Category — LUVin’ 2 LiVE. LiviN 2 LUv.

OK. so yes. it’s been like foreverrrrr since i’ve updated y’all. and there’s soooo much to tell.

let’s start with this little ole wedding we helped with. it was… um, kinda like…a big deal.

and i’m soooo happy to finally share some of the pictures with y’all (more will be forthcoming). the fruits of our labor. it was, the biggest and grandest and most beautifully, awesomely, magically SUBLIME thing we’ve ever done. i only wish i had a magic school bus (or maybe magic airstream in our case:)) to transport you back to that night at the don strange ranch outside of BoERNE texas so that each of you could actually FEEL and touch and taste the sublimeness of the entire event.

{the reception barn from afar...dreamy}

{psst...click on the image to enlarge...we want you to see ALL the details!}

thanks to the amazing skills of RoBERT EVaNS for all images unless noted otherwise (he did brad & jen’s wedding and katie & tom’s!!! wow. AND…he’s like the nicest guy ever).

you know the story of how this project came to be…and for a bit, we struggled with the theme for this reception.

we laid awake at night.

we tossed.

we turned.

our heads whirling a million glittery rockstar miles a minute.

wedding-induced-insomnia. writers block. we were lost in our creative thoughts and unable to pull ‘em all together. and then, like a double-shot o’ love it hit us.

moonshine & mason jars, fireflies & pink guitars. GRIT. GLAMOUR. glam dEER-CAmP. MariLYN MonROE meets ‘OUT of AfRiCA’. it was perfect. it would be beautiful and rustic and rockstar and wedding-ish all at the same time. it was so MIRANDA. and so BLAKE. & SO JuNK GypSY.

there’s just so many things we want y’all to know and to see…so many little details. i’ll attempt to commentate the above shot…giant 5 foot NEON custom made mason jars with blinking fireflies (one hung in the barn, one hung outside from a tree), custom chair slipcovers, seat sashes made of canvas and tied back with vintage belt buckles & metal die cast cap guns, grapevine deer heads flanked the center of the barn and grapevine bee hives (in honor of blake’s hit song, honey bee), crystal chandeliers, vintage boudouir-style fringe lampshades. 

the head table…created from a salvaged architectural piece and recycled table legs…then painted pink and stained bronze for a way cool rustic effect. vintage rugs, cowhides, gothic chairs covered with JG custom-made slipcovers (each embellished with over 60 crystals for extra glitz)…all nestled under an authentic camp tent. atop the table are jugs of homemade moonshine along with flower-filled minnow buckets & mason jars…and hanging above are our awesome amazing imported hand-forged deer head crystal chandeliers. we commissioned our good friend, ToDD SANDERS of ROADHouSE RELiCS, to make ’THE ShELTONS’ sign inspired by miranda’s logo which we designed for her years ago (check out our new guns & wings buckle!!). (and please ignore the BLUE tarpy stuff in the background…it was part of the venue and couldn’t be removed…but seriously, it almost killlllled us having it there! :)) 

thanks to KeLLY CHRiSTINE for this image…XOXOX!

remember this? GunPOWdER & LeAD. our version of a shotgun-wedding. our idea of fancy-schmancy wedding decor. the final product…

after the firing squad got finished with these restaurant cans, we drilled holes in the bottom with a hole saw, ran $5 light cords through ‘em and added PINK light bulbs.

{i took this shot while the reception was still a work in progress...ignore the mess in the background.}

clustered together in groups of 5, they were the PERFECT complement to our custom made porch swings emblazoned with miranda’s logo (which we stained HOT piNK). 

we hung 4 of these in the barn…and they were seriously awwwwwesome.

above each table hung a different eclectic vintage find… including tattered lampshades (softly glowing with twinkle lights) and crystal chandeliers…

{big east texas thanks to kelly christine for this shot}

when MirANDA and BeV (miranda’s mom) first walked in thursday night as we were working…they both cried. (which of course, made us cry too:).

after the wedding, miranda later twittered: “I finally got to see my wedding pics in US weekly. Amazing day. @junkgypsy made it a rock and roll wonderland with a splash of hillbilly:)”

in short, it was the best night ever. we danced side-by-side with kelly clarkson (i’m dying), kellie pickler, laura bell bundy, hillary, charles, & DaVE of LadY AnteBELLUM, and sooo many more. we met reba mcentire (seriously. i’m speechless. i’ve loved her since ‘whoever’s in new england’). we loved seeing our good friend dierks bentley and catching up with katherine heigl (aka: katie…since we are BFF’s and all…click her name to read about our BFF night in MirANDA’s airstream) & husband josh kelley. we united with our brutha from another mutha, cake designer extraordinaire- jay qualls. we boogied down to NEAL McCOY (i ain’t kiddin, BEST concert EvER!) with the PiSTOL ANNieS and then partied to the tunes of celebrity-style karoake until the early hours of the morning.

