An Outing: Fort Worth Vintage Market Days

This past Saturday, my mom and I attended Fort Worth Vintage Market Days, which is actually about 45 min south of Fort Worth in Alvarado.  Neither of us had been before so we weren’t sure what to expect.  It was at the Diamond W Arena, which is basically a rodeo complex.  When we walked in, there were two booths selling clothing and jewelry in front of some cattle roping event going on.  Cue nervous laughter and glances between Mom and me.  I think my exact quote was “Uhm, what did we get ourselves into?”.

It’s a good thing we decided to walk around the complex because tucked back behind the cattle roping arena was a maze of booths filled with tchotchkes, edibles, furniture and vintage finds.  To be honest, it was a bit overloaded with “shabby chic” goods.  Definitely not my favorite look, but it’s wildly popular these days and is to be expected in a rural area at a rodeo complex, right?  In any case, there were lots of oddities and awesome finds, and I snapped some phone pics to prove it to ya!

There were lots of vintage books:

A bunch of strange and fun kitsch…

Like this group of wedding cake toppers:

And this rusted trike:

We saw hand made decor, toys and household items…

Like this sign:

Raggedy Ann (a childhood favorite of mine):

Teacup pincushions:

Letter stamped cheese knives:

And an old stamp set:

Lots of pendant lights…

Like this leafy one:

And this slice of fried gold.  Look at how sexy he is:

It took every ounce of self control I possess not to take that guy home with me, but since I don’t have my landlord’s permission to change out any of our light fixtures, I just couldn’t justify the purchase.  So depressing.

Of course there was tons of vintage decor…

Like these wicker bowls with brass rims:

A box of old light bulbs:

Antique keyhole covers:

Trinket trays:

And this precious little brass clock:

There were lots of interesting pieces of furniture.

I was particularly taken by this punched tin pie safe:

And this sewing chair:

Which doubled as sewing storage:

My mom fell in love with a wine table.  It has a cubby to store 9 wine bottles, a drawer and a removable serving tray.  After a bit of negotiation it was hers, and she was happy to pose for me with her new piece.

My favorite part of going to events like this is seeing old and sometimes obscure objects…

Like this typewriter:

This salon hairdryer:

These guys (they looked like three foot long orange whisks?):

And possibly my favorite little corner of the whole market was this antique egg incubator, on top of which sat an old Poloroid camera and a butter churn.  Such an odd and interesting grouping.

All in all it was loads of fun, and totally worth the two hour round trip.  I ended up purchasing three things.

Number One.  This Foreigner Record for $1. Because duh.

Number two.  An 8oz sample of chalk paint from Oh Lola Vintage Paint Co in Antique Egg Blue.  Which I am super excited to try.  I’ve never used chalk paint and have always been curious about it.  I think I know what I’m going to paint with it, so stay tuned for my review!

Number three is a secret for now, but I’ll be back really soon with a post about it.  I’ll give you a hint, I mentioned it in this post!  Any guesses as to what it is?  Did anyone else out there visit Fort Worth Vintage Market Days or a similar event recently?  Do tell…