Hope You All Had As Epic A Long Weekend As I Did! Memorial Day Monday? Gypsy Caravan! Status: Sunny And Warm!

The Gypsy Caravan is a once a year flea market that sets up on the University of Missouri St. Louis Campus. It's fenced off and a $10 entrance fee ($20 early bird) is collected for the St. Louis Symphony. It's like a donation...I guess. The key is to buy enough stuff so that the $10 seems inconsequential! Mission accomplished.

So, wanna take a little stroll through with the Mr.? I only bought three items (well, 6 if you count  

each individual item) but totally filled the wagon (Tinkerbell, not Frank...he was chock full of

china cabinet that I picked up Sunday!). There wasn't a TON of vintage modern but as with most

of our flea markets, look hard enough and you'll find it!

There were lots of weird items to see like the small coffin complete with tiny skeleton as well as

crazy things like an Ice Cream Fire Truck (little kid's heads were exploding with excitement. Fire

Truck AND Ice Cream Truck...In One!?!?). Of course, it's the midwest...so there's gonna be a

gun vendor.

There was a vendor set up today selling very nicely re-painted "up-cycled" vintage

style furnishings. It's by Leslie Sumner who gave me a card with a web address of

www.lovetoloveit.com but there's no such web address! ::shrugg:: Cool stuff. I'm a big

fan of this type of re-thinking of other types of vintage furniture. I could never stand to do

this to a proper vintage modern dresser...but this French Provincial type stuff...looks better

painted up like this to me sometimes! Gives it a great eclectic mod quality.

The cool looking retro table up top had sliding panels with patterned insets. I tried to get a picture

of the patterned inset but it got washed out! You can just make out the $50 price tag though. Cool

table. Hard to spot under all that other stuff. I loved the three pendant lamps. Loved them so much

I brought them home! They'll probably end up at the Green Shag Parking Lot Sale as merchandise

and if they don't sell I might use them as lighting IN the Booth that I'm opening inside the same

weekend.

Can you guess which of these fine seating options I stuffed into the back of Tinkerbell and brought

home with me?  All fine examples of design and comfort I'm sure, but only one had the elusive

combination of style, condition, comfort and PRICE!  I asked the vendor very off-handedly what

he wanted for it expecting to have to just nod, give a thoughtful facial expression and say "Thanks

anyway"...but they surprised me with a lowball asking price! THEN, as I mulled over ever so

briefly how to get it back to the car and if it would fit in the back with the other items, the vendor  

Lowered the asking...and before I could stop him, Lowered it again!  I had to stop him before

he had to pay me to take it out of there!  But which one is it?  Hmmm.

Yes, there were some real bargains to be had...and there were some "not so much".  The Lane

Acclaim set (with hard to find swing out coffee table) was rough but serviceable and ripe for

refinishing...I bet the new owner paid a pretty penny for it too.  If you enlarge the pic of the

fiberglass chairs you can just make out the price tag which says $600.  Ouch.  The mod white

ashtray stand was $30 I think.  Pretty good, right?  Of course, everything is negotiable and more

so as the day wears on!

I just love retro bars like the one in the top pic. Almost as much as I love disco balls. See the

lady checking out the nightstands? She was asking about purchasing them no more than 30

seconds after I had paid for them! Whew! Timing is everything! The seller told me that he had

about 4 other people try to buy them after me! Sorry folks...Sold! They took a fair amount of

elbow grease to pretty them up today though.

You know...Nick(Armadillo - Mid-century Midwest) texted me about 12:30pm telling me he was

at the Gypsy Caravan. I texted him back saying that I had already gotten all the good stuff! But

now that I look back, there was still plenty to be had. I actually STOPPED LOOKING when I

realized I wouldn't be able to fit any more large items in the car! He told me he was thinking about

setting up a Tiki bar in his basement, that top pic of a corner table would fit right in!  He might

have passed on the Owls Lamp (are Owls coming back?...I thing they might be!) but I bet he

picked up the pair of vintage lamps with the two tiered shades.  They were $70 and I really don't

know why I didn't buy them.  The covered bowl, or compote, or whatever, was really pretty.  It

was bright yellow inside, but it had a few light scratches on the outside and I couldn't really find a

reason to bring it home.  Sometimes a picture is enough.  Hope you all enjoyed our little roundup

of the Gypsy Caravan.  I know...it's no Brimfield, but the prices - even though they might still be

higher than our other full time flea markets - are probably so much more reasonable.  My only

complaint for the day?  There seems to be a growing contingent of "sock vendors" (anybody

hawking new items - like socks, purses, makeup, sunglasses) at the sale and less "vintage"

dealers.  This is a bad bad thing.  I hope the powers that be rectify this in the future.  If it

continues, it may get to a point where it's just not worth going anymore.