To Market, to Market

As I mentioned in yesterday's recap of my parents' visit to Missoula, during their time here we went on a few very fruitful shopping trips! One of those trips was to the Prairie Sisters Party, a vintage market held at Missoula's fairgrounds. It was an amazing collection of antique vendors and DIY booths.

Now, I normally reserve all my "hey-lookie-what -I-got!" posts for Fridays, but since my mom & I are shopping buddies, we ended up snagging a lot of great buys last week which resulted in some big changes in the apartment, and I'm so eager to share them all with you once things are settled--so I wanted to kick off the show-and-tell now! Plus, this event was so cool that it merits its own post :)

So, early Saturday morning my parents, Ryan, and I struck out in search of some wonderful finds. The venue for the fair was beautiful, and it was absolutely buzzing. The thrill of the hunt definitely kicked in--it was so exciting to spot treasures through the crowds and snag them! (Hint--one of the items I purchased is in a photo below--try to guess what it is!) Here are a few photos of the booths from the Prairie Sisters themselves:

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I loved the gorgeous giant pinwheels hanging from the rafters!

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That lovely blue mason jar, those cheery yellow tulips, the adorable red salt & pepper shakers, that chippy kitchen scale--I loved this whole vignette!

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I didn't actually see these wire pendants, but I wish I had--I love their look!

And here are a few snaps of my favorite booths and items:

I loved that white, yellow, and blue table, as well as the chalkboards and the hooks! Adorable!

This shelf was full of beautiful dishes!

All Things A{door}able was one of my favorite vendors! She makes the coolest pieces of furniture with old doors and windows, like the above dresser, or the awesome entry shelf/bench below:

If we had room, I would've snatched one up. She's located a few hours north of us, so maybe I'll be able to get one before we move back to MO! She also made this cute numbered organizer that I could see in a garage, mudroom (holding hats & scarves), or craft zone:

And she had some adorable veggie & fruit crates that would look awesome in my pantry:

In another booth, I ran across these funky little shelves made from vintage cheese graters--so cool!

Now to the things I actually purchased!

 First up was this white and orange scale that I snagged from the very first booth we entered. (Like, we walked in the barn and I saw it, screeched, and grabbed it within seconds after seeing the awesome price--only $16!) As I shared here, I've been searching high and low for an antique scale for months and even considered buying one of these from Etsy, but I never took the plunge. Either the price was too high (I saw them ranging from $25-$59!) or the scale wasn't the right color or style. I'm so glad I waited (or should I say weight-ed? Har har?) because this one is seriously juuuust right. The orange top is the exact shade I'm trying to work into our kitchen decor, because we're going to buy a persimmon Kitchenaid mixer. And I'd been saying I wanted a scrappy white scale with an antique-y looking font on the face--this one totally fits the bill!

Oh, and congrats if you guessed that's what I'd purchased--it was in one of the Prairie Sisters' photos from above :)

Next I picked up this lovely golden letter N for my growing alphabet collection:

At $4, it wasn't a total steal, but I love the color and sheen, so I went with it!

In the same booth, I also purchased three vintage bingo cards that I think will look great framed. For $0.50 apiece, they were a no-brainer.

I also grabbed this old pasteurized cheese box for $5! I've seen these for $10-15 before, so I knew it was a good deal. It'll look great holding spice packets in our pantry.

My last small purchase was this large white file box for $8. I can just picture it in my future studio stashing craft supplies. For now I'll probably use it to stash magazines under my desk.

Now, you may be asking yourself where Ryan was in all of this. Well, he (and my dad, for some periods) had stationed himself at one of the benches at the venue. Occasionally I would pop by to give him my purchased wares or just check in. And the fair was held in a few buildings, so whenever mom and I were ready to migrate, we grabbed our men and did so.

After the first building and the first floor of the second one, Ryan decided he wanted to stretch his legs, so he joined us on the second floor. And boy, is he glad he did, because he found a lovely chair in one of the upstairs booths:

As you know if you've met him, Ryan isn't very effusive, and though he likes shopping for electronics, he isn't the biggest fan of spending lots of dough (unless it's on said electronics)--so when he pointed the chair out to me, I smiled and said it was beautiful and then continued browsing in the booth next to the furniture vendor, thinking he was just commenting on it but not seriously considering it. Once I had finished browsing, I went back over to him and he said "This chair is reaaaaaally cool." That's basically Ryan-speak for "I love this! Can we get it!" So after a little haggling (we knocked off $20 from the stated price, which had already been lowered by $50--at least, the seller had reduced it twice on the tag) we took it home with us for $130! We still dropped a pretty penny on it--it was our most spendy purchase of the fair--but I had birthday money and we both really loved its lines--it's unlike any chair I've ever seen. It's a beautiful, sturdy mahogany chair in perfect condition (no scratches or scuffs on it!)--truly a piece we'll have and cherish for many, many years to come. So we had no qualms about getting it!

Mr. Chair (along with some other furniture finds I'll share soon) inspired a great game of musical furniture in our apartment--so stay tuned to find out about those changes!

My mom also came away from the fair with a bigger purchase--some amazing oak mail cubbies. She spotted them in one of the early booths after I'd breezed right by them, and what a cool find! After she unearthed them and asked the seller about them, some other shoppers showed interest--but they were too late. My mom had fallen in love, and she had to have it! The seller said they were brought over to the US by German immigrants and then used in a Pennsylvania mail facility. Eventually an artist bought them to store supplies, but eventually sold them to the antiques vendor. How cool to hear the history behind the piece!

So that's the haul we took home from the Prairie Sisters party! I'm already looking forward to the next event in September.

Check back tomorrow to see more of the fab finds my mom & I snapped up!

Linking up with The Thrifty Groove & Her Library Adventures.