Saturday Spotlight: Life Behind the Blogger

Susan from Must Love Junk, and myself (Kris) Junk Chic Cottage wanted to do a regular feature on our blogs, something unique that hasn't been done before.   So we came up with an idea to 'spotlight the real life behind the blogger' in a more personal way.

There is so much talent and inspiration in blogland, and we thought it would be fun to bring you a closer look at the person behind the blog.

Every week on Saturday we will spotlight a blogger and have them tell us a little bit about themselves and their blogs.  You will be able to see and read about each of the bloggers on both Susan's and my blog. 

Saturday November 23

Janet from Shabbyfufu

Good Saturday Morning everyone.  This week's line up is Janet Coon from Shabbyfufu on my spotlight and Kate from Salvage Dior on Susan's spotlight.   I have the the pleasure to introduce  you to Janet Coon.   Janet Coon blogs at Shabbyfufu and has a fabulous business with some of the most beautiful treasures for sale.  I have just recently gotten to know about Janet and was so excited when she said she would do the Spotlight Feature.  So join me in reading and learning more about this talented blogger.

Janet Coon at Shabbyfufu

Thank you for inviting me to share a bit about myself with your blog readers today Kris!

I'm Janet although I'm most known on the internet as Shabbyfufu, the name of my on-line business that I've had for about fifteen years now. I would venture to guess that I'm often called an internet dinosaur, but I like think of myself more as a pioneer who enjoys inspiring and mentoring others as well.

Shabbyfufu the moniker came to be when I was in the antique and collectible business with a local friend some years back. I have always painted my furniture white, sewn, crafted and furnished with thrift shop finds since my college days! I love to mix in a bit of sparkle, and when a friend took a look at one of my shop vignettes said "your style is so shabby, yet so fufu." The combined name stuck, and a bell went off for the brand! 

I was born a city girl in New York, but have lived in South Florida for most of my life now. True loves are my family, my Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, the beach (where we have a part-time home), traveling, creating and treasure hunting.

As a child I went with my aunt to my first flea market and broke open my piggy bank to buy a vintage perfume bottle. From then on was hooked on vintage. I have been an artist as well for as long as I can remember, always puttering with projects and organizing ways to sell my creations. In college I studied art with emphasis on ceramics and took many classes that helped me learn a variety of techniques and skills such as photography. I received my degree and taught art for awhile, but quickly learned that I enjoyed the creative process more than the instruction aspect. 

Fast forward to marrying my husband of over 30 years now and raising our family, during which time I continued to create in various ways and sell my pieces to supplement our income. 

My biggest successes in that arena were with my pottery lines and my clothing company, neither of which I am still doing at the moment. 

Changing times and shifting modalities are just a part of life and keep it interesting, and often unforeseen circumstances come into play. I had a studio that was a separate building behind our home of twenty three years now. We went through the devastating Hurricane Andrew back in 1992, and with our home left a shambles, the studio was gone. We stayed and repaired, rebuilt and eventually enlarged and improved…but the studio that I could play and make a mess in was reconfigured into part of a large home addition. On to other things with some trepidation,  I closed my clothing line (Pour It On Productions) and then the internet and Ebay came along to give me new direction. 

I still enjoyed the thrill of the hunt for vintage, and started back attending yard sales and flea markets and selling on Ebay in the late 1990's. This allowed me to combine so many passions and it then was quite thrilling to see the bidding wars on my vintage finds as well as the creations that I had previously only been able to sell in local shows! 

I began to specialize (and still do) in altered art mannequins and dress forms, as well as recreate lighting fixtures into art pieces for the home. Under the Shabbyfufu umbrella my pieces are found all over the world and it's an honor to have quite a few clients that have been with me ever since those early days. 

Eventually I cracked into the early days of website ownership (yes, had to know some code way back then) and Shabbyfufu.com became my thriving and full time job. Such joy! I could then have my own "store", not rely on Ebay or the antique mall and make it my style in my own way. I took thousands upon thousands of photographs of merchandise and vignettes and began to be featured in magazines such as Romantic Homes, Romantic Country, Better Homes & Gardens and several international publications as well. 

