Our trip to the County Living Fair in Columbus, Ohio was a dream~come~true for me! I had my husband all to myself and a weekend full of antiquing and shopping!
We left early Thursday morning and stopped at all the little towns between home and Columbus. We stopped at a few small antique stores. They were lovely and inviting but the ones that really had my heart going were the BIG antique malls! We don't have anything like that in our area so it was a real treat for me!
First we stopped at the
Medina Antique Mall. Honestly when I saw it from the outside it didn't look like much. But walking in the door I was pleasantly surprised! It was gorgeous! Tons and tons of all sorts of antiques. So many lovely vintage vanity items. A lot of high end antiques too.
I love things still in the original packaging and this old store Fairy Soap display just tickled me!
It's amazing that all the soaps are still there, unsold.
How about this Jergens Gift of Beauty? Wouldn't you just have loved to open this gift on Christmas morning?
I learned a BIG lesson this day in Medina ~ No high heals while antiquing in malls! Cuz when they say "big antique mall" they ain't kiddin'! But despite my throbbing feet we had a great time. Not too many linens in this mall, but I found enough other goodies to keep me happy.
The next day was the Country Living Fair. After we finished shopping there, we headed over to
Heritage Square Antique Mall. This was close to our hotel and they were open a little later then most of the shops which was nice. This was another big antique mall, but it had a lot of homey items which I love. Lots of linens, tea sets, kitchen items. There was a lot of WWII memorabilia. My husband really enjoyed that. (They also had two display cases of KKK items. Just down right creepy and in my opinion, shouldn't be sold. That's something for a museum.)
All and all, I just LOVED this mall! The prices were reasonable and the displays very sweet!
This was all one booth. The vendor did a wonderful job displaying her kitchen items by color.
You know the pink was my favorite!
The blue and the turquoise was so charming as well.
She even managed to make that old 1960's avocado green look wonderful!
The black, red, and white was very striking.
A nice display of Post 86 Fiestaware. My husband was in Fiesta Heaven!
A few beautiful shabby chic booths too.
I managed to leave this mall with three big boxes of goodies!
The next day we were planning on taking a quick trip to
The Heart of Ohio Antique Center. There were two seminars at the Country Living Fair I wanted to attend and they were in the afternoon. So I figured I had enough time to breeze though this mall. Well....they don't call it "America's Biggest and Best" for nothing! This place was HUGE! 116,000 square feet! I didn't even try to take pictures here. Not too many linens to be had. I did get a 1965 Worlds Fair tablecloth still in the bag.
And this bridal bouquet vintage tablecloth. It's it gorgeous?
I did some Christmas shopping here too. It was really something to see. A beautiful lounge for those who don't like to antique for long...a huge area with reference books and display supplies, and a little snack bar with home made pie.
The one thing I remember the most about HoO is the Fenton. I've never seen so much Fenton in one place before! Not even when we visited the Fenton Factory Store! If you are a Fenton collector, this place is for you.
It took us about 4 hours to go through the entire mall. And we went at a quick pace! I was exhausted after this and we didn't make it back in time for the Country Living seminars.
I highly recommend all three of these malls. Maybe I'm easily impressed as we only have little shops in our area. But to see so much and such a variety in one place is amazing! The down side is most items are in cases and you have to wait for an attendant to open it to let you look. But we were able to see things we've never seen in person before.
Well that's it for a our little trip! We had a fabulous time and I look forward do doing it again!
