Simple Life Longing

Last year we sold our home in the city and decided we would rent near our workplaces so it would help us on the road to a simpler frugal life. I lost my job a year and a half ago and have been re-evaluating what really makes me happy. Do I work for the man at a desk job? Or do I follow my dreams of owning my own business and following my bliss in vintage and creativity? It's a no brainer....huh? Following your bliss takes sacrifice. I started living a simpler life with less anyway around ten years ago after I got divorced. I've been happier because of it. Less to take care of, less time spent having the "wants," less to move, less that just sits around and collects dust. In our society we are ravaged with consumerism. It's what is the newest neatest thing to buy or have. We are constantly bombarded with it on TV, in magazine adds, on the radio and everywhere we look. But for me I'm done with that. It is so much nicer to find a place of content and learn to live on less, have less and be happy.
Last year we bought a 36 foot used motor home. We traded in our travel trailer that we loved to get something we could drive rather than pull. Our goal all along was to eventually live in our motor home full time, travel and live a simpler life. The dilemma is the price of gas! Yee gads! The gas tank in our motor home holds 100 gallons so you do the math...a couple of hundred bucks to fill up!

This leads to the heart and head thing. My head tells me you want to be frugal live a simpler life not have so much stuff so get rid of the motor home. My heart tells me, but you want to be a full time RV'er in two years and this was your plan.
Life is full of pulls and tugs. Decision making is hard but insanity is doing things the same way and expecting different results. It won't change it will just stay the same. So give me a simple life full of love, sunshine, vintage, creativity, trees, poems, herbs, cats, zen, kisses, tea, books, music, singing, toe tapping, dancing, swaying, pressed up against one and help me be content with LESS.  These are my thoughts sent out to you oh dear ones.

Do you long to live the simple life? How have you cut back in your life? What REALLY makes you happy?

I find as I get older it is the simplest things that make me really happy.

New Ventures In My Zenful World

This post was originally posted on the Vintage Etsy Society blog.

Yesterday was the day I opened my booth at a local Antique Mall. It's about 23 miles from where I live. To get there I have to drive the back roads and I love it. An excellent time to think and ponder and look at Mother Natures beauty. Don't you love the word ponder?

It took me two full days of working my dogs off to set up. The booth is very small only 50 square feet and has a back wall and two long walls of lattice and peg board on the sides. The back wall was white with red stripes like a flag which isn't my style. So I picked a lovely pale shade of my favorite color, green and painted away! I also painted the lattice. Now it's fresh and green and waiting for my stuff!

The week before while camping we decided to venture out to a flea market and antique mall near by. I got really lucky and found a booth that was going out of business. I found a great deal on two large shelf units that fit perfectly along one wall. I can arrange my items in little vignettes and put larger items such as bowls on the bottom shelf unit. I also got a rusty green ironing board to display items on and a neat shelf to hang up high to display my cream and sugar sets on and bird items.

My booth is eclectic, kind of shabby chic, kind of French, kind of farmhouse style...  it's a mixture just like me. Kind of sassy, kind of rock n roll but zen like and gentle.

I knew I wanted to get it set up by the weekend because we will be out of town this weekend.  I worked hard for two days straight and accomplished my goal. I'm officially open and ready to sell. I could of listened to the voices in my head, "No not enough time", "You don't have enough stuff", "You won't sell anything", and the list goes on. I conquered my fears and trudged on happy in my heart for doing something I love which is owning my own business.
Around ten years ago I owned a home and garden shop for three years which I loved. Now I'm coming back around to doing something that means so much to me and makes my heart sing! I've been laid off from a "normal" job for 19 months and I don't plan on going back. I now have my Etsy shop and this booth which I hope both do well. Hope is never fleeting and I hold onto it with all of my might.

My words of encouragement for you my dear friends is to not waver in what you value, what calls your name and what makes your insides churn. If it is your passion, keep holding onto it and don't let go until you have created the dream you know that is inside of you. It's like a breath of fresh air and goodness to look upon something you have created and that you made happen with your own hands. Don't give up and don't let the negatives get to you. Be like a busy bee with a smiling face and you will succeed!
Peace and blessings to all of you.

Antique Mall Jack Pot

I went camping this past weekend near the Mississippi River. The spot we had was nice and I had some view of the river in the back of us. My mind was quite full of how, what and where I was going to get stuff to set up my booth in a nearby Antique Mall. I could use what I had at home for display if need be. Maybe an old painted dresser, a few small tables, a card table with a tablecloth thrown over it. Ideas were rolling around in my head constantly trying to figure it out. The space I'm getting is fairly small only 50 square feet but you can guess that I'm going to fill it full to the brim. Now I know it has to be neat and in some order or people will look in and not know where to start. But it has to be full of lovely vintage stuff!

