Road Trip Again

Hubby and I took a “sick” day from work last week and did a day trip to Florence, Colorado. They bill themselves as the Antique Capital of Colorado. and to top it off they were having their fall Junktique market. There were about 40 vendors set up in the middle of the street, and I honestly lost count of just how many antique stores we ventured into. It was enough that we got there at 9 a.m. (Florence is a solid three-hour drive; you do the math!) and didn’t finish up till after 5 p.m. We only stopped for a hot dog from a street vendor, so it was some marathon shopping. I can say I highly recommend a side trip here, if you are in the area. We lucked out and had a lovely day with temps in the lower 80s with just a slight breeze, but the shopping was great as well. Lots of variety and the prices were reasonable. Super friendly folks too. Antiques are the making of the town and they know it. I did keep my head enough to snap a bunch of photos, so I have a lot to share this week.

First up, a confession. I am pretty sure I have mentioned my mania about bottle brush trees. Can’t pass up a nice old one, but I am notoriously cheap. I spotted an entire bag of them in one dealers booth that she was just putting out. Did I mention we got there early? I saw this in the middle of the bag:

Oh, a bottle brush WITH spun cotton ornaments. What more could a girl ask for? I asked the price, she said $25, and I said done so fast it made her head spin. I think she really didn’t want to sell it, but I assured her it would have a good home. I giggled about how much I loved it the rest of the day. Merry Christmas to me!

We went into one place that had architectural salvage, but they really had an eye for Mid Century Modern stuff. I loved this patio table and chairs:

Cocktails on the veranda, anyone? Needs a new umbrella, turquoise or bright yellow maybe, but it’s a great set.

I squealed with delight over this:

Oh my gosh, it’s pink! And check out the ubiquitous starburst Formica on the top. Even with my addiction to sewing machines I was able to resist, but it is cute. They even had the old brochure for it:

The thing about these old machines, is that they are all metal. If they don’t work, you can fix them, and most of them you can fix yourself. Makes them a bargain if you want a good machine, and hey, at the end of the day, it’s still pink!

Noticed this gem hiding out under a table:

Sears’ answer to the Easy-Bake Oven was the Magic Cool Grill and Waffler. Bet your friends still didn’t think you were that cool, without an Easy-Bake, unless those waffles were really good. My bet is that, considering they were cooked with a light bulb, is that they sort of resembled limp rubber. Please someone say they owned it and it was fantastic. I want to believe the advertising.

I knew these existed, but I have never seen one in real life:

Let’s hear it for the wool bathing costume! I used to have an ad from Catalina sportswear that advertised them as wool and “lastex” I assume some sort of woven in elastic, but I can’t get past the itchy wool bathing suit thing. On the other hand the cut is adorable. They should make more suits like this (not out of wool!) for those of us who are well past showing the public our rear end with a suit riding up. They had a pretty hefty price tag on this, and well deserved, as the condition is good, and most of these have long since been food for the moths to the point of becoming a pile of fibers in a box.

In the same store we saw these:

I’ve heard of dueling banjos, but dueling radio/record players? The late Art Deco look of these is amazing, and there is enough Bakelite in them to choke a horse. I really hope they work, and I think they might, as they had records on them set up to try. Can’t imagine how they ended up with two of them. We ended up with none of them.

We got a kick out of the goat:

Or maybe it is a G.O.A.T (greatest of all time) as how else would it be sporting that fabulous necklace? We asked if it came with it, and owner wasn’t sure. Seems like that would be something to check with the dealer. If you are going to display it that way, put your money where your goat is. They were getting it down to show to a customer, while we were there, prompting our question about the necklace, but with a $1500 price tag, surely that goat was going nowhere fast.

Check out this lady of the lamp:

Here she is covering her ears, but I think a “see no evil” might be a better choice for her. I just cannot get into these lady lamps. There is not a man in the world who wants to sleep next to one, so unless they start making them pin-ups, these are always going to be a hard no. I am going to have to give her points for a decent face for one of these, but still she doesn’t “light up my life”.

This was in one of the more expensive stores, just sort of shoved in a corner:

Here is a picture of the tag:

A Buffalo Soldier portrait, this large, they knew the correct fort, and no one cared enough to highlight this piece? I can’t believe that someone has not gotten this and spent some time with it. With some research there is a chance of actually learning something about an African American historical figure, and that is so rare, as their history is mostly swept aside. I hope someone comes along and takes the time with this special piece

We hit up an outdoor flea market area on the way out of town and found this:

Apparently the Jetsons lost their breakfast bar set. It’s not particularly pretty, and it doesn’t look that comfortable. Must be for those visitors you want to leave quickly. Heaven forbid they relax with that cup of coffee. They will be here forever if we let them have a back to their chair. And let’s put them in the lime green and black breakfast room, too. (I like lime green, but just saying.)

Last stop of the day, a garage sale also on the way out of town. This cracked me up:

Once they learned to make rock-covered pots, there was no going back. They covered jars, lids, pots, bowls. I hope the cat was moving fast, or he is now very weighted down. We don’t think there will be a whole lot of takers on these, but at least you get a ready-made collection of one of a kind works of “Art”, or maybe his name was Fred.

We will be doing another mini road trip next weekend to Nebraska and one of those 300 mile garage sale things. I will report back from that. too. Who knows, we might see something else covered in rocks!