Vintage went to McKinney, TX

OK, I feel awfully guilty for royally slacking on the blog! I did NOT realize my last post was almost a month ago! Totally not acceptable. No wonder I haven’t been my 100% percent lately. I consider writing as my therapy. Not wise to be skipping out on “therapy” this often!

But…in my defense…I have been busy prepping for the new house (shopping, shopping, etc.), stressing about the move (I despise packing/unpacking), traveling (so excited to share my adventure with you – post coming up next week!) and of course, work never manages to bore me (ps: I love my job!)

About a month ago I covered a flea market locally in the Houston area in this post. This flea market was hosted by Vintage Market Days. I discovered VMD on Facebook. Found out it was featured in Country Living magazine as one of the “7 Flea Markets & Barn Sales Not To Miss in 2015“. This piece of revelation was enough to convince me to make a short trip to Hempstead. After spending a day and a half at the VMD flea market, I realized what a wise decision I made! It was love at first sight! I heart barn sales to begin with (my sister likes to think I follow all of them on the road) and this one tops my list so far.

So you know what I did next. I followed VMD to McKinney TX a week later! Even better. The stuff was so great. People were nice. Weather was pleasant. And my company of friends & family in Dallas TX rocked! I spent an entire day at the event. Bought lots of cool stuff for the house.

I think my sister may have a point there. Looks like I’ll be a VMD groupie for at least the next several months. Have already noted down their 2016 flea markets on my calendar. They are in Dripping Springs, TX (near Austin/Hill Country) this weekend as we speak. Looks like I will be missing out on this one 😦 but check out the VMD site and if they happen to cruise by your town, do drop by. You will not be disappointed.

Now off to pics!

PS: I picked up business cards of vendors whose stuff I really liked. The links/phone numbers to their shops are posted right below the pictures.

Cool Stuff Store

The Silver Craftsman

Junk ‘N’ Disorderly

King’s Whimsy

Hello

Rusted Rabbit

a number of things

Cool Stuff Store

List of Vendors:

Hello, Junk Queens And Kings
a number of things
Junk ‘N’ Disorderly – 806-236-5594
Plaid Guys’ Pillow Co. – 417-291-6952
Cool Stuff Store
The Silver Craftsman
Lonestar Vintage Finds – 903-413-8478
King’s Whimsy
Rusted Rabbit LLC

Vintage came to Houston!

Well…sorta…it came to a little town north of Houston named Hempstead over this past weekend…and left 😦

It was the event I had been waiting for – Vintage Market Days, featured in Country Living as one of the “7 Flea Markets & Barn Sales Not To Miss in 2015“!

Did I tell you one of my New Years resolution for next year is to visit every damn barn sale in this country?

The addiction sprung up sometime around late last year as I perused through blogs and magazines to rediscover my design style. There was an emerging propensity in my heart towards all things old and it wasn’t until I picked up an issue of Better Homes & Garden that I knew I had found my Home. And before you know it, flea markets and barn sales began to crowd my 2015 calendar.

My biggest show was going to be the Roundtop Antique Fair in September/October of this year – one of country’s biggest flea markets stretching across 25 miles between Fayetteville and Carmine over the course of two weeks. It’s main attraction – Marburger Farm Antique Show. OKAY! I’ll stop right there! Only because THIS antique fair deserves a post of its own; I am itching to put my two cents in!!

Anyhow, so back to Vintage Market Days. Country Living was absolutely on point! This was indeed a well organized and an absolute FUN barn sale to go to. Small but relevant with some interestingly unique pieces. And most importantly, prices everywhere were REASONABLE for a flea market rated high on Country Living’s list. Each time I laid my hands on a piece, I found it to be priced right around how much I would pay for it. Vendors were super nice and chatty. I spent a decent amount of time at each tent. The fair took up almost 4 hours of my time.

VMD is now heading to McKinney TX (close to Dallas) this coming weekend! If you’re into this type of adventure and you happen to be in Texas, I hope my pictures convince you enough to embark on a short trip to Dallas this weekend.

This is a coffee brewer!