Lucky for me we found a Antique Mall about six miles from where we were camping. I hit the jackpot when I found a booth going out of business with everything marked down 50%.
The owner of the booth had two nice long book case like cabinets made of wood one painted white and about 8 feet long with three shelves and another cabinet painted pale green that's 5 feet long that sits nicely on top of the larger case. They were not marked for sale but we ask the ladies at the front desk if they could call the owner and ask if she would sell both of those pieces. Lucky for me we got both of them for $60.00! I think that was a great deal...one less thing to check off of my list. We also found a skinny country look Christmas tree, vintage Christmas ornaments, Hall pottery, Jewel T bowls, postcards, cream and sugar sets, bottles and a myriad of other items for 50% off or less. In another booth I found a chrome legged red table from the 1950s in very good condition and it was marked down to $35.00. The gods of vintage must of been shining down on me! I found a large standing wire basket to put linens in and a old green metal ironing board, a pale green etagere shelf, and a wall hanging shelf!
Our motor home was filled to the brim and we had to make three trips to the mall to pick everything else up. Tomorrow I'm going to go there to start setting up after I paint the back wall which is now white with a red stripe. I may paint it robins egg blue, or a funky green color, I'm not sure yet. Things are coming along and when I'm all set up I will post pictures here.

Have you ever done flea markets, or vintage shows, or a booth anyplace? Tell me what you used for display and some of your lucky finds. 

Hanging Out Your Mother Of Reinvention Blues To Dry

I've been laid off from my job for almost 18 months now. I worked in accounting for about three years for a company that ran their business like it was the 1970s.  My job mostly included good organizational and people skills. Most everything I did was done manually from filling out vouchers to paying the bills. Finding a job like that again is pretty slim in the day and age of computer savvy businesses. So I'm re-inventing myself and trying to figure out what to do.


I started my Etsy shop a few months after I got laid off. It took awhile to feel comfortable navigating my way around "Etsyworld." After a few months and with some help from other shop owners my business started falling into place.  I have obsessed about my business and spent hours online researching the ways of Etsy. I've been on FaceBook, Tweeter, making Treasury collections and tweaking my shop daily for hours at a time. My shop is coming along just fine but I'm still in the reinvention mode of finding what works for me and what is best for me.

I want to change some things in my life and I'm trying to figure all of it out. For the most part I feel  happy about my life. I'm making new friends, trying to eat healthier, trying to stay positive and to live my life in a fuller way. Change is scary and you have to check yourself and your motivation. You can't want to change because you admire something in someone else and want to be just like them. What they are doing for themselves may not be the right thing for you to be doing for your life. You have to stop and sit and ponder what it is you really want and need for you. How can you reinvent yourself and create a "new" you ?

Fear has held me back in my life many times. Fear of failure, fear of looking stupid, fear of rejection, fear of being alone, fear of being poor, fear of gaining weight, fear of old age and the list goes on. So how do you take all of the ideas in your head that you have about how you want to be and turn them into something solid and concrete? I can sit and spin my wheels and try to come up with ideas and ways to change but if I give up or say it's too hard, then I will never take the steps I need to make the change.

When I got divorced ten years ago after being married almost 25 years the biggest obstacle I faced was reinventing myself. My kids were grown, I was alone in a new place, I was loosing my business and I was starting to date after all of those years of being married. I was like a fish out of water making bad decisions and running around like a chicken with no head. It took me several years after bad relationships, moves, jobs and sorrows to finally be comfortable in my new skin. To this day I'm not so sure I'm all that comfortable in it anyway.

Life is a  series of changes from moves, jobs, new relationships, friends, pets, cars, goals, aging, children, grandchildren and many other happenings of life. It's all in the way you deal with it that really affects your life for the good or for the not so good.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels restless at times and desires change and who wants to be who they are inside and quit hiding it away out of fear of rejection. How do you deal with change or the reinvention of yourself? Do you let fear hold you back? Do you feel insane and alone in these feelings? I know I'm not alone in what I feel.  I think by having the courage to talk about these things I'm helping myself and hopefully someone else too.
Does that make sense?

This post is not about anything vintage....my apologies.

Happy Gratefulness

http://www.etsy.com/shop/thenotsoblankcanvas

Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in life and concentrate on what is wrong. Today I'm trying to turn the corner and be grateful for what is good in my life.
 Right now in this country we are going through lots of hardships but as a nation we are far more richer than most countries. Most of us have a roof over our heads, food to eat, clothes to wear, a job, and money in our pockets. Choosing to be thankful for the simple things in life helps us to remember that the little things that annoy us aren't important. Being content with what we have and where we are in life is hard. We have to stop and think and breath in the moment. This helps us to remember that things aren't as bad as they seem. What are you thankful for in your life today?

These lovely shops feature some wonderful items that remind us to be thankful and happy!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/collectique

 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/happyback

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LOOKINGforYESTERDAY

 

 

 

 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LLGVintage

1. Count your blessings.
2. Start a gratefulness diary.
3. Remember someone always has it worse than you.
4. Don't get tunnel vision you are not the only one.
5.  Do things that make YOU happy.



TURN ON YOUR HAPPY GRATEFULNESS!

Ode To A Small Town And The Estate Sale At Grandmas.

The estate sale at Grandmas

 This post was from an original post done for the Vintage Etsy Society blog.