but all of that, is another blog…

P.S. check out our wedding section online to get tha LOOK!!! it’s still in the works so check back frequently!

read on for a much-belated update regarding the JUNK GypSY TV series…let’s start at the beginning…

june 2010: after months and months (actually years) of family discussions, we headed out to CaLIFORniA where we had our griswald-style roadtrip trekking up and down the west coast…with TV meetings in LA squeezed in between getting lost in the SaNTA YNeZ mountains, eating falafel, and hiking to the NOJOQUI falls.

{roadtrippin' in the happppy van...makes me happy :)}

we watched SINGIN’ in the RAIN at brentwood country mart side by side with the beautiful BROOKE SHiELDS, stayed at the amazing RACHEL ASHWELL‘s lovely SHABBY home, and acted like true tourists in our happy VAN! ReAD HERE to catch the scoop on the who/what/when/why of that trip!

AUGUST 2010: annnnnd then our filming of the FiRST JG piLOT…

{chillin' with bill allen while shooting the pilot}

ReAD HERE for that ’mucho loco with a side of crazy’ adventure (sorry y’all, bear with me…there’s a whole lotta backstory to this post…this is what happens when you PROCRASTINATE :))

OCTOBER 2010: soooo here’s what happened. here’s where it gets juicy…..

the pilot was completed for the JG TV series…AND then, the powers-that-be put in an order for more ‘controversy’. think ‘JERSEY SHORE’ of the fleamarket/texas world…think ‘girl version of AMERICAN ChoPPER’…in other words, they wanted us to fight with each other and to haggle over prices at the places we were junkin.

of course, both of these requests are completely preposterous if you even somewhat know us…because first of all, we all KNOW that if we fought, janie would totally kick our hineys…really, it wouldn’t be pretty. it would be like a total WWF SMACKDOWN. embarassing.

and secondly, it’s against our religion to haggle. ok, not really against our religion…but it certainly breaks the officially-unofficial-junkers-code-of-ethics. and i, for one, DO NOT want to break that code of ethics. that would be going to LuCKENBACH and not having a LONE STAR beer … OR like having a pair of jeans without holes in ‘em…it just goes against all laws of human physics. it just ain’t right. seriously though…we DO ask for someone’s BEST PRICE…and we mayyyyyy make a lower offer WITHIN reason. but if it’s a fair price, we don’t haggle over $5. we aren’t disrespectful to fellow junkers. we TAKE IT or LEAVE it.

our producer, DaWN, knew this. and she knew they were sitting in the wrong office that day…she knew she could never ask us to do either of those things because it’s just not who we are. JG is about so many things. so many GOOD things. we LOVE family and hard work. we love simple JUNKY things. we LOVE to create and build beautiful, magical spaces that make PEOPLE happy. we LOVE to create passionate, soulful designs that people LOVE to wear. and we BELIEVE that y’all LOVE all those things too. in our world of JUNK, pretty much everything is for SALE….everything, except our SOULS.

soooo, we went back to work (well, we actually never stopped)…and the past 9 months we’ve been soooo crazy busy we’ve hardly looked up…from fall antiques week to the backstage artists lounge at AUSTIN CITY LIMITS music fest to moving our families to round top to designing the PISTOL ANNIE‘s logo to gypsy-fyin amie’s airstream to another antiques week to MIRANDA & BLAKE’s wedding….

and now, a different network has asked for a pilot …we begin shooting in a few weeks. no fighting. no haggling. just us. doing our thing. y’all stay tuned for more detailssssss!

and in case y’all missed our pitch reel (filmed fall 2009)…you can watch it here! we had a BLaST shooting this!!! (y’all just totally ignore that green table that crashes to the ground after i put the box on it…i totally planned that. really, i did. :)

seriously though, i reallllly think y’all will totally dig it! it’s totally junKY. totally fleamarket. totally us.

here’s the DEAL…we LOVE y’all and we want this project to be something that speaks to you and inspires you and something that makes you PROUD of us and PROUd to be a JUNK GYPSY too. let us know in the comments below what ya think! let us know what you WANT TO SEE!

XOOXOXXO!

magic. pure magic.

despite the whir of 3 paparazzi helicopters overhead, the sacred yet simple wedding ceremony of miranda & blake was nothing short of magic. we cried. we laughed. we sat in anxious anticipation.

we worked our booties off decking out the reception in complete junk gypsy style…and for us, it was a project of epic proportions. it was grit. and glamour. marilyn monroe meets out of africa. it was glittery and rustic. it was so completely TEXAS. and it was the best time of our lives.

i’m soooo anxious to show you pictures and tell you alllll the priceless details…but that has to wait just a bit.

in the meantime…

here’s amie about an hour before we were supposed to be back at the ranch for the wedding….

