Wisconsin is "Da Bomb!" for Antiquing

I hope everyone's children had an AWESOME Halloween.  I know that my crew did.  Greyson and Ian were "too cool" to dress up and I did manage to talk Noah into at least painting his face.  But Eva and Landon had a blast and got such a haul that they had me tote their buckets.  LOL  We're going to be eating Halloween Candy until Easter!  ;)

Here's a few pics of them in action:

Poor Little Man.  His momma doesn't sew and couldn't find a single plain blue sweatshirt/sweatpants set so she could hot glue light blue felt patches on his costume.  So, he was a "Puppy in Pajamas".  LOL!  His mother feels like a failure when she she's all these way cool costume craftier mothers have made.  :P

The diva was a "Rockstar Cowgirl".  With her curled ponytails
and make-up, so totally rocked the look.  ;)

Okay...  So that's all for our Halloween.  YAY!  Now on to Thanksgiving.  LOVE this time of year!  But you came to hear all about my finds in Wisconsin.  Without further ado...

I wish I had a million dollars.  No, wait.  I probably don't because if I did, I would have spent it all this last weekend.  No kidding!

While the boys were in the condo screaming vulgarities at our losing Iowa team, I snuck off for some much needed "Me" Time.  Browsing through the local attractions section of our hotel binder, I came across a place that seemed worth checking out:  Wisconsin Dells Antique and Craft Mall.  YES!  A quick phone call for directions, a speedy shower, and I was on my way.

Note to the ladies giving directions to the mall from Wilderness Resorts:

1)  When you turn onto Hwy 12 from the resort, your car's compass does not read East.  It reads North and South.  Luckily I guessed correctly and the road eventually curved to the east.  That is one thing that is different from the east coast and the midwest.  Directions given on the east coast:  Take a left out of the resort road onto Hwy 12.  Go to exit 212 and take another right at the bottom of the exit and then an immediate right on the roundabout.  Go to your next intersection and take a right, go under the overpass and we'll be on your left.  See?  Easy.  This head east for so many miles, then go north, blah, blah, blah...  Yeah.  I don't have the ocean immediately to my east, so how am I supposed to know which way is east???  LOL!!!

2)  Don't tell people to head toward Baraboo.  I'm not from Wisconsin and I don't know what a Baraboo is.  It could be some weird kind of animal or it could be a town.  Visitors won't know the difference.

3)  When you say to take a right at the end of the Exit 212, please inform the blond you're giving directions to that there is a roundabout at the intersection, so you need to hang at right and then an additional right.  It is not a right and then go further down and take another right.  Its a right, then take your immediate right, and then you go further down to take another right.

4)  Please take into consideration that you speak with a strong Wisconsin accent.  "Lou" and "Moon" sound exactly alike.  It took me a little while to figure out I was looking for Moon Road and not "Lou Road".  Yeesh!

To the State of Wisconsin:

1)  And the point of a roundabout iiiiiisssssss?????????

So, when I finally found my way to the mall, which really was pretty simple to find once I figured out my direction, where I needed to turn, and what road I was looking for...  Errrrr....  I was in for a treat!  Stalls and stalls and more stalls of antique vendors all under one roof.  Some were pretty pricey and some were reasonable.  Luckily, I only took $100 from the hubs because I was having a hard time deciding what I wanted to get.  I could have very easily cleaned him out of cash had he given me any more than that.

How I loved looking at other people's finds!  But I also discovered that its no fun looking at stuff that others have already found.  The hunt for something neat or stumbling across something in an unexpected spot is the best part of acquiring things.  However, I didn't let that deter me from purchasing stuff.  LOL!

The first thing I found was a couple of blue Ball jars that caught my eye.  Boring and not really rare I know, but now I'm up to 4.  I do love their color.  $8.00 and $5.50 respectively.

Then I grabbed a couple of vintage books for $4.00 each.  I was drawn to their colors.

And who ever has too many wire baskets?  $29.00 was a little pricey, but I needed something to carry my loot, so that was my justification.  LOL!

And then I started browsing through old pictures and for some reason this one caught my attention and held it:

I think that this era was so beautiful.  Or maybe its just all the white.  LOL

Before I completely spent all of my money, I checked out and moseyed on over to the craft mall.

I came across these for $6.00...

and had a really hard time choosing just one.  If you know me in real life, you know that this totally true!  LOL

And then I totally fell in love with the entire section this was in...

And just had to narrow it down to this for $24.00.  She had an aqua cabinet with glass front doors that I drooled over.  Why no pictures?  Yeah.  About that...  I was in such a rush to get there, I forgot my camera.  And my cell phone died.  Sorry!

Since I didn't want to go back to the hotel without any money left.  I decided to call it quits.  LOL!

My patience was rewarded when stopped in Prairie Du Chien and I was able to run in to a little "Junque" Store where I got this awesome old bottle box for $10.00:

And I freaked when I saw this for $5.00:

I had one exactly like this that was my mom and dad's, but one of the kids took it outside to play in the snow, forgot it, and it got run over when the hubs was plowing the driveway.  I cried when I saw it.  My mom had had it forever.  Needless to say, it could have been $20 and I would have bought it.

So, I didn't go completely nuts even though I wanted to, but I still found several great things.  Although I do like nosing around in thrift stores a lot more, I like the idea that for years from now I'll be able to remember this trip whenever I look at these items.  Because now they're not simply things, they're memories.

Have a fantastic day, y'all!