the faith because of you. because y’all kept inspiring us fleamarket after fleamarket. because y’all encouraged us to keep on keepin on…and y’all let us know that we weren’t the only crazy ones….y’all were crazy too.

and 12 years later…

if you build it, they will come.

or at least that’s what we’ve been told. and now, we’re building it. and we have FAITH that YOU will come.

what started as just a dream in our heads…

eventually became a sketch in amie’s notebook…

and then REAL blueprints via our amazingly-brilliant & generous friend, RiCHARD LAuGHLIN…who also happened to build robert earl keen’s (moment of silence for the godfather of texas music, please) songwriting studio (aka. his scriptatorium)…

and now, an actual structure with windows, 4 WALLS … AND a ROOF.

{sunrise over the store..taken 1/26/2012}

from the pouring of the concrete…

to the salvaged texas harbor tin we’ve used as walls…

the habitat for humanity back door…

and possibly our favorite … fleamarket cupolas.

3 in all…

awaiting their time to be positioned atop our new store.

and thanks to randy zingelmann of zingelmann steel construction & jay robinson of woods creek construction, we’re finally on the homestretch…

{makin it happen. taken1/26/2012}

{pouring the slab. october 2011}

hoping to be open late spring/early summer 2012.

its been quite the journey for all of us, for our family and for junk gypsy. they say you shouldn’t be defined by your job but here in gypsyville, no one could deny that junk gypsy was our fate. our destiny. and it has shaped us into who we are. junk gypsy is it’s own being and it most definitely defines who we are. amie once said she doesn’t know where she ends and junk gypsy begins.

louis l’amour quoted: “the trail is the thing. not the end of the trail. travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for.”

which also reminds me of the ever-profound ferris bueller movie (an all-time fave): “life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around every once in awhile, you could miss it.” i’m looking around, y’all. ’cause i don’t wanna miss a thing.

although the trail to the junk gypsy store, has been 12 years long…we’ve loved every minute (well, almost every minute :)). we’ve learned infinitely along the way…we’ve laughed. we’ve cried. we’ve grown stronger.
our dream is that our store is a place that you love to come to. a place of fellowship. a place of happy thoughts and big dreams. a place for young and old. a place that you might spend 30 minutes or 3 hours…and whether you leave with a purchase or not, you’ll leave feeling inspired. and happy.

and in the words of the oh-so-awesomely-inspiring house of blues… “leave with us a piece of your heart. take with you a piece of our soul. ”

thank y’all from the bottom of our hearts for riding the trail with us. thank y’all for hanging on the junk gypsy karma train…because without you, there would be no junk gypsy. and so far, it’s been quite a ride…and i have a feelin, we’re just at the beginning.

our latest roadtrip took us eastbound & down. to the deep south. to the land of grits and fried chicken livers and good ole southern hospitality.

GeoRGIA, the griswalds…errr, i mean junk gypsies are comin to town!

well…we thought we were headed to town until we had a potential set-back at the airport…let me start at the beginning…on the day of departure….

bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we got up at 3 am and hit the road by 4:30 in order to catch a 7 am flight. and this time, it was ALL of us…the kids, & the folks, & gypsy ArCHIE. we all loaded up with coffee and luggage and travel bingo…griswald-style headed to austin before sunrise.

after parking, unloading and shuffling into the airport, the oh-so-nice man behind the counter informed us that our flights were for 7PM, not 7AM. that’s right y’all, 7 in the EVENING, not 7 in the MORNING. we had a moment of desperation, panic, and confusion..and then, luckily fate was on our side and we managed to squeeze 7 extra seats onto the 7 am flight. our travel planner (dad) was able to keep his job as official gypsy flight-booker and we were off on our way.

{cash baker's teddy bear-loaded backpack on the plane}

we worked.

{downtown atlanta...lovin the woolworth's building on the right. headin in 4 a day's work.}

and we played.

{hellllo georgia aquarium. WORLD's largest aquarium! that's right, WORLD's LARGEST!}

we ate great food. let’s pause here for a moment to reflect… pimento cheese fries, blue cheese potato chips, chicken pot pie fritters, terrapin beer, fried chicken livers, veggie quinoa burgers, fried chicken, sweet taters, mac ‘n cheese, cream cheese-jalapeno cornbread muffins, yeast rolls, banana cream pie and lest us not forget…grits. grits for breakfast, grits for lunch (grit cakes…lawdy), grits for supper (smoked gouda grits)! amen and hallelujah! honey hush!