Several months ago I had the pleasure of being filmed by a crew from a French television channel for a day at my home and working with my photography business, and was it was aired as part of a documentary over in France!

In the spirit of helping others, I've worked with other talented artists through my website, and have enjoyed connecting and allowing these women the chance to follow their dreams…just as I had.

My blog became a natural extension of my website, at first started to let my customers and clients know a bit more about me and the other artists on the site. I also used it as a marketing tool in my early days of blogging (since 2007) and still do. I was featured in one of the first books about blogging called "Blogging For Bliss" by Tara Frey. To this day I follow that mantra in terms of my personal blogging and try and not get too bogged down in the commercial aspect of penning a blog. I enjoy…and so I do!

These days you can still find me being the same "artsy craftsy Janet" aka Shabbyfufu, over on my website shabbyfufu.com and my blog shabbyfufu.blogspot.com. I am most often behind the lens of a camera as a freelance stylist and lifestyle photographer, currently working on home shoots with several magazines both internationally and within the U.S. I have a few other exciting things in the works as well, and am scouting homes on a regular basis…so feel free to contact me about that if you know of any "magazine worthy" homes.

I have so much to be thankful for in my life and I truly am! 

Thank you for reading about me and I encourage you to follow your dreams and allow them to take you where they will... as they have with me. 

Happy Holidays,

Janet

Thank you Janet for sharing about yourself.  It is so nice to get to know you better.  Now that you have come to know a little more about Janet you can hop over to Susan's blog and read about Kate from Salvage Dior.

Have a wonderful week end.
Kris
:)

Sneak Peak at a few Christmas items

 

I have been working on my Christmas decor this week.  

I thought I would share a few things I got at Junk Jubliee for Christmas.  

Here are the angel wings I bought at the Junk Jubilee show last week end.

Here they are in full view.  I loved these the minute I saw them.  So many lovely ruffles.  This is not where I have them hanging you can see the final place they will be with my Christmas decor reveal on December 8th.

Here is another wonderful purchase of these salvage tin hearts with glass chandelier crystals.  I loved these and thought they looked great on this old vintage window in my living room.  I added the joy sign for Christmas.

Many of you remember my Amazing Grace Angel I got last year.  She is one of my favorite pieces in my Christmas decor.

A little sneak peak at my cherub piece on my chippy benches in front of the mantel.

A sneak peak at the vintage winter garden theme with some birdhouses and nests.

A little sneak peak at my tree this year.  I used an old white wash tub for the base of my tree.  This year my tree is filled with angels, birds and a lot of crystal bling ornaments.

This is a little sneak peak at some of my decor.  Just a little bit to entice you to come back on December 8th to the White Christmas Linky Party.

I will be participating in the Creating Christmas Linky Party below with 4 other talented bloggers and their themed decor.  Jan from Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson invited me to join the party this year.  I will be excited to share all my White Christmas decor.  

This should be a lot of fun to see  the five different styles of Christmas Decor.  My theme is White Christmas and is on December 8th.  So be sure to stop by and see my White Christmas Decor and you are invited to join in and add your decor ideas at the party. 

So please join the party starting Sunday December 7th with Carlene Organized Clutter Queen starting everything off with her Vintage Christmas Decor.

Kris
:)

Junk Jubilee

 I just got home from my Girlfriend trip to Junk Jubilee in Iowa.  It was so much fun.  It was their Christmas market so everything was Christmas themed with vintage and chippy junk.  It was fabulous.  Here are some pictures of the trip.  Sorry but I forgot my camera so they were all taken with my cell phone.  We also stopped at some cute shops along the way and of course I was so excited about the shopping that I forgot to take pictures of the shops.  Next time I promise to remember my camera and take more pictures.  I am such an amateur!

