Ohio Flea Market Trip

My mom and I rarely get away from the store so we were excited to plan a weekend trip to Ohio for a flea market recently.  Hoping to get a lot of goodies, we rented a 15ft truck from Enterprise.  My mom has never driven a big truck before and she was a little nervous.  Here's a picture of me on the back of it before we left.  Notice my tall boots.  I was ready for anything including mud and rain!

We each took a picture of each other in the truck.  It was so big that it was hard to climb into. 

The drive was about 6 hours...Well, it was supposed to be 6 hours.  A few hours in, there was a light on the dashboard that turned red.  It said DEF level low.  We looked at each other and both said, "What the heck is DEF??"  My mom called Enterprise and asked what to do and we were told that we needed to find some DEF at a truck stop.  Um....ok.  I drove to the nearest gas station and asked the clerk if they had it.  Never heard of it.  Yikes.  Luckily, at the next gas station we tried, there was a truck driver filling the gas tanks underground.  We asked if he could help us and he was so incredibly nice that he actually put it into the tank for us.  He said that DEF(Diesel Exhaust Fluid) is actually cow urine.  I just looked it up and it does say that it's made of urea but I'm not sure they actually get cow urine to make it! 

Tank full of DEF, we made our way through nearly flooded roads to Ohio and checked into the hotel.  As you can see in the picture, the water was on both sides of the roads, threatening to block the way.

We went to bed really early because my mom always says about flea markets, "The early bird gets the vanity!"  Got up at 5 the next morning and checked my phone.  Temperature: 29.  As in, below freezing.  Ugh.  We bundled up as much as we could and headed out. 

It was a little disappointing to see as we pulled up that there weren't many vendors there.  Apparently, not many people are as crazy as us!  They were still sleeping!

 

There were a few cute things but the prices were kind of high.  I found a nice desk and a pretty French chair.  My mom got a potting table, a bench and some small vintage items.

We got the bench below that's made out of an old Eastlake style bed. 

Here's the french chair.  I didn't even care that it was stained.  Stains add character right?

We also got a chippy turquoise table and this chair.  What a fantastic color! 

 

After a VERY cold day of shopping, we headed back to good old St. Louis.  We found a random flea market on the way home where we discovered a lot of guns, livestock, socks, old electronics, and used clothing.  Not exactly what we were looking for.

  Since we hadn't gotten much, we went to see a few of our pickers and filled up the truck. Here's my mom looking proud of herself for filling it. 

 

Even though we ran out of urea for our truck, froze our butts off, and didn't find much, the trip was still a lot of fun!  My mom is hilarious and we somehow never run out of things to talk about.  What should be our next trip to find cool stuff?  If you have any ideas, let us know!

Market Trip 2013 Part 3

This is part 3 of my entries about our trip to market this January.  This part is about the things I ordered for the holidays.  Believe it or not, we order it in January and it starts shipping in July.  Yep, we're pretty much knee deep in Christmas all year round!  I feel really good about all the things I ordered this year and I definitely ordered more than I did last year! I also ordered some RED which is something we've never had during the holidays.  We've always gone with mostly white and silver but this year there will actually be color!

These prints are phenomenal.  I like them because they can be out all winter and they're really neutral.  This natural/pine theme is going to be a huge area in the store for 2013 holiday.

And on the other end of the spectrum, I also did some orders for a pastel Christmas area.  I wasn't sure if pastels would be a big deal in 2013 but I kept seeing it over and over in the showrooms so I ordered enough to make a really fun section of the store.

We had this angel last year and she kept flying out the door.  (tee hee, I couldn't resist)

These jars below are mercury glass and they're tiny.  I haven't seen little bitty ones like this yet so I had to get them.  Apparently mercury glass will still be around for this year's Christmas because I saw a lot of it.  The only difference is that there were a lot of colored pieces mixed in with the silver this year.

Here's an example of another color.  It's almost a rose gold.  Isn't it pretty?

Last year, we were lacking in Santas and snowmen so I made sure to order lots of different kinds like the one below.

