to tennessee and back...

tim and i returned this morning from our chattanooga, tn trip at 4:30am. we set up a booth at chatty crafty, a handmade fair located on a beautiful grassy lawn right on the tennessee river. the show was made up of very creative and tasteful vendors and it was in a lovely location but unfortunately there wasn't much foot traffic. on the second day, right after we set up, angry ominous clouds started rolling in forcing us to pack up and ship out. we have yet to invest in sides for our new tent so as soon as the blowing rain and potential hail would have begun everything would have been ruined. i hated to leave early, but i think we made the right decision. 

so despite the fact the show was far from lucrative, tim and i had a blast driving through and experiencing the south- a place we'd never been before. we were quite intentional about our feasting. i consumed lots of delicious grits. our first noteworthy meal break was at the Urban Standard in downtown Burmingham. they decorated their space with lots of vintage school maps and i about died over a 6 ft long map of africa. now, i'm on the lookout for one of those! we stopped at every antique mall and flea market we could find but were a bit disappointed. most pieces were to fussy for my taste and i often wondered how much was really antique. when i did happen upon a cool find it was priced way too high. i'm not sure if i can make an overall assumption about southern antiquing based on this past weekend, but needless to say i'm not tempted to return for an antiquing trip. however, i would return for the beautiful countryside and the gorgeous old southern architecture. i did find this small collection of vintage brass that i just added to young gun vintage. 

i'm really angry with myself for not taking more pictures. i left my camera at the hotel the first day of the fair and the second day i didn't get a chance to snap any shots of our booth or ourselves. i really need to develop better picture taking habits! but luckily i'll have another chance soon. tim and i are already planning our next road trip/antique buying trip. we have our eye on the southwest this time.