1st Annual Junk Jubilee

While in Iowa visiting our son, Parker, Vaughn and I made plans to attend the 1st Annual Junk Jubilee in Des Moines. Plenty of one dollar bills, my travel purse so as not to tire too easily lugging around that big bag I normally carry, camera so I could blog about the experience...all those things were in check.

But we didn't plan for Vaughn to get sick. And for him to have to stay in the hotel all day with a fever and chills and the whole 9-yards.

He insisted we go on, Parker and me. He wanted us to enjoy our day.

Although we would have given anything for him to go with us, we sped off reluctantly traveled to Des Moines around 7:30 a.m. Saturday.

Even a random sign near the parking lot thrilled me!

I was totally pumped for this show. I originally heard about it from a blog I follow. It sounded great, so we made plans to visit Parker the same weekend it was being held. Later I found Junk Jubilee on Facebook and "liked" it. Then checked it once in awhile stalked it to see photos and comments left by participants in order to prepare myself for the junk I'd be seeing.

I anticipated buying new jewelry, gaudy jewelry, actually. I was hoping to find a charm bracelet adorned with vintage Crackerjack toys. Pins, earrings, necklaces.

I've been searching for a big, obnoxious, vintage sign for above my living room windows. With a quirky message, of course. So that was on my list of "Things I Want Real Bad." 

In my imaginings, the whole back of the Jeep would be full of my junkin' treasures upon arrival back home in Oklahoma.

I was sure to find idea after idea after idea. I mean, that's a given when attending a junk show like this one. Ways to decorate with the things I have. New things to start collecting at garage sales and thrift stores. I planned to eyeball the quite-often-adorable vendors and customers, people who love junk like me, and adapt some of their fashion to mine.

We walked in the 4-H Building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds around 9:00 a.m., opening time. Talk about junk overload. It was all my expectations and more.
 

As I'm posing for this picture I'm thinking...C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, LET'S JUNK!

Parker's into junk too, especially office supplies these days. Ha.

IDEA: Dictionary page with stenciled design. So neat-looking.

The button on her shirt says, "It's a junk thing you wouldn't understand."

We loved the IDEA of using a folded tape measure to display photos.

 Another great IDEA: Numbers and buckets are happy together.

This giant #1 begged for our attention. IDEA: Buy all things number.

Whew. What a great experience. Time with Parker, knee-deep in junk, loving every minute.

Next blog: photos of the things I got.