{yep, that's right. hand-sewing last minute modifications to her dress}

annnnd here’s me about the same time…(mom & i had modified my dress earlier with a pair of scissors…if it requires sewing, count me out! :))

{nothing like a rockin' chair on a perfect day in may...lovin' on my new boots}

and here’s mom….just thankful we’re done…

{...and thinkin' of a corona with lime...:)}

so that’s about it for now…i pinky SwEAR to tell more soooooon!!!!

in the meantime, RUN, don’t WALK to your nearest market…the current US WEEKLY features the wedding as the cover story!!!!

{on newsstands nowww!!}

(we haven’t even seen it yet!)

happy trails to you….

***update 5/19/2011 7 pm…US WEEKLY article officially in hand! and although we are soooo super excited to be featured in the publication, we just want to make note that the TABLE shot pictured in the mag, was taken BEFORE we even styled the table!!!! aghhhh!!!! the tables were awesome, y’all!! filled with junk (our junker friends from near and far provided goods!) and flowers and beautiful things that were personal to miranda and blake! we’ll show you pics when we can…..XXOXOXXO!***

when amie left for college, we started this little thing between the 2 of us…we would send each other happy thoughts.

our happy thoughts would be anything from the lyrics to mississippi squirrel revival by ray stevens or lines from bill murray’s ‘what about bob’ to random family vacation memories. but our most favorite happy thought of all time was this one…”not knowing what color mom’s hair is gonna be each time you come home”. because, believe me, ya just never ever knew what color it was gonna be…and this very dependable mysterious fact was just as cozy as mom’s homemade cookie monster cookies after school.

{just sayin...}

we told you a little about mom in the oh-so-popular post ‘the cowboy & the gypsy’…

{mom and dad...circa 1969...the year they wed}

but seein as it’s almost mama’s day and all…amie & i thought we’d tell ya a little more about our mamacita…because, after all, she is the reason junk gypsy came into being.

we’ve always called mom lucy…because i firmly believe her and lucille ball must have been related in a former life.

not to mention the fact that mom has seen EVERY single ‘I LOVE LUCY’ episode like 20 times and can do the vitameatavegamin re-enactment perfectly.

{"do you pop out at parties? are you unpoopular?"}

(if you haven’t seen it, you must. your life is not fully lived until you have.)

{me, mom, & amie...circa 1970-something}

or maybe it’s because, like LuCY, mom has always had a difficult time following the rules in a free-spirited kind o’ way.

it was tradition that amie & i always missed a few days of school a year for priceless roadtrips to the city with mom for museum hoppin and thriftstore shoppin. (don’t tell our principal!)

happy mothers day to all you mama’s out there!! may your day be filled with breakfast in bed, sloppy kisses, and HaPPy thoughTS!!! may you have the most wonderful of days celebrating LiFE, LoVE, and all the simple things that make you happy!

{sharin' tha luv...november 2010}

and to our mom, mama gypsy…thanks for teaching us how to dream. how to believe. how to be STRONG. & most of all, how to be a good MoM. :)

the countdown is on…and we’re working ’round the clock on fancy-schmancy, highly sophisticated, royal-esque details….

{no animals were harmed during the making of this blog}

just yer everyday, normal preparations…that involve a shotgun. and some ammo. and lots o’ restaurant-sized biggo tin cans…

{the stand-off...(cue CLiNT EaSTWOOD's 'the good, the bad, and the ugly' theme song here)}

the wildest, meanest, show-no-mercy, gunslinger of the wild west…

{just kiddin...(i do love to shoot...but don't tell anyone i'm a lover, not a fighter:)}

and i submit exhibit A. the first victim.

{decided we probably needed to scoot back a little....}

fire in the hole!

{just another day on the job, y'all}

{biggo restaurant cans pre-gunslingin' action}

{and post-gunslingin action...}

we’re half way there….stay tuned for the rest of our high-society decor! here in gypsyville, we’ve decided this is our version of a shotgun weddin’… :)

“he hatEs THESE caNS! stay away from the cans!” ~steve martin as navin r. johnson in the jerk (one of amie’s all-time fave movies…if you haven’t seen it, go GET IT NOW. dammit.)

P.S. industrial size cans compliments of RoYERS CaFE!  HoLes in the cans, compliments of JG!

P.S.S. in case you’re wonderin what the heck we’re preparin’ for…read HERE.