Have you ever had that thought, "Wow, I shouldn't have sold that..."  or "Jee Whiz, I wish I had that back?" after selling something?  Or even just parting with it?  Or giving it away, throwing it away, or selling it?  Sometimes I just wish I hadn't have been so quick to get rid of some things.  This happened to me last week.  We raise cattle and sheep on our ranch and last week we sold our wool.  So every April we shear our sheep.  That leaves us with bags of wool.  We store them until the wool truck stops by.  Then we load them into the truck and off they go.  So, in our shop there is a apothacary cabinet that has been around for years.  Reed stores his nuts and bolts and odds and ends in it.  His grandfather picked it up somewhere.  And, Luke, the guy who came to pick up the wool notices it.  Reed sends him to the house to question me about it.  Ever had one of those "I'm sure she won't sell it- I'm sure he won't sell it"  conversations?  Kinda like the "Go ask your Dad- Go ask your Mom?"  conversations?  One of us was supposed to say, "No".  Well neither one of us did.  And I sold the apothacary cabinet.  They loaded it on the wool truck and off it went.  To Illinois.  Probably where it came from.  About 120 years ago.  And now it's trip back east is faster and less bumpy. 
Funny- the first thing I ask when someone wants to buy something is, "What are you planning on doing with this?"  Mainly the question is, "Will you take care of it and will it have a good home?"  Luke promised me it would have a good home and he would take care of it and preserve it.  That pretty much clinched the deal.  If we would have left it in Reed's shop it would have eventually been worn down and used up, hauled out to cold storage- also known as the dump. 
So I'm a little remorseful.  The junker in me is anyway.  Impulsive decisions aren't always the best.  But it's gone.  That's what I get for reading a book about how to downsize, to simplify.  The "less clutter" me is okay with cleaning it out- my Dad gave me his bolt bin from his shop and I was trying to figure out where to put that.  Now we have room.  And that's what I tell the rest of the junkers when I talk them into getting rid of something.  There's always more- we just have to find it.  

Life is an adventure and there's hardly anything better than a junkin' adventure. (Okay, the visit from the new grandbaby later in the day did beat the junkin' adventure but all you grandmas will understand that....) A gorgeous day, a large empty red van, some water, diet coke, and assorted snacks, and we were off! Came home with a full red van and re-energized to face the rest of the week! Hope you all find an adventure to go on and rejuvenate your life! When you think your life sucks, just get together with friends and remember that they think their life sucks sometimes too. We just need to reboot, to find joy, to cry on someone's shoulder, to vent, and to laugh for no reason at all. There's more than one reason we like to get together.....

Bare with me in these photos.... I'm cleaning, sorting, actually JuNking in my OWN house! (And that's no lie!😬.)
Anyway, I got these 1970's light fixtures from my friends parents, we have been friends since like we were 3 years old in Sunday School. I spent many, many sleep overs at their home from kindergarten through 12th grade. PS I look more like my friends Mom than she does so it was always kind of a joke that I was the brunette daughter she never had! Of course I'm the long winded story teller- back to my photos, and no I'm not drinking the yummy Bumble Bee Red North Dakota wine, (it's a gift for my Mom). Thinking where can I put these lights or what can I do with them as they have great memories of my childhood. It came to me, lets turn them into bowl stands! And no, I'm not the first person that has had this idea, thanks to magazines and Pinterest we have seen them some 1,001 times. I'm going to quick refurbish these and show you how very SIMPLE it is. Actually took less time to make than it takes to read my story about them! I kinda have that "Oh! Look a squirrel " mind! I get side tracked way to easy...😜 most of you know this by reading when it's my turn to post. Not only sidetracked when writing, but really bad when I'm, say, cleaning! The steps are explained below

Hello-  My name is Kolette.  And I've got a problem.  It started out as a sort of therapy for raising a family.  I needed to get out.  To release some emotions.  To find my creative side.  To actually use some of my creative side.  I used to have one before children.  Before diapers.  Before ranching.  Before being a housewife and mother became my sole purpose.  And then I found an outlet.  An auction sale here or there.  A rummage sale.  A thrift store.  And then I found myself boulevarding.  And a few things gathered led to happiness.  A few more led to clutter.  A few more led to too much already to justify going again.  So my outlet was now a problem.  And I needed help. 

Fortunately, I found friends and family along the way who had the same problem as I had.  One day Wanda called me up and asked if I wanted to join a group of gals hosting a "tag" sale.  A chance to clean out a bit of my clutter.   I remember my husband helping me load our stock trailer and telling me he wouldn't give me a plug nickel for the whole load.  I also remember coming home at the end of the sale and throwing my wad of money on the table and shocking him.  People actually paid for all your junk? 

​My JUNK?  All my lovingly gathered, collected, used, & hoarded oddities.  My pictures, my furniture, my yard fixings.  Alright, I do remember throwing in the lid to an old washing machine and a bottomless teapot.  But it was a cute teapot!  And the lid could become a great sign!  Apparently my husband and I don't have the same vision.

This new outlet of getting rid of some of my stash, my hoard, my treasures, gave me empty spots to fill again.  I could once again justify going to an auction sale or "junkin'" as we call it now.  Our first tag sale blossomed into our 2 sales a year.  We can buy to use, to repurpose, or to sell to someone who loves junk as much as we do.  
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It is a problem.  When one can't seem to throw anything away because you might be able to use it for.....something!  And if you do throw it away you wish you had kept it later when a certain project you are working on needs just that piece!  The one you no longer have.  So you save everything.  Just in case.  And then you realize you do have a problem.  
Getting together with my junkin' gang is just the therapy I needed.  And so we meet.  We junk.  We laugh.  We cry.  We admit we have a problem.  Actually we have many.   We are having a great time doing it.  And it's the best therapy ever!