When I was a kid one of my mother's favorite things to do was to take my four brothers and I to find treasures at the junk yard. At that time there use to be a gravel pit outside of town where many people went to dump their junk and garbage. Illegal now but acceptable then. The gravel pit was enormous, it was deep, damp and if you looked around the pit's edge often you could spy treasures popping up like mushrooms.
Cheap entertainment, loads of fun, as we plied junk up in the back of the pick up and drove home.
My mom had a knack for taking things and turning them into creative vignettes, she put flowers in canning jars, and planted flowers in zinc buckets that had been discarded. She was a Recycling Queen before recycling was a word.
I grew up thinking that home decor came from what you could find, not from what you could buy in shops.
Before my father died last year my mother had been planning to open a small shop with her friend Holly.
Last October they opened their shop called: "Gathering: better junque". Holly has the same eye for gathering things as my mother. Though the junk yard is no longer their hunting ground, they have a passion for primitive style.
They like everything country: checked, cotton, wool, animal sculptured, scales, white ironstone, tin stars, baskets, worn off painted furniture, pie safes, grain bins, pull handles, dish towels, zinc buckets…. they even have baked goods on the counter to share with their friends.
Holly is an architectural landscaper often she creates small flower gardens in the things they buy. My Mom if you recall plants flowers in odd things as well (i.e. turn of the century washing machines, old boots, mailboxes, farm discs….) they two of them are cut from the same cloth, often I think Holly is her lost daughter as their taste is similar and their passion for gardening cheek to cheek. I am happy that my mother has found a good friend to share her passion especially after my father's passing.
With Halloween around the corner their shop is full of sweet treats and decor. As I have been in France for so long I forgot how the "Americans" get into their holidays and decorate accordingly. Ghost, witches and cats tickle BOO in their shop.
With each season the decor of their shop changes. I imagine Christmas to be a wonderland of treats and treasures.
Holly my mom's friend and shopping partner for Gathering.
If you are in Northern California, or passing through I hope you will stop by their shop and say hello.
My mother has
met a few of you already and that makes her day even brighter.
Mary from "Across the Pond" stopped by to visit the shop, and my mom invited her home for homemade blackberry pie!
Leslie Garcia stopped by too… but I do not know if she got black berry pie?
Gathering Better Junque
Willows, California
Tuesday – Saturday 10 to 6.
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