It seems as though I am always cleaning my house, but I never really ever finish! Are you with me on this? We live with two dogs and there is always some sort of hair on the carpet or the sofa. Every day I take the lint brush to the furniture and vacuum the carpet, but the minute I turn around it's back! Maybe I should give up on having a clean house and enjoy life instead. Besides, life is too short and you just never know when your time is up.

Yesterday I lost a very dear friend and sister in law, no notice, just gone in her sleep. Her loss has devastated our family. Life is too short, my friends, to worry about the little things, please don't waste it and enjoy the people close to you.

Linda FJS #2

Santa, How Old Are You?

I was reminded today that Macys first introduced Santa to its stores in 1870. One hundred and thirty-nine years ago! A Macys window display in the 1870's.

Of course we are all familiar with the most famous Macy's Santa of all. The one that inspired the movie Miracle on 34th Street. A classic "must see" during the holidays.

Macy's Toy Window Display New York 1915.

Finally, a little family history...our father often played Santa for the local merchants in our home town. Here he is with Dixie on his lap in 1974!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday, may you all enjoy the company of family and friends and don't forget to take plenty of pictures. You are creating memories after all. Maybe in another one hundred and thirty-nine years, someone will come across your photos and be fascinated by the history of it all!

Linda & Dixie

A Great Idea From Sue Whitney!

Leave it to Sue Whitney of JunkMarketStyle to come up with such a cute idea.

Can you just imagine how wonderful these paperwhites will smell when they are in full bloom? Heavenly, we say, heavenly!

Follow this link to see just how she did it.

One Day We're Gonna Get Us One Of These!

They are just so stinkin cute!

Sisters on the Fly, here come The Funky Junk Sisters!

Images courtesy of tincantourists.com & dougsvintagetrailers.com.

Barns of our home town.

We have told you before about the small town we grew up in, Deer Park, Washington. We stumbled across the Deer Park/Clayton Historical Society on the web the other day as we were researching something for a project we are working on. This is what we found....wonderful old barns!

Can you believe these beautiful barns surrounded us as kids and we thought nothing of it? We crawled around in their hay lofts and cleaned the milking parlors for extra spending money. Life was much simpler back then....how we long for it now!

We are so blessed!

At our last Funky Junk Sisters Show we were contacted by a lovely photographer, Kim Taylor. She came in early before the show opening to take photos. The photos she took were so beautiful that they are being published in Porch Magazine's Autumn edition. We feel very honored to be included in this publication with shows such as Warrenton, Marburger, Leftovers, BarnHouse, Vintage Home Lifestyle, Queen of Tarte, Molly Mo's, Petaluma, Summer Cottage Antiques and La Maison Rustique!

Make sure you order your copy today!

Discovered some neat things at the Palmer Wirfs Show

Almost immediately when I walked in the door of the showplex at the Puyallup Fairgrounds this caught my eye... I love the vibrant colors of all of these old machines.

This juke box was incredible...but it sold on Saturday.

Below is the info for the vendor that had all of this fabulous stuff. He's having an auction on November 29th. If you are in the area check it out and don't forget to tell him The Funky Junk Sisters sent ya!

Aren't these beautiful, they were offered by The House of Kerri. She is a designer from Tacoma, WA.

She embellishes vintage fur capes, collars, capelets, wraps and more. She'll even do repair services on your heirloom vintage furs. The detail is gorgeous and she even ads a little bling!

Goin Junkin!

If you are in the Puyallup area this weekend you might run into us at the Palmer Wirfs Show at the fairgrounds. We'll be lookin for treasures thru the sea of vendors. Just the kinda thing we love!

Unexpected Friends

As kids growing up on a small farm just north of Spokane, we had a beautiful German Shepard named Duke. He was our protector, our friend and our playmate. We ran all over the place unsupervised, doing chores, riding horses or crawling around in the hay. He escorted us wherever we went. One time I remember him wandering home whimpering at the front door. He went and stuck his nose in a porcupine, he had hundreds of quills in his mouth. All five of us kids had to help hold him down while mom pulled out the quills one by one with pliers. It took forever, and we just hated seeing Duke in pain. Duke is long gone now, but that memory of him will never fade.

A while back I looked out in our yard and saw a porcupine and I knew our dogs would be curious, I tried to scare him away, but he wouldn't go. We have two heelers and one is extremely alert (Cooder), the other is mellow (Doobie, appropriately named by one of my son's friends). Cooder soon limped to the back door whimpering just like Duke. Fortunately he had only pawed the porcupine and wound up with just a few quills in his paw. My youngest son and hubby were able to quickly pull them out. Now Cooder is a smart dog so he had learned to not touch "Porky" ever again, but Doobie might be even smarter, he learned from Cooder to never even go near that strange animal!
The funny thing is, that porcupine hung out with our dogs for a couple of weeks after the incident. Every day he would come back to check things out.

The dogs barked at him terribly, he wouldn't go away. Finally they just excepted him as a friend from a distance.

Crazy isn't it?

Linda

Fall Funky Junk Sisters Show in Porch Magazine!

It is official now, we have received word that the The Funky Junk Sisters Show will be in the next edition of Porch magazine! We will keep you posted on the release date! WhooooHooooo!

Flea Market Fabulous!

We were so inspired by our vendors at The Funky Junk Sisters Show that we have all sorts of ideas floating around in our heads. We have gathered some of the best flea markets finds for you, so that you too can be on the lookout at your local fleas.

Mixing and matching china is a wonderful way to put together a one of a kind collection with personality. We did this at our Save the Ta Tas event. We collected china with different patterns (the common denominator was that each pattern had to have some pink in it) and elevated them on ice cream sundae dishes. The tablecloth we served the dessert buffet on was a vintage pink ruffled bedspread we found at the thrift store. The presentation was beautiful and elegant.
Vintage tumblers are very fun and ad some whimsy to any gathering.

A collection of pillows covered in vintage cases suits this day bed just fine. The worn fabrics ad softness to this resting place.

Flea markets and thrift stores are filled with containers like this. Pot something in them and give them as gifts for the holidays. A lovely ribbon on the handle in a Christmas theme would be it's crowning glory!

Look for baskets, boxes and cubbies to use for extra storage in your crafting area. We saw some great old lockers at The Funky Junk Show that would work perfectly here.

Here is a creative headboard, it was probably propped against the wall in the junk store just waiting for someone to repurpose it. Tiffany of Shabby Scraps had darling bud vases like this little one at our show and the lamp is just precious!

This kitchen reminds us of our mother's. She collects so much stuff and somehow she makes it all look so wonderful together, like this picture. Look closely and you will see old pots, old suitcases and more. Just like mom!

Another great headboard idea, that reminds us, who got the fab fireplace mantle at our show? Amy, was that you? Here's an idea for it.

We would love to hear from you about the great finds that you have come across in your adventures on your hunt for junk! Or perhaps you have a favorite place to shop for treasures, tell us about them!