Lots of old sleds

Lots of Cabin themed Christmas items

Loved this vendors booth she had lots of vintage "glampers" Christmas items.  Gotta love vintage campers and Christmas. Her stuff was too adorable.  Look at her Little LuLu that she travels around in.

This vendor took old vintage toy cars and made them into necklaces.  I loved the little VW bug necklaces.

This vendor's booth was awesome.  She had so many white and chippy items.  Don't you love that metal repurposed chandy with the crystals added.  Too cute.

Lots and lots of Christmas trees.  Loved this little one under the glass dome.

This vendor had some awesome architectural salvage pieces.

This vendor did cute aprons and also some gorgeous necklaces.  If you are a jewelry person this show was for you.  So many great vendors with unique jewelry pieces made from vintage charms and salvage.

Look at the Iowa Farm Girl sign and the 4 H Ribbon.  Too awesome.

This little awesome cutie came home with me for the hubby's new home office.

What I loved about this vintage fire chief car is that the number on it (508) was my husbands call number in the fire department for many years.  I think this was meant to be for a sweet gift to bring home to him.

This vendor has some great chippy pieces and loved this garland out of old torn pieces of fabric.   This pink truck was so fabulous and cute.

This vendor made this cute lampshade for this lamp out of stencil letters.  Loved this.  Too sweet.

Gotta love that chippy white Noel sign.

This vendor has adorable stuff but she caught my heart with the silver tinsel tree like my grandma had when I grew up.  I remember that tree each year at my grandmothers.  Hanging on the tree were vintage Christmas items but the christmas stocking were just like the ones we had growing up.  It was sweet to look at this booth and have great memories flood back to me.

This booth was my absolute favorite.  Got lots of things from this vendor.  See those hard to see ruffle angel wings in the back left corner.  Yep those came home with me.  I will show those beauties when I show my Christmas decor.  Look at the sweet chippy chairs and that fabulous light blue distressed cabinet in the back right corner.  Too many lovelies in this booth.  

This was a few pictures of the show that I remembered to take! I get so wrapped up in looking at things I forget to take pictures.  I got some pretty vintage Christmas things that I will show when I do my Christmas decor post.  Have a fantastic Sunday.

Kris
:)

Saturday Spotlight: Life Behind The Blogger

Susan from Must Love Junk, and myself (Kris) Junk Chic Cottage wanted to do a regular feature on our blogs, something unique that hasn't been done before.   So we came up with an idea to 'spotlight the real life behind the blogger' in a more personal way.

There is so much talent and inspiration in blogland, and we thought it would be fun to bring you a closer look at the person behind the blog.

Every week on Saturday we will spotlight a blogger and have them tell us a little bit about themselves and their blogs.  You will be able to see and read about each of the bloggers on both Susan's and my blog. 

Saturday November 16

Kerryanne from Shabby Art Boutique

Good Saturday Morning.  I am really excited to introduce you to this week's Spotlight featured artist and blogger.  Kerryanne from Shabby Art Boutique.  She is our international blogger from down under.  I met Kerryanne a little over a year ago when I first started to blog.  Kerryanne asked me to be in an issue of her beautiful Shabbilicious Magazine. I was so new in the blog world and felt so honored to have been asked to be in her beautiful magazine.  I fell immediately in love with her beautiful blog, her creative talent and how warm and kind she was.  So get your coffee and sit back and enjoy learning more about this beautiful and talented blogger.

Hi, I’m Kerryanne from Shabby Art Boutique.

I was delighted to be invited by Kris to be part of her Saturday Spotlight… and then at the same time a little nervous about the theme, ‘Spotlight the real life behind the blogger’. I’m an intensely private person, so I don’t say a lot about myself on my blog, preferring to keep it mainly about my creative journey. 

But here we are. . . so let me now welcome you ‘down under’ to enter my world on the east coast of Australia.

