An Antique Shop Excursion (and the goodies I found)...

Hello Everyone!

It's been a little while since the last time I blogged. I have been pretty busy since my daughter has started school. I am trying to get used to the new routine and so my blog has kinda been the last thing on my mind. But, I am back now and excited to to share with you how my Labor Day weekend is going. 

My husband and I decided we'd start our Labor Day weekend by taking a little trip about an hour and half North from where we live here in, OH. We went and visited some antique shops with the girls and seriously had an amazing time. I have been visiting antique stores since I was about 11 or 12 years old. I know I shared a little bit about that with you in an earlier post.

I apologize for not posting a card today however, stay tuned... I'll be uploading one card tomorrow.

Here are the pictures from our day of visiting 3 different Antique shops.

The first shop:

The photos above were taken outside of, "The Little Shop of Antiques." They had THREE huge rooms FILLED with lots and lots of goodies. 

 Here's a photo of my husband, Mike checking out some super old photos. It was nice to see him enjoy going through all the different things they had at the shop. Thank goodness they had some old tools for him to go through and some old fishing gear, too.

 Layla and Brooklyn made themselves right at home. Here they are looking at some old jewelery and a bunch of other stuff on this little table. Layla is 6 years old, so my husband and I knew she'd do very well going in and out of each shop and listen to us when we tell her not to touch something. Brooklyn on the other hand is 2 and a half. We thought we might run into a little trouble with her touching too much stuff, and possibly breaking something, but she was amazing. In fact, we were told several times throughout the day how well behaved our children were and how pleasant they are! My husband and I were so proud of them! 

 Here's Layla and her dad checking out some old tools. Again, this place was chock full of goodies!

Brooklyn saw me taking a picture of her daddy and her sister and BEGGED me to take a photo of her. So, so cute!

 The girls each got a little gift from the shop. Layla picked out a beautiful antique hand fan for a $1 and Brooklyn picked out some grapes on a vine for .50! Then, the owners son asked if we would like to feed the chickens. The girls were so excited. 

Here's Layla feeding two of the many chickens that were there. Brooklyn and Layla were given a whole piece of bread each. Brooklyn thought the boy was giving her the piece of bread for her to eat herself. It just so happened that when my husband put Brooklyn down to feed the chickens, one of the chickens grabbed the whole piece of bread from her hand and ran. Brooklyn started crying hysterically. She definitely got a little freaked out. But, she enjoyed the rest of the time watching Layla feed the chickens. 

And then we were off to the next shop which was right up the road from the one we were at!

 This was another HUGE barn filled with MORE goodies! Check out that awesome baby carriage above!

 Mike found this awesome wrought steel stove.

Here's Layla checking out some things she thought were way cool! (Can't you tell by the look on her face??)

 Then, my husband couldn't find me for a bit. He was calling my name and I yelled out to him, "I'm over here." And he found me...

 I found this little nook FILLED with all different types of vintage lace and seam binding. There were some buttons and fabric in here, too. And so many other FUN things for ME to look at.

 Here are my girls and I still hanging in this little nook.It took me a while to get out of there. I wanted to make sure I saw EVERYTHING!

Then, my girls found this neat little basket filled with these things that looked like Maracas. They were Darnings. (Thanks Grandma for letting me know what those were). The girls kept shaking them, thinking that they'd make a sound of some sort. It was super cute!

 Here are the girls again at another table filled with goodies. Layla found this necklace of pearls and thought they were so pretty. I think Brooklyn thought they were pretty neat, too! 

And then, once again, we were off to the next shop....

This place is called, "The Secret Garden." WOW, was this place GORGEOUS! Do you see those canvas' hanging outside the barn? They are weather proof paintings that you hang outside your house. They were so very beautiful! I wish we could have taken one home with us!

Check out this awesome chair! It was made from an old door and some amazing branches. And check out that hand painted "Welcome" sign... So BEAUTIFUL, right?!?

And here comes a picture of one of my most FAVORITE things that I saw that day...

Check out this OLD Chevrolet GREEN truck!! 

WHAT A BEAUTY, RIGHT?!?

 

 I think I might have taken like a HUNDRED photos of this truck. I think i am going to have to make ANOTHER vintage truck card using THIS green truck as my inspiration.

 

And my last photo of our travels for the day is one of my two girls sitting on this awesome bench @ "The Secret Garden." Mike and I were surprised at how they STILL had their beautiful smiles on at the end of our VERY long day.

 Later on that night, Brooklyn and I were talking about our day together and she said to me, "Mama, today was a great day!" I seriously started tearing up, that MADE my day! Both of the girls thanked us and thanked us over and over! It was really hard to see this day end.

You thought I was finished, right?? Well, I thought you might like to see some pictures of a few of the things I got that day and mixed with some awesome finds from previous weeks.

 So, i think you all know by now that I LOVE anything vintage! I use a lot of lace on my cards to give it that Vintage look. Well, I don't think you'll believe me when I tell you that this lace right here... well all of it combined MIGHT have cost me a total of $10! Yup, You heard me right!

 I found these spools of Wool/Cashmere thread a few weeks back. They are from the 70's. They each cost me less than $2 each! Pretty fantastic find, huh?? I have already used some of the thread on some of my cards!! The thread is perfectly usable!

 I also have a "thing" for buttons. VINTAGE buttons especially! I found this huge jar of buttons at an antique shop a few weeks back. I had sold some cards and decided I was going to go back to that shop and get this jar of buttons! The jar was priced at $15 but she sold it to me for $12! Pretty flippin' sweet, huh??

Lastly, here are some lose pieces of lace that I got for .75! There's quite a bit of it and so I store it in this little drawer set I have.

I hope you enjoyed this post, even though it didn't involve any cards or crafts! Remember to check out my blog tomorrow for a special FALL BLOG HOP card! 

I also hope you are all enjoying this Labor Day weekend!

~jenna