Brimming With Fresh Ideas

Whew! Another epic road trip adventure to Brimfield, via Framingham for a flea market stop and Palmer for an old church fair before we even reached the big show! This was the car after those stops, not much room left…

But once we had arrived, it was a go! Hours of walking, shopping, chatting and checking out what was hot and what was not. The hot

 of the year, if I was judging Brimfield trends? Fresh minty green

and pastel blues (ah, my dream truck- if only I had won the mega millions last night!)

and not an orange anything in sight. This time it was all about more natural, muted colors

and pastel hues.

Worn, distressed, milk-painted and Annie Sloan’d furniture as far as the eye could see!

Even an old junky ladder takes on a new life with a coat of distressed blue paint : )

And architectural panels become dear hearts with some tin snips, satin ribbon and a few crystal baubles.

This year, the trend seemed to move away from industrial chic, and more into schoolhouse rock. Loads of old desks, chairs, science lab tables and beakers and lockers, lots of lockers.

“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind

Do this, don’t do that,  can’t you read the sign? “

by the Five Man Electrical Band

Just wondering, where are people getting these signs? They all seemed to be in mint condition- are they climbing up poles under the cloak of darkness and taking them to sell at flea markets? These street signs were everywhere-and so not cheap either!

Along our five mile journey on foot, we came across this booth by Cari Cucksey from Cash & Cari. Loving her re-purposed sign.

Her booth had all sorts of cute, remade, recycled products like these old license plate bags.

And piles of plastic letters and numbers- one can only imagine where these originated!

This year, Nancy & Robin from Vintage Thymes Monthly Market had a fantastic booth representing the Norwood shops- they both look pretty great considering they had been working in a tent for a the past week!

As decorating trending goes, so does lighting. While last year’s lamps leaned more towards turbines and propellers, this year’s standouts were Steampunk-meets-Back-To-The-Future-inspired style.

Fanciful, intricate designs from fabulous, creative minds.

Not to be unnoticed, these mid-century crystal beauties from Collection by Kelly McDonnell caught my eye as well.

What’s a market in farm country without some animals? Horses were big this year (well, they are big as a rule, so popular would be a more appropriate descriptive term)

but taxidermy appears to be making a comeback as well. What an angelic face- didn’t even know what hit it!

And who wouldn’t need a gigantic yellow polka dot bear?!? Is the circus in town?

Do you think this cage would be big enough?

These two displays are a study in contrasts: the female mannequins accompanied by an ironing board,

while the male guy (why wasn’t he wearing those jeans, I wonder) was wearing a hard hat. Some things never change…

Finally, we scored a couple of items: coach discovered this pile of old (well, I think they are old, but after reading Killer Stuff and Tons of Money, you never know what’s been artfully disguised) burlap potato sacks.

They’re pretty stinky, but have great style and color. I discovered this campy violin shaped coffee table.

The dealer was asking $20, so coach started to walk away. This was the hard sell to me:

Seller Guy: “What do I need to do to make this deal work?”

Me: “You need to make it be shaped like a whale”

Seller Guy (looking befuddled): Why’d you ask me the price if you wanted a whale table and not a violin table?”

Me: “I was thinking I could make it into a whale.”

Seller Guy: “OK, you can have it for $10”   Sometimes it works when you act like you don’t have a clue…

At the end of five hours of traipsing through endless rows of tents, filled with anything and everything, I kind of felt like this guy.

Dusty and exhausted. Destined for a crash landing. Which I did, in the car on the way home…but I can’t wait for July!! Have a sunny Sunday everyone! Susan