Let me make a few introductions…

This is my gorgeous family. My husband Mark is my best friend, my rock, my soul mate. We’ve been together for 28 years and married for 23. We have two beautiful daughters; 19 year old Jessica and 16 year old Aimee. Completing our family are our two fur babies Gypsy (Bichon Frieze) and Milly (Toy Poodle), who continually entertain us and love us all so unconditionally.

We live in a small coastal town (population 77,000) on the east coast of Australia, half way between Sydney and Brisbane. Port Macquarie boasts one of the best climates in Australia, described as a temperate climate, averaging 20 – 30 degrees C (68 – 86 F) all year round. It is also a very popular destination for holiday makers (vacationers for my US friends).

I haven’t always lived in this coastal town we now adore. I grew up in Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city. I was a city girl… but always felt like a fish out of water. My extended family lived in the country and it was there that I felt at home. 

My friends would probably describe me as an ‘old fashioned’ kind of girl. Even when I was young I was drawn to old things. I was I guess, considered a bit eccentric. As time went by and I became a wife and mother, I set out on a path that felt comfortable for us. 

I baked, I cleaned and I wore aprons (vintage of course).

I grew my own vegies, made jam and relished being a stay-at-home-mum.

And [giggle] I was even a mumpreneur. Who knew that years later this would be the term to describe mums that work from home? I was just doing my bit to help the family finances, while indulging my need to be creative and raising a family.

I started my creative business Woodberry Designs back in 1992 and I’m pleased to say that 21 years on it is still going strong. It may have changed directions a few times, grown and even been put on hold a couple of times, but it has remained my main employment all of those years. 

Six years ago I decided to start my blog Shabby Art Boutique, so I could share with my customers some of the things that were happening in my studio. I did so, kind of on a whim. I really didn’t know much about blogging and I certainly didn’t know then just how important this new blog thing would become in my life.

At the time, life was super busy with careers, kid’s activities and just generally living life to the full. Mark’s work often took him away from home and we were starting to feel like we were on a treadmill that never slowed down.

Then in 2008 a series of events changed our life. To keep it brief, I have a bone disease that rendered my pelvis unstable. During a surgery to correct this condition my pelvis shattered. The outcome was a 12 month long recovery and several surgeries and bone grafts to rebuild and grow bone. 

My parents unselfishly gave up their lives to move into our home and raise our two young daughters, while Mark worked to support us. Following 4 months laying flat on my back, 4 months in a wheelchair and another 4 months non-weight bearing on crutches, life for us had become very different. Life was viewed with a different perspective.

We had the ‘light bulb’ moment!!

The treadmill stopped for us. . . we just didn’t need the same things anymore. The decision was made to sell everything in 2009…. Mark left an amazing career… we moved 1200 kilometres away to that coastal country town where my extended family have lived since 1841. A place that always felt like home and where we chose to live a very simple life. 

We were following our dreams!

Our little family of four set off on a sea change adventure.

The 12 months I spent recovering made me a different person. I guess I discovered who I am. That, and I think when we get to our 40’s we become very comfortable with the person we are.

I now strive to live a simple, relaxed and balanced life here in my coastal town. I try to be mindful and find inner peace with walks on the beach, yoga and meditation. 

I’m passionate about creativity and relish the time I spend in my studio every day. I also love thrifting, DIY, furniture transformations and home décor make-over’s…. which of course means our home is forever changing.

I love all things shabby, vintage, romantic cottage and French inspired and these are the beautiful things that fill my life and blog.

This year I started a new project, the Simply Shabbilicious magazine… with the intent of putting together a magazine filled with ‘shabbilicious gorgeousness’ to inspire and connect a community of liked minded friends. Just like my foray into blogging, I naively jumped in fueled with passion and dedication. As it turns out, it is way more time consuming than I imagined, but I love every single minute of it.

Recently, my husband and I set in motion stage 2 of our sea change adventure. . . we became owner/managers of a holiday resort here in Port Macquarie. 

Our adventures and life journey will continue now at Shelly Beach Resort and we couldn’t be happier.

