Flea Market: Sparks, Kansas….Population 7

My coworker handed me this newspaper article and said I would like to read it. Oh yeah!! It was an article of this town, going from population 7 to (on Memorial Day and Labor Day) to 70,000 people(over the course of the weekend). It said a ton of dealers go to stock their booths. I was so excited. I worked the entire Labor Day Weekend but, the booths opened on Thursday so I was planning on going opening day while the kids were in school. I was talking to Ruth the day before (Wed) at work and she asked if she could come too. I warned her I was talking a 15 month old with me but, I was thrilled if she wanted to come too!

I had to take a picture of one of the same buildings (one of very few) as in the newspaper article. This is probably the only picture that didn’t have Ruth in it. It’s almost like Where’s Waldo….only it should be Where’s Ruth?

There’s Ruth coming out of the Sheep Shed. This booth had all Primitives, Country Items.

This was a swimming/Locker Shelf but, it only had three of the original baskets. Sad…there wasn’t a complete set!

Can you find Ruth in all the stuff? Ha Ha…okay…I’ll quit pointing it out! It was so much fun! We laughed the whole day and found great deals!

Look at this ingenuity! A phone that is made into a lamp…seriously cute!

Brooklyn was such a great kiddo all day! She was happy even though it was SUPER hot! (Can you tell she loves to wave at the camera) I was impressed with how well behaved she was because it was so hot. Ruth and I had both brought a water bottle but, by the end of the day we had each bought at least three more waters! Man, it was hot (but, apparently the next two days it was pouring rain so we definitely went the best day of the weekend!)

I bought a chair to go with my farm table at this booth for a whopping $4. I LOVED the prices! This lady was the nicest booth owner.

By the time we left Sparks…the stroller was hanging with both of our bags. You can even see the child’s chair that we used to hold other bags. Brooklyn is in the stroller! (just in case you were wondering) This was where we parked…WAY DOWN THE COUNTRY ROAD! My GPS showed sparks as the little triangular piece of grass where two country roads converged…and it was pretty accurate! Once we got loaded up in the truck and sat in the A/C for a while(it was SO hot), we decided to be adventurous and go to White Cloud (a small town up the road that does the same thing as Sparks) We stopped at a few Barns along the country road that had signs saying they were having a flea market and we went wherever the wind blew! (or the floating island moved!….sorry inside joke, Had to be there!)

A lot of the booths were getting ready to close in White Cloud. With it being SO blasted hot, a lot of the people had gone home so the booths were closing and getting ready for the BIG day tomorrow and the weekend (I don’t think they could have fathomed that it would be pouring rain for the next few days…sad). I was walking on one side of the center isle in a booth and Ruth walked down the other. She quickly summoned me to the other side. There was a printer’s cabinet that needed a new top (that’s why I didn’t see it from the other side, it was a piece of paneling but the rest is original). I asked the booth’s owner about this piece and he said his mother-in-law had taken this out of print shop before it was torn down 25+ years ago and it had sat in her barn protected. It was waiting for me!! If you all know(or maybe you don’t)…I built a cupboard just for printer’s drawers to hold all my scrapbook items. You can view it Here or Here.

So, do you all want to know what I did….I walked away….felt like I would be cheating on my one I made! (I know, I know….you are all screaming at the screen right now but, that’s how I felt)

We walked back down main street and to the car. Let’s just say…talking to her the whole way back to the car about the cabinet. Ruth talked me into it! See, I went with the girl with smarts….had a level head…and knew that I would be sorry if I left it there. It’s a once-in-a-long time find! Plus the guys had already told me if I came back the next day that they wouldn’t give me the killer deal that I had talked them down to. They were really honest and said that it would be about double the price because all the dealers would be there.

We DROVE back up Main Street to the booth (it was HOT people!) and bought the cabinet! Thank goodness the men from the booth helped me load it, it’s heavy! ( I glad that I have my rainy day fund from all the stuff I sold at our garage sale before we moved because moving here where the antique’s are, I know I will find AWESOME stuff!)  I got a killer deal because it only cost me $125. Which is about $10 a drawer! Really!! Seriously!! I bought the ones for my cabinet at a steal for $35(I think) in Utah(granted, they are harder to find in Utah)

So, what other stuff did I find? CAMERA’S….I LOVE photography and have wanted to have some vintage camera’s for display. I found them at a booth under a table on a piece of cardboard. I asked them how much and they were asking $8 a piece. I asked if they would take $5. They said, “sure!” So, I bought my favorites! Cute huh?

I also bought door plates (project coming…once I find a few more for another killer price) a Tin soap container($5 bought for a wedding gift/shower gift to give with towels but, I don’t know if I can part with it, it’s too cute!, an antique wood box ($10 like the ones from my antique box cupboard….love that finger/box joint detail) a scoop ($2 for my glass laundry jar) and a flour bag ($12 for a chair upholstery) and farm table chairs ($4 and $5 dollars).

And the cutest Red Chippy Child’s Chair! This will be going in the playroom (although it still is in the living room because Brooklyn loves it and it’s super cute!)

So, if anyone ever wanted to go on a little road trip….Sparks, Kansas is worth the drive but, only on Memorial Day or Labor Day because the rest of the year…it has a population of 7!