Fleaologists Disguised as Farm Chicks for Purposes of Fun and Entertainment

After months of plotting, planning and penny pinching this festive four was off to travel, not only to Idaho, but to Montana and Washington as well, where they finally attended their first, but not their last, Farm Chicks Antique Show!!

Here you see three of our party of four marking the end of the first leg of our journey.  We are Jennifer, then me, and on the right is Cathie, Wendy is behind the camera for this shot.

Of course when you have four junquers traveling together there is no need for rest stops, just junquing stops and we had plenty of those.  One of our favorites was in Butte, Montana where we tried on vintage apparel at Rediscoveries, a wonderful store where we had loads of laughs. 
Doesn't Jenn look fine in the burnt orange 1920's cloche hat? 

Cathie was the only one of our party who could fit in those fun and funky 50's dresses.  Isn't she adorable? After a few more stores, well, really more than a few we arrived in Spokane where a lovely and friendly police woman showed us the way to our hotel.  (long story)

Here we are, off early to the Farm Chicks Show.  Wendy and Jenn wave from the passenger side, while Cathie shows her enthusiasm over the top of the car.

Wendy and I wait in line while Cathie and Jenn found the perfect pull through parking space for the Suburban and the trailer it was towing.

We were back about 20 people in line, but there were two other lines that would go in before us, the early bird ticket holders, and the prepaid ticket holders. Not that we are complaining we just got more chatting time in.

Cathie and Jenn joined us for an hour and a half wait to get into the show.  We spent our time well, visiting with people up and down the line.  I took my camera and took shots of all the cute wheeled carts that many prepared folks were toting.  Here we see Cathie's cart, fitted with a lining made from a vintage table cloth. The talented lady whipped it up in about 20 minutes. Whoa!!

We even found friends from Utah, here we see Cathie visiting with 'Just a Bed of Roses'shop owner Brenda (2nd from right)  http://justabedofroses.blogspot.com/ and Julie (far right) who is organizing Bella's Vintage Market  http://bellasvintagemarket.blogspot.com/ at the Wheeler Farm on July 9th, in which Jenn, Cathie and I are participating, and expect it to be a wonderful show if you would like to come and visit.  :-)

Here are some new freinds.  The charming girl in the pink tutu and cowboy boots got lots of attention.

These cute ladies are from Canada, they were amazingly friendly.  I got acquainted when I went to photograph a fabulous and well thought out wheeled cart.  I will be doing a post on http://fleaology.blogspot.com/ about the fun and interesting pull carts I admired while waiting in line, if you care to see her work of art!!

And now the fun begins.  These hanging 'F U N' letters are just inside the front door.  Cathie and I could not have had our pictures taken thus, with the mob as we entered, but we were able to get this shot later in the day.

Of course many of the vendors dress in fun period clothing.  This lady was nice enough to pose with me as we were so color coordinated.  I was also her customer as I bought a charming little milk glass syrup pitcher which dates from the turn of the last century for my collection.

 

I loved this shelf with the decoupaged pages on the back and figured my friend Marcy would appreciate it.  The mannequin on the right takes decoupage to the level of art.  I thought it was amazingly charming  The dealer had already sold one before I got to her booth, and she had one other that was just as amazing!!  She was taking custom orders for the mannequin of your dreams.  What an artist!!

 

This was my favorite booth of the whole show.  It was so charming and well decorated that just looking at it made me feel rested, which is an amazing thing in the press of the crowd that was attending the show with me. You can learn more about her at http://rebeccaersfeld.blogspot.com/ .

These are a few of my favorite things at the show.  This fun stacked tin 'weddng cake' caught the attention of my companions as well.  We all thought it was so creative.

The French wax doll bust under the dome took my breath away, she was so charming!  And I thought the green house on the right was very clever. 

So all good things must come to an end.  We gathered together in the 'man-cave' near the entrance, and here are Cathie and Wendy guarding my treasures.  Everyone was plum tuckered after 8 solid hours of junquing. 

I think it was Jenn that mentioned that she had feared all of our bright hopes in anticipation of this show would somehow fall short and we would be disappointed.  This fear was never realized because the show was everything we had hoped and more.  We had a blast, and now know what it means to 'shop til you drop'.

Yep, since I was taking pics of our exhausted selves, all I got of my personal rest was a pic of the mixmatched socks my friend Robin gave me for my birthday.  (Boy does she know me or what? )

And don't you love the wonderful arrow that Cathie discovered?  

Perhaps it is the arrow she is dreaming of, which has painted her face with such a smile of satisfaction ...

... And to all a good night!!