Junk Bonanza 2013

Junk Bonanza is a local vintage/antique/re-purpose fair here in Minnesota.  My mom heard about it three years ago and this is our third time going (you can read about my experience last year here). This year we went on thursday, the first day of the event, since we both happened to have that day off. Even though I don't always buy something at the Bonanza it's always fun to go, you never know what you might find. It's also fun to see stuff that is harder to find in thrift stores and/or gone quickly at estate sales. So, I'm always excited when september rolls around and Junk Bonanza is close. But I have to admit the allure is waning a bit for me, there just seems to be more re-purposing than vintage junk. Since i'm looking for more vintage/antique  it can be a bit dissapointing. We only ended up going home with a few things, which i'll feature in another post, but failed to find anything amazing. Nonetheless I did take some pictures of some of the cool wares available for sale.

Owl lamp.

This lamp looks a lot like my table and makes me wonder if someone took a lamp and made it into a table. Either way this lamp is pretty cool

A cool way to re-purpose an old globe.

mid century green lamp

                    I'm always on the lookout for cool mid-century lamps at vintage strores/fairs. I found some cool ones at Junk Bonanza but none that were soo cool I had to take them home

                                          

This hair dryer chair  turned lamp was really cool and a great idea for what to do with those cool old beauty salon chairs/ hair dryers.

                                        

                                          

This was an old mailbox. It was sold but would be a really cool statement piece in someones home. There seemed to be a lot more industrial pieces this year.

                  Chalkware figurines a plenty. My mom ended up buying those two turquoise cats.

This rope love seat was pretty cool though I can't imagine it being comfortable. I mean it must be itchy.

                                          More industrial stuff on display at the bonanza.

Cool stump coffee table.

                                     

These lamps made out of photo/ slideshow film were pretty cool

                                      

                                     

This is probably the coolest way to display a camera collection ever! This makes me want to collect old cameras just so I can display them the same way.

Cool vintage Halloween display, a cool mid-century lamp and an interesting re-purposed cigar box lamp.

Bracelets made out of old appliance tags.

                                   

                                       

This Pink cart you can kind of see above was and old manicurist table from the 50's. It had it's own lamp, was a really cute pink color. and was probably the coolest thing I saw at the bonanza. I'm a little sad I didn't get it.

                                       

                                     

Cool mid-century black cats.

This sunburst clock was really cool but at $50.00 I just couldn't take the plunge.

                              Cool old vampire doll and stuffed ... animal (I have no idea what animal that is).

                                      

This tulip chair was really cool and I'm kind of dying to have a tulip table and chairs set but it was pricey so I left it.

This booth had a lot of cool mid- century stuff but It was all pretty expensive.

                                    

How cute is this pink record player?!?!?!!!!! I wanted it but it was $150.00 or so and I just couldn't. One day I will find a cool old record player at at thrift store, ONE DAY!!!

                                  

They were selling these rakes as wine glass holders, which is cool but I mean it can't be that hard to make. Get rake, take off stick, hang on wall, display wine glasses, BAM.

Anyway it was cool to see all the different items for sale at Junk Bonanza but I'm not sure if I'll make it next year or not. I may need to look for a fair that's more vintage/antique heavy and less re-purposed.

Mississippi Road trip: Memphis pt. 1 Graceland, the main house

         I have a weird fascination with Tennessee, I'd never been until we went on this trip, but it just seems like a cool place to visit. Someday I'll visit more of it go back to Memphis, Nashville, go to their big flea market and maybe even bonaroo (not all at once though). Anyway once I checked out where Springfield was and that it was relatively (but not really) close to Memphis I immediately wanted to add it to the itinerary. The number one reason I wanted to go to Memphis was, of course, to see Graceland! I love vintage kitsch and Graceland is like the holy grail of vintage kitsch. It's a time capsule house of Elvis. And oh boy did Graceland deliver! Oh my god I would go back again, it was soo cool!!!! so worth the long drive. I highly recommend it if you're in Memphis.  The house isn't very big compared to today's McMansions but it was in Elvis' time. It was also named Graceland before Elvis ever lived there, he bought it from a doctor who named it after his wife. Anyway there is SOOO much to see at Graceland so I'm going to break it up into a few posts. So here are the pictures of the main house.