Spoon River Drive 2015: A Recap and Flea Market Finds

How does 100 miles of flea markets, antique, junk and craft vendors sound to you? It's the flea market lovers dream.
Spoon River Drive is the first two full weekends of October every year. It's a festival in Fulton County, Illinois with several flea markets, craft shows, festivals, and junk, craft, and antique vendors set up along the Spoon River Drive Route. There are vendors setting up shop in yards, parking lots, barns, churches, just everywhere.  My mom, sister and I make a day out of it and hit a few towns each year searching for goodies and deals.

This year, I hardly spent 20 bucks, but did not come home empty handed.

My favorite buy was this giant screen drawer thing for a whole 2 dollars. I have the perfect spot for it. I love the tag holder on the end too.

Do you know what this is?

This $5 beauty will find it's new home in our basement...

my vintage carrom board

A few items I passed on, but caught my eye.

Brass horse and apples.

I already have a flipping awesome old metal bed. Believe me when I say, I super wanted this one too. I refused to ask how much they were asking otherwise it would have probably been in the car.

This old metal bed is everything. 

 More cool horses. Neigh.

Who wants this retro orange sofa?

A few years ago, I scored this fantastic old radio for less than 20 bucks. It does still turn on, but we haven't gotten it to work. Would have been pretty neat to listen to the Cubbies win on it last night though huh? We should probably work on this.

Philco Radio from the 40's

2015 route:
Hannah City
Farmington
Canton
Smithfield 

Hannah City: Go for the junk vendors. Our first stop is usually a guy selling antiques and junk in someone's garage/driveway. Great deals and usually we make our first purchase here.
Farmington: Go for the apple fritters, stay for the flea market at the fair grounds. Farmington has vendors on the sides of the roads too, along with 3 large vendor filled stops; one flea market/antique stop at the antique mall parking lot,  one fairground flea market, and one craft show at the park. We skipped the craft show at the park this year and opted for more time at the flea market.

GET THE APPLE FRITTERS at the fairground. They are worth standing in line for. I seriously am not kidding. Go.

Best apple fritters in the Midwest.

Canton: Again, go for the junk vendors. Junk vendors are everywhere along the Spoon River Drive. Stop when something catches your eye. Buy all the junk.
Smithfield: My opinion; this one is skippable. We heard good things, we drove, we walked around...and questioned why we heard such good things. Then we left. This town had very few vendors (maybe 20) but the town was bustling with people. We weren't sure why they were all there for only 20 vendors. We had high hopes but will not return on this stop next year.

Next year we plan to change it up again, while still hitting our favorite towns & vendors. And of course, get our favorite apple fritters.

Source

Have you ever been to Spoon River Drive? Share your route and tips!
Check back later this week. I'm sharing what I did with that $2 screen.

DIY Faux Antique Finish: Globe

A few months ago I shared my deals from the Kane County FleaMarket trip.

I nabbed a globe I had been on the hunt for all summer –with a great price of about 15 bucks.
Globes seem to be all the rage this year, and I wanted a piece of the action.

But, it was a little too “blue” for my liking. I needed to add something to it--make it look less classroom and more vintage. Faux antique finish coming right up...

I started with the base. I hosed off all the flea market grime, and then whipped out my all-time favorite spray paint; Rustoleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze and went to town.

my assistant...supervising as usual.

The easy part was done.

I got out my stash of craft paints and modge podge and did some mixing, testing, more mixing and waiting until I could find a color I thought would work. I did my tests on a magazine cover since it had a similar glossy finish as the globe. I thought I would at the least get an idea of how it would turn out.

I ended up with about 2 parts Mod Podge Matte, and one part mixture of a few different brown/bronzey shades of acrylic paints.

I used a mini foam paint roller from Hobby Lobby.

 And...I rolled my homemade mixture all over the globe, trying to avoid any big globs, but also making sure I applied it unevenly.

I wanted it to look like it was stored in grandma’s attic for 30 years instead of straight out of a 4th grade social studies class.

My globe found a home in the living room, but may find its way up to our loft. I keep moving things around lately. Plus, the loft is getting some new life (to be revealed soon!)

In the end, I am happy with the turn out. I wanted to do this as a test for my bigger project, my map from the same flea market. But, I am not sure if I want to use the same method to antique it.

Any faux antique glaze tips or suggestions?

Did you jump on the globe bandwagon this year?

The ins & outs of estate auctions from a CPDG

Last month, I shared with you my estate auction deals. With Spring finally here, along with my love for junk…there will be many auctions in my future.

After 3 years of auction-ing, I consider myself a professional at getting good deals at these places. Actually, I am a CPDG, Certified Professional Deal Getter* 
*self-study,self paced course, totally not made up at all certification

Today I will tell you the ins and outs of estate auctions… Because if you haven’t been estate auction-ing…you need to go!

Don't worry, it's easy. There are just 5 easy steps to a car load of goodies!


1. Find the auction
Visit auctionzip.com and type in your zip code and see sales nearby. 
This website is the main source for auctioneers to advertise their auctions, especially ones that have big ticket stuff like restored sports cars, and collector’s items.

I usually only look at the estate auctions. But there are all kinds, antiques, farm and equipment auctions, guns, real estate. Whatever floats your boat.

Our local newspaper usually has an entire page of advertisements with a portion of the sale bill listed, and sometimes even photos each week. Pick up Friday’s local paper if you don’t subscribe already.

