Last weekend, while at Renningers with friends, I came across a number of really neat items. This, of course, is not hard to do considering the vast number of shops within the antiques center. My favorite item, pictured above, was this fabric covered electrotype edition of McGuffy's Eclectic Reader. It caught my eye because I've recently been using fabric to cover books. I was eager to peek inside and investigate the cover construction. At first I thought there was a chance that the binding was originally sold this way, but as soon as I saw the hand stitching I knew that someone spent the time to make this book their own.
A few steps later I saw this huge piece of furniture. I saw the back first, and thought it looked like such a mishmash of random wood, but I circled around to the front to see all of this detailed carving. I love the contrast between the front and the back and feel like I'm in on a secret, since the back would never be exposed in a home.
Paper and string! I was delighted to find this tidy little combo. Not that I brought it home with me, but isn't that old wrapping paper neat? The tear-bar operated with a simple spring mechanism which is a nice touch. I'd love to see it in action. Did people tie wrapped packages with such thin string?
Oh, and one more thing! Here's a photo of my great friends, Lisa and Sarah, sitting at my table at the Farmers Market in Sanford, the reason why we were spending the day together, in the first place! They hung out with me for the duration of the market, and were real troupers in the sweltering sun! It was a very cute market with some very nice people, especially the gal who ran the cheese booth. I was glad for the opportunity, but I don't see myself headed back in the future. It was a great time with friends and a super excuse to get to go to Renningers! We were mostly window shopping, but I did come home with one thing - Lisa and I got a great deal on a gigantic jar of buttons! We've spent more than a couple hours huddled together, dividing them like Halloween candy!