April’s Flea Market Finds

There’s a great flea market in Nashville, held once a month at the fairgrounds.  People come from all over to attend, and I highly recommend it if you live close enough for a day trip.  This month’s promised to be a good one, with most of the vendors back after the slower winter months.  However, it was absolutely pouring last weekend, and so many of the booths are outside and in open-sided barns, that I almost didn’t go.  But, my daughter and her friend were dying to check it out, so we put on our rain boots and coats and gathered our umbrellas to brave the elements.

The little girls scored some amazing (to them) things:  3 packs of gum for $1, new styluses (is stylae the Latin plural?) for their iPod Touches, homemade lipgloss, and more.  The entire time they were checking out these treasures, though, I was itching to get outside to Antique Alley.  When they finally let me go outside, here’s what I found:

~a white enamelware tray for $5

~an old wooden sugar mold for $15

~a huge, gorgeous wooden dough bowl (score!  I’ve been looking for one for ages, and the price was right on this big girl!  I paid $115, but have seen others this large–over 48″ long–for $300 and up)

~fresh basil for my neighbor, and fresh thyme for me (2 for $5)

~an old wooden pear crate ($8)

In hindsight, I’m so glad we went in the rain.  All the vendors were there, and the crowds were pretty thin.  That also made the deals much better!

I worked the sugar mold into my decor first.  The kids and I learned about these as part of our homeschool studies…they used to pour hot, liquid sugar into these wooden molds to make cones of sugar.  Then, it was chipped off as needed.  Sugar was an absolute luxury item back then, and the cones were often guarded by the lady of the house (or the housekeeper in more well-off homes), and kept in locked pantries.

This one is nice and old…lots of worm holes in the wood.  My husband died laughing when I told him that worm holes are a desirable touch in antique wood pieces.

I wanted to put votive candles in the mold holes, but I didn’t want dripping wax to damage it.  I’ve seen places online that sell metal inserts for the holes, but those are the same stores that sell reproduction sugar molds for a couple of hundred dollars, so I figured I could do it less expensively.  Enter the tea light candle holders I bought at Ikea last year:

Easy!  Then I tried my new candle holder in a few places to see where I liked it best:

On the piano…

On the dining room table…

On the open shelving in the dining room (I really liked them here but didn’t want to get carbon on the top shelf)…

Finally, I put it on the hall table, and there it will stay (for now)…

I put the enamelware tray in my pantry so I can use it when I need a cute serving tray.  Most of the time trays get worked into my decor and wind up with books stacked on them, or something similar, and then I don’t have an empty one when I need to serve drinks or snacks.  So this one will be put to use in the “normal” way!

The wooden pear crate is holding books next to my son’s bed.  He usually has a pile on the floor that he’s in the middle of reading.  This is my attempt to corral that mess!

I planted the thyme plants in these cute, narrow flower pots I grabbed at Goodwill one day.  Thyme is such a pretty plant, and obviously it’s nice to have fresh for cooking.  These are sitting on my screened porch right now, but I think they’ll move to my kitchen windowsill soon.

And my gorgeous dough bowl is currently on top of the armoire in my bedroom, but I have other plans for her eventually.  I think she’ll wind up on top of the dining room table, or the buffet, full of dried hydrangeas.

Only one more flea market for me in Nashville, and then I get to see what Savannah has to offer.  I’m guessing they’ll have some amazing things, too!

Thanks for stopping by!