Country Living and Junk Salvation Shows

It is Country Living weekend in the ATX! Sunny skies, a warm breeze, dusty roads, beautiful displays, and loads of shoppers pulling rusty carts signified the fun had begun! I saw so much eye candy today and took over 100 pictures in the few minutes that I had my camera in hand. I will use just the best tonight to give you yet even more reasons to get to Austin for the amazing Country Living Fair.  

I am the self-proclaimed protege of Karen from Vintage Designs out of Marble Falls/Burnet, TX. She has the BEST booth in all of Country Living! Not that I am biased at all since I am spending the weekend helping her, but even in my quick run through the arena, her talent just shines and shoppers are drawn to her space. I  got to the Country Living Fair just before 3 today and the place was swarming. I met Karen's crew and they said that the crowd at that point in the afternoon couldn't even compare to the madness that had occurred earlier in the day. Even the show manager told me that Karen had a line of nearly 15 deep in the morning. 

 I had a bird's eye view of the space from the stadium seats. Notice the awesome chicken feeder lights hanging - a few years ago, any decor with chickens was all the rage; now, repurposed accessories used in chicken 'farming' are hot - feeders, waterers, nesters, etc.

The shoppers were so generous with their compliments of Karen's booth and at times they would say to me what a great booth I have...ha! I wish I could take credit for this creatively gorgeous scene. But I sure enjoyed talking with the customers and was shocked by how many are visiting Austin from out West - the shoppers I talked with were from Utah, Idaho, Washington, and Montana! Seriously, multiple ladies were from Montana. I love that they travel for something as fun as this. Andrew asked if I would ever travel to attend this show - heck yes! Looks like our next vacation will be in Columbus or Atlanta!

I had such a great afternoon working with Karen, her husband Brent, her friend Cheryie (owner of Finds in Burnet), her sister Mary, and her niece Nancy. I think I just barely got my feet wet (but tired) when the show ended for the evening. I am excited to see what kind of crowd the weekend brings!

 Approaching the Arena

 Inside the arena

 More of Karen's space..

She will be bringing more stock tomorrow to fill all the gaps from everything that sold today!

On my way to the Travis County Expo Center, I took a little detour to hit up the Funky Junk Sister's Junk Salvation show at the J. Lorraine Ghost Town just east of Manor. It was awesome! How could a vintage/antique/junk show at a ghost town NOT be awesome?! I geeked out a bit at the entrance gate when I realized the ladies selling the tickets were THE Dixie and Linda from Junk Salvation. In addition to seeing the hostesses of the event, I met some other great vendors and really enjoyed viewing wonderful merchandise displayed against a primitive backdrop reminiscent of an old Western movie set. I will do a more thorough post later with even more pictures, but I will leave you with some snapshots to give you a taste of the treasures to be found there again tomorrow.

Shopper down!

I ran out of time to credit all of the vendors whose displays I featured, but I will give them shout outs and links in the next post. I gotta hit the hay to rest up for another fun-filled day!

May your path lead to the east side tomorrow - the east side of Austin that is. These shows are within just about 10 miles of one another, so it is worth the trip. Hope to see you at the fair!