Friday, January 25, 2013

Lucysinspired Friday Wrap-Up

This week has been full! It's amazing to  me how it can fill up so quickly! I've picked up a new social media client and think it's going to be a fun one! Lots of creative ideas floating around in my head!

Since Monday was a holiday, I got to go out to the creek party! house and take a few pictures. I shared a couple of them here. We were going to try and move in next week, but The Connor Farmer got it in his head it needed to happen today. He's got the moving truck out there unloading right now.....I guess I need to get ready to fluff! Here's one more peek before I head out.


On Tuesday, I headed North to Southern Accents. I walked around the store looking for what would go into our booth at the Birmingham Home and Garden Show. You have to come see me. It's going to be a great booth and we are doing giveaways! eeeek! I shot this picture and I'm still loving it! You can follow along Lucysinspired on Facebook to see things as they hit me!


Wednesday, I picked up a new client. I have this secret love of hardware, door hardware, that is. You've seen Lucy Locket's, right? I met Eric at Brandino Brass and we decided it was a perfect fit. I would start working on their social media. You may see Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter posts that sound a little like Lucy. If so, just click like or make a comment. We will all appreciate it! (thanks to Molly for the referral!) One reason I knew this would be a good thing? This door. I love this massive thing! I stood in front of it at SA last year and was amazed at the size of it. I love how they use it as the door to block off the storage area of the store! don't you?



Thursday took me to Deconstructive Waste Services. Sara and I will be friends. I can promise that! She has been salvaging cool architectural pieces from this recycling pile! I found some really cool things. Ashlee, Lori and I made a morning of it. We filled Ashlee's car and I have to go back with a truck for my haul! This one little pic sums it up! Thanks, Lori, for always capturing the moment! I will be giving you a personal tour of this place in a few weeks! Can't wait to share some of my favorite salvage places around the South!


I also got to meet the girls behind The Scout Guide Birmingham. I love their publication. It's gorge! You need to look for it around town. It's all about the to do and see in our area!

I hope you had a great week! I love being busy and creative.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

First Peeks from the Creek Party!

I guess I should explain why I call the creek house the Creek Party! First of all, it's a weekender kind of place. It's about 30 minutes outside of Birmingham and it's a family place. My husband has a huge family and he and his cousins have been working on this property for months! My vision for the house is that everyone will come out and play (party) every weekend! The main reason it got the name is because a year ago, we were selling the property on the other side of the creek and my son wanted to have his birthday party out there. We were going to camp out and canoe down the creek. I started a pinboard on Pinterest to gather all of my ideas! You know, s'mores buffet, tent invites, the whole shebang. Next thing I know, all the lots have been sold and my hubby decides to tell me we bought the property on the other side of the creek and we are going to build a cabin! Now, I started pinning cabin ideas to that board so I could keep up with the ideas! The Creek Party! was born.

I post about it all the time on my Lucysinspired page and I get questions about where and what I'm talking about. We have been working on it for several months and I have been out there a thousand times. I was usually so busy, I forgot to take pictures. Plus, it was all junked up with dust and generators and dumpsters! The floors upstairs were finished over the weekend and we needed to pick out the concrete stain color, so we made a day of it and went out to the house! I took my good camera and my iphone. I wanted to do a few sneak peeks on Instagram and do an official blog post when it was all done. I was just asked where a picture on facebook could be pinned from. Got me thinking about giving you all a little teaser! Here are just a few of the photos I took today.

This was taken standing inside the kitchen. Those beams were LVL beams and I was UPSET when I saw them! I wanted everything to be reclaimed. I couldn't quite find beams long enough for this room and they decided to go on without me. My brother, Charlie, was the contractor on site and he gave me the idea to clad the beams with barn wood. I wanted skins that were the same size as the LVL beams. Again, couldn't be found. I finally gave in and went to Southern Accents and had Shane pull the barn wood for me. These were skins from barn wood. It had been milled so that it was the same thickness and width. It was perfect! It's been a few weeks since I was there and when I walked in today, I was so impressed! They looked GREAT! What do you think?

I also love that rusted tin ceiling. The wood on the ceiling in the kitchen is pick wick paneling. I knew this room would be able to handle a lot of texture with the tall ceilings. I feel like the sheetrock is the perfect backdrop for all that beautiful texture! I can't wait for you to see the floors! #imgiddy


This was taken looking into the kitchen. You can see the seams from the barn wood (if you look closely). The painters are coming tomorrow to finish up the kitchen walls and put another coat on everything. We also decided to paint the floor in the loft red AND the stairs going into the basement! This photo is of the floors. OH MY GOODNESS! I'm in love with them!! They are hickory and very wide planks. Purchased from Southern Accents.  We just put a good clear coat on them to bring out the natural colors. That beam in the center of the room is an octagon. I've never seen a beam with 8 sides! Garlan sent me a picture of it one day laying out at the wood museum. I had to have it! I am such a sucker for something unusual. I can always find a spot for it somewhere! We used the ends of it as brackets for the fireplace. You can find a huge selection of beams.....you guessed it, Southern Accents! There's a lot more to show of this house! Can't wait to share it with you!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Junk Gypsy finds at the Tractor Graveyard

We travelled to Tennessee this weekend for Emma's gymnastics meet in Knoxville. Emma got a 2nd place medal on Trampoline! Yay!

