Headed to Brimfield Again

I've gone to the Brimfield Antique Show every year since I discovered it in 2009. One of the largest outdoor antique shows in the world, it is just about an hour and a half away, west of Boston. They hold it three times a year and I was starting to panic that I wasn't going to make it this year:( In May I was too pregnant, and in July it was too hot and Ian was too little. But, its on again this week and gosh darnit, I'm doing it!!! My friend (whose son is one of Maura's best friends and who just had her second baby, a little girl, a month ago) and I both found sitters for our toddlers and we're going to brave the drive and the full day of shopping with the newborns in tow on Friday. Its going to be awesome!!! Can't wait. So if you're headed there and are sitting in traffic on your way in and pass a mini van with 2 moms downing Dunkin Donuts with 2 screaming infants in the back and 2 strollers in the trunk, that's us:)

To get even more excited, I'm looking back at all the stuff I've found at the show in the past.  Love how it (hopefully) adds that collected look to our house. I always try to come home with some kind of ephemera or print:

{hand-colored lithographs of German flowers from the 19th century that were in Maura's nursery and now hang in her big girl room}

{a map of the US that was used in a 1950s German classroom}

{fish engravings from the 1800s that hang in our foyer}

{page from an 1898 atlas of Dublin, Ireland where my mother-in-law is from...now framed on our mantel}

Brimfield is always a good source for cool, old "containers" like these baskets and glass jars. I think this time I'm going to try to get some vintage wooden crates.

{old school locker wire basket that now holds magazines and catalogs next to my bed}

{Huge wire basket from an old slipper factory in NY. It now holds stuffed animals in Maura's big girl room.}

{old glass apothecary bottles}

{HUGE glass jug from a winemaker in 1920s France...currently sits next to our sofa in the living room}

The show is a great place to find random objects that you can use in vignettes, as mantel decor, bookcase filler, etc. Like these:

{wood vice from the early 1900s on an estate in Pennsylvania}

{letterpress wood blocks now in Ian's nursery...photo courtesy of Sweet Connolly Photography}

{more letterpress printing blocks making the rounds}

As usual, I'll also be on the lookout for the rare #13 Blue ball Mason jars (most were smashed during prohibition because they were used to smuggle whiskey and were thought to be "unlucky"!)...my collection is now up to 3:)

Is anyone else headed to Brimfield this week? Or have you been at all? What do you always have an eye out for when you shop antiques, thrift stores, flea markets, yard sales?