The Two Donnas

There's a tiny little town just west of Dodgeville. Last census has the total inhabitants at 173. There's really not much to it- sort of the place if you blink, you might drive past it. Lucky for me, I didn't blink as I was driving through on my way to Prairie du Chien. I stumbled upon the most wonderful junk shop- called the Two Donnas. I'm actually not sure if that is really still the name. The wonderland of thrift is now owned by two men from Madison. who periodically open their doors to peddle their curiosities and vintage items.

This shop has a flea market, yard sale vibe. We some super cheap prices to boot. The kind of shop that might be featured in Mary Randolph Carter's book American Junk. Carter's book, is an fantastic survey of year's of collecting. She's been doing the "shabby chic" and "flea market decorating" long before it was mainstream and cool. This is one of my favorite books about collecting.

The Two Donnas are only open every third week of the month. Or on the off occasion, the "guys" feel like trekking 50 minute out of the capital.


No matter, I'll be there next time they open their doors, I had great fun digging through it all, spent $13 and came home with a bounty of "stuff" to make more art with.

Heaven.

Brimfield treasures

 Here's some of the goodies I found last week at Brimfield. I've already started using quite a few elements in the latest shrine that I started to build.
It goes along with my bird houses only on a much larger, grander scale. I won't say much, except: just wait till you see it!

Brimfield - July 2010

Jim and I did not let the humidity or the heat get to us this week when we went south to Brimfield, MA to shop the antique market.  It was the first time I had been to Brimfield in about 7 years.  We had such a great time, we are talking about going down again in September.

Everything went very smoothly, we got a great deal on a room, not to far from the event on a little lake, where we dined outside on the screen porch and shared our onion rings with the crew of Antiques Warriors.  

The second night we had dinner at a fantastic Viennese restaurant, the Vienna Inn. The entire meal was amazing, but I really enjoyed sitting out on the front porch sharing a desert by candle light.

If you have never been to Brimfield, it is an experience. One solid mile of antique flea market, set up in individual fields. Your senses can be overwhelmed by the people, the stuff and the smell of fried food that comes wafting over the tents.

I am a little bit of a haggler. I know from going to enough estate auctions and flea markets, that every thing is negotiable.  And I am a digger, and love going through piles of junk to find that perfect, beautiful little thing. 

I came home with a ton of great finds to use in my art, some new contacts, tons of inspiration and a little cash left in my pockets. What more can you ask for??

treasure hunt

One of the BEST things about the summer is treasure hunting. Looking for goodies to use in my art: Old paper, rusty things, stuff to harvest for parts. One never knows what one will find, another man's trash is another man's treasure and I never pass by a "free" pile without the obligatory dig.

Usually, I have at least one kid in tow, a picnic lunch packed and good tunes in the car. If i am lucky I find an estate sale, church rummage sale or neighborhood yard sales those are almost always the best for underrated junk at super low prices. I steer away from the burbs, where people don't know how to price things for yards sales and want $10 for an old Bee Gees LP. When there's nothing to be found yard saling there is always the waterbury flea market, open saturdays and sunday through out the summer. Jackson and I did some treasure hunting on Saturday and I have been delayed in posting our finds. We spent all of $10 that day, and I think we even got creamies. How about that for a cheap date.