Amethyst Bottle Day at Brimfield
May. 13th, 2007 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gerisullivanJack's and my original plan didn't include a Saturday trip to Brimfield. We thought we were amply full up with Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday visits to the fields. But after only scratching the surface on Tuesday and Thursday, we added Saturday to our schedule.
We started with the J&J Productions field. It was open Friday and Saturday only, and we really enjoyed J&J's when we first visited it in September 2005.
We thought we'd do J&J's, New England Motel, and the Brimfield Barn, too. Either the Barn, or Heart-o-the-Mart. We've done that much on previous Brimfield outings. Today, we never got out of J&J's.
It was a glorious day -- the best of the week so far. The front that brought yesterday's deluge also brought welcome, cooler temperatures. Brimfield in the low 70s is immensely more fun that Brimfield in the high 80s. J&J's field added to our enjoyment -- the booths and aisles are spacious, and merchandise is uniformly displayed in an attractive manner. The field layout was a bit odd -- in some parts, the rows seemed to be arranged in nested "L"s and I overheard a few conversations about how the layout was different this year. But it was just plain a pleasant place to be. Since it was their last day, dealers were good about lowering their prices, too. A $38 vase quickly followed me home as soon as the price dropped to $30 -- and unlike most of the carnival glass at Brimfield, the jack-in-the-pulpit style, marigold Morning Glory vase was reasonably priced at $38. They normally go for $35-50.
I don't remember seeing a single Leaf Ray nappy, which is sufficient reason to return to J&J's in the future. Today's curiosity was a proliferation of amethyst bottles. Five of them followed me home, each one a different shape. They joined the deep purple glass bottle from my Mom's that took up residence on my kitchen window sill shortly before last Mother's Day. Other kipple got cleared away from the window sill in the process, and the whole thing now looks intentionally set up to be visually interesting rather than simply a catch-all space for various bits of kipple. That's a win.
With one notable exception, all of my day's purchases were glass: the Carnival glass vase; a clear, rectangular, refrigerator dish with a vegetable design pressed into the cover; a heart-shaped Candlewick dish; and a bright, cheery prezzie for a friend. Jack picked up a Carnival Glass bonbon dish and a pair of candlesticks; I think that may have been the extent of his expenditures du jour.
Even after spending 4.5 hours at J&J's, we missed at least one full row of booths, including one with nothing but teapots. I was looking for a teapot, though I'm clearly not desperate for the multi-person pot I had in mind since I kept driving after Jack and I noticed the booth was there.
Driving? Yes -- we'd driven onto the field to pick up the notable exception to my glass purchases -- a wagon seat bench I found for the mudroom hall. The teapot dealer noticed our interest and encouraged us to pull over and shop, but I kept driving. The notion of driving up to a booth to shop there was alien to me. Pick up an already-purchased item too large to hand-carry away? Sure. But shopping? Too weird.
I think I may have hit my daily limit of bringing home stuff I needed to find space for, too. I was pretty sure the bench would fit, and am delighted by how much better the mudroom looks thanks to Brimfield finds this spring. The space is not only more attractive, it's also significantly more functional. The monkey gave his immediate approval -- the marionette went from hanging from the coat peg it's been on for the last year to a comfy seat at the end of the new bench. Good stuff.
All of the glass that followed me home is now washed and I even managed to find places for all of it. Even the prezzie is sitting next to the prezzie basket in anticipation of the next time I see the friend in question. I don't know if that makes it more or less safe to return to Brimfield for the final day of the May show. To my credit, I left lots of small, attractive items in my price range on vendors' shelves today. To my risk, discounts are likely to be even bigger tomorrow. I still haven't found a use for the enameled bedpan I picked up for free on Sunday of Brimfield two years ago. When it came time to pack up, one booth that had lowered everything to $1 a few hours earlier started calling out, inviting people to come and take whatever they wanted for free. They even provided boxes to haul the junk away. It was one of the more "flea market" style booths to start with, but I certainly didn't object to picking up everyday drinking glasses I liked for free. But just because stuff is free isn't reason enough to haul it home. I still need a place for it, and to derive treasure, comfort, and/or joy from it. Otherwise it's just burden, and life already has plenty of that!
