Country Living Fair

Finally... here's a rundown of my long weekend in Austin.  I left Thursday morning and did the usual.  Stop in Bellville at Newman's Bakery for a country breakfast (eggs, bacon and biscuit) and then my favorite antique store down the street, Nothing Ordinary.  Don't get spooked by the front room, go down the hallway to the back, where all the good stuff is!  I don't think I've ever walked out of there empty handed - I found a silver sugar bowl, baby shoes and milk white lid.

Then I went on the search for Travis County Exposition, which is on the east side of Austin for the Country Living Fair.  Only problem was, I was a day early.  Yes, I didn't check the date and it started tomorrow.  No worries, I headed to South Congress for uncommon OBJECTS, the thrift store down the street and also found a great eatery, Hopdoddy Burger Bar.  It was yummy, by the way and I was the only person in the place without a tattoo. Ran into Jenni and Jared Bowlin on the street.  Also saw actor, Aziz Ansari.  I know I didn't know who he was either - he plays on Parks and Recreation.  I mentioned the thrift store, its across the street and down the way from UO - nothing this time but I've found great stuff there in the past.  I found tiny wooden baby shoe molds at UO - SIX of them!  Yeah.  These are the smallest I've found but they didn't have any needle marks in them so perhaps they were samples?  Must be.

So on Friday, I made my way to the Country Living Fair, you know, when it was open.  Part of it was in a barn (the affordable stuff) and the other part in the arena (way over priced, but fun to look at).  There was one particular shop that was my favorite - great stuff at good prices.  I found a 14" St. Theresa statue for $48.  I think she's chalkware.  I also found some stitched ribbon in red there with ABCs and FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS.  I also found the two silver heart ornaments - they're a bit heavy and unique.  I also found a bit of white trim, two yards of fabric in 30s kitchen style and these two cigarette silks for Australia and Egypt.  At work those are two of my territories so I thought they would be fun to have.  I'm not sure what a cigarette silk is though... I had all the stuff piled up but the picture was awkward.  I really need a class on styling for photographs. 
My overall view of the CL Fair is that it was nice but not fabulous.  The CL Fair, (like so many other events) have vendors who are looking for the designers, who will pay $48 for a pair of blue felt baby cowboy boots, even though Jenni Bowlin had them for $18.  I think thats what we'll start calling them, Designer events.  Urban Market is pretty much a designer event.  You can pick off a few good bits but overall you walk away shaking your head. Probably the best junk event I've been to is Junk Bonanza in St. Paul, MN last September.  It had TONS of junk that I love at super reasonable prices.  You know, a yardstick for $2 instead of $10.
One cool thing that happened at the Fair was that I met Susie Harris, a Louisiana blogger and sign painter and her fabulous sister, Missy.  I had a great time visiting with them, talking about all that we love, comparing notes.  Bloggers are cool and girls from Louisiana are the best.  Susie has great pictures from CLF and also some great recommendations for their 50 states article.  We went to the Red Onion last weekend, on my way back from Destin.  Very cool place.
I thought I would share two recent finds on line:  a child's Singer sewing machine and a child's sewing machine from the USSR/Russia.  Cute, huh. 

And now to a bit of a confession.  I'm trying to organize and sell, and stay out of the estate sales and thrift stores.  Well, let me restate that.  I can still go but I can't buy.  I am tired of the Room of Shame and want to use what I have and sell what I don't love.  We'll see how it goes.