The US 127 Yard Sale and those crazy Amish

Wow. I officially got the crap kicked out of me by a flea market. :) That makes me so happy! My poor husband on the other hand has learned the ins-and-outs of navigating endlessly packed flea markets on sweltering hot days with me in tow complaining the entire time about things being too expensive, but that yes I wanted to keep going.

The US 127 Yard sale was going on and we spent a little bit of time on each Friday, Saturday and Sunday going to various little areas with tents set up along the US 127. This this bit of madness happens once a year for four days, and stretches from Alabama to Michigan! I wasn't really in any shape to spend a chunk of change, but I picked up a few items for really cheap.

I got a cute embroidery in a lovely little teal frame for $3, and two additional white frames (ignore the pics inside - they're coming out) for 25¢ each. I've been looking for cute little frames to hang in my craft room.

My real find of the weekend are these two pieces though. I've been wanting a Vacationer suitcase for so long! Everyone I ever came across was around $40, which just seemed ridiculous to me considering the shape most of them were in. This little beauty is almost perfect and only cost me $10. The mirror is awesome and going in the craft room also. It was my $7 find - still deciding if I want to paint the frame or keep it gold...

Cute turquoise bracelet for $11.

My last little find I must have walked by five times. I actually ended up driving back the next day to pick it up. A lovely little hand painted children's plate set for $7. I don't think a little one will ever be able to use it because it's porcelain, but I just fell in love with it. Aren't the little boys and lambs so cute?

I know that I probably could have gotten better prices, I'm not very good at haggling. Both Mister and I are kind of quiet. He can barter much better than me. Problem is we're not together the entire time (he likes to look at guns and tools, you know, manly items - which I can only do for so long) and that leaves me to figure out the price. I also see so many other girls across the blogosphere that find such cute things for so incredibly cheap - I wonder what I might be doing wrong.

All in all though I'm completely satisfied with my haul. :)

Here are a couple other pictures from our weekend. The first day we went with an older couple from across the street - this was much more fun than I thought it'd be. The husband of one older woman drove like a bat out of hell and was carrying a .22 on him. He was a blast! Lots of fried food and funnel cakes. And I'll tell you, they were selling pretty much everything under the sun.

I'm excited about it rolling around next year. I'll know what to expect then and I'm going to be fully prepared for it. I'll have my pretty pennies saved, my haggling skills honed, a well rested husband...and some xanax. :)

On a quick side note (sorry, I know this is an insanely long post, but I had some encouragement from some very lovely ladies recently and I'm feeling a little strong), I had an older Amish man ask me to take some quick photos of his fried pie booth. He evidently needed a photo to submit in order to enter another festival. I was more than happy to oblige. To be honest I was skipping for the rest of the day! He didn't really seem familiar with the workings of cameras and film development, so I offered to print him out the copies and drive them back the next day.

Here is one of the pictures I took of his booth - nothing special...

...and here is Todd enjoying the blackberry fried pie he insisted we take as payment!!!

 nom nom nom nom

I have to mention how nice this man was. His name was Levi and he had to be the most humble man I've ever encountered. Just the sound of his voice and the humbleness it carried in it has been enough to affect me still. He choose interesting words to use - I know this is probably because they actually speak another language (Pennsylvania Dutch) at home and in their own communities than they do with 'The English', or us non-Amish. The Amish are amazing people and I have developed a deep respect and affection for them since moving to Kentucky. And I just wanted to give them and their fried pies a little shout out. :)

'til next time... ♥