The Farm Chicks Show - Junkers Delight

Another great Farm Chick Show!

Congratulations & thanks to

The Chicks and Company!

Inspired by The Chicks subtle '60's housewife vibe The Skirt bought (among several other items) this

Oscar Mayer promotional sign to hang above the microwave in the shop break room. The boy sort of looks like a couple guys I know. And this guy too when he was younger. The Skirt also spent quite a bit of time along with a group of other enthusiastic attendees digging through a vintage wash tub of uniform name tags. What fun. Now we need to think of just the right thing to do with them. Any ideas?

Thanks, Chicks!!! Great idea, as usual. We're already looking forward to next year.

The Farm Chicks Show June 6th and 7th

The skirt is going to see the Chicks this weekend at the Spokane County Fair Grounds. If you live in the Inland Empire, and you like vintage stuff and home-made goodies, get yourself down to the fair grounds Saturday, June 6th. Junkers travel from all over the country to go to this show.

Love Is In the Air - Mid-'60's Valentines

Seems acknowledging your love on Valentine's Day is falling out of favor. As usual, some people had to go to extremes with their expectations and now there is the resulting lack of interest. The Skirt still likes Valentine's Day. It is always a good idea to tell someone you love them. It's considerate. Good vibes result. Something we need today. Just keep it simple, send a card through the mail, bake a cake. Valentines have always been collectible, but they may become even more so. These are my favorites from my little collection. I've had these since my schoolmates gave them to me, in 1967. (Our more "gentle" readers may enjoy the above links to The Farm Chicks and Vintage Indie.)

The Farm Chicks - Famous & Gracious

Thank you Farm Chicks for the "thank you link yesterday." As a fellow Spokanite and junker, The skirt has been a big fan of Teri and Serena's from the very start of their company and is in harmonious agreement with the contents of their blog. Maybe some of our more "gentle" RBI Shop talk readers would enjoy reading it as well.

1960 Space Themed Birth Annoucement

The Skirt had a birthday on Saturday. My mother picked this nifty space themed birth announcement for me. I pulled it from my baby book which is why it's damaged and yellowed by the cellophane tape. It's pretty old.

The space race and Sputnik was all the rage then.

Bubble Lights Bring Smiles

It's a cloudy, dreary day in Spokane, WA with on and off light freezing rain. So to add a little cheer to the shop office The Skirt decorated our little fake tree with a string of traditional-style bubble lights purchased at our neighborhood Ace Hardware last month. We decided not to add any other adornments for now which might compete with the lights except a vintage star topper. The history of the bubble light is an interesting one. Click here.

Thanksgiving Drive to Rockford & Hurd Mercantile

We took the advise of Inland NW Homes and Lifestyles magazine, and drove our folks out to Rockford, WA and the Hurd Mercantile the day after Thanksgiving. Bob and his Dad told us they would wait in the car while my mother-in-law and I looked around. An hour later, they finally came in to see what was keeping us. There was just so much to see. This amazing gift shop consists of 16 different themed departments, a vintage country, shabby-chic, cowboy, 40's - 50's, American primitive, modern kitchen gadgets, seaside stuff, kids stuff, up-scale clothes and accessories, bed, bath and more. You really can't take it all in on your first visit. The men ended up ordering coffee and doing a little looking around on their own. The 8,000 square foot shop is housed in a century-old building that is a tourist attraction in it's own right.

Saturday, December 6th is their holiday open house. It should be enchanting. Go!

Matchbook Pin-ups Now Bathroom Art

Our freshly painted bathroom walls here at the hot rod shop deserved some artwork. The Skirt knew she wanted to use vintage pin-ups, but being a shop bathroom it didn't seem prudent to spend much money or to hang up anything too precious. After looking on the web for some ideas I remembered my father-in-law's old matchbook pin-up girls. Scanning didn't work, they came out grainy when I enlarged them to 8 x 10, so I took a photo of each matchbook against white paper with our Canon Rebel XTi. Framing would have been way too fussy so I slipped them into sheet protectors (saw this in a magazine) and hung them up with paper clips and thumbtacks. Looks great, don't you think and we used something with family history.

1950's - 60's Pinup Matchcovers

Bob's folks are clearing out some clutter and they sent us a box of pinup matchcovers. They know we like that sort of thing around here. The man pictured below, Bob's dad, Paul Bissonette would tuck 'em in his shirt pocket before leaving the Drummond Bar. He remembered at least six times to take them out of his pocket before laundry day. Happy 77th Birthday, Paul!

Serveying The Farm Chicks Show

A huge crowd of loyal fans queued in the pouring rain for a chance to shop this juried show. Women, some men (maybe 40:1) came long distances. A couple of gals ahead of The Skirt were from Victoria, B.C., the group ahead of them were from Portland,OR. Inside some shoppers were worried about how to pack things up for the plane ride home. What's going on? The Skirt misses the quaint antique show at the Fairfield Grange Hall. But alas, The Farm Chicks have hit a cord with people and success moves the show forward to a higher stage. Take a peek here, EllynAnne Geisel, author of the Apron Book blogs about the show.

The Farm Chicks Show - A Junkers Heaven

The Farm Chicks Antique Showis this weekend. This is the biggest event of the year for us Inland Empire junkers and becoming well know in junking circles all over the country. I'm ready with my funky, plastic shopping tote and Hyer cowboy boots. Yippee skippee!