summertime always has us thinking of the great american roadtrip. the griswalds. taking the long way to every destination. not having a destination. stopping at every brewery, winery, or other type of factory along the way…stopping so dad can read every historical marker at every juncture. listening to mom say ‘look girls, look’ every 15 seconds.

 

ultimately, any roadtrip = memories. and that, my friends, is all that matters.

this popped up on our facebook page a few weeks ago. and we love it immensely. everything about it makes us happy. and i can’t quit staring at the picture…cadillac ranch, jg tattoos, jg grafitti, 2 girls (mandy & chandra), 1 roadtrip, 5 million memories.

 

read on…and be inspired.

 

“Cadillac Ranch – last stop on the Fall 2011 TX Road Trip to see the Junk Gypsies & Warrenton Antique Week!

96 hours to rally 3 states,

cover 2,224 miles,

burn 125 gallons unleaded with

1,425 songs to choose from

3 cowboy hats and a wedding dress…

2 junk gypsy tatts

6 new girl friends at the community dinner table

1 piece of Royer’s strawberry rhubarb

1 Pistol Annies soundtrack later and we finally understood what this phenom was really about.

COUNTLESS memories that we will hold near and dear to our hearts forever!

Inspiration from the Junk Gypsies set our hearts dreaming of the open road to explore the curiosity sparked by rock & roll, cowgirl, bad a$$, eclectic images mixing from new clothing & necessities to antiquely fabulous “junk” that no girl should live without.

I have never seen anything like it in my life – God Bless Antique Week, the Junk Gypsies, Royer’s and all the amazing people we met along the way! We will never forget this trip and look forward to future run ins with the Junk Gypsies and the amazing people who keep this magical moment going from season to season – decade to decade. I love you & thank each and every one of you who take part preserving this amazing time capsule of Americana. Passing on different stories, and treasures for a new day.

The Junk Gypsies are amazing & we can’t wait to check out their HGTV show coming out in 2012!”

 —

here’s to y’all, mandy & chandra!! we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for taking us on your epic roadtrip!

XOXOXO!

antiques week is imminent…and to us junkers, we’re about as giddy as a kid on christmas morning.

today marks day 5 of set up…we’ve got a long way to go and a short time to get there.

buuuuut we’ve had a few distractions along the way…

like this door….

{hello, beautiful. quite naturally we belong together.}

(which we just HAD to buy from matt white of recycling the past at EXCESS.)

and this little piece of heaven…

{amie navigating through the masses of wonderful junk at northgate field.}

and these lovebirds…well, they just made my day with their chippy peely decadence…

{you had me at chippy peely concrete lovebirds...}

 this is our macy’s…

{bar W field}

our happy place…

{excess field}

our junk therapy…

{vintage boots on the cheap at dead people's stuff at ZaPP}

{awesome old green jars & olive buckets at 'more than antiques' in northgate field}

{more good stuff at ExCESS}

and look at the AweSOME, amazing, GIaNT, love-em-forever, sconces we scored for our new store…

{seriously...you could travel the world for this stuff...orrrrr just come to texas}

today’s fleamarket morning…

{GoD bless the country...where life moves a little bit slower...}

WHERE we ARE: ZAPP haLL , directions HERE.

spring 2012 show dates: march 30-april 7

hours: 9ish-darkish

JUnK-O-RAMA prom: thursday, april 5 @ the gypsy tent

no tickets required!! FREE to all!!!

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, matt halpain of halpain construction, and jay robinson of woods creek, 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.

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

rachel ashwell. the world-famous rachel ashwell. the trailblazin’, pioneering, globetrottin’ rachel ashwell. creator of shabby chic, shabby chic couture, and simply shabby chic for target stores. author of multiple design books, lover of all things chippy & tattered. rachel ashwell has embarked on yet another unpredictable adventure…

{signature rachel ashwell mushy sofas sit invitingly under the soft glow of fleamarket chandeliers}

the prairie by rachel ashwell…in round top, texas. that’s right y’all…in round top, texas. read on for the full scoop…

we believe, although rachel is english and london is her home, that rachel is a true-blue texan at heart. she fell in love with texas the first time she came to the warrenton antiques show (read amie’s post here for more on that trip) …she’s religiously come twice a year. we’ve always thought she seems so at home in texas……her scuffed up, well-worn cowboy boots mosey through the fleamarket as she carefully selects the perfect items for her lovely stores across the world.

{rachel's boots...in our tent last fall}

she has always stayed at the outpost…a bed and breakfast created by lenore and danny…who renovated and restored barely-standing structures to create what the outpost is today. so, when lenore decided it was time to hang up her hostess hat and move on to a new chapter in her life, rachel decided it was the perfect next chapter for her, her family, and her business. she purchased the property to create a destination for lovers of all things shabby chic.

and, after many gallons of white paint, lots of mushy furniture that begs you to plop down, and tons of crystal-embellished, mis-matched chandeliers…the transformation has begun.

{here, fabrics are strewn across a chippy-peely farm table...each one labeled with dimensions for curtains, seat covers, etc...}

{and here, signature rachel ashwell fabrics await their shabby destination}

{vintage prom dresses flank the newly painted parlor}

 we joined the rachel camp for a dinner party the other night…it was peaceful. and beautiful. and made us all hugely grateful for the road ahead…

{simple and perfect}

{those roasted sweet taters are soooo callin' my name right about now:)}

{rachel helping prepare the chicken...delish!}

and here we all are with prairie pearl…the un-official prairie mascot and fetcher of sticks.

{mom, amie, rachel, prairie pearl, and me}

here’s to you, rachel! here’s to round top! here’s to junk! and friends! and here’s to the road ahead and the glittery dust billowing behind our trucks!

oh, and by the way…we received some really exciting news today about shabby and junk gypsy!

we’re both listed as ToP 10 design & decorating blogs! we’re soooo excited! CLiCK HERE for RaCHEL’s BLOG!

much love & tacos from us to you!!!!!

XOXOXOXOXXOOOXXXXX!