My Mom wanted us to go to the tractor graveyard on Saturday for me to pick out my birthday present! We really wanted to do that, but we had NO room in the car to bring back a dead tractor! haha. I want a grate from the front of a tractor. You know, a rusty, crusty one with a lot of cool colors and chippiness! It's funny that we go to the tractor graveyard to get this since Johnny, her husband, has a farm FULL of old rusty cars, tractors and OLD farm tools. Since I'm thinking about what that tractor graveyard might have had for me, I thought I would share some photos I took out at the farm last Spring.

I wish I knew how old this was. Johnny is the third generation of this farm, so it could be from the late 1800's or early 1900's. Can you believe that tree growing out of it??


 The grill on this truck is one of my favorites. I love the white and rust colors!


I love how this truck looks against the grass, wheat field and sky! It's like the perfect photo shoot!


Most of these vehicles were hauled out here to rest in peace. They have been here....for a long time! They were all driven by someone in the family and have lots of memories. Some people save Christmas cards, Johnny saves cars and trucks! He does take parts from them to fix other cars! (at one time he did)


I do love this one. Can't you imagine him driving that one around thinking he was something! According to my Mom, he was! (wink)


This is my favorite truck on the farm. It has the best colors. I have pictures from all sides and with my kids climbing all over it! That tree coming up through the front is awesome!


I want to make this into a table. There is no telling how much it weighs, but with pretend there isn't a tree growing out of it. Then put a piece of glass on top. Voila! I need a chainsaw!


My favorite truck out there. It reminds me of a cow!


This is from a Ford. I love the idea of creating words from individual letters. Check out my facebook page. My cover photo is from a sign that says Cullman Apothecary. 


 This is a wooden box on the back of an old tractor. I love the colors here and would totally rip this off if I knew someone named Oliver! I want to say this is from one of those 1800's tractors,


This made me laugh. I think these ladies are on lots of trucks still moving up and down the road, but they were rusty and I found them adorable!




Sunday, January 20, 2013

Molly's Salad on a Stick

BCS Championship game night was at Molly's house! She is one of our favorite cooks. Ok, she is the best cook! We all love to go over to Molly's house to eat. It's a new year. Most people started their New Year's Resolutions to eat right on the first. Those of us in Alabama started ours on January 8th. There was a game that called for tailgate food. Luckily, Molly thought of an easy way for us to eat a salad! Alabama vs. Notre Dame was the game of the year!

We had salad on a stick. Stop it. This was my favorite! It was amazing! 


 She had it arranged in a bowl with the lettuce, bacon and tomato all on one stick! Drizzle a little dressing on top and it's ready to serve! 


  Just pop a salad in your mouth. Oh, you could totally dip in dressing. 
GREAT idea for a salad at a tailgate!


 Meet Chef Molly and her sous chef, Emma. I think Emma wants to learn to cook. I guess we will go to Molly's very often this year! 


 I LOVE this photo! I have no idea what the score was at the time. If this was the first touchdown or the last. These two boys love Alabama football. Can you tell? I think they were getting ready for their
 end-zone celebration dance!


Friday, January 18, 2013

It Snowed in Alabama!


I am humbled by the beauty of this house everyday. 





I couldn't wait for the kids to get out of school. I sat in the den watching the snow fall, waiting on the schools to say they were getting out early. I never got the call. I made an executive decision to go get them at 2:30. Wouldn't you know, it quit snowing. After we went home to get warm clothes, we headed over to John Connor's best friend, Reynold's house. He has a hill! On the way over, we noticed the snow was melting minute by minute. The sun was actually peeking through the clouds! We haven't seen the sun in a week!!! There was a little stress that we had missed it. 
As you can see, it wasn't a lot of snow, but it was enough to play in, make snowballs and have fun!


 Someone is going to be in trouble with that snowball!

 Sorry, Marie! WATCH OUT!!


She can handle those boys!


I love that girl's smile! Isn't it electric?


 These two are always laughing!






So thankful for best friends and snow days! 