This is the top of a side table!

Another coffee brewer!

upcycled wheels!

Live artist!

McCain’s Furniture Co & Boutique

Letter Lounge – These are vintage books upcycled into letters!

JoniKeith by Something New

Here are some of the vendors from this past weekend (fortunately I picked up several business cards; unfortunately they’re sitting in another car as we speak 😦 Hence the list of vendors is short for now. I promise to update this post sometime this week to list remaining vendors from the fair so be sure to drop by again!):

McCain’s Furniture Co & Boutique (picture included in gallery)
Rusted Rabbit (no pictures but if you’re looking for seriously salvaged items like repurposed car parts, vintage rulers, old license plates or every other junk on this planet, this is your place to be)
Texas Wood Mgt. – 512-788-4450 (unfortunately no website or Facebook page but this dude had repurposed clocks out of barrels)
A Little Piece of Art (she had a number of assorted items)
JoniKeith by Something New (picture included in gallery)
New Moon Mercantile
Land of Elsewhere
Letter Lounge (picture included in gallery)

Surreal Interior Designs

I simply hate these people!

…and see how this guy transformed his bathroom floor into a starry night sky!

via Earth Porn

11 Craziest Beauty Tips!!

via Better Homes & Garden

Alright, when I saw this article on BHG, I knew I had to share!

I’ll admit, I’ve heard of a few but some were completely shocking. But hey! If they work, who’s to complain…

so let’s get started…

The Tip: Put Toothpaste on a Pimple

The claim: The ingredients in your toothpaste such as baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and alcohol will dry up a zit — fast.

The Tip: Wash Your Face with Beer

The claim: It’s said to exfoliate dead skin cells and reduce acne-causing bacteria.

The Tip: Depuff Eyes with Preparation-H

The claim: The same active ingredient that shrinks your hemorrhoids can shrink your under eye bags.

The Tip: Give Yourself a Facial With Pepto Bismol

The claim: The chalky pink stomach remedy is said to clear acne when worn as a facial mask.

The Tip: Wash Your Hair with Coca-Cola

The claim: This tip went mainstream after model Suki Waterhouse admitted to swapping out her shampoo for the sugary soda. She says rinsing with the bubbling beverage gives her hair body and tousled texture.

The Tip: Add Aspirin to Your Shampoo

The claim: The headache remedy, all crushed up, can dissolve away flaky dead skin cells.

For more information on each tip as well as to catch the remaining crazy tips, definitely read this BHG article!!

Interesting Mobile Apps you want on your phone!

It’s great that all my shopping stores now offer convenient apps so the need to actually physically walk into the store appears to be diminishing. The not-so-great thing is I find myself cruising these apps during a busy Monday and buying things I don’t need as means of relaxation. Which really isn’t all that relaxing once you receive the credit card bill. So I’ve decided next year I will aim to download less of the shopping apps and more of the useful, productive, educational, fun apps. Taking a break from life doesn’t have to cost a fortune!

As I’m shopping for some interesting apps out there, I find these and I’m like wait, these are pretty cool. Does anyone else know about these?

Reporter: Have you ever wanted to track the minutae of your life? You know, how many cups of coffee you’ve drank in a year, or which of your friends you’ve seen the most? Reporter, by Facebook Timeline Designer Nicholas Felton, can send you custom quizzes six times a day to find out, then graph the results. Hmmm I’m curious and scared at the same time. Not sure how I feel about a service telling me politely at the end of the year how I’ve managed to not have a life!

Panic Button: You can call 911 from a smartphone’s lock screen, but Amnesty International has built something better for reporters in dangerous areas. (Or anyone with an Android phone, really.) It’s a Panic Button that you can activate in case of an emergency just by clicking the power button on your phone several times. It will send alerts and location data to three selected contacts. Don’t be messin’ with it unless you absolutely have to!

Foodscores: Looks beyond a nutrition label and rates your grub on a scale of 1 – 10 based on nutrition (the standard calories, fat, and protein stuff); ingredients (including undisclosed pesticides, contaminants, or antibiotics); and processing (how far has that product come from its source whole foods). Nothing is hidden from their database of 80,000 products. You don’t want to know how they feel about Kellogg’s Corn Flakes either!

