Today I loaded up in the car with my best friend of more years than either of us would care to count and headed to the big city for the Country Living Fair. This event is held at Ohio Village and is a sprawling collection of vendors selling food, vintage and antique items, reproductions and interesting handmade art.

It’s fascinating to see how the vendors artfully display their wares and to get a feel for what’s trendy or may be trendy soon. Aside from a few maps that I brought home, we didn’t buy anything here but we did find a lot of inspiration.

It was a hot day so we got there early and left at lunchtime, opting for the air conditioned comfort of Bob Evans over food truck cuisine outside. Then we hit two antique malls in Lancaster on our way home. While the Fair had some beautiful merchandise, we are fortunate to live in an area with a lot of antique malls so the prices here are pretty competitive.

Between the two of us, we didn’t spend much but we did find a few treasures. Here are mine:

The Q-Man potato chip tin is something I have never seen. The chips were made by a Toledo company and I fell in love with the color. It’s a little rough but I’m good with that because my plan is to put a flower in it for display on my screened-in porch. Friends probably already guessed that was my plan since lately I seem to be focusing on making that porch more homey and eclectic.

Last week, I bought a little Tonka truck for the porch. It’s rough but I love the shape and the patina.

I notice a color theme developing. I don’t know why but lately I’ve been drawn to a lot of things of this color family. The blueish-turquoise is a great contrast to red and I have a lot of red.

The bud vases – I actually needed these because they are small and perfect for a flower or two cut from the garden. The little Hall watering can fits in well with the color scheme and with the vintage garden motif happening on the porch. And the book? Well, the book is just great. It’s a 1937 edition, filled with nice stories and art and it’s super clean. I especially love the cover and for two bucks it was a steal.

I thought it was funny that when we met up at the end of our excursion in one store, we were carrying similar bud vases. What makes that interesting is that we have very different styles and interests. It’s fun to find ourselves on common ground.

The Country Living Fair usually comes to Ohio twice a year and is well worth the price of admission. If you go, buy your tickets in advance online. It will save you time that day. Also, wear comfy shoes and sunscreen. If you think you’ll be buying a lot, a wagon isn’t a bad idea. There were a few things I might have bought but was too lazy to pack them around or take them to the bag check. Also be sure to check out the stage events. We sat in on a cooking demonstration that was great.