Saturday Spotlight: Life Behind the Blogger


AnnMarie from Musings of A Vintage Junkie

 Saturday Spotlight: Life Behind the Blogger is a feature done each Saturday that introduces you to a blogger you may already know or a new blogger for you to get to know. This feature gives you a peak into the personal life of the blogger.  Getting to know the special person behind the beautiful blog.

There is so much talent and inspiration in blogland so enjoy getting to know these talented bloggers each Saturday.



Happy Saturday everyone.  This week I would love to introduce you to AnnMarie from Musings of A Vintage Junkie.  AnnMarie is a very talented writer, knows her way around antiques and vintage treasures and is very strong in her faith.  Please grab a cup of coffee and read and get to know AnnMarie this week.




I am so excited to have been asked by Kris from Junk Chic Cottage to write a post for this great feature. Thank you Kris!
The beautiful view from the wharf on the Boston Harbor taken on our recent trip.

Acts 17:28 ESV
28 for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’;[a]

This verse says it all, for all that I am about to share of my life is a result of having my faith and giving my life over to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

That said, I am at a point in my life where I am living it to it's fullest. I consciously live in the here and now, not what was, or what I want it to be. I believe I am right where I am supposed to be, doing what I am supposed to be doing.


In a way, I am living a second life. I married young and had two daughters in the 80's....Candice, now 33 and Jena, now 30. It was a wonderful time of my life raising my children in a 1900's farmhouse in the middle of an apple orchard. After being a single parent for years I met and married Frank, my Knight in Shining Armor. That was 19 years ago!

This was on my day out for this past birthday in January.
At age 41 I had our son Christian Michael, who weighed 1 lb.10 oz. when he was born at 28 weeks. He just turned 17 and is a healthy teenager who is crazy for basketball.....NBA, of course. He doesn't care much for college ball!

Another favorite pastime.....eating!
My life revolves around my Lord, my husband, my children, grandchildren, and my home.

Please meet my oldest daughter Candice, who is also my hairstylist extraordinare!


 and my youngest daughter Jena....



It has been a whirlwind, in a good way, the past 17 years. Both daughters are married and have children. My grandchildren are Cassidy, age 10 who is Candice's; Chloe, age 4 and JC, age 11 months who are Jena's children.

Cassidy with the flute I played at her age

Chloe and Jc
 Frank wanted me to be a stay at home Mom for Michael's growing years and I was fine with that! One of my passions is decorating my home and antiquing and garage sale-ing for things to fill it up.

I inherited my love of antiques from my grandmother Ga, who was my favorite, and I was hers. She did her antiquing in Europe and I was fortunate to inherit many of her gorgeous pieces. I still remember her house and cottage at The Thousand Islands, filled room by room with beautiful items.


My passion for antiques and vintage items has grown over the years so about three and a half years ago I started my blog Musings of a Vintage Junkie.


Another passion of mine is creative writing and I did do it freelance for awhile when Candice was a baby. A blog seemed like a great outlet to write what I wanted to, whether it be about found treasures, baking, my family or my faith. A month later I opened my Etsy shop NaNa's Things and I thought it would be a great place to promote that also.

Sunflowers are in my banner because they are my favorite flower!

NaNa is the name my grandchildren call me. I remember always referring to my grandmother's things as Ga's Things. It seemed to work for the feeling I wanted for my shop.

Once I started selling some of my things, I got really sad to see them go! My picking and treasure hunting went into full force to fill my shop with treasures that were not personally mine!

  
When I am not at the computer tweaking my Etsy shop or writing a blog post, I am in my garden in the summer, out pickin' or trying a new DIY project! In the winter I will be baking, decorating or painting another room that needs updating.

I love decorating outdoors and late July, early August is my favorite time for my gardens. They are pretty low maintenance so I like to change up the garden decorations every year.

Those are Chloe's little feet in my garden!



Besides all that, my husband and I run a Christian community theatre for the arts. We have done it for almost 15 years and our home base is right up the street from us on Main Street in the small village we live in, in the Finger Lakes area of Upstate New York. It is called Impact Theatre and my husband directs the drama troupe, The In Your Face Players. I am the woman behind the man in this venture!

I will close with a few random facts about me:
*I am a middle child....did you know that National Middle Child Day was August 12th? 
*My favorite movie of all time is Wizard of Oz
*My favorite color is Aqua, with Red as a second
*Fall is my favorite season
*Baking is a passion of mine. I am known far and wide for my biscotti ;-)
*I love coffee and drink 4 cups every morning of Starbucks Blonde only because that is what my mug holds all at once!


