I’m starting a new feature over here on Thursdays that I’m really excited about. One of my favorite aspects of hunting down previously-loved treasures is the research that goes into each item once it makes it into my home. They all have unique and interesting stories. This new feature titled, The Collected & Reused will feature one item from my online market each week. Each week may be slightly different, but I’ll provide little stories to go along with the item. Some weeks may be more informational as I will provide information about the item; where I found it, what it’s original purpose was, what it’s worth, and even what you can do to repurpose it. Think of it as an online Antique Roadshow broadcasting live from my loft. It’s going to be fun. I promise.

This week’s story comes from my Dad, partner in crime, and old junk lover. He’s been helping me track down product for the market203 launch, so he has some stories to share about the experience. Hopefully I can get him to share more stories during this series.

On the hunt again! Over the last year I have been pounding the pavement looking for the best deals! When my daughter, Cassie told be that she was going to open up an online shop, it sounded cool, then only to find out that she was going to sell vintage goods, I was in heaven. I have a love and knack for finding old treasures….

Hunting down products from the past can be a blast. You have to search all estate sales, antique malls and flea markets just to name a few. This is where you’ll find the deals and you have to look all over the country to be really successful.

Let me tell you about a story, my lucky day!

I got back from a business trip and decided it was time to investigate the “Garage Sale” scene. In my mind this just didn’t seem like a FUN day, sifting thru the mounds of clothes, books, old shoes, etc, all typical of what you will find in the neighborhood.

It was time to figure out where all the good stuff was, so I went and got our local newspaper. In my city they have a 3 page spread just devoted to Garage Sales! The newspaper displays a color coded map to help guide you to all the sales.

Now, how do you know where to start? Good question. “Close your eyes and point” was my method! I identified 10 stops I wanted to try, got out the GPS, loaded in every stop, and was ready to go! Woke up early the next morning, and the wife and I started out on the journey…

The first stop was out in the country, so to speak. We pulled up the stone driveway and saw nothing, no sign of any Garage Sale, no cars no people, no life! We kept driving down the lane and saw 3 chicken coops, a pole barn, but still no signs of life. Oh well I thought, lets go on to the next one…

Just as we were about to leave, I saw movement to my right. We looked over to see a women exiting one of the chicken coops. I rolled down the window and asked, “Is there a sale going on?” She answered, “yes, come on in, help your self!”

We thought, ok we came this far, lets have a quick look. My wife and I jumped out of the car, opened the chicken coop door, and WHOLLY MOSES, god’s gift landed in out lap. It turns out this lady along with a close friend have been collecting antiques, and OLD/vintage containers for several years. Her husband got sick so they closed down their antique store, and redecorated this chicken coop to the hilt. All I could say was AWSOME! The way they had everything displayed was inspiring. I thought to myself, “this is what it’s all about.” The bonus was that they sold me everything at cost, so I bought everything I could, and blew off the rest of the day. I guess the Garage Sales were not meant to be!

This item will be listed in the market203 the last week of June amongst a gazillion more items.

Over Memorial Day weekend I traveled home to spend some much needed time with family members on both mine and Jake’s side. It was a jam packed weekend spent with lots of visiting and lots of catching up. All that visiting can be exhausting, but it is always nice to know everyone is doing well. Here’s some unseen moments from the trip.

– READ FIRST PART OF DAY HERE –

This farmers market is amazing and open all year long. The fruit/veggie stands are covered with an overhang so you can even go on a rainy day. The boy and I bought some stuff to make a healthy lunch- pineapple, stuff to make a salad, grapes and a cucumber. I love how you can walk out of there only spending a couple dollars and you know you’ve spent your money well. As we were walking out the boy asked me if I’d like to pick out some flowers to take home. Of course I did, so we went all the way back through the market to find the perfect bouquet.

Once home we washed and chopped all of our fresh produce and put the gorgeous wild flower type flowers into a vase. We made lunch and then plopped ourselves in front of the television for the next couple hours watching Shameless on Showtime. After a few episodes I read a few chapters of my current book and took a solid 2-hour nap. Pefection.

Once we were rested after our afternoon nap it was getting late in the day. Our neighborhood also had it’s first “concert in the park” that night, so we thought we’d take the pup on a walk and enjoys some tunes from a local band. We walked slowly taking in the steamy hot evening, listening to the end of the concert and letting the pup smell anything and everything on our way home. The rest of the night was filled with more and more Shameless. The end.

Just warning you, this is a lengthy one. Perfect days call for long 2-day documentation. (See tomorrow’s post for second half of the day)

Woke up bright and early on a Saturday, which is pretty rare. I must have been excited about what we had planned for the day. Promptly at 10:00 I woke the boy up to get ready to go to our neighborhood’s 42th annual home and garden tour /”Antique Fair” being held in our neighborhood square. Several booths were calling my name and I was anxious to get out there before everyone else, hoping to find a treasure. It was steamy hot, even at 10am in the morning, but the boy and I parked the car and started to peruse the square. Lots of great booths, lots of great items, but unfortunately everything was over priced. (why didn’t I buy one of those plastic mouse figures above…I’m hating myself for passing one of those up) I’ve learned to not be disappointed if I don’t find something worth while, so we got back in the car and drove to the farmers market in the next neighborhood over.   TO BE CONTINUED…..(tomorrow)

Wanted to get my readers opinion. First, what kind of blog post do you like to read on a Sunday? Do you like my Sunday Portrait series, or would you rather see something different. Let me know…

1^ There is really nothing better than a 4 day week and getting to leave 1.5 hours early from work on Friday afternoon. Perfect.
2^ I was determined to start some sort of workout routine this week. On thursday I went to a yoga class over lunch and the gym at night. Saturday was Power90. I think that’s a good start.
3^ I’m in photo editing mode for market203. It’s kinda like robot mode and kinda like zombie mode.
4^ I’ve been doing a lot o reflecting on what I’ve accomplished in my 24th year. I’ll share later. It’s a pretty useful tool to put things in perspective.
5^ Started watching Shameless, a TV series on Showtime. We’re addicted and almost done with all the episodes in on weekend. True dedication or couch potato?

Hope everyone had a great week. Anyone looking forward to this coming week for some particular reason??

Oh golly am I excited to share with you the most recent gift from my parents, a mint green typewriter. Typewriters seem to be one of those items in an antique/thrift store that stop me in my tracks. Its impossibly hard to obey the “DO NOT TOUCH” signs posted on the historic beauties and have always wanted one to call my own. There have been many opportunities to buy one, but knowing that they are somewhat large, take up lots of shelf space, and are uber heavy…I needed to find one that fit perfectly within my decor. Over the years I haven’t been able to locate the perfect one at a perfect price.

Leave it to my dad to scope one out quickly. I got a text message one afternoon saying I bought this for you and there he was, the mint green beauty. It would be a perfect addition to my vintage collection of goodies. The only downside was that my dad had it with him back in Indiana, and I was in St.Louis. I waited and wait, and then this past holiday weekend we were united! If they weren’t so big, bulky and heavy, I’d own a gazillion of them.