Antiquing Adventure: Journey to St. Paul

Several weeks back amidst the chaos of moving I had an antiquing adventure with my sister-in-law Desiree and cousin Ellen.  We traveled to the antique malls of South Saint Paul and hit up a couple of shops with much success!

On this trip, as I often do while shopping, I used the picture taking method to decide what I should buy.  This consists of taking pictures of all the things that I possibly want and reviewing them at the end of the trip through the store to determine the item I want most and what fits in the budget.  It allows me to reduce buyer’s remorse and impulsivity by giving me time to think about where I would put each item and what its purpose would be.   I would show you my cell phone pics from this trip, BUT I am too cheap to get internet on my cell phone so you will just have to imagine all the wondrous treasures I found.   

At the end of the trip I had pictures of vintage yellow license plates with black letters, an antique fan with a turquoise base, a pre-prohibition Schmidt beer crate, a wire basket, and a white street sign with black lettering.  And the winner was…….

The wire basket!  I have been lusting after one of these babies for awhile now and have been hard pressed to find a wire basket that isn’t sectioned off as a milk crate.  The license plates are pretty common so I passed on those and the Schmidt beer crate was just a window shopping lust and out of my price range at $100.   The street sign idea was awesome, but this particular one had too much white space between the words, and the fan was good but not as stellar as other ones I have seen.   

I love the rustic touches of actual rust on this basket.  I initially thought this may be a basket for an old bike, but I really have no idea.  The lady at the antique store wasn’t much help for filling me in on the possible uses or dates, so I guess it will just be a mystery. 

It has several breaks in the wire, so I asked the nice lady at the counter for a discount.  She told me that the basket would already be discounted 15% due to a sale so I wouldn’t be able to get any more off.  That brought the total down to $16.00 so….I took it!  I think the breaks add character to the basket, but if I ever feel the desire I can have the hubby go solder it together. 

I am thinking this piece will be a great place to store my magazines!

And to top the whole day of shopping off, my sister-in-law Desiree gave me a monogrammed coffee sleeve she crotched.  After seeing this, I think I need to add crocheting to the list of crafts I am attempting!