Life got a little crazy here these past few months with a new business to settle into, a new house to make-over, creative business to run, blogging and a magazine to produce. The beach walks, quiet time and life balance were out of kilter for a bit, but now it is all settling into a new rhythm.

If you’d like to follow some more of my creative adventures, please feel welcome to wander over to my blog Shabby Art Boutique 

Thank you Kris for shining your ‘Saturday Spotlight’ on a little Aussie chick!

Thanks so much Kerryanne for sharing your beautiful family and your inspiring story of recovery and your ahhh ha moment that changed your life.    Ahhh the pictures are dreamy of your resort and life on the beach.  It was fun getting to know you better.

Now that you have gotten to know Kerryanne you can jump over to Susan's blog and meet and learn more about another very talented and fun blogger Becky from Timewashed.

Have a wonderful Saturday everyone.  Enjoy the week end.
Kris
:)

Junking Trip

Happy Wednesday Everyone.  


 I am heading out tomorrow for a few days with my junkin buddy to Iowa.  We are headed to Junk Jubilee.  It is about a 4 to 5 hour drive from Chicago for us.  Easy Peasy two girls, a snack basket, diet cokes and a whole lot of catching up the drive will be over in no time!!!! Plus my friend Sandy has mapped out a lot of cute shops in little towns along the route for us to visit. 

 Wooooo Hoooo I need a new adventure and a girls trip.  We have never been to this show so we are hoping it is as good as everyone says.  Hope to find some fun treasures.

Hunt, Rescue and Repurpose Treasures



So I will be on the road and will check back with everyone over the week end when I return.  

Please come by on Saturday for our Spotlight Feature.  We have two amazing bloggers for you to meet.  I will be featuring Kerryanne from Shabby Art Boutique and Susan will be featuring Becky from Timewashed.  They are two great bloggers you will want to get to know on a more personal level.

Have a great rest of the week.  Woooooo Hoooooo off to Junk Jubilee!!! 
Kris
:)

New Armoire and Living Room Wall Color

Hope everyone had a great week end.  I finally have a few pictures to show of the newly painted living room and my beautiful armoire the hubby made.  I still have a lot of tweaking to do in the living room with a few things but it is coming together.  

New Armoire.  We got stock doors at Home Depot and then added the old posts and old door knobs and crown molding.

Now the Hubby's 52 inch plasma TV fits into something that I can close off.  They just do not make armoire's large enough with doors to fit the bigger TV's.  So I was happy Terry could make this one so we can close off the big TV and not have it sitting open in the room.  I added some baskets to the bottom shelf for storage.

The walls were painted in the Gallery White color that just has a tint of grey to it.  I found two lamps at Home Goods and painted them with AS Chalk paint pure white and paris grey mixed together.  I do not like the lamp shades so I am going to remedy that hopefully soon.

I rehung my old clock back up and added that little chippy chair to this corner.

Love this chippy little chair.

I had originally got this old chippy salvage piece to put on the armoire but that did not work out so I thought it would look good over the door in the entry way.

Still loving my chippy church window and shutters against the new grey walls.

As you can see I started on some of my Christmas in the mix of redoing the living room!  I moved the old grey ladder that was behind the chair in the living room to the hall.

I started some Christmas decor in the entry way.

Love this vintage birdhouse I got from Jeanine from Chippy Shabby at the flea market.  It has the cutest little feet.  I added some love birds and some Christmas greenery.

Here is my old gate hanging with a new Christmas wreath I got at Mark's Shop 363 in Naperville.  He makes the prettiest stuff for Christmas.  

My watering can filled with Christmas flowers and greenery.

So you got a sneak peak at the start of my Christmas decor  and the new armoire and wall color in the living room.

  Since my daughter has Thanksgiving I can start my Christmas decor early.  My family that comes in for Thanksgiving also celebrates Christmas the same week end with us at my house so I am happy that I can get the decor up before Thanksgiving.
Have a great week.  I am hoping to keep going with my Christmas decorating.
Kris
:)

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