OK well…these are good for today…unless you’re hungry for more…then you may want to check out my previous posts on: productivity apps, travel apps and other fun apps. Enjoy!

How to wear glitter eye makeup

I love the feel of glitter on skin during winter time, not sure why! Maybe because it’s the only time of the year when I’m guaranteed Houston humidity won’t melt it away!

Here are a couple of ways you can apply glitter eye makeup. If you don’t reside in Houston, you can get away with glitter all year round!

Golden glitter can accentuate a red-lipstick look for a weekend night out!

or pop up this look with a nude shade on the lip!

Give a new meaning to smokey eye makeup!

Or if you’re not feeling glitter all over your eye, play around with a glittery eye pencil…

Here’s how you can go about applying glitter eye makeup:

via The Beauty Thesis

I’ve already tried the glittery eye pencil look. Bought a green one from Sephora a while back. When I don’t have time for a full-blown eye makeup, lining my eye liner with it does the job.

Look forward to trying other looks…do you?

If you love chocolates…and taking pictures…and winning big…well…

…meet Cocoagraph!

Artist-turned-Chocolataire Rae Vittorelli discovered she could combine her love for fashion, photography and vintage aesthetic into one medium: chocolate! So she founded Cocoagraph: The Original Chocolate Photograph Co.

What is it about?

Well, you get a taste of her custom photo bars which are artisan chocolates printed with edible Polaroid-style photographs. Imagine what a hit these would be at your next slumber party!

or, you can surprise your BFF with a box of Chocstagram Instagram bars to reminisce over those good old traveling memories:

or, win some serious marketing points at your upcoming company event by handing out delicious company logo bars to potential clients. After all, chocolate is the ultimate universal pleaser!

Options are plenty. There’s a gluten-free, milk, white or dark chocolate bar waiting for you whether it is Christmas, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day or Father’s Day!

Who can deny even when Oprah is all over it!

Don’t you think this is fabulous?

Best of the Web

This week, I’ll share with you a few awesome things I found on the web. I may be a late bloomer so if you already knew about these from like high school days please excuse my tardiness. I’m an 80’s child so I’m guilty of lagging on the world wide web bandwagon!

But honestly, I’m excited to share what I have in store for you…and we have a little bit for everyone.

So…

and here we go!

Today’s focus is on Unroll.Me. Wait…before I begin, I need a moment! Where was this service 2 weeks ago??!? That’s all I gotta say! “Torture” is the appropriate term which comes to mind when I think of the effort I put in to rid my inbox of excessive “stuff” I subscribe to. Here’s how the story commences: back in the day when the World Wide Web was kicking off, Ms. Quaintrelleoquist couldn’t keep her paws off subscribing to all kinds of sh*t out there. Decades later, staring at an overly-excessive string of emails in her inbox daily would give her gastritis. And the thought of unsubscribing from each email one by one by one by…would erupt her ulcer. But she sucked it up and sailed away on the mission anyways! Until her inbox was down to cero! Now if she had stumbled on Unroll.Me in time, her excruciating effort would have boiled down to a few clicks and minutes. Because that is exactly what Unroll.Me offers: it allows you to unsubscribe instantly from whatever you don’t want. And once you’re finished unsubscribing from what you don’t want, you can combine what you love into one email called the Rollup! I swear, reduce the noise, shrink the clutter…and be happy like the millions of users out there!

I already enrolled on Unroll!

Coming up next: Tomorrow we have something special for them chocolate lovers!

33 Restaurants with Spectacular Views!

Turns out food is not the only luxury served best at these restaurants.

Next time you’re on a journey around the world, pamper yourself with a meal and a view, at what is voted by travel magazines and experts, restaurants with the most spectacular views!

I can’t vouch for the quality of the food though. Hoping the meal is as refreshing as the view you take in!

AMERICAS

Sierra Mar – Big Sur, California