Monday, March 12, 2012

Vintage Fair Fun!

When Lindsay came to visit last month she gave me a flyer to a vintage fair she came across when we were out shopping. I thought it looked like fun but didn't think much of it. I clipped the ad to the calendar and figured I had a while before I had to decide if I wanted to go. As the date got closer, I got more excited about attending and figured the $3 admission was a pretty good deal for an outing on a Friday night.

When the Friday finally came around, I had even convinced Fraser to attend with me and we headed out in the rain for a fun date night (or at least, what I thought was a fun date night)! I had been to a few craft shows at the Fairfield Community Hall before so we mastered the directions and parking for the event. The place was buzzing and as soon as we stepped into the clutter of shoppers and tables I knew it was going to be worth while! Take a peek at my initial view of the fair:



Time to roam around and discover some treasures! There were a few really awesome tables with piles of thrift store finds to search through for $2 each or 3 for $5. Clearly I was all about the bargains and asked Fraser to help me find fun brooches and old lady jewels! Fraser (as always) was a great sport and helped me organize the pieces I was interested in as I was in a flurry of brooch overload! Whew! We then drifted through the rest of the fair spotting some more interesting booths (although not as low priced as the bargain tables we went to first). The show continued through out the whole hall and there were even more vintage find upstairs (including a nice selection of china, housewares, and pyrex)! The top floor was especially crowded so I decided to skip out on the clothing racks and stick to the accessories. The verdict? The show was
super awesome and I landed some exciting new brooches! Take a peek:


Oh my! I am still in a flutter about the pieces I ended up getting and can't wait to work them into my daily attire. I am really thrilled about the enameled metal flowers we found too! The swirly orange one was on one of those bargain tables and although I do love the shape of it, the orange sort of screams, "clown!" to me. I may try to refinish that one, but we'll see. Another one of my favourites is the pearly tree pin that I think will be particularly stunning on a cardigan:


I was also pretty stoked to continue my "old crazy cat lady" way of life and picked out a nice jaguar brooch too. Just check out those green rhinestone eyes:


But my bargoons didn't end at the brooches - I also got a pair of fun bracelets, two granny style necklaces, and a geometric gold pendant:


Yay! Needless to say, the fair exceeded my expectations and I can't wait to go to another! It also helps explain why my thrift shopping in Victoria has been so unsuccessful - there are loads of people rummaging through all the shops to prepare for these fairs! I think I'll save myself the agony of dismal thrifting and stick to paying a little bit more at vintage shows. What do you think? Have you ever been to a vintage fair before? What do you think of my new jewels?

4 comments:

  1. Your new jewels are wonderful. The one liked best is the one with all the pearls. Mom

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  2. all of the accessories! hurrah!

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  3. Oh craft fairs. My most favourite thing in the whole world. :)

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  4. These remind me of the jewelry of Grandma Lu's that we used to play with. Also, double points for "bargoons."

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