{buckhead diner. makes ya wanna slap yo mama.}

we grabbed the FEBRUARY/MARCh edition of HGTV mag… (we’re soooo pumped ’bout our article!!)

and experienced unbelievable southern hospitality at every stop.

we had good times in the new happy van.

and then we headed back to texas…where everything is bigger.

giant janis guitars…

and mud tires on good times vans…

{you had me at "good times van with mud tires"...}

 and where the future gypsy store, now looks like this…

{our 7500 square foot baby...}

signing off from gypsyville…XOXOXOO!

and in honor of dr. martin luther king, jr…may you all have a dream…

we’re back on southern soil. back from our little rendezvous on the west coast…

here’s a bit about our travels…as captured from my iphone…

{just landed at LAX}

 first things first. a visit to rachel ashwell’s original store on montana street…

{a little piece of fluffy heaven at rachel ashwell shabby chic couture}

we had a wild & rowdy shabby chic/junk gypsy slumber party at rachel ashwell’s famous house…and i had not ONE, but TWO proper cups of english-style tea!

and then it was time to get to work for HGTV! look out world, junk is comin to town!

{we felt so officially tv-ish with the presence of the clapper thing!}

they even built a ‘junk store’ set for us! and yes, you do see a crock pot on a pedestal. HGTV did that just for us. :) classssssy.

{because junk is a girls best friend}

on set with the property brothers…

{jonathon & drew scott. aka: the property brothers (and yes, drew is holding an orange burlesque-style feather fan..look out girls!)}

{texas, here we come}

{friendly cowboys. GoD bless TeXAS}

{hello, home}

{progress!! corrugated tin salvaged from a texas harbor}

there’s so much to tell… about our crazy adventures in the world of hgtv, about the progress of our first-ever store, & about our big move to round top (our little piece of Mayberry heaven). 
but for now, let’s not discuss my degree of blog procrastination or my viewpoint on those bloggers that blog EVERY darn day (damn overachievers. you know who you are). 

let’s focus on what’s really important…. our next road trip. 

we’re goin back 2 Cali…. tweet ya from the road, from the sky….from the west coast!!!!!!

xoxx!!

we’ve been a little off the radar lately…but we assure you, it’s all been for a good cause. for the cause of spreading goodwill and junk karma across the globe. it’s been for the love of junk. and for the love of the road.

2 excuses. that’s what we’ve got: 1)concrete. 2) tv crews

1) concrete – it’s been a long wait…it’s been 12 years in the making…and FINALLY…we’re building our first-EVER stoRE! (*read our ‘there goes the neighborhood’ blog here to catch up*)

{best. day. EVER.}

 a junky home for all our junky stuff. a place for our junky friends. a place of happy thoughts and happy things.

 the concrete is poured. we’ve left our mark. the walls start going up soon!

 and the other little thing we’ve been working on…

2) tv crews

we’ve been filming a little TV series for everybody’s most favorite network, HGTV.

yep, JUNK gypsies is coming to a TV near you!

{hgtv's official junk gypsies promo stuff...bad to the bone tattoos!}

here’s some of our extremely, amazingly, awesomely, cool crew…

{such a mature group. :)XO!}

 so here’s the big scoop. the low-down. the 411. the what. the when. the how now brown cow. oh wait, that’s another blog…

this is where it gets confusing. so readdddd slowwwwwwwww.

friday, 11/25 - HGTV will be airing a FAN exclusive video on FACEBOOK. you can check it out from 12pm/11CST-midnight and watch a 5-7 minute teaser reel. you must be a FACEBOOk fan to watch so be sure to become a junk gypsy FAN on HGTV’s page here!

****SUNdAY, 11/27 - (this is when my heart starts to jump out of my chest). HGTV will air the series pilot as a SNEAK PEEK on TV. this will be the first FULL episode!!! 7/6CST on HGTV!! dishTV posted a too-kind article this week that we so appreciate!! read here!****

SatuRDAY, 12/10 - a super-SwANKY, super-special DECemBER JuNK-O-RaMA prom will be held at MarBURGER farms in RounD top, TEXAS. spit-shine those boots & dress in your swankiest vintage glam! HGTV will be here to film the petticoat finery and the boot scootin’ good time! 4-10pm. MaRK those calendars & be sure to make room reservations now…STaY tuned! more details forthcoming!!!

JanUARY/FeBRUARY 2012 - LooK for us in an upcoming issue of HGTV magazine!! SuBSCRiBE HERE for only $15 buckaroos!

MArCH 2012 - the OFFiciAL junk gypsies series starts on HGTV! let’s have junky premiere parties across the states! we’ll hook you up with goodie bags! we have a limited supply so be sure to email here for more info: hgtvjunk@gypsyville.com

too much info?? never fear! HGTV has set up a texting hotline with updates and reminders! TEXT ‘HGTVjunk’ to 66789 to stay up to date!!!

whew! i think that’s it for now…

so in honor of ThaNKGIVING and in honor of turkey dinners, aunt alice’s homemade rolls, and griswald-style family time….here’s to y’all. everyone of you. thanks for being our compadres and our fellow lovers of junk for the past 12 years. thanks for being junky when junky wasn’t cool.

our cups runneth over.

i thought you might want to glance back at 2 of my warm-fuzzy blogs… of sticks & stones. and the cowboy & the gypsy … it just seems like the thing to do this time of year…

XO.

j