Liberty Antiques Festival

Yesterday, (after watching the Royal Wedding, of course) my friend Crystal and I went to the Liberty Antiques Festival.  They hold it twice a year in a small town outside of Greensboro, NC.  It's supposedly the largest in the southeast with 400+ dealers.  There was SO much to look at.  I think I'll definitely be going to the next one in September.

These little patio sets were apparently very common because I think we saw 3 or 4 of them, all at different vendors.  If that's what you came for, you were in luck!

Oh, the lanterns.  I loved them oh so much but I loved my money more.  Sad.

This was probably the coolest thing I saw - a rotating card catalog!  For $2,000 it could've been mine!

These were just weird, but cool.

There were probably 10 aisles that all looked like this.

Before we left, we stopped for a photo op.

So, I'm sure you're just dying to know what I brought home.

First up, a Coke crate!  It's old and chippy and will look perfect in our game room downstairs.  The dealer had a bunch of old bottles sitting in it and had it marked for $12.  I asked him if he would take $10 and he said "No, I think I'll keep it at $12 because I don't have anywhere else to put these bottles."  Um, how is that MY problem?  Sheesh!  Obviously, I gave him the $12.  I liked it too much to quibble over $2.

Next up, something I've wanted for quite a while now.  A vintage fan!  This one's made by Koldair (clever name, huh?)  It was marked for $30 and I asked the guy how much he would take for it.  He had a much larger Kenmore fan sitting beside it and asked me if I would take both.  I asked him what he was thinking for both and he said $40.  I really didn't like the large Kenmore fan.  It just looked old, not cool and vintage.  So he reluctantly parted with just the small one for $25.  I lugged this heavy cast iron fan around all.day.long and boy were my shoulders sore by the end of the day!  Next time, I know to bring my little SmartCart to lug things around in.  I wasn't even thinking that I would have to carry whatever I bought for the rest of the day.  D'oh!  Anywho, I just love this little guy.

Oh, and of course I looked at similarly sized fans the rest of the day and I definitely got the best deal - go me!

Do you know of any other awesome antiques festivals?  I think I'm hooked!

Color Blocked Rick Rack Wreaths

I've been stumped about how to decorate our front porch for spring this year.  I've never done springy wreaths before, but after taking down our Christmas wreaths, our doors just looked naked.

I bought two straw wreaths half off at HobLob a few months ago.  They sat barren for a long time until I finally just decided to do something.  I raided my stash to see what I had, and voila - color blocked rick rack wreaths (say that five times fast)!

I had leftover burlap and jute (the starting point for these beauts), bought two skeins of yarn, some rick rack and burlap garland (I didn't even know they had such a thing until I stumbled across it at Michaels!) and just wrapped it all around until it suited me.  I added a P that's been in my stash forever but has never had a proper home.

I'm usually all about symmetry, and to tell you the truth, it still kinda bugs me that there's a P on one side and nothing on the other, but I'm trying to live with it for a few weeks and see what I think.  I'm just telling myself that the P signifies to people that that's the door that opens (as if the door handle isn't enough of a clue - ha!).  Anywho, I love the yellow, teal and red together.  Those colors are just speaking to me right now.

Also, don't you just love our front doors?  I just love them.  But when it comes to decorating our front porch, stoop, whatever you want to call it, it's twice the work!  But moving furniture in and out sho' is easy!

Beautiful red ceramic planters at Home Depot - I have my eye on you next!

Linking Up:

Office Rearranging

A couple weeks ago, I got a crazy hair to change our office around.  I just walked in there and could.not.take.it.any.more!  Does that ever happen to you?

Here it was before.

See those cords?  There was really no getting around them and no hiding them.  I loved the desk in the middle of the room because the front of it is b-e-a-utiful!  But I seriously couldn't handle the cords anymore.  Plus I store all my decorative items and gift wrapping supplies in the closet in there and getting to the closet meant walking between the desk and the chairs and it was a tight fit.

So I took all the drawers out of this soild wood, very expensive desk, cleaned it all out (seriously, we had some junk in there), and started pushing and maneuvering until I got it where I wanted it.*

And here ya go.

Ahh, no cords.

The room looks 10 times bigger and getting to the closet is easy-peasy now.  The two chairs in the room are actually our extra dining room chairs.  I don't put the leaf in unless we're having company, so this room is the perfect spot for them.  I picked up some paint chips at Lowes last week, and I'm thinking this room will end up some shade of dark blue.  This room gets tons of natural light from the big window, so even though it's a small room, I think it can handle a darker color on the walls.  Now I just need some bookshelves (all our books currently reside in two or three bankers boxes) and some curtains and this room will look fabulous!  I've actually put off doing anything to this room thinking it would *eventually* (don't be getting any crazy ideas Aunt Missa!) be a kid's room, but our guest room will turn into a kid's room first so this room has a few years left as an office.

*Note to self:  Don't try this again because your back hurt for two days and you had matching bruises on the outside of both of your knees from where you'd leaned up against it and pushed with all your might.  Remember, this desk is a BEAST.