July Manifesto

In the One Little Word group I belong to our challenge for July is to come up with a manifesto that aligns with our intentions for the year and encourages us in our goals. My manifesto came to me easily because I immediately thought of a little saying my sister and I have been using for the past few months - "You don;t know until you try".

This year my word for the year is rest and right from the start of the year I have been embracing changes that create health and help prevent burn-out. Through it all I am putting habits into place that help me rest in God and gain a healthier outlook and a healthier body. I have found in recent years that creativity is really a vital part of keeping myself healthy emotionally and mentally. On our sisters road trip this past February my sister and I reconnected with our love of hunting vintage items. Over the months since that trip we have been on the "thrill of the hunt", discovering vintage shops and markets and fairs in the areas around and between our homes in southwest Michigan and northwest Ohio. 

Through it all that little saying above started popping up. We hate passing up great finds but honestly neither one of us needs much in our homes after years of collecting. So in the spring I started carrying vintage items in my Etsy shop. Then we started a Facebook group where we share our journey hunting vintage items and ideas of how to use them. 

Then in June we decided to enter a vintage market that took place July 23, after all, you don't know until you try!

It was the hottest day of the summer with heat advisories, but we had a good time and I met the owner of Great Finds in Maumee antique store....and a week later I now have a booth in that store! Stepping out and trying the vintage market and a booth in the antique store has enabled my hubby to join the adventure with repurposed furniture.

A mindset of "you don't know until you try" has really enabled us to step out and take risks. The thrill of the vintage hunt combined with art journaling exercises my creative muscles and, while it is hard work, it is so energizing! What might be on your list of things to step out and try?

June in Review

Summer is here and the busyness of the school year winds down for just a bit. It amazes me when I think about the fact that my daughter graduated from high school 18 years ago! The first year after she graduated it felt strange not to have the school year dictating our schedules and our calendar. We got past that - along with numerous other empty nest transitions! But then our church began a ministry to the elementary school nearby, and I soon became the leader of that ministry, and over the past 11 years I find that the school year once again has the greatest impact on my schedule and calendar! So, while I am not a teacher or a school employee, I find I release a huge sigh in June when the calendar and the schedule slows down for a while.

As a result of the ministry we have in to the school and the neighborhood I have gained a bunch of God-grandchildren over the years. We have had many kids come to church without their parents and they became "our kids". Then a few of the moms started coming and soon became like daughters to me and over time "Grandma Mary" started. This month the first of those God-grandkids graduated from high school. It was made even more exciting as his mom told me he is the first high school graduate! I'm so proud of Shanon! He is an awesome young man and is an incredible role model for his younger siblings and the kids in our church community. 

"The thrill of the vintage hunt" has continued for my sister and I in June. We attended a great vintage market in Grand Rapids at Everlasting Blooms Greenhouse and Gift Shop.

It was a great show. We fell in love with one of the vendors, Urban Rewind, and visited her booth twice. Her booth is on the right in the picture below - the one that is packed full of people! We hope to run into her again. And we will definitely attend Everlasting Bloom's markets again in the future!

My weekend getaway to my sister's included a full day of thrift shopping in Grand Rapids. We are having a blast hunting down great vintage finds! We have done this all our life but now that we decided to be more intentional about it and add vintage goods to Found on Brighton we find we have a new level of excitement and energy as we travel and "thrift"! It also gives us an opportunity to spend more time together, and that's never a problem for us sister BFF's! 

My hubby is involved in this new adventure as well. We headed to Cleveland a few weeks ago to our nephew's graduation party and stopped at a flea market and some stores along the way. We made some great finds!

One thing I have found a good deal of recently is vintage office papers - ledger and graph and lined - so I have been able to add a new line of altered book journals to my shop. Using dictionary, encyclopedia, and ledger book covers these journals contain the same watercolor and patterned types of paper as my standard journals, but they also contain a variety of the office papers, more ephemera papers and an extra large shipping tag. 50 pages total!

There hasn't been a lot of art time this month as I've spent my creative time in other ways. We have some exciting news to share, but I'll save that for another post in a few days! Stop back soon!

The Thrill of the (Vintage) Hunt

Oh, the weekend we had! My sister and I spent Saturday hunting down vintage shops and finding great deals at thrift and resale stores from Caledonia to Hudsonville, MI. Today we went to a vintage marketplace with 150 vendors held at the Kalamazoo Speedway. The rain held out and we saw so many great ideas.

Painted Farmgirl ended up being our favorite shop.

We have both followed The Found Cottage on Instagram for quite a while, so it was fun visiting in person.

Some of my vintage finds:

I'm looking forward to working some of these items into my Etsy shop and, of course, playing in my art journal with some of these finds. We are planning our summer to make time for weekend sister's road trips and the thrill of the (vintage) hunt.

Follow our adventures and see what we find at facebook.com/groups/FoundonBrightonVintage

My niece, Lizzie, went along with us and got inspired to create a new addition to her shop of hand-painted signs, The Chevron Rose.

May your week be full of finding things that make you smile. :)