Look for signs. We live in a rural area, so if there is an auction in town this weekend, you better believe there will be signs up. With arrows and everything--can’t miss em.



2. Scope it out
Look at the sale bill. Review the photos. Be snoopy--be sure to look at the stuff in the background of the photos too.

Read or at least skim through the sale bill. 
Auctioneers usually only take photos of the big ticket items, large collections, or large pieces of furniture--like maybe a pool table or a bedroom set. Usually (at least around here) there are wagons FULL of household items, home decor, tools, anything really.



3. Research
Ebay it, Google it. and Craigslist it. If there is an item you like: know what about it goes for second hand. How much is the pool table worth? That old Pyrex set? What would you pay on Ebay?

You need to know this so you don't get too caught up in the bidding and end up overpaying.

You also need to know if you have your eye a REALLY hot item, you may not want it as much if you see how much it could go for…or you might want it more...Plus, this usually means antique collectors and Ebay sellers in the area might be at the auction too...and they know what it will go for. Know your competition. And know what you want to spend *tops* on the item. This will keep you from getting too excited and overbid.

4. Enlist a buddy
Whether it be your significant other, a friend or a family member, auctions are more fun if you have a friend there to scope things out. There is so much stuff to sift through it helps to have another person who knows what kind of treasures you are looking for.

Plus, sometimes if it is a large estate, there are two different auction rings going on at once. An auction partner will up your chances of getting the goods you want.

It also helps to have some manpower if you plan to buy a heavy or large item. AKA my husband usually gets roped into going!

5. Bid
It's not really that scary. It’s scary if you aren’t paying attention or used to the auctioneer’s chatter at first. I usually listen to a few different items go up and follow closely so I can figure out the auctioneers style and understand who the heck’s turn it is to bid! After you listen to a few, you will pick it right up. The deals will be yours!


Are you an auction fan?
Do you have any tips to add? 

Fill the space...with a vase

Do you have a weird corner or space in your home that you just don't really know why it's there except to hold the darn ceiling/second floor up? I do.

A space taker upper that also holds the second floor up in between our kitchen and great room.

People say, "Oh you built your own house! You get to have everything exactly how you want it!" Sorry, no, this is not always the case. I would rather not have this thing here. But I need my ceiling to stay up. So here it is.
If it was larger we could put in a built-in bookcase, or a small piece of furniture. Nope.
What do I put there?

On one of our weekly trip to Menards for lumber and supplies (for a project I will share next week!) We strolled through the home decor section and ended up bringing home:

A vase with stick things! 

Actually, I saw the vases at Menards a few months back, but they were 60 bucks...although they are heavy duty...about 40-50 pound vases..I couldn't justify $60 for it. 

But this time...oh this time they were more than half off! 24.99 is more like it! And the sticks were only $2.99 per bundle. I will probably get one more.

I love the terracotta color, I almost got the red, but this goes better with the other accents in the living room, like my painted upholstery chair.

I love it right now. And since we haven't hung a thing on our walls yet...well, except toilet paper holders and towel racks...it brings a little more height in the room. I suppose we should get to hanging photos. But it's so hard to put holes in the walls when you pay so much to get them smooth!


So what do you think? Hate it? Love it? Better idea?! Tell me!
Are you a vase & sticks kinda person?
Do you have problems putting holes in your walls?
Any big weekend plans? We are going to a pizza cookoff!

Estate Auction Deals

We are getting old. We were in bed before 10 p.m. on Friday night, and then woke up before 7 a.m. Saturday to do housework. By 9 a.m. it was time to stop the housework and get ready to go to an auction. And not just any auction. An Estate auction. This is where to get the deals around here.

On our short 20 minute drive, we went over a pretty covered bridge...

inside..

Adam and I arrived right as it started and they had wagons full of goodies. Old dishes, antique crates, christmas decor, frames, bar signs and beer advertisements...lots of stuff.
The driveway was lined with old antique furniture. I had my eye on a few pieces.

When we arrived I immediately said:

"I'm getting this door" 

and adam responded with: "there are two old doors still in the garage from the last auction..."

snow on the pretty door...

I didn't get the door.

a hodge podge of mismatched chairs.

and some old frames.

One of the auctioneers showing off this sweet chandy that I also did not buy.

old frames.

cool stuff. weird stuff.

Ready to see what we took home?!

7 dolla each!

Two of the many many chairs...I wanted more...

 Scout inspected them when we brought them in and OK'd them for use.

Inspector La Rue

We were the winning bid on this junky old dresser for 20 bucks. It needs some a lot of work. But I have a plan...

old and falling apart...ready for a makeover!

And our favorite deal of the day, this beauty.

we love her. yes, her.

and she came with a matching mirror.

She needs a little cleaning but that's it. She only has a tiny bit of rough spots, but I think it adds to the charm. The hardware is all original and it sits on cute little casters.
This is my favorite item to date I have purchased from an estate sale or auction. In my next post I will show you where her new home is in the house.

NOT PICTURED: Adam was the winning bidder at $15 on a 85 Bears Superbowl bar mirror. IDK. To me it was not blog worthy but he was thrilled. He also won a few other things bar items

We stood out in the COLD and SNOW from 10 a.m. until about 1:30 to get these deals. But they were worth it! We had fun. I'm so nosy so to me it was interesting to see what some of the stuff went for.

Have you ever gone to an Estate Auction?
Would you stand out in the cold and snow for over 3 hours for deals?
Who else things I should have gotten that door?!