Below are some ornaments I ordered.  Above all else for 2013, I ordered about A MILLION ornaments.  A lot of you were going to ornament exchanges and asking for unique ornaments this past season.  We had some great ones, but the selection for 2013 is going to be crazy.  My brother was helping me order and he said, "Do you think we have enough ornaments?!?!"

Cute house from Bethany Lowe.

This is one of the displays in the Bethany Lowe showroom.  Her style probably matches ours more than any of the other vendors.  We love all the artists that design pieces for her showroom!

More Bethany Lowe

Don't you love this Santa?  He's got a sack on his back with a bunch of goodies too!

One of our areas is going to be all cream and gold like these bottlebrush trees.

This is also Bethany Lowe.  I ordered a lot of these gold pieces.

These ornaments are made to look like they have snow inside.  It's not a great picture but they're really cool in person.

More Bethany Lowe displays.

I have a favorite showroom for holiday florals where I ordered garland, trees, picks, wreaths, branches, etc. I got the popular long needle pine garland that is so popular for us year after year again.  It's $26 for a 6ft strand and every year we go through nearly 200 of them.  I also got a version that is similar but has flocking on it.

This deer with pine is all one piece.  It's great to go above the mantel and we love him with ornaments hanging from the antlers.  We had him a couple of years ago but I decided to bring him back.

                                                    

They also had some really full looking silver garland and candlerings like the one below.  I love that it's silver without looking too shiny or cheap.  I have found that the shinier the florals, the more fake they look.  This company gets it right!

I took this picture just to show how crowded the showrooms get sometimes.  At times, you can't get through and have to wait for people to move before you can finish ordering.

Below are some pictures from the Cody Foster setup.  He's one of our favorite designers.

Little ship-in-a-bottle ornaments!

Ordered the doggies below.  If you know The White Rabbit family at all, you know that we ADORE dogs.

A whole wall of the little vintage inspired houses!!  I could sit and look at them for hours.

Here's a closeup of one with a little truck parked outside.  I got this one.

 The candle below actually clips onto a tree branch.  It's mercury glass.  I LOVE when you can clip ornaments on the tree branches instead of hanging them.

 There was something about these domes that I couldn't resist.  They are so rustic and yet they look really special and expensive somehow.  I'm intrigued by them.  Does that make sense??

This picture doesn't really show but this banner set is HUGE.  I think it's about 8 feet long and it's fabric so you can tack it onto anything.  You could even tuck it into a large Christmas tree.

 This is a hanger for pictures.  It works like a mobile because it rotates.

 My mom and I have looked every year for about 7 years now for snow globes that weren't cheesy looking. WE FINALLY FOUND ONE!  Woo HOO!!

 Number stockings were ordered.

I'm doing a script/paper section again this year and these cones go in it.

These frames also go in the paper area.

The only treetopper I ordered.  They're hard to sell but this one is great for our script/paper area and I had to have it for the store.

A cool display in the KD Vintage showroom.  She always incorporates old things in her displays and it's frustrating because I want to buy them all.  She also paints old furniture so it looks a little bit like our store.    

Below is an ornament shaped like wings that says, "Every time a bell rings."  I have a feeling there will be some fans of "It's a Wonderful Life" buying this one!

Below are several different santas you'll see in the store this year.

And some of the old fashioned houses and churches that have the light in the back.  These are so wonderful in the evenings with just the lights from the tree and a fire.

I got this cute snowman family.  They look like the really old ones that are kind of yellowed.

A lot of the showrooms actually set up trees and decorate them so you can see what everything looks like displayed.  I find it to be really helpful even though it's January and I don't really want to be looking at Christmas trees anymore.

That's all the pictures I have from Christmas at market.  I cannot stress enough that this is a teeny tiny fraction of what we will have in the store.  I just didn't have time to get photos of everything.  I think you guys will be really excited when you see everything though.  It is definitely going to be the BEST CHRISTMAS YET.  I'm calling it now, in January!!  Let me know what you think so far and if you haven't read the other two parts of the blog, please take the time to see what we ordered for Spring and Fall.  Thanks for reading! -Lindsay