{"id":709,"date":"2018-12-31T13:33:34","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T13:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=709"},"modified":"2018-12-31T13:33:34","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T13:33:34","slug":"lone-star-book-reviewsby-michelle-newby-nbcccontributing-editor-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=709","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Book ReviewsBy Michelle Newby, NBCCContributing Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/span><\/span>Michelle Newby<\/span> is contributing editor at Lone Star Literary Life, reviewer for Kirkus, <\/span>freelance writer, member of the National Book Critics Circle, blogger at www.TexasBookLover.com, and a moderator at the 20th annual Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, World Literature Today, High Country News, South85 Journal, The Review Review, Concho River Review, Monkeybicycle, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, <\/span>and The Collagist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lone Star Book Reviews
of Texas books appear weekly
at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

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<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/span>DECORATING AND DESIGN\/AMERICANA<\/p>\n

Amie Sikes and Jolie Sikes; photographs by April Pizana<\/span><\/p>\n

Junk Gypsy: Designing a Life at the Crossroads of Wonder & Wander<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Paperback, 978-1-50113-568-2 (also available as an ebook), 240 pgs., $25.00<\/p>\n

October 4, 2016<\/p>\n

Amie Sikes earned a journalism degree <\/span>and a job in the state capitol\u2014and had been accepted to law school\u2014but she felt like a \u201cmessy-haired dreamer in a flat-ironed sea of networking.\u201d Jolie Sikes<\/span> earned a master\u2019s degree and was working as an academic advisor at Texas A&M University. She requested two days off a month to help out at her parents\u2019 restaurant. The answer was no \u2014 and Jolie quit. The sisters went home, where their mother Janie handed over two thousand dollars from her stash and suggested they go to the flea market, fix up some junk, and try to sell it. And thus began the \u201centrepreneurial rainbow-chasing and windmill-tilting\u201d\u2014the Junk Gypsy Company was born.<\/p>\n

Junk Gypsy: Designing a Life at the Crossroads of Wonder & Wander<\/span><\/a><\/span> is the first book by the Sikes sisters, part memoir, part philosophy, part DIY. April Pizana\u2019s photography is luscious, the perfect complement (\u201ca thing that completes or brings to perfection\u201d) to the Sikes\u2019 text and creations.<\/p>\n

Junk Gypsy<\/span> is divided into three parts: The Road, The Flea Market, and Home; with chapter titles such as \u201cGrit Happens\u201d and \u201cIf Willie Nelson & Janis Joplin Had a Love Child\u2026\u201d. \u201cThe Road\u201d is all about road-tripping treasure hunts and what the sisters call \u201cdashboard therapy\u201d (including a recommended music playlist). \u201cThe Flea Market\u201d is a \u201csacred \u2026 place that lives and breathes,\u201d constantly changing. There\u2019s a section on Texas Antiques Week, the \u201cmother lode junk Mecca,\u201d which takes over Round Top, Texas, twice each year, temporarily swelling the population to more than 150,000. \u201cHome\u201d is a love letter to Round Top and includes a look at some of their home remodels and the sisters\u2019 personal homes. Amie describes her place as \u201cwayward mermaid who joined the circus on her way through cowgirl country.\u201d Dad calls their style \u201cfunky schway.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sikeses have provided practical tips, as well. There\u2019s a field guide for flea markets, a list of must-have items for your toolbox, information on architectural salvage, and step-by-step instructions for DIY projects. These projects include distressing furniture (and jeans), ombr\u00e9-style wall painting, and making curtains out of your favorite old T-shirts, just to name a few. The DIY projects include a difficulty rating: the more hammers, the more difficult the project.<\/p>\n

Seventeen years later, the Sikes sisters\u2019 \u201corganic creation of an authentic brand\u201d is an empire which includes the Gunk Gypsy World Headquarters (\u201ca preserve for wild junk, a habitat in which every species of junk could coexist harmoniously and symbiotically\u201d), a seven-thousand-square-foot store in Round Top, Texas, population ninety; a lodge in the \u201cGypsyville compound\u201d called the Wander Inn; a popular HGTV show; a line of cowboy boots, Junk Gypsy paint, and d\u00e9cor for Pottery Barn Teen. Amie and Jolie are also famous for their Airstream trailer (\u201cmagic in a tin can\u201d) rehabs for Miranda Lambert and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day fame, among others.<\/p>\n

Quoting Robert Frost, Sir Isaac Newton, George Strait, Louis L\u2019Amour, and Rumi, Junk Gypsy<\/span> is New Age-y, Karma, Zen, sometimes a little too sweet and touchy-feely, and sometimes a little over the top. But that\u2019s also sometimes the point; it\u2019s the antidote to corporate-think doldrums and beige (bone, ecru, taupe, tan, neutral<\/span>). Junk Gypsy <\/span>is a lifestyle\u2014totally Texas and totally fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Newby is contributing editor at Lone Star Literary Life, reviewer for Kirkus, freelance writer, member of the National Book Critics Circle, blogger at www.TexasBookLover.com, and a moderator at the 20th annual Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, World Literature Today, High Country News, South85 Journal, The Review Review, Concho […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}