Randolph Street Market

Next weekend, May 25 and 26 will be the 10th anniversary of the Randolph Street Market and we will be there in the ballroom with all our treasures! 

Be sure to come by!

Randolph Street Market

We will be at this month's Randolph Street Market on the 25th and 26th of May in the Ballroom. Be sure to come find us and visit!  Here are some of the pieces that I will be bringing.

Lampwork glass necklace

Vintage Mexican Sterling Silver flower brooch

Run-Away Vacation

My husband has recently started his own business. Which is hard. It's hard on him; he's been putting in 13 hour days 5 or 6 days a week now for months.  It's hard on me; he's not around much anymore. It's hard on our marriage; see previously mentioned reasons.

Now don't get me wrong. So far, his business has been quite successful, and I am very proud of him.  We're just adjusting to a new reality.

Anyhow, with Monday's Columbus Day holiday, I had a long weekend.  AND hubby can set his own schedule.  We found ourselves Saturday morning, staring at each other and both desperately wanting to take work and shove it... so we did!  I got on hotwire and found a great deal on a hotel room in a small town on the other side of Lake Michigan from us.  A three hour drive later, we found ourselves far enough away from home to call it a vacation and the perfect reason for hubby to abandon his cell phone and computer.

We had NO plans.

NONE whatsoever.

And it just so happened that right near the hotel was an antique mall. And in that antique mall was a map that the local antique dealers had put together called "The Antique Trail."

I was able to bat my eyes and smile sweetly, and a good portion of our weekend was spent visiting antique mall after antique mall.

I had so much fun, and hubby tolerated it. Thankfully, all the malls had a good selection of "Man-tiques" in the form of militaria, weaponry, industrial tools, and unrecognizeable jumbles of cast iron and wood.

I made quite a few finds, and assuredly paid too much for several items.  On the whole, though, I think I got a good deal.

I am WELL aware of the fact that antique stores are not the place to buy stuff if you're planning to re-sell. They aren't my first choice of purchasing locales, as you're paying pretty close to retail there.  I much prefer estate sales (I checked, they didn't have any that weekend) and flea markets (again, I checked, none in the area.) Good deals are to be had at Antique Stores though, if you're willing to dig!

And dig I did!  I found several verified Juliana pieces that were marked WAY below retail (very surprising), some great thermoset pieces, and a Whiting and Davis bracelet.  I have the necklace and earrings that match so now I can put together a full parure!  I was also able to pick up several other fun and funky pieces!

Grayslake Antique Market

Today I played hooky.

I didn't go to church.

I know, I know... I'm a baaaaaad girl.

But the weather was gorgeous!  It was 70 degrees, sunny, bright blue skies with cotton candy clouds, and a light breeze.  It didn't take long to talk my husband into playing hooky with me and driving up to the Grayslake IL Antique Market at the Lake County Fairgrounds. 

We got there with only 2.5 hours left before they closed for the day.  It was time for a power shop.  We quickly went through the outside vendors, skimming the tables and darting our eyes to look for items that we SPECIFICALLY wanted.  I, of course, searching for jewelry, and my husband looking for old crates and bee-keeping stuff.

I zipped by booths that normally I would have lingered at.  If I didn't see something on my first quick dig through a jumbled jewelry box full of stuff, then I moved on. Hubs started to walk ahead of me to scout out whether or not tables were "worth" looking at.  (Of course, I always went by anyway to judge for myself.

I do think I got some great deals!

Purchases from today at Grayslake

Some of the designer pieces I picked up were a Goldette Mesh Choker (Featuring the 3 graces); a Weiss white rhinestone necklace; a Florenza Demi Parure; a Kramer Enameled bee brooch; Hickock cufflinks; and a Coro Sterling Brooch!  I was also able to pick up 3 victorian brooches, and an Art Deco 1930s bird brooch!