Thursday, September 29, 2011

Collectorators On the Road - Warrenton Day 2, Fall 2011 or How We Survived Day 86 of 100 plus degrees

First here's some fun weather facts in my fair city (Austin TX)  as of our Warrenton Day 2 adventure: it was the 86th day of 100 degrees  or higher this year (an all time record), 26th day of 105 degrees or higher this year (all time record), 152nd day of 90 or higher degrees this year (record is 159 in 1925) and it is now Fall and we might just hit 90 days of 100 degrees or higher this week. Now doesn't that make you want to move to Austin???

Day Poo, I mean Two (hahaha, thanks CollectoratorOne for that assessment of Day 2), started off with a dust-bowl magnitude windstorm as a supposed cool front started to come into the area. We had been forewarned it would be hotter than Day 1, but the promise of a possible cool front gave me some hope. Well, that pesky cool front stalled out in the no man's land between Waco and Austin. By the time we reached the first tent, we were completely windblown and covered in dirt. We had to give up all hope of looking cute for the day. Not that it matters what you look like at Warrenton, but I am not sure we were meeting even minimal standards of being presentable by the end of the day.

Now you may have heard me talk before about the Warrenton curse in previous posts. I think it's some old Indian curse for settling on their land, but I'd say in the past 10 years or so that we've been going to Warrenton having a "nice weather day" is, well, countable on a couple of fingers. Normally, it rains on us (well it did before we entered into our latest drought period). But like clockwork, there for awhile if we were going to Warrenton you could expect rain. Now, I'd have to say the curse has evolved lately into just unpleasant weather. It's been hot in the past, but this was beyond hot especially for the fall show. It's been known to be 40 degrees when we first arrive.  Not this time. By the time it was 105 degrees, we were strategizing our moves like a chess player from one shade spot to the next debating on how we would get to the next spot and perhaps find liquids in between. It was brutal. Somehow, and I am still not really sure how, we managed it and still ended up with some quality stuff.

Overall, it was not the Warrenton we had hoped for, no furniture, no really exciting finds, but it was productive to some extent. I was VERY good this year and with the pending move I did not buy things I normally might have bought so that was good for me, but CollectoratorOne did not find the furniture pieces she had hoped for. I'd have to say this is the first Warrenton in a long time where we did not see any nice and affordable sets of mid-century furniture. There was some, but it was in bad condition and expensive. Last year we saw two very nice Heywood Wakefield bedroom sets and two really good couches but the timing was not right to buy last year.

I did make my first forays into a new hobby. Flower arranging! This is a hobby though I am not starting until we buy the new house mostly due to lack of space and a good work room. Regardless, I  had to buy this awesome love birds on driftwood planter because it was only $5!   I also bought an awesome 1940s table settings and flower arrangement magazine complete with lessons on "what's wrong with this table and how to fix it" lessons.  I've always wanted to learn vintage flower arranging techniques, but I resisted buying more flower arranging supplies than I need to have right now! My other favorite find was this Enid Collins purse.  It's called Mille Fleurs, but it always looked more like starts in the sky to me.  I had three of her purses on my list and now I have two! I have one more to go (the For the Birds purse, of course!). I was super excited to find this one in black as it is more rare than the plain wood and looks more like the night sky that way.

CollectoratorOne found a nice piece of fabric to recover her dining room chairs from the fabric lady tent. That lady has tons and tons of upholstery and curtain fabric. I can't imagine how long it takes to load it all in! The fabric she bought is cream and has that fabulous blue of her dining room walls running through it. I can't wait to see how awesome it looks on the chairs. Stay tuned!!! She also got this really neato plant green plant shelf for her Alamo pots on her patio. She doesn't even have to repaint it as it's the same green as the trim on the patio! It's metal but has really cute white plastic decorations on the sides. The whole thing snaps a part too. On the ride back we swore we would not want to go back for awhile but by the time I woke up and went to work the next morning, I already wanted to go back!  Crazy I know.

photo courtesy of CollectoratorOne

PS I totally forgot to mention that in Day 1 CollectoratorOne got this awesome chalk pin up girl wall art. We had never seen anything like it especially in the stand up pose. It was cheap too for something so cool. I still need to find chalk fish for the bathroom, but I am putting that wish on hold until I see what colors I end up with in the new house!

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