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.

Flea Market Flips, Steals & Deals: Tufted Pair

Since flea market season has started, and I try to hit a flea market or an estate sale each month, I'm going to share a few bargains and deals with you. Some of the items will be purchased and go right in the house as is....and some of them will be getting a makeover!

Like this sweet pair:

I snapped these two babies up at the Third Sunday Market flea market this past weekend in Bloomington-Normal, IL.

This flea market is by far, my very favorite flea market of all time. It's the best one. THE BEST ONE.
If you are within a few hours of Bloomington-Normal, and you like bargains, you need to go. If you need a shopping buddy, let me know. I'm always up for a flea market. Really.

Ok, so guess how much I paid for the pair? Go ahead, guess..............
.............................................................................................
If you guessed 12 dollars, then you are right. But you probably didn't guess that, let's be honest.

When I walked into the booth and saw these--the dealer told me $15 and my jaw dropped. $15 bucks for the set, not each! She obviously was not fooling around because then she told me I could have them for $12. So....out came my wallet.

They need work. The fabric has a small hole on the back. They are dirty. One of the feet is missing it's caster and the wood is cracked on the leg. I have no idea how to reupholster a chair, let alone a tufted chair. But for $12. How could I say no?

These chairs are going to get some sort of makeover, and they will find a new home in our master bedroom.

The bedroom is still in the works. We already ordered a new bedding set, and am on the hunt for two new nightstands to makeover. Don't forget my mission for the summer: Hang Stuff on Walls. See part 1; plan for a plate wall and the golden gallery wall; part 2 which also applies to the master bedroom.

So, since I'm not sure I could do the reupholster myself without having a DIY breakdown and crying about it, I have a call into a local upholstery to get a quote. I figure if I can get these chairs custom upholstered for less than it would cost to buy brand new I am winning!

P.S. The dresser we used to make a custom vintage bathroom vanity in our powder room came from the same flea market! 

Have you ever been to the 3rd Sunday Market?
Would you attempt to reupholster these chairs yourself?