Antique Capital of the World

My husband and I were really excited about Saturday because we were going to Cameron, NC for an antique fair.  Their claim to fame is that they are "the Antique Capital of the World," but I'm pretty sure that they have made that claim themselves and its not true.

So we drive over to Cameron and when we get to the town there are cars lined on both sides of the road and we're still in the woods.  I'm thinking to myself "man, we're going to have to walk a couple of miles to get to the fair, because there is no sign of pavement parking lots or any kind of downtown area."  Well...  There wouldn't be any either.  There was basically a 200 ft. area of buildings, not really any pavement anywhere, so all 250 vendors from all over the country were in the grass.  Remember, we have two kids that were going to be in strollers.  And it wasn't just flat, it was like we were on the outskirts of the mountains.  

We decided not to go.  It would have been way to hard to maneuver the two strollers in the grass with the other 50,000 people that were going to be there.  It was really sad, because from the car I could see so many awesome items!  Not to mention the 12 antique stores that Cameron has alone.

We were going to try to go to the flea market to see the Pyrex lady, but it was closed for the state fair!  We were determined to do some vintage shopping that day.  We drove another hour north and went to an amazing vintage shop called GC5 Vintage in Wake Forest, NC.  I was not disappointed!!!  I'll show some pictures from that visit tomorrow!


Hope everyone's weekend was awesome and your Monday won't be too bad!

Home Tour: Uptown Minneapolis, Minnesota

I have not written in awhile.  No internet and having to drive 24 hours straight on Monday is the main reason.  Then when I get home our air conditioning is broken...  AGAIN!  We spent Tuesday night in 87 degree heat in our house.  I felt so bad for our daughter and our bulldog.  It was not fun.  Luckily, its now fixed and I slept a ton yesterday.  I am now refreshed and will be posting regularly again!

While I was in Minneapolis, we stopped by a friend of my husband's family.  His house is AMAZING!  He lives in a really nice part of Minneapolis called Uptown.  It seems like a richer part of town and there is awesome shopping around.

The guy's name is Gerry and he is an antique junky.  That is not a bad thing at all - its actually my dream!  Everything in his house is so unique and has a story behind it.  And he knows every single thing about every single item.  Its like a museum.  I could stay in there all day!  The pictures are only from the basement.  There's a whole other floor that I didn't photograph!  Next time...

Some of the pictures are a little blurry.  My camera wasn't cooperating with me, and I didn't have much time to take many pictures.  They do not do the house justice!  I really want something like this one day.  I don't think I could ever get bored in a house like that.

Does anyone you know have a house that you admire?  Why do you admire it?

Antiquing In Gibbon, Minnesota

The first place we stopped and visited was Gibbon, Minnesota.  Dan's parents and a couple of his aunts and uncles were staying at his grandparents' house, so we stayed there, also.  We had big dinners, some people played golf, and I went antiquing.  Now, this is a very small town.  I'm talking about 800 people.  Its just a few blocks of houses and a strip downtown surrounded by farm land.  I did not thing I was going to find anything that was worth taking home, but I was wrong.

The first was an antique store downtown.  It was run by a local with a midwest accent out of Fargo.  I love these accents.  Everyone sounds so much more friendly, and it really shows the culture of the area.  It was a pretty large building separated into rooms and packed with so much awesome stuff.

This is an old heated outdoor phone booth!  Definitely need those in Minnesota!

The next day, we took a walk two houses down to an antique store a neighbor operated from his garage.  I thought I was going to walk in and see a garage sale type set-up.  No.  This couple had literally transformed their garage into a store.  It was so amazing, and really inspirational!  A good way to start your own store without leasing a building!

This is my mother-in-law and my daughter walking to the antique store!  Its crazy that I haven't pushed Maggie being a girly girl.  She likes dressing like this!

The entrance.  All those little figures in the cubbie holes on the left are salt and pepper shakers!

  

I did get a couple of things from these stores, but I'm going to wait until the end of our trip.  I think we'll be going to a couple of more places before we leave!  

Have you ever found anything really awesome in an unexpected place?