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Monday, September 8, 2014

Does Anyone Actually KNOW a Junker?

It's White Trash Week here in the old neighborhood.

White Trash Week is that lovely week when people are allowed to pile junk at the curb for bulk collection pickup. You get to drive down the street seeing people's old toilets, broken dressers, scrap lumber and everything else under the sun, and pretend for a week that you live in a neighborhood full of meth lab owners - but without all the fun of Walt & Jesse.

It's only half as disturbing as the parade of junkers that accompany it though.

These junkers prowl the streets in trailers that look like something out of White Trash Harry Potter.

Photo credit - Evil Vince

You can hear the junk towers creaking as they prowl by and you just pray they don't swerve to avoid a squirrel and unleash a torrent of washing machines and lawn chairs onto your car.

Here's what I don't understand - is junking a business? Can you make a living from picking up suitcases with busted zippers and broken particle board furniture? Does anyone actually KNOW anyone who junks for a living? And if so, what is the lifestyle and income potential? Do you have to get a special junk trailer insurance policy for when a toilet goes flying off your precarious rig and through the windshield of an ice cream truck? How much does a policy like that cost? How many tetanus shots must you get annually as a junker? Who BUYS the junk?

Is this the real secret of IKEA?

I have just so many questions, as I gaze out the window at a tumbleweed of chicken wire the size of a hay bale and a pile of used brooms.

I might have to hide inside all week and stamp. There are some things you just don't want to know about your neighbors.

I'm obsessed with the Four Feathers stamps & dies right now, speaking of stamping. I LOVE the bold graphic designs SO much in black & white. I actually haven't stamped them in anything BUT black yet - I just can't help myself!

I just took two of these little buggers and put them on one of my Gelli Prints I made last weekend. I just bought the teeny 3x5 plate and played with that. It takes a little getting used to after you're used to printing on a big plate, but it's really fun to have a print that doesn't have to be cut down to go on a card front.

I thought I'd pick one of my jumbly alphabet prints to go with my White Trash day questions. I love the way that images tend to look embossed after multiple prints, like the letters do here. 

Pin It

I also love how the red and yellow and black all play together nicely. For the shadow underneath, I used the negative of the die cut as a stencil and rubbed metallic black Pan Pastel through it and then offset the cut feathers a bit. You can't see the sparkle here but it's cool. The greeting is from Kinda Eclectic.

Like the ecosystem of junk.

We have junk.

Junkers want junk.

White Trash Week - where the junkyard comes to YOU.

Loveyameanitbye.


7 comments:

  1. Uh, I have a cousin who is a junker for a "living"....we won't get into that...so yes, I know an actual junker although I don't claim that side of my family 99% of the time ;-) That card, so not junk :-)

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  2. I'm married to a junker, but not quite like this... He likes to go to auction and estate sales. He came home last weekend with 2 coffeepots because he got them for $1. I already have 2 coffeepots. Why did I need 2 more?

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  3. Always a refreshing perspective on the world. I want to see how you did that on your plate - or at least a description. My brain is unable to think it. I cannot brain today. You know the image I mean. Cheese!

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  4. There are junkers everywhere. We had them in MD on bulk pick-up day every month, and they're here in OH, too. I'll bet some of it ends up in flea markets, and someone might take that busted dresser, slap a coat of spackling on it, and decoupage it into a craft shelf. Could happen, and they're welcome to my stuff.

    In other news, I'm still holding out on that Gelli plate thing. I don't need another tool, and I have nowhere to put it. I'll just continue to gaze admiringly at your productions!

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  5. In Australia Sydney we get four council pickups a year but whenever you want so its regular to see piles of household rubbish/contents waiting for pickup. You book it in and get told to have out by Sunday. Sunday late afternoon, Monday morning you will see trucks and cars our curb crawling, digging thru looking for who knows what but usually what you have put out will have shrunk by 75% by the time council picks up.
    On another note I've never triedhe gelli plate but I love your card. The colours are brilliant, real eyecatching.

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  6. Was just looking at getting a GelliPlate last week. Now I want it even more. You are such a horribly (good) influence

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  7. Yes, I do! My Grandpa Mac operated a 'junk yard' before, during and after WWII. He raised 11 kids on his business. I also regularly drop off cans at a local 'junk yard.'

    ReplyDelete

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