Blogging has become a way of life for me and I just love the amount of fun, useful and interesting information there is in the blogging world. The friends I have made through it are a bonus and there is a fun camaraderie with people I have never met.

 I hope you can stop by for a visit soon!


AnnMarie xoxo 


Thanks AnnMarie for sharing yourself with all of us today.  It was fun to get to know you better.
Have a great Week End everyone.
Kris
:)

Fall Beginnings

Hi Everyone.  I started some of my fall decor.  It is hard to do this when the temps still say summer and the flowers are still hanging in there.

So I just mixed some fall with the summer plants that are still going strong.

Not a ton of fall just yet but as you can see the sweet potato vine is still going strong.  So I just added some faux pumpkins, wheat stalk and some fall daisies in with the vines.  


A little faux with living plants.  These are the best kind of pumpkins and fall decor for my home.  I have a couple of squirrels that like to eat the real pumpkins.  So I cannot put the real stuff out just yet.


A simple fall wreath for the front door.

 Just a few touches of fall here and there.  Just ignore that key box for the realtors on the door handle lol!

Come back on Saturday I have a wonderful blogger in Spotlight for you to meet.

Sunday's post after Spotlight I will have more of my inside fall decor.
Have a great rest of the week and wonderful week end.
Kris
:)

Fun Periscope Tour of my Favorite Shop

Hi Everyone.  Hope your week is going great.  I wanted to share this video that Joy from Savvy City Farmer did on Periscope for one of my all time fave shops Tattered Tiques.

 Joy is using this wonderful new tool of Periscope.   Joy takes you on tag alongs of her fabulous pickin adventures.

This video is about my favorite shop Tattered Tiques where I get a lot of the beautiful pieces I have in my home decor.  Have fun watching Joy as she narrates and gives you  a great tour of this fabulous shop.  Have fun on the virtual shopping tour today.

Thank you Joy for sharing this wonderful shop.  If you would like to see more of Joy on her Periscope and her fabulous "Pickin Tours" you can go here.





Have a great rest of the week everyone.  Be sure to come back on Saturday I have a fabulous blogger for you to get to know in Spotlight.
Kris
:)

Home Sweet Home For Sale

We put our home on the market this week.  It was a hard decision but one that we were going to have to do eventually.  We debated on waiting to see where Terry would land a job before we sold this house but we talked about it and thought it would be good to put it up on the market while our weather was still nice and the house has curb appeal with the garden flowers.

So if it sells before Terry finds a new job we will just have to store all of our stuff and go to Plan B.

Just praying something will come through for him and we will also sell this home about the same time.  In a perfect world lol!!!!! A girl can hope right?!!!!!

Anyway I thought I would give you a tour of our home.  If you live or need to live in the North West suburbs of Chicago by all means come and look at her. Lake Zurich is a really sweet town that has lots of history and a big beautiful lake.   Junk Chic Cottage is a special home that I have loved with all my heart the past 8 years.

Front of House. 
 I did not touch up any of these pictures.  What you see is what you get!
 :)

Backyard

Backyard looking at deck.

Terry's storage shed.  Lots of storage and electricity.

Front Entry.


Living Room



Kitchen




Laundry Room

Behind the chalkboard Laundry room door is my big storage area.  For a small house this house has tons of storage.

One side of the storage room.

Other side of storage room.

Dining room / another family room.  This room was the family room but I did not need a living room and family room so I made this room off the kitchen my dining room.  I entertain for the holidays and I loved having a big dining room to seat everyone together for celebrations.  The new buyers can put a table in the kitchen if they do not need a dining room and could make this a family room.


My office off the back of the dining room.  Terry and I made this room divider out of old vintage doors and posts.  Love that I have this space for my office.

One of our three bedrooms is Terry's home office.


My guest room.  King size bed fits in this bedroom along with space for dressers.


Hall and guest bathroom.  Vintage white and gray.  Full shower and soaker tub.

Master Bedroom.  King bed still room for seating area and dresser.  

Large picture window looking out to backyard.  Lots of natural light in this room.
Master bathroom.

Double spa shower.

Back yard deck and sanctuary.

Well my friends that is the tour of Junk Chic Cottage that is now up for sale.  I will so miss my beautiful home I have made here but I know there is another home waiting for me to re love into a cozy home.

Have a great week.  Continued prayers that some of the jobs Terry is in the running for might work out for us soon.  It has been a long 7 months and we are hoping to be moving on to a new journey soon.
Kris
:)

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