Monday, September 26, 2011

Miland Antiques Festival & a Busy Weekend!

Yesterday I went to Midland Antiques Festival.  My junquing buddy, Bargain Hunter, didn't want to go, so I enlisted my ever-encouraging and ever-patient husband, Mr. Kitschy Vintage (Mr. KV for short).  He likes to look at the man-tiques and sports stuff, but that's not something you can count on.  I think he understood that I was going primarily to look for things for Etsy and the booth and that he'd pretty much end up being a 'bearer' (or caddy, if you prefer).   Still, we had fun! 

It was an absolutely gorgeous day!  Rain threatened, but never materialized.  Instead the sky was deep blue with puffy white clouds and temps in the 60s -- perfect weather for a flea market.  It was very crowded, too (I think everyone wanted to get in on the last one of the year).
 I took my new (old) granny cart, complete with cup holder.   That really helped Mr. KV -- it made it easy for him to see where I'd stopped to shop.  I'd park the granny cart by a vendor and then wander a little, and he could always find me by my cart (the red cup holder was almost as good as a red flag!
 The prices were higher than they used to be when it was more of a flea market, but still not as high as a mall or high-priced sale, so I managed to get some bargains.  Here's some of what I got (notice that I didn't buy even one piece of Pyrex):
I'm most excited about this child-sized card table and chairs
Lots of great kitchen stuff, including a McCoy individual teapot and a pair of Holt Howard cats
The muffin pan in the front is all Statues of Liberty and the ones at the back are madeleines and leaves -- fairly unusual
 A little Christmas stuff, including a 1960s hanging (from a store?) and a BIG German tin from Nuremburg
The Little Golden Books, vintage souvenir pennants and skeleton keys were all great buys!
I really like these Scottish-theme dishtowels!
This beaded clutch purse is really cute
 My granny cart was 3/4 full and my wallet 3/4 empty and we still had the whole big field with rows and rows of vendors to go through when DISASTER STRUCK!  I realized that, though I was wearing my prescription sunglasses, my regular glasses were gone!  I had kept them in my pocket because the tents that vendors use can be pretty dark and I had to keep switching them back and forth.  I knew I'd either put them down or they'd fallen out of my pocket into the grass somewhere.  We had no choice but to backtrack to every place I'd been (and there were LOTS), checking the ground and the tables and asking each vendor.

I stayed calm, but I was really panicked!  I did some serious praying, even though I felt guilty for bothering the Lord about my glasses.  One of the vendors volunteered that she'd pray for me to find them (along with asking other people if they'd seen them) -- she was really helpful.  Happily, I found them at one of the places with a big tent -- the vendor had put them aside for me.  After that, though, we were near the beginning and I'd just lost the thrill of the hunt.  We decided to be thankful for what we had and head on home.  So, it was a fun day, but a short one.

 I spent most of this afternoon taking pictures for Etsy and getting the overflow of stuff organized -- two things I'd gotten way behind on.  I've been thinking about getting another shelving unit or store stuff.  When I told  Mr. KV this, he pointed out (very sweetly, I must admit) that our basement is starting to look like an episode of 'Hoarders' and that it might be time to lay off buying for a while.  Hmm , , , Maybe so.  But there's just so much great stuff out there and Bargain Hunter has been scoping out auctions for us to go to . . .


4 comments:

Lakota [Faith Hope and Charity Shopping] said...

This looks like such a fun day - lost glasses notwithstanding! Glad you tracked them down. You got some great stuff - my husband would be having palpitations if I went out shopping with a trolley. Our house is up for sale so I'm trying to cut back on the buying a bit...

cindy said...

Hey, I was in Midland, too. Had a great time but forced myself to just look for hats-- and I found some doozies. I tell myself that I'm stocking up for winter.
I'll look for your cart next June. Wouldn't that be a stitch if we crossed paths. I'll be wearing a vintage hat. (thevintagehatshop@etsy.com)

Anne@Kitschy Vintage said...

@cindy -- We should make a point to meet up somewhere and say hi! Short of that, you watch for my granny cart and I'll watch for your hat.

cindy said...

Yes, let's do it! Only in Mich. do folks start planning their antiquing 9 months away! We'll be in touch.

Post a Comment

This is my favorite part! Please leave me a comment -- I always love to hear from you: