Junk-Down to Christmas Workshop!

Sunday, November 13th

from 1:30-4:30pm at the shop.

Join us at JB Knacker to create a one-of-a-kind advent calendar.

All supplies provided.

It would be great if you could bring a basic craft kit (scissors, pencil, ruler and favorite adhesive). Beverages and yummy treats provided throughout the afternoon. This workshop will be in the trusty hands of resident paper artist Lara Gustafson w/ Brenda (owner of JB Knacker) assisting.

The Junk-down to Christmas calendar is made using a metal cafeteria tray and all sorts of vintage ephemera. This is a project-oriented workshop which means you will go home w/ a beautifully finished advent calendar to use this season or give as a wonderful gift. You will also learn some tricks on adhesion, staining & stamping and other fun handmade secrets!

The cost of the afternoon is $35.

You will also have the opportunity to gather all the supplies you need to make more of these at home ($15 each). You will find this project addictive…just ask our participants from last year’s workshop! To sign up, just call the shop at (515)233-2600 during business hours (Tues –Fri 1-6pm & Sat 10am-3pm). This workshop is held the day after JB Knacker’s big Christmas Bash Open House so the shop will be decked out and dripping in Christmas…fun!

Limit of 8 participants for this workshop so don’t delay!!

Ghouls Night Out at JB Knacker

I just couldn't let Halloween go by this year without doing a little something at the shop, sooo...
                    
                                  Ghouls Night Out

image via Pinterest

A JB Knacker Halloween Party 

Friday, October 7th from 6:30pm 'til 8:30ish

at JB Knacker

**no costumes necessary unless that helps you get into the spirit

**treats & drinks, wickedly fun vintage stuff, special guests Steve Hosch and Lara Gustafson and just a hauntingly good time...would love to have you by the old place!

                                                                 

                                                                      Brenda

Fall for Junk...September 24th 8am-3pm!

This Saturday, September 24th from 8am-3pm JB Knacker is hosting a really fun event.  We throw the old shop doors open early at 8am, serve a light breakfast, have 20% the entire shop, host 15 creative vendors out in our side yard, hand-out maps to 8 area barn sales and lure you back to the shop between 2-3pm for a junk basket drawing not to be missed!!  Tell your family and friends...spread the word 'cause this is the last event of this type for the season!

 
Our vendors who will be set up in the side yard include: Tricia Hall (jewelry and more), Sarah Dorn (jewelry and more), Jeff Tadsen (vintage refunked), Chris Backes (metal designs), Mary Husske (vintage and more vintage), Pam Hobbs (vintage and more vintage), Michelle (vintage and more vintage), Kate Hinrichs (vintage redesigns), Jenny and Becky (vintage and retro), Ann & Dorothy (vintage and repurposed), Natalie (colorful jewelry and vintage) and Peggy Petersen (vintage garden and more).

Barns on the route will be:

Carter Station w/ special guest Rusty Pumpkin ~ Story City

Junk'in 4 ~ Story City

Barntiques ~ Nevada

Red Barn Rustics ~ rural Boone  ***thanks Carla for the "Fall for Junk" name***

Junk Refunkery ~ rural Boone

Once Was ~ Boone

Bittersweet 'n Berries ~ rural Boone

Dakota Junktion ~rural Ames

I would like to thank you all ahead of time.  There is a lot one can do on a beautiful fall day...and you chose to junk w/ us...and you'll be happy you did...all of us are putting our best junk forward for you to embellish your home & garden, give as a one-of-a-kind gift or just treat yourself to a unique piece of history!
                                                       See you Saturday!

                                                                   Brenda

***Hmmm...what to put in the Junk Basket to be given away at 2:30ish on Saturday...how about an old gym locker basket "tricked-out" w/ a metal # from Urban Forge (see above) and chocolate and a couple of new mags (Flea Market Style, Country Living) and a few more surprises...you'll want to head back to the shop for a chance at this and to grab any junk you missed first time around!!

Gearing Up

September is going to be a wild ride!  The shop has turned to an autumn look w/ metal, wood, burlap and mums.  Halloween will creep into the shop around the middle of September while I am away at the Junk Bonanza in Shakopee, MN.  Not necessarily the Halloween of your childhood, but more of a grownup old world, potions and hexes sort of Halloween...think chandeliers, candelabras and ravens.  The Junk Bonanza begins Thursday, Sept. 15th...early bird entry at 8am and continues through Sat., Sept 17th!  The JB Knacker booth is coming together nicely (in my head, that is) w/ a very quirky yet functional natural history theme w/ pops of color.  The shop will be held down by paper artist, Lara Gustafson.  Lara loves Halloween...so between twirling the upstairs of the shop into a devilish nature, you may find her working on her ever popular Halloween cards and tags.  JB Knacker will also have a nice surprise for those of you who pop into the shop during those days that I am working my booth at the Junk Bonanza!

