I have always loved good design, and at one point was even on the road to getting my bachelors in interior design (then I met my husband which derailed that train and I ended up getting my MRS degree instead! Ha!).
Anyhoo! I have wanted for sometime to redecorate my house to make it truly reflect who I am now (not who I was when I was 19 and moved in here!) and the atmosphere I want to raise my family in. My mom finds my change in style pretty much hilarious (as I do hers). Essentially we have undergone a total role reversal! Growing up I was always into the modern-eclectic stuff and she was all country, decorating with chickens and pears! Now I'm the one who is in love with all things vintage and she is the one with the square backed chairs and sleek lines! Who'd a thunk!?
Back to the show, however (today seems to be a day of rabbit trails)! Although we still aren't rolling in the cash, I figure I can at least start to add a few sweet touches to our home in order to start down that road of creating the space I desire and think really speaks of who I am (oh, and my family :-D). Aside from the whole money thing, I also have a reserve about making any big changes or putting too many holes in the walls since we sincerely hope to sell this place and move out onto property in the next year or two. We take drives through the country whenever we can (a favorite family pasttime for us) and have had our eyes on a particular piece of land for a few months now.
But more about all that later! This post is supposed to be about the fantastic time I had at Farm Chicks! And oh boy, did I ever!! I met up with a few friends and met some new ones (all of which happen to be bloggers! Heh! Small world!) and we began our mission to unearth the best deals and best find of the show! Granted, none of us came with wads of cash to purchase the big ticket items, but it seems to me that we all walked away with a few special finds to make the day a success!
This being my first time at any sort of antique fair, I was mostly in awe and wonderment for the first the first 1/2 hour or so, just taking it all in and trying to figure out just how to go about this whole new shopping experience. I decided to peruse first and buy later, unless something seriously spoke to me! This process seemed to work quite well, and ya know what? It taught me some things about myself! here is what I learned today:
- In addition to my current love affair with fabric flowers, I also seem to have an obsession with trunks, blue glass, vintage dining-ware, and anything blue, turquoise or aqua (with splashes of orange and yellow)!
- I really do want to add far more color to my home than I ever dreamed I would!
- I have much greater tendencies toward retro & vintage than I ever formerly realized! In all honesty, I think I am an eclectic mix of retro, vintage and shabby chic with a slight country flair at times (but not Americana- as my friend from Tales of a Crafty Mama so eloquently put it!)!
- I could make a lot of the things I saw so I just need to be better at garage and thrift-saling to find the pieces for cheap and spruce them up myself! (I feel lots of projects and paint coming on this summer!)
I ended up walking away with a set of 7 of these beautiful melamine dinner plates for $8!!!
I also bought a smaller version of one of these blue glass Ball Mason Jars for just $3 and plan to use it to hold our big spoons and spatulas next to my stove. I loved walking away from the show knowing what I was going to do with each thing I bought- it made my purchases feel worth it and not frivolous.
There was so much good stuff to be inspired by that I simply cannot fit it all into one post. So I have decided to spread out my posts with all the photo goodness on this show throughout the following week. You can be expecting to see and hear much more about the finds I made in lighting, trunks (surprise, surprise!), furniture, and the small things that add that final touch to your decor and really make your house feel like a home. I will be featuring highlights of my favorite booths with links to their blogs and tell you the couple of items I now wish I would have bought!
And of course, this is only the beginning! Farm Chicks now has me hopelessly hooked! I seem to be planning my summer around the other antique shows that are coming up throughout the summer in my general vicinity! Plus, now that I know what I am in for and can get past the shock and awe of such a show, I believe I will be much better prepared and have a more narrowed-down idea of just what it is I am looking for!
Now I'm off to bed with visions of blue glass Ball Mason Jars dancing through my head!
