I woke up a few Saturdays ago to what can only be described as the ideal day to stay in bed. It was dark and menacing looking with the forecast calling for pounding rain all day.
I'm sure you know the kind of day. It's what many people refer to as a pajama day. You wake up, and pad to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. Looking out the window it looks closer to nighttime than daytime. It's the kind of day you can make your coffee, get back in bed or on the couch and watch television or read a book guilt free, with the only reason to move being a smoke alarm or having to pee.
Somehow with rain, comes absolution of guilt for laying around doing nothing.
So I made my coffee, got dressed and headed to an outdoor antique festival.
My niece called me late the night before to ask if I'd go with her. She never gets to go and since it only happens twice a year it was now, or wait until next Spring. Who knows what might happen by next spring. All the antiques in the world could disappear or burn up or be eaten.
We were at the show for approximately 9.3 seconds before it started to sprinkle rain. 1.4 seconds after that, it was a torrential downpour that lasted for 3 hours. I don't own a raincoat. Apparently I'm too stupid to own a raincoat. Or optimistic.
She does own a raincoat, but was too stupid to wear it.
Not a surprise when you consider she also willingly went to a Bikram Yoga class by herself. For fun. 'Cause she thought it would be fun. It wasn't fun. It was vomitty.
We did have a single umbrella that we shared only it didn't go well. I started out holding the umbrella because it's my umbrella and I'm particularly fond of it because it says "Shit, it's raining" in French on it. Also I knew she'd be an umbrella hoarder. She's the type. If you met her in the grocery store and took one look at her you'd say. Hurmph. Umbrella hoarder. She's probably really nice and all but ... umbrella hoarder.
I have no idea how it happened but one minute I was holding the umbrella and the next minute I was standing beside a 9 foot tall stuffed bear and a $6,000 harvest table, soaking wet.
I spotted her in the distance with the umbrella and ran under it but it was too late by then. I was soaked right through and my fingers were starting to get that weird wrinkle thing they get when you've been in the bathtub too long.
And my hair got wet. As every woman knows, it's not the wet feet, it's not the see through top, it's not the being so cold your nose turns alcoholic red. It's the hair.
First the things I didn't buy ...
This chair.
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
I loved this chair and ottoman for my living room, and at $450 for the pair it was a good price. But I wasn't in the market for a chair and it was pouring out and I couldn't make the decision under pressure. Buying something big at an antique market on a whim is dangerous territory. It's not like buying something from a store that you can just return the next day if it doesn't look good or you decide your impulse buy was a little too impulsive.
I also didn't buy this table.
EVERYBODY who walked past this table stopped to look at it. It was wood and metal and had stools built into the legs that you could spin out from under the table and tuck away when you were done with them. They could also be moved up and down. It was $3,200. It was a great piece, but in my opinion priced too high for its age and materials. Industrial is in, but it's not that in. Also the table was huge which means even if you could afford it, you'd also need a massive room to accommodate it. It's the type of table that would appeal to someone who lives in a loft. And loft's are usually not huge. See? You're getting a little lesson in pricing antiques today too.
Now onto the stuff that WAS purchased. These were not bought by me. They were bought by the umbrella hoarder.
We had a bit of a scuffle over these lockers, but since she has 3 kids and long, sharp fingernails, I let her have em.
Now onto what I was able to buy at the Christie Antique Show and Sale with the $80 I brought ...
An incredibly strange handmade egg basket from a general store somewhere outside of Stratford, Ontario. ($23)
A beautiful crock with cute little handmade ears on it (those are the handles). Crocks are cheap now. They've gone down in value. If you're a collector or want to start collecting them, now's the time. (Paid $22)
A burlap chicken feed sack, which I'm going to use to hold my potatoes for the winter. ($10)
A handmade copper pot from around 1860. It needs to be retinned. All copper, even copper from the 1800's had tin poured into it. The tinning prevents the slow poisoning that can happen from cooking with acidic foods on a copper surface. If you have a copper pot or pan and it has more than a quarter sized area of copper showing through the tin, you need to stop using it and get it retinned. ($25)
I'm going to teach myself to retin my pot. For fun. Because fun isn't only reserved for Bikram Yoga.
Jessica in WI
Thank you for your wonderful post and blog! I think your writing is wonderful, funny, honest and real. I enjoy you so very much. If you wrote a book I would buy it :)
We are having a day here in WI just as you describe. I am not however, padding around with my coffee *sigh* having already drunk it.
Alex
Every year I say I am going to trek out to the show and every year I miss it. Next year damnit!! I love those lockers. And your egg holder rocks.
Jane
LOVE that chair! Someday I'm going to make it to that sale....
A little late, but glad to have you back!
