Brimfield 2: Vintage Boogaloo

How has it taken me so long to make reference to one of the best movies ever?!  If you don't know what I'm talking about, go here now!  Okay, so you would think we would have all gotten our vintage/antique fix at the show, but that's just silly!  The town outside of the antique show, Sturbridge, MA, has quite a few great little antique shops and a flea market.  I was able to find quite a few goodies at these places too.

I really need to look up the history of that first building.  It is so stunning!  The guy running the shop was great and gave me a serious bargain on some Redware cat ashtrays for mom.  The shop only inhabits the first floor of the building, but I would have loved to explore the rest!  This second shop was attached to a restaurant that served sushi, so I was a bit distracted by the thought of eating some yummy rolls, but they had some lovely items as well.  Okay, so on the finds!  Now I should mention that I had a pretty limited budget on this trip and there were definitely things I regret not buying, but I seriously made out really well!

Of course most of my haul consists of dolls, but would you expect anything else?  Doll faces were a rare sight at the antique show.  I think I saw two, a clown I already have loads of and great Santa that was way out of my price range at $20.  The sad teddy bear was the very first item I bought.  He still has his tag and looks brand new!  The pink doll is a music box and the red oil cloth one is a rattle. The Cathrineholm pot was my one big splurge at $35.  I was alone at the time I saw it and I did this sort of speed walk towards it.  There were two women taking photos of the pots on the table and discussing what the one woman would do with them all, so I think she may have been interested, but I grabbed it right away, hugged it to my chest, and called Donnie to talk it out.  He must have thought I was crazy and asked if I was out of money, because I'm certain he didn't understand that I was just excited and needed to tell someone immediately.  It was the only piece of Cathrineholm I saw at the show too!  The sad pose dolls were at one of my favorite kinds of booths where there are just piles and boxes of potential treasure!  And there are the cats I mentioned previously.  My mom's birthday fell on one of the days we were away, so it was nice to find her something good to bring back.

I can't wait to use the tin case up top as a display at craft shows!  It originally held a children's picnic set.  I fell in love with that little mailman box right away and was even more smitten once I saw that it held the most adorable vintage children's cards.  I hope to do a post in the future about my vintage card collection, so I will include these!  The shakers on the bottom were an antique store find and a gift for Heidi.  Finally, the little box of vintage spun cotton and plastic cake picks were one of the only lots of cake toppers I saw at the show and I just loved how these came in the sweet little box.

Here's a final shot of all my finds that I took right after getting home.  The tin molds were a flea market find and were such a killer deal.  They had more and I probably should have just bought them all.  I will definitely put them to good use, as I will the vintage reflectors in the upper right corner! Can you believe there were 99 reflectors crammed into that little box?!

So when we first decided to go to Brimfield, we asked for suggestions and ended up getting a lot of general suggestions that were common sense.  Things like wear comfortable shoes and drink plenty of water weren't really what we were looking for, so I will share a few suggestions I think would be useful for a first-timer.  Obviously the two things I mentioned are good, but I would think you'd know that if you've ever been to even a flea market.  Similar to going to a flea market, have lots of cash, especially small bills.  Keep them in more than one spot, because it's much easier to offer less when it looks like you only have a small amount of money.  I noticed that sellers really appreciated exact change also.  Yesterday I mentioned that we had old lady carts to use.  Those actually were kind of a pain in the ass and most of the booths weren't laid out in a way that made maneuvering the cart very easy.  I noticed a lot of people just left their carts outside of the tents while browsing, but that seemed a little sketchy.  A basket or large tote bag probably works better.  We parked in a great location that allowed us to make trips back to the car without much hassle.  That leads me to the next tip, pay a little extra for the good parking.  As soon as you get into town, there are signs for $5 parking, but if you get closer, there are great spots for just a few dollars more.  Explore all of the fields, even the ones that charge a small admission fee.  We found things in pretty much every area of the show and as one seller told me, every field is a great field for your first time.  You will find your favorites after attending a few times.  Last, and most important, eat all the food.  There are some damn delicious food vendors set up at the show!  Apple cider donuts, reuben hot dogs, pit beef sandwiches, and best of all, the lime rickeys from Dad's Kettle Corn.  That's actually my last suggestion, although it's more of an order.  Go get a lime rickey at least once a day!  They were amazing!