We started with the J&J Productions field. It was open Friday and Saturday only, and we really enjoyed J&J's when we first visited it in September 2005.
We thought we'd do J&J's, New England Motel, and the Brimfield Barn, too. Either the Barn, or Heart-o-the-Mart. We've done that much on previous Brimfield outings. Today, we never got out of J&J's.
It was a glorious day -- the best of the week so far. The front that brought yesterday's deluge also brought welcome, cooler temperatures. Brimfield in the low 70s is immensely more fun that Brimfield in the high 80s. J&J's field added to our enjoyment -- the booths and aisles are spacious, and merchandise is uniformly displayed in an attractive manner. The field layout was a bit odd -- in some parts, the rows seemed to be arranged in nested "L"s and I overheard a few conversations about how the layout was different this year. But it was just plain a pleasant place to be. Since it was their last day, dealers were good about lowering their prices, too. A $38 vase quickly followed me home as soon as the price dropped to $30 -- and unlike most of the carnival glass at Brimfield, the jack-in-the-pulpit style, marigold Morning Glory vase was reasonably priced at $38. They normally go for $35-50.
I don't remember seeing a single Leaf Ray nappy, which is sufficient reason to return to J&J's in the future. Today's curiosity was a proliferation of amethyst bottles. Five of them followed me home, each one a different shape. They joined the deep purple glass bottle from my Mom's that took up residence on my kitchen window sill shortly before last Mother's Day. Other kipple got cleared away from the window sill in the process, and the whole thing now looks intentionally set up to be visually interesting rather than simply a catch-all space for various bits of kipple. That's a win.
With one notable exception, all of my day's purchases were glass: the Carnival glass vase; a clear, rectangular, refrigerator dish with a vegetable design pressed into the cover; a heart-shaped Candlewick dish; and a bright, cheery prezzie for a friend. Jack picked up a Carnival Glass bonbon dish and a pair of candlesticks; I think that may have been the extent of his expenditures du jour.
Even after spending 4.5 hours at J&J's, we missed at least one full row of booths, including one with nothing but teapots. I was looking for a teapot, though I'm clearly not desperate for the multi-person pot I had in mind since I kept driving after Jack and I noticed the booth was there.
Driving? Yes -- we'd driven onto the field to pick up the notable exception to my glass purchases -- a wagon seat bench I found for the mudroom hall. The teapot dealer noticed our interest and encouraged us to pull over and shop, but I kept driving. The notion of driving up to a booth to shop there was alien to me. Pick up an already-purchased item too large to hand-carry away? Sure. But shopping? Too weird.
I think I may have hit my daily limit of bringing home stuff I needed to find space for, too. I was pretty sure the bench would fit, and am delighted by how much better the mudroom looks thanks to Brimfield finds this spring. The space is not only more attractive, it's also significantly more functional. The monkey gave his immediate approval -- the marionette went from hanging from the coat peg it's been on for the last year to a comfy seat at the end of the new bench. Good stuff.
All of the glass that followed me home is now washed and I even managed to find places for all of it. Even the prezzie is sitting next to the prezzie basket in anticipation of the next time I see the friend in question. I don't know if that makes it more or less safe to return to Brimfield for the final day of the May show. To my credit, I left lots of small, attractive items in my price range on vendors' shelves today. To my risk, discounts are likely to be even bigger tomorrow. I still haven't found a use for the enameled bedpan I picked up for free on Sunday of Brimfield two years ago. When it came time to pack up, one booth that had lowered everything to $1 a few hours earlier started calling out, inviting people to come and take whatever they wanted for free. They even provided boxes to haul the junk away. It was one of the more "flea market" style booths to start with, but I certainly didn't object to picking up everyday drinking glasses I liked for free. But just because stuff is free isn't reason enough to haul it home. I still need a place for it, and to derive treasure, comfort, and/or joy from it. Otherwise it's just burden, and life already has plenty of that!