Karen
LOL. Thanks Jane. ~ karen!
taria
that cafeteria table looks like the one Cost Plus World Market has copied and is selling for about $600. Neato looking but not especially practical. So with the rain were the prices better than a sunny day would have brought?
Ev
The egg "basket" is stunning in its oddness! Perhaps you could just set it in with the girls and they will fill it for you. Unless they think it's too odd!
Nancy Eileen
Nice job!
I do love that chair and ottoman
Kim
I was at that show too - and have never been so wet in my life- right down to the underwear! Mascara streaming down my face - of course we had umbrellas - they were just in the car! Glad you got some good finds.
Janet
I want to see a picture of the umbrella! I'm really looking forward to reading about re-tinning the copper pot.
Susan Dulley
Well, at least you had rain, Cincinnati seems to have fallen off the map, where rain is concerned. The show looks like great fun, except for the soaking of course. Wow, the prices in Canada must be so much higher than they are here. I am glad you skipped the chair...Too Pricy, and the table...well, I agree, Too Pricy. The egg holder worries me a little, what exactly is it made of? Remember eggs can absorb stuff, liquids, and perhaps even metal. Can't tell from the photo what it is made from. Crock, good deal. Now all you have to do is make Sauer Kraut and you are set. The other pan, well, I suppose for a project it will give you something to do when the rain stops and it starts snowing. Have a good one.
Linda J Howes
That large table looks like it came from a woodworking shop classroom. I remember them from when I went to school, way back in the day when they still taught those types of skills.
Dagmar
That egg basket is so fun. What is IT made out of? It also looks to be some sort of metal. Am I right, or is it just made to look that way. Because if it is metal, you could also put tea light candles in it, and it would be very pretty and different.
Karen
Hi Dagmar - It is indeed metal! It's been painted about 100 times (really badly) and it's bent and a bit hacked up. Which is why I have a fondness for it. ~ karen!
Diana
Hey Karen,
I think you have a fondness for EVERYSINGLE eggbasket you see, in the whole world, in every material, any color!!! No matter....Lol
Karen
You're right, LOL! I was just making fun of myself for that at the show! ~ karen
Ritz
I agree with Marti. That is a very nice paragraph. Should you ever write a mystery novel, you could use this paragraph again. Few would be the wiser.
Amie Mason
Wow Karen, you didn't buy nearly as much as I thought you would! Your egg basket looks like the weird projects we used to make in high school Design & Technology (stupid fancy name for wood & metal work class). Rad!
Mondo
Merde il pleut...awesome! I always wanted to know how to say, 'Shit it's raining!' in French. You're always teaching me Karen. Cheers!
Maureen
I was at the same show and it was hell! I took me two days to get warmed up.
TucsonPatty
Is that a metal egg basket? Welded together? Or massive globs of glue? What in the world? It is awesome, and holds one dozen eggs and that is all it needs to be.
Kate
I hope retinning the pot isn't vommitty.
jenn
Damn you. I must get that umbrella.
Karen
Oui. ~ karen!
Marti
As well you should. Read it, re-read it and make everyone who comments after this pause, wonder and go back to re-read it.
I loved those chairs, but yeah, so hard to buy big stuff when you're out with a scary niece with big fingernails. The table was gorgeous, but for that price, you can have it custom-made and they'll deliver it, too.
But really that egg basket (at that price? HECK YA!) was the find of the day. Excellent shopping! You should definitely go again in the spring!
Marti
Teach me how to say “Shit, it’s raining” in French, please?
Also, for what it's worth, I think your second paragraph tonight was one of the most beautifully written bits of writing I've ever seen on your blog. Well done!
Karen
Merde il pleut! And thank you. Now I'll have to go and reread it. I have no earthly idea what I wrote. ~ karen!
Toronto Boy
Hahahahaha! "Merde" was the first french word we looked up in the english-french dictionary! I vaguely remember all the kids in my grade 5 class giggling as they changed a humourous tune "merde, merde, merde" ad finitum! Ah I miss being a 10 year old idiot!
Emily
I agree with Marti... and I had to go reread it too! LOVED that table... wonder what the history of it is. Was it intended to be used in a home or was it for a business? Love things that are different.
Karen
As someone else mentioned somewhere in the comments, I believe it was probably used in "shop" class in a highschool. Someone else at the show remarked they remember one in theirs. ~ karen!
cheryl
Hello Karen , the table with attached stools was genenerally used in a science class/lab...
Meg
I actually want to comment on the sentence AFTER that one. "Somehow with rain, comes absolution..." puts words to that feeling of being truly cozy, instead of feeling like a sloven. Also lovely.
toekneetoni
the absolution sentence, my fave also. :D
well done Karen.
i definitely sat at one of those tables in my h.s. shop class too.