Thursday, January 17, 2013

Repurposing Old Architectural Pieces

I never watch tv. Ok, I do, but only when it's freezing outside! It's freezing outside here in Alabama. We do not get a lot of cold weather. I'm not a fan! I would rather be outside playing tennis or building something in my barn. Gah, I keep lying! When it warms up, I will be in the barn building all kinds of cool things! We moved in and I filled that cute barn up quickly. I haven't built many things, yet! Now that I have time to play, it's just too cold to get out there and clean it up!

I have been recording Rehab Addict, The Bronson Pinchot Project and today watched two episodes of The Salvage Dawgs. I love all this old, salvaged architecture! It's amazing what can be recycled out of old buildings.

You find them everywhere. Some are sentimental for family reasons. Others belong to the government and everyone can't agree on what should be done with the building or maybe someone is planning on remodeling and just can't afford it.

My Great-Grandmothers house is an example of the first. Her old farm house is falling apart and has been taken over by animals. It's been empty for 30 years. It is sad that no one has taken care of it. It still stands up on the hill with so many memories of Easter Egg Hunts and playing in the trees.



The public buildings sit for a long time. The government wants to try and use them for something else. Then vandals take over and it becomes an eyesore. There was a building in Anniston that needed to be torn down.  A fire destroyed a lot of the building and no one wanted to put the money into it to build it back. It sat there and deteriorated. It was dangerous because the floors were rotting and people were going in and could get hurt. I got to go by and take pictures because there was talk of it being torn down and salvaged. The politics got in the way and it was torn down with a wrecker ball. The doors, bricks, and beautiful ornate pieces were all destroyed. There are so many beautiful things in old buildings that need to be salvaged. They can be used again. Can you imagine what it would cost to have the character you see in old buildings?







 I had the pleasure of working with Southern Accents when they disassembled the Gay House in Montgomery. There were a couple of stories that ran in the papers in Montgomery and Mobile. The home was built in the late 1800's. It changed hands several times and was a rental when it caught fire. The owner at the time of our demo had dreams of rebuilding, but the economy wasn't good at that time and he couldn't justify the cost. The team took a couple of days to get everything out that could be salvaged. There were some amazing pieces. You can read a little about a connection with the Gay family in this post on Southern Accents blog. It was a cool reunion in the end! We also used a lot of the wainscoting in the Green House! You can see how the pieces were re-purposed in these pictures before the house was complete.


Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Recap of Gift Market at the Atlanta Mart 2013

I just spent 5 days in Atlanta shopping. Wow, who wouldn't love to say that? I love going to market with my sisters. They have the cutest shop in Trussville,  Alabama, called The Spotted Zebra. Isn't that the cutest name? It's gifts and a little home decor. They have such a great client base in Trussville and their customers love them! I love hanging out with them at the Mart because I get to see their dynamic and how they work together. They both have different strengths and the shop would not be able to run without both of them. I always add in my 2 cents just to ruffle some feathers!

There are 3 buildings at the Mart. Building 1 is full of showrooms that are open almost year round. You will find furniture, rugs and seasonal in that building. During a big market, they have 2 floors dedicated to temporaries. Temps are the booths that only come for market and are gone as soon as it's over. This is where you find all the new, cool stuff! Building 2 is full of gift companies. I mean everything you can imagine is in this building. You will find furniture, flags, pottery, frames, jewelry, lamps, every thing under the sun! Building 3 is known as the apparel building. When they have apparel mart, I envision all the showrooms open with clothing pouring out of each! During Gift Market, they have several floors dedicated to temporaries. I have a few favorites! I got to see a couple of great friends that had booths on floor 2. Vallie and Leah were both there. Their booths were packed when we went by. That always makes me happy to see someone be successful at what they love to do. I also always hit up Art by Amy. She is one of the people that inspired me to start making Lucy Lockets. She has a booth full of chain and charms and all kinds of crazy things to add to a necklace. One of the coolest things is you can pick out the charms you like and she will make you a necklace on the spot! Thinking that might be a good idea for me. Anyone want to host a party???

We had a great time. We saw lots of friends and lots of really cool things that will be in the store this year. If you get a chance, go by the store and tell them hello. You can also follow their Facebook page to keep up with all the new stuff that comes in!

I took a few pictures of my favorites. I may try and do a "trends of 2013" post, if I can muster up the list! There were definitely somethings that stood out.

 I shared this on Instagram {trend alert}


I love a yarn stocking. We "stocked up" on these!


Guess who will have a Giant light-up E in her room?


You might see a chalkboard wall at the store the next time you stop in!


 This girl had great jewelry at great prices. It was Fabu!


I shared this on Instagram, too. I need this at the beach!!


This showroom knocks my socks off every time! This fish is gorgeous!!



This patent white couch. O, yeah, just O! {trend alert}

Demdaco blew us away with their vintage signing. Some really cute pieces for Christmas!


 How could I not share this one! Who wants one of these for their tree. Or just to hang on their desk!