Shop 'til you drop

Well now that the week is about half over I decided I would finally get around to posting about my weekend! It really started out great, but ended on a not so fun note with me getting sick...hence the delay in posting. Now I know writing only requires sitting in a chair and pressing buttons, emitting only small amounts of energy, but I'm sorry to say I just didn't have in me and instead preferred to be completely covered in my down throw, with a box of tissue, sleep and maybe watch a few episodes of Gilmore Girls. I didn't even go to ballet on Monday. That decision is always a hard one but since I have rehearsals and performances in three weeks I knew I needed to rest up and get better rather than push myself. ( I need to remember that today as I head back to class)

Enough of the not fun stuff!

Saturday ended up being a whopper of a shopping day, I'll tell you what! And it ended up being with a small contingent of my large family. We all met at a place called "The Farmhouse" (half of it looks like a barn and the other half a house) for a good 'ol country breakfast! This included both of my parents, my sister, my grandmother, grand pa Sonny, my uncle Brian and his fiance Jennifer, my wonderful husband (who sacrificed his Sat. morning soccer with the guys to be with me), and myself. whew!! Breakfast was great...filled with lots of laughs and good conversation...I only wish I could somehow capture it for you because to an outsider I can only imagine what it sounds like! Then we were off to First Monday Trade Days....Welcome to First Monday...an old shot but wanted you to get an idea of what this place can look like on a typical first Saturday of the month(every month). Oh the madness!

After our cars promplty got seperated, which led to parking on opposite sides of the "park", the vehicle I was in parked at the back and started off at the Convention Center. Right when we walked in we discovered this booth that was filled with laundry carts filled to the brim with every kind of linen you can imagine! And she had piles of quilts all over!
This is me feeling slightly overwhelmed...what you can't see is all the women on either side of me digging for their lives! (that was the overwhelming part)Me and my mom digging through the scarves with a little silliness in between.
And of course the proverbial "husband chair"...I guess so many men would flock to it that she eventually deemed it official!
I have a thing for aprons, even though I decided to pass on them that day...along with the quilt I carried around for a while, and the napkins I dug through! But by Sunday I was glad I had because I ended up with something better! I'll tell about that later...

After exploring the rest of the convention center, filled with antiques, old movies, jewelry, and so much more, we ventured outside and promptly got separated from my mom and dad. Did I mention how hard it is to stay together?!

I wish I had taken more pictures of the outside booths but I was too taken in by all of the wonderful things to explore and dig through! After about two hours of looking, and a little buying, I discovered second heaven! I absolutely love old jewelry especially the kind that involves vintage swarovski crystals. Oh! and the rhinestone necklaces which my husband even encouraged me to buy!This little picture does not begin to do justice the wonderful things this guy had and everything was 1/2 off! I felt like a kid in a candy store there was so much excitment and I think the owner was secretly laughing at me! I just couldn't decide and then when I thought I had decided I found another layer of trays underneath....anyway I came home with these two beautiesThe picture does not do them justice at all! They would have been $77 for both but I got them for $38 with the sale...yippee!!

We almost bought at least 3 different pieces of furniture while there including this corner piece I wanted for the dinning room. So pretty, but in the end I was glad we passed it by. The debate over this piece actually caused us to get seperated from my grandparents and uncle for the 2nd time...to which we spent the next hour trying to find them, finally giving up, then finding out they were headed to their car! Oh well, the time we were with them was fun.

I think we ended up walking and shopping for about 6 hours...still can't believe how the time flew. On of the pavillions we went in (not even sure how many they have on the 200 acres) had this booth that I could have looked at for at least an hour in and of itself.
I absolutely love this display and wish there was some way I could recreate it in my house or anywhere for that matter so that I could enjoy it more often. I seriously want collums like that in a house someday. And thank you to Mr. Wonderful for taking the picture even while you got in trouble for it....apparently there was a rule about taking pictures inside the Arbors, but we didn't know it until informed while he was taking the picture. Oops!

So after we had our fill of it all we went outside of the park grounds to a great little Mexican food stand and had tacos and tamales, followed by a little more shopping at a place called Paul Michael Company. Where we bought this:

Pardon the Kleenex...I have spent the last 2 days on that chair exactly where my husband left it after bringing it it. We will probably move it to a better wall in the office, actually the one I am sitting at right now.

Last but not least we stopped at the Dairy Palace for ice cream and headed home...which is when I started to feel sick. I am just sooo glad it was after the shopping! (smile)

Here is what else I came home with:
Silver candle sticks for $10
Glass ice bucket ( I think) $2, glass bowl with silver bottom $2, silver forks $1 a piece, silver tray $3, and the white container $1.I love this fun tablecloth that I got for $7. It was such a fun day...thanks for letting me share it with you! (If you made it this far-sorry for an extremely long post)