Kane County Flea Market

it’s been a long long time since i’ve been able to go to an actual flea market. not only because of time but because of the michigan gross weather. aka there are no flea markets (worth going to) in michigan while it’s cold. during the winter i pay many visits to antique stores to get my fix but i think i have been to every single one within a two hour radius of my house..twice. i needed something i was craving the thrill of the wide open hunt. if you are a picker, antiquer you get it! it’s a fix you need. when the kane county flea market notification came up on my facebook feed my mind was made up. i had to go. i didn’t care about the 3.5 hour drive. i wanted to flea market in the worst way.

i put the call out to friends whoever wanted to come and a few of us gals saddled up with bungees and tow ropes and headed towards illinois. we debated about bringing a trailer. here is the thing about trailers…you bring one, you find NOTHING. you don’t bring  one you find EVERYTHING. that is just the nature of the beast. luckily we didn’t buy anything too big (although we could have) and everything fit in our vehicle.

i probably should have been picking more for our shop but of course 99.9% of the things i bought were for me. and that is ok too. we are getting in to market season and there will be plenty of time for that. the market this time of year was only about half full but we managed to spend all our money and go home with a full car. we spent a long time at the paper table. this lady had four tables of old broken book pages and they were $1,$2,$3 or $5 dollars pending on the sheets, how old they were. i bought two $5 because they were hand drawn but the rest were only $1! i’m not sure what i’m going to do with them yet but i was loving the illustrations and the font used with them.

i think one of my other favorite finds is the giant ice water crock with the brass nozzle. we were driving out after loading everything in and i saw it sitting on a table. the man had $85 dollars on it and i literally haggled with him from my car window. he was a lot of fun as i tried to offer him $50 and some brownie brittle and he countered with $65 and a beer. we settled on $60. i kept my brittle, he kept his beer. maybe it was one of my favorite purchases because it was so fun to haggle with the gentleman?

the biggest deal of the day was a booth of paintings and the guy was saying everything half off, everything half off. i bought four floral paintings from $5-$13 and a big pretty painting of a sailboat (pentwater cottage) for $10! he also sold me a huge heavy mirror for $12. that was definitely one of the better scores of the day. and we didn’t even have to barter! it just happened!

the red cross laundry cart took some convincing. it was one of those pieces that a dealer “uses”. my 9×12 bedroom rug was being used to wrap furniture and i had to find the guy a new furniture blanket before he would sell it to me. the dealer who sold me this cart uses it to push boxes from his van to his booth. i finally convinced him to sell it to me for $150 which is still a steal in my opinion. i’m thinking of either putting a top on it and using it as a table/bar type piece at the pentwater cottage or storing blankets and towels in it. haven’t decided yet.

other good finds include: a green metal garden cart a bunch of bar swizzle sticks and some dishes. (of course)

i think the best part of the day was spending time with some good friends. the best conversations happen over a long car ride. we learned so much about each other that day and i can honestly say that i’m proud to be friends with such strong women. it was such a good day for the soul and to feel just a little bit like the better part of my old self.

sunday afternoon i unloaded and cleaned all my treasures and put them away and had fun styling them and looking at all the beautiful pictures. i would give this market a 5 out of 5 stars. the prices were good, the selection had nice variation and if this truly was only half full for the market I would for sure go back and say it was worth the drive.

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