Last week we checked out of the city life and rented a cabin in the North Carolina mountains. It’s something we try to do at least once a year. If you have never been on the Blue Ridge parkway or in the Blue Ridge mountains, please do yourself a favor and make a trip! BEAUTIFUL.

I realize the main focus of this blog is JUNK but I’ve also been playing with the camera I got back at Christmas and would love to share some photos and get your feedback

Warning: Image heavy post!

The first pictures are all from the Valle Crucis Community Park. It’s a GORGEOUS park (as you can see below!) behind the Mast General store in Valle Crucis, NC.

My assistant, Chance, cooling off!

Here’s a picture of the  sign in front of the original Mast General Store which has been there since 1883.

We also ventured into Blowing Rock, NC one day. Blowing Rock has a quaint downtown with tons of shops, restaurants and fun.

I found this cool mobile in one of the shops (my apologies to the stores, I was working to make sure my 4-yr-old didn’t touch anything AND take pictures but did not manage to write shop names down! sorry!).

Outside the same shop they had this cool “shelter” built out of shutters, windows and a screen door! love it.

Further down the road in Blowing Rock I found a nice antique store with many treasures. Amongst them was this cool ottoman…

More wooden shoe molds (I’m telling you, these things are following me everywhere!)…

A Union Jack storage chest…

 And where have I seen the & on a pillow before? Oh right, I made one here!

At another store, I spotted this and had to know more about it. It’s made out of the metal rings found on wine barrels! Genius repurposing into a sculpture!

Phew, ok, that was a lot of pictures. Thanks for making it all the way to the end!