Life on a Sandbar

First, I am not a very good blogger. I have tried a few times and oh shiny got the best of me. And my spelling and grammer, is not great.
Second, I miss my friends and my little shop back in Missouri. I had so much fun creating, searching for great treasurers and visiting with all of you. Don't get me wrong, I live at the beach now. Seriously, I live at the beach :-) It is amazing here.......

And now a little background of my life.
Born and raised in Southern California, about 1 1/2 hours from the beach. Married my wonderful husband Chad in 1988. We have 3 boys, well men. In 2000 we moved to Springfield, MO and then later to Bois D'Arc, MO. We wanted to have a slower country life. So we bought a farm. 20 acres and and a big old house. Renovated the house, raised chickens and cows, had drive in movies behind the barn and just loved living in the country. We have always wanted to live in the country.

Our boys grew, Jared went into the Navy and Dylan was headed into the Air Force. Only Cody left at home and we wanted to travel to see the boys across the country. So we moved to Joplin where Chad worked and moved into a downtown loft apartment. Yes, we went from a farm to a loft. Crazy, right? We have always wanted to live in a loft.

When a tornado wiped out a chuck of Joplin, life really changed. It was very heart breaking to see and to hear all the stories. I don't know if I have ever cried and prayed so much.
I grew restless. Very restless. I decided that I needed to get rid of some extra things I had from the farm. I wanted to start painting furniture and building things again. (We started building furniture back in the 1990's, a coffee table, dining table and so on. And at the farm we built cabinets and anything else I could dream up). I found an amazing studio right across the alley from the loft. It was on the 3rd floor of another building and you had to use stairs or a freight elevator to get to it. When friends and family came to the studio they were always leery of the elevator. My now daughter in law Krista said it was sketchy. LOL. But it was so much fun. The first piece I painted was an old vanity.

I started selling in an antique shop. In February of this year I took a big leap of faith and sold at Affair of the Heart in Oklahoma City. And WOW it was amazing! 3 days and 7 building of art, clothes, furniture and other hand made items. It was fun to see people walk by and say JunknPretties with a smile on their lips and excitement in their eyes. To actually hear people say they liked my treasures.

Downtown Joplin closes down  Main Street the Third Thursday of the Month from March-October for an Artwalk. Five blocks of fun. I have a friend that manages buildings in Joplin and had an empty building that he let me open a little store for Third Thursday. Amazing!

In the past couple of years we have traveled from coast to coast seeing the boys. Vacationed in Nags Head in the Outer Banks of North Carolina a few times, just an 1 1/2 hours a way from where Jared is stationed. And loved it there. Jared married Krista in October of 2011. We figured that we loved the beach so much and if there were grand-babies in the future we better get moving. We have always wanted to live at the beach.

We now live in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

This is our home for the next 7 months, a winter rental. I think maybe a party house during the summer. But hey, I live at the beach. I will keep you updated with pictures but now it is time for a walk on the beach.