What is a Farm Chick?

A Farm Chick is a girl who sees the world through rose-colored glasses. She loves her family. She laughs a lot.

She’s farmgirl meets Fifth Avenue and with a little style, she’ll change the world.

~www.thefarmchicks.com

I had SUCH a fun weekend! I was able to get some “time-off” {thank you most wonderful husband ever for holding down the fort} this weekend and road trip it over to sunny Spokane, WA. What made the trip even more fun, was that I had some pretty rad company: one of my old roomies, Jeanna. J and I go WAY back and I have fond memories of going for midnight runs, hosting mafia parties, and just plain old kickin it “Western” style. I love this girl and am thankful to call her my buddy. AND, I ALWAYS tell this to people… she has the MOST AMAZING farm house ever {which she blogs about HERE}! I do tell her that I envy her beat up old barn out back, which houses all eight of her egg laying hens, her beautiful wrap around porch, and just her perfect country girl style. She was the perfect person to kick it with this weekend at the Farm Chicks Antique Show!

We left Friday morning, of course after making a Starbucks run. Let’s face it, a girl can’t have too much Starbucks. And, we took off in her ride. We joked this afternoon on the phone, how we didn’t even turn on the radio… just jumping back into conversation, like we hadn’t missed a beat, even after all of these years. Yes, we can talk. I am sure the Starbucks helped with that.

We pulled into town later that afternoon, only getting lost a few times, and drove over to the fairgrounds to purchase our tickets. Ready for the next day!

Saturday morning arrived… we pulled our Farm Chicks best attire out and headed over, arriving just after 7:30am. About 50th in line, we were sitting pretty nice, since the doors were set to open at 10am.  Adrenaline pumping, ready to get our junk.

The peeps in front of us

The peeps behind us.

We came armed with more Starbucks and a few important reading essentials, ready to pass the wait time. However, we never even broke out our reads, since people watching and chit chatting it up with the women around us was so much more fun. Seriously, there were some CUTE outfits out there… Jeanna and I joked that we felt like Carson Kressley’s red carpet watch, except we only had nice things to say about everyone’s wardrobe. Everyone was just so stinkin cute sportin their cowboy hats, boots, and vintage aprons. And, it was so much fun to meet some amazing women/bloggers as well and share tips about how to get the good junk. We sat next to Beckie, from Vintage Ambiance. She just launched her new site {her shop is out of Bellevue} and it is full of vintage antiques for rent for special events!

Evening Magazine was there, interviewing some of the women for an upcoming show on The Farm Chicks!

We met some bloggin ladies {here, here, and here} who came armed with a load of sidewalk chalk and got the crowd out to draw some art and share their blogs. So sweet.

Serena Thompson, blogger and founder of the Farm Chicks Show, AND writer of this amazing cookbook I own, walked by and J and I had to grab a pic with her. Seriously, we felt a little starstruck. =)

And, then the gates opened… it was like a herd of cows making their way to their dinner, or in this case, a load of shopping frenzy women, headed for their junk. Jeanna was smart, I have to say… When we broke in, she took a left and headed straight back. Naive I, on the other hand, went right, headed to the first booth inside the doors, along with EVERYONE else. My strategy: walk through each row, up and down, so I wouldn’t miss anything. Her strategy and I must say, much more strategic than mine: go left. She told me later that her husband, who is a policeman, always says that people lost or on the run, always naturally go right {case in point, ME}, so her goal was to do the opposite. Way to strategize, Jeanna!

Anyway, we saw SO much sweet sweet junkity junk goodness… ruffles, burlap, scrabble tiles, rusty cans, vintage aprons, old pyrex dishes, galvanized buckets, cute buntings, one of a kind pieces of art work, flower clips, chicken wire, old window frames, chippy painted furniture pieces. The list goes on and on… Seriously, my mind is STILL swimming with all of the inspiration we saw!

Enough of my gabbing… I will let the images speak for themselves…

Yeah, it was a great time… I think the thing that struck me the most and what I mentioned to Jeanna on Saturday was how cool it is to see such amazingly creative women come together with the one purpose of getting the junk. The junk that will be used to re-porpose, create, or decorate with. Reminds me of what most likely, our mothers and grandmothers used to do, and I believe what I have read before, how the Farm Chicks Show originally started. When you don’t have much, you definitely can find a way to make something beautiful out of someone else’s junk. If that isn’t creative, or even “green”, then I don’t know what is! It may sound cheesy, but I am super proud to be a part of that kind of movement, that is becoming more and more popular these days.

SO… what did I get, you ask? Well, I will show you. Can I just say that I got a little giddy when I came across my finds… Rolane, from The Vintage Barn gave me some GREAT deals on her salvaged farm items: A rusty brown wagon, an old picket fence, and my favorite… wait for it… a red, white, and blue windmill! YES, when I pulled that big daddy out of the car, Jeff looked at me with the look that only he could give that said, “Kelly, what IS this?”  I can’t explain this purchase, other than the fact that, when I saw it, I knew I had to have it and EVERY TIME I go out back to look at it, it makes me smile. I have big plans for all of my junk… the wagon will be used to plant some flowers in, the fence resides behind one of my raised veggie beds, and the windmill will be sitting in the corner of our yard, complete, after we finish off getting rid of a ton of rock, and landscaping with some bark and shrubs.

I brought me home some other cutie finds, which also have great destinys here at the Harper pad. I will be spray painting the white frame and I’ve got plans for the fabric and doilies, which I should blog about when those projects are completed!

Yup, will definitely be going back next year, probably with a bigger vehicle and a few other of my Farm Chick friends!