Almost two weeks ago we were on the tail end of our vacation when I got an email from my cousin. She told me that my Aunt and her were going down to Southern Illinois on the following Tuesday to clean out my Grandmothers house. My Grandmothers house had sold to a neighbor and they had to have everything cleaned out by the following weekend. I was quite surprised but glad it had sold it would be one less worry for the family.
My Grandmother had moved down to live with my Aunt last October but had recently had a fall and had a hairline fracture on her hip. This required her to remain in a nursing home until it healed. Grandma will be 94 in August and has Alzheimer's disease and does not know where she is or who people are any longer. More than likely she will remain in the nursing home even after her hip heals.
I decided to head down on a Tuesday taking the train to the town I grew up in to do this sad and daunting task. Since the age of thirteen all I ever dreamed of doing was getting away from that small town. I disliked that there wasn't much to do, that people were nosey, judgemental, and that I couldn't go "places" if I stayed there. At the age of seventeen I left to go to college and I never returned.
We spent hours for three days from early morning to late night pulling things out of closets, drawers, cabinets and the pantry. Each one of us would ask the other, "Do you want to take this home?" If not it was cleaned up a bit and tagged with a pink circle price tag and put out on the counter, table, floor, bed or dresser to be sold. We were up on step stools pulling stuff out of high closets and down low pulling stuff out of dresser drawers.  It was bittersweet to hold those things Grandmother once loved, that she touched, that she baked with and that surrounded her life. There was a bit of guilt in throwing some worn and unusable items out and in selling ones too.
The sale was held on a Friday and the house was opened up to strangers, neighbors, family and friends. I sat at the kitchen table taking the money and bagging the things people were buying. Mostly I noticed how nice and friendly people were. How they ask questions about who lived here and what happened? People would sit at the kitchen table while I was tallying up and talk to me, my cousin and Aunt like they were our best friends. A rude or unkind word was never uttered. A neighbor lady who I have known all of my life came over to see us. I had not seen her in probably thirty five years and she didn't recognize me. I recognized her though as someone from my past who was kind and loving. After she figured out who I was we talked awhile and she stayed to help bag items and add some friendly conversation. We talked about me as a young girl and about our families. She ask if we were hungry and volunteered to fix us lunch. She had brought over a cake the day before and that morning had baked cookies for us too. She returned a little later with meatballs, baked potatoes from her garden, sliced tomatoes from her garden, dressing and bread and butter. It was like a feast for a King for three weary souls who had the daunting task of selling precious items that belonged to someone they so loved. That same neighbor came to see about us the next day while we were hauling the leftover stuff to the Salvation Army. There were hugs all around and such a fellowship of love.
It made me think that maybe in my small scope of thinking as a teenager that I missed the most important things that seem somehow lost today. Neighbors helping neighbors, strangers being kind and people reaching out to you in a rough time of your life. It made me re-think about someday returning to the area to live in my older age to reconnect with those who had familiar faces and ways.
I was reminded while setting up for the sale that at the sales I go to myself  I need to be more aware that these things meant much to someone. That these everyday  things were once held by someone and a real live person cherished them and used them daily. It also made me realize that someday, someone would be going through my things and making decisions on what to keep and what to sell or give away.
I moved from a house to a condo last year and paired down quite a bit. My goal over the next few years is to live frugally, let go of the excess baggage of things and leave a legacy of love behind and not too much stuff.
This is a ode to a small town in Southern Illinois that stands still in time in many ways. The recent days spent there changed my mind about where I grew up and the people who live there. I'm proud to say that I'm a small town girl and I have never forgotten that.

The garden gate at Grandmas.

Hotter Than Blue Blazes

Refrigerator Water Jug     http://www.etsy.com/shop/ZenfulGoods

   

So here we sit on our long awaited vacation and it's so hot we have to stay inside our motor home in the afternoon. What better thing to do then write a blog post. 
I've had writer's blah for the past few weeks knowing I needed to do some writing but couldn't seem to be satisfied with any subject I would think of.
Experiencing this heat wave is a topic I can write about!
We are in the hills of Missouri near Hannibal, way out in the middle of no where. Luckily our camp site is mostly shaded or we would be frying eggs on our rooftop!
The heat index is over 100 degrees with no relief in sight.
After waiting six long months to start the camping season and to be able to be out in the wilds like I love to be I'm not complaining.
Living in the midwest around the Chicago area you seem to experience many weather extremes.We had a cool rainy Spring and it felt like warm weather would never come. Now my friends it is here! Blazing hot and humid as a sauna bath!
I'm thinking about ways to stay cool. A tall cold drink, short shorts, halter top, fan, sunglasses, flip flops and gosh bless, I'm  thankful for air conditioning!!
Stay cool my friends!! 

Vintage Drinking Glasses    http://www.etsy.com/shop/thewhitepepper

Retro Ice Crusher   http://www.etsy.com/shop/retrovertigo

1930's Sunglasses

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CuriousCrowVintage

How are you surviving the heat??