 
JB Knacker's last Main Street Flea Market will be held on Saturday, Sept. 24th from 8am - 3pm...note the early start!  We will have a light breakfast buffet of donuts, muffins, fruit, juice & coffee, everything in the shop will be 20% off and plenty of vendors in the side yard of the shop peddling their wares.  And our vendors have been good...whether you're looking for vintage, metal, funky jewelry or fall embellishments...we've got it!  We will also have maps to all of the area barn, chicken shed and carriage house sales (so far 7)!!   And will lure you back to the shop at 3ish w/ something really fun...stay tuned!

This day is also our little town's Harvest Festival.  It's a time to celebrate the bountiful harvest, enter the pie baking contest and reunite w/ old friends.  JB Knacker will be on the historical society's tour...a hay rack ride around town w/ stops at historic buildings.  Tales will be spun about the days when Doc barbered/cut hair in the front room of the shop and his wife, Helen sorted the mail.  Or back a little further when the old shop was Bush and Gerstein Music Store in the early 1900's...and maybe a few spooky tales as well - fun!

That will wrap up the special events in September, but I also have to give you a quick glimpse of the fun to come in October.  JB Knacker is reviving the Halloween Party.  Some of you die-hards may remember Julie and I throwing a Halloween Bash back in 2007 ~ a costume party no less.  Well, this year, the old shop will be having another spooky night on Friday, October 7th from 6:30 - 8:30ish pm.  Local artist Steve Hosch will be on hand w/ a shrine of his spooky assemblage pieces and day of the dead masks, treats & tricks will be served and everything you need to celebrate in style this season will be on hand for you to peruse...think beakers, test tubes, candelabras, refunked spooky portraits and so much more!  A fun evening indeed!

                    
                                                                                                                    Brenda


  
                                                   

JB Knacker Main Street Market and Shop Hop!

 

Fall is just around the corner...I can feel it, smell it and even start to see it in the crackly corn husks out in the field waiting for harvest.  The mornings and evenings are different...cooler, dewier and mellower (are those last 2 even real words...in my mind, they work).  I love this...maybe because in the Midwest it is such a fleeting time.

The shop will be awakened w/ all things harvesty...the old place has grown kind of used to this late summer lull where wonderful pieces slip in, are placed, purchased and slip out again....all without much of a shake up at all.  It will be a gradual shake-up...over a week's time, but by next Friday (August 26th) those that are on the Fall Shop Hop will love it!

                                      
                                                Here are the details of the Shop Hop...

The 1st annual Fall Shop Hop takes place Friday, August 26th 10am-4pm and Saturday, August 27th 10am-4pm.  There are a total of 8 Story County shops on the Shop Hop:  Blumsters, Moose on the Loose & Chicken Shed Primitives...all in Huxley; Sheldahl Crossing in Slater; Julieann's in Nevada; Antique Iowa in Story City; and Left Bank Studio and JB Knacker in Gilbert!  Each shop will be having specials, treats and together we are going in on 8 gift certificates to be given away to those that "hit" all 8 shops!

At JB Knacker, we will have shop specials on Friday (and note we will be open 10am-6pm on Friday to greet Shop Hop shoppers) and fall treats served...on Saturday, August 27th it's a bit of a different story...

The JB Main Street Market will be in full swing by opening time at 10am.  This is our 3rd flea market in the shop's side yard this year and proves to be a very exciting one!  We have wonderful vendors peddling their creatively fantastic wares from repurposed jewelry to fun metal home and garden art...vintage furniture to refunked lighting...yummy baked goods to artsy primitive goods!  Do names like Mama Peacock, Jeff Tadsen, LOL Salvage, Urban Forge and Red Barn Rustics make you just a bit curious?  Other creative vendors coming ... Keith from Anything But New, Linda from Hargrove Made It, Mary Husske, Jody from Smil'in Moon, Wanda's baked goods and Pam Hobson.  If it's a wonderfully cool pre-autumn morning, the cider will be hot and no matter the temperature outside, the donuts will be heaped on a big old platter.  We will also be having handmade demos throughout the day...think metal stamping, jewelry and journal making...). 

                                                                       Brenda

It's a New Year!

Well, it is for me anyway.  The day the kids go off to school is bittersweet for me.  They are excited and not so much all at the same time...sad to have summer go by so fast...eager to see friends.  What does the new school year have in store for my senior, 7th grader and 4th grader?  Still have the soon-to-be sophomore in college home for a few more days and my senior in college coming home from his St. Louis internship tomorrow (update: I am giving prayers of thanks as my son just called and was in a car accident...he is unhurt, and that is all I care about at this moment...we will go down and pick him up tomorrow).  How quickly things can change.  And of coarse,  little Cecilia will be my side-kick all year long...going on junk trips and working at the shop w/ mom!  What does this new school year have in store for you?  Even if you don't have kids or the kids are all out of the house or maybe not even in school yet...can you smell it in the air...a new season...a new year?

In the next few days, I will be posting the exciting events to come at JB Knacker in the next few weeks...the shop will be getting whirled into an autumn mode and the side yard will be full of vendors in just over a week!   

Pardon the Mess

Pardon the mess, our blog will be undergoing an transformation this weekend :-)