monkeybox

We took a picnic lunch to the Tractor Pull today and I did not a) pack it in one of my 18 vintage picnic baskets or b) pack a vintage tablecloth. What sort of a picnic is that? I envisioned cold crusty fried chicken, freshly made potato salad and an assortment of freshly baked cookies all packed with loving care in pyrex bowls and stowed in a Redmon basket. Top it off with some graniteware dishes and a sweet vintage tablecloth, throw it in the back of my 1966 Cherried out Chevy truck and off we go. But, alas, turkey on white bread thrown in a Wal-Mart bag with a bag of Great Value chips was my gourmet tractor pull picnic. Maybe next year!

On the way there, we happened upon a sale at the Flea Market. This is a Flea Market with normally sort of pricey prices, but today all the booths were running discounts and (the best part) the vendors were outside selling their extras. I expected high prices outside, but I was pleasantly surprised at the first booth when I asked, "How much are the packages of rick rack?" And the guy said, "10¢ a pack."

He literally had hundreds of packages of old bias tape, but I rarely ever use that as I do not sew, but I love rick rack. I'm wondering if the Bais tape would have been a good Etsy buy. Oh well. I found all this rick rack, threw in a few Bais Tape for the old packaging and the sweet pink button card all for $1.50.
At the next booth, I spotted this fabulous old tin box. It has the Capital and the Cherry trees on the front. It is a Sunshine Biscuit tin and an exceptionally old and unique one at that. I almost didn't go look at it, because more often that not, when I see a really cool old tin like this, the people at the sale are using it as their money box. But, I ventured over to look at it. The price was $19.99 X'ed out, $15.99 X'ed out, $12.99 X'ed out and so on and so forth. I finally made out the lowest price on the tag. 25¢. Are you kidding me? I scooped it up and threw the lady a quarter. She is an expert too - I know her. Not sure why she was letting it go so incredibly cheap. I was stopped three times by different people asking to see the box. Me thinks I did good.

The next booth had lots of old tools and manly looking things, so I almost went to the next booth, but I decided to look around anyway. Sometimes men have cool rusty crap. That's when I spotted a box with an old embroidered pillowcase sticking out of it, so I dug in. I started pulling out vintage tablecloths. Gasp. I didn't really pull them out and check them out because I have noticed the more I look at things, the higher the price seems to be. So, I casually asked how mcuh the tablecloths were and he said, "A buck a piece." I found six in all and didn't even bother to unfold them at that price. I had some nice surprises when I got home and looked at them.

This is a sweet lightweight blue and white cloth. Perfect for that Tractor Pull picnic next year.

This one has a pink background with wirey baskets of blue flowers on it.

This fruit basket cloth has nice vivid colors of blues, grays and greens.

And, I was surprised to discover that this cloth is the same pattern as the cloth above, but in pinks, pale blues and grays. Cool!

Not the best photo - but this one has Roosters on it and who doesn't love a good rooster?

I saw the most awesome linoleum topped table and chairs today - yellow with roosters embroidered into the backs of each chair. The guy was selling it off piece by piece and I PRAY that no one bought one piece and not the whole set. It was da bomb.

And, lastly, this one has really bright vivid colors - greens, yellows and oranges.

I have a cabinet in the garage that I am itching to get into the house to hold my all-of-the-sudden fast-growing tablecloth collection. I did mostly have Christmas tablecloths, but I have been lucky this year and have quite a collection.

I'll be back tomorrow with pictures from our trip We saw bee-U-ti-ful things.