Antique Exhaustion

My checkbook and gas tank are both empty after this weekend. Saturday was a trip up to Anamosa to Gatherings, which always makes my heart beat faster. The Christmas displays are so beautiful and I could have just gone home with the whole store! On the way, we detoured through Stone City, where Grant Wood had a studio when he lived in Iowa. The photos are of a few spots there and a bit of the Iowa country side.

Today, I wore myself out at the Collector's Eye show in Cedar Rapids. It was primitive overload, I saw so many things I'd never seen before, but forgot to take the camera. One booth had little 4" round bread boards and a tiny little egg basket and eensiest butter stamps, all so early, so wonderful and SOOOO expensive. I sighed over the early textile booth with 1800s baby dresses of blue and red calico, all about 300 to 400 dollars each. I was able to shop well though, Polly Ann's had saved a box of tins and bowls and brooms for me, Colleen had wonders as always, and I spent a fortune at Country Love and another booth from Kewanee. It will take me a month to get everything cleaned and photographed and listed.