Linda Dorr’s birthday is January 2.  It’s always hard to think of a birthday present right after Christmas and we all have so much stuff anyway.  She had taken me on a birthday trip to the West Bottoms in Kansas City for my birthday, so I decided to make birthday trips our tradition!  I gave Linda a choice of several activities and the Old Summit Country Antique Show in Lee’s Summit, Missouri won.  Our friends Daniel Epley and Joel Hoy live in Lee’s Summit and have told us about this show before, so it was on our list.

We got up before the chickens and headed out in the dark to get there as close to opening as possible.  We had a fun time catching up on the 3-hour drive.

The parking lot was pretty full when we got there, so that was a good sign.  Inside the Pavilion at John Knox Village, a maze of tables full of wonderful treasures awaited us.  We hadn’t been there long before Daniel and Joel found us. We had several nice little visits with them as we progressed through the show and ran into them again and again.

We stopped at a table with a lot of paper ephemera where Linda found a great candy box with a wonderful graphic of a little girl and a teddy bear on the top.  I picked up three cute vintage Valentines and a flower frog.

We saw lots of different things than we usually see around Des Moines, so that was fun.  When we first came in, we saw a “bench” seat from an old outhouse painted white turned on end.  I suppose you could use the holes for a strange picture frame, but what really caught my eye was the quilt top it was resting on.  The colors and fabrics just caught my eye.  I went back later and asked the lady if she would sell it.   We dug it out and struck a deal and I brought it home.  I have lots of ideas for it.

I was looking for the Weston Primitives Co. booth from Iowa as I follow them on Facebook.  I found them and enjoyed visiting with the owner.   They had lots of fun pieces.  I zeroed in on a little green/white stool or table that would look good with my bear collection.

It was around noon when we finished and said goodbye to Daniel and Joel.  The shops in Greenwood, Mo. were not far and were calling to us, so we drove there.  We combed all of the shops and Linda found a chippy white cabinet that she had to have for her studio room.  It was screwed to the wall and pretty heavy when we got it down.  There was plenty of space for it in my Edge, though, so we left Greenwood happy and went looking for some lunch.

There just happens to be a Panera in the same shopping area as the Mission Road Antique Mall, so we stopped there for some delicious soup to rejuvenate us.  Mission Road Antique Mall is pretty big!

I have to say that this is one of my favorite places.  It’s clean and bright and full of high quality stuff and I never leave empty-handed!   The first thing I found was a wonderful chippy white birdhouse.  It was sitting up high on the top of a cabinet and it was a good price.  Plus, the whole booth was discounted.  I just thought it was so charming and Linda agreed.  We got it down and took it to the front desk.  I have it on top of my teal cabinet in the family ro0m now and have added some bottle brush trees.  It will be fun to decorate for different seasons.  I don’t think it will make it out to the garden for a few years!

One of my favorite booths has a lovely selection of quilts and that’s where I found a beautiful doll quilt with lots of hand-quilting and beautiful colors in a small Grandmother’s Flower Garden pattern.  I have a twin bed sized quilt in the same pattern, so this smaller scale version really spoke to me – and joined my collection!

Checking out, several other shoppers coveted my birdhouse – another validation of my purchase!  I brought the car around to the front of the mall and gathered up Linda and her finds and we headed for home.  We’d been together all day, but we still managed to gab all the way back to Des Moines!

About 12 hours after we set out,  we were back at Linda’s having one last Lucy and Ethel moment as we manuevered Linda’s cabinet into her basement studio room.  It fit perfectly on the top of her green and black cabinet where she had intended.  That girl has a good eye!  Now she can keep her Christmas treasures out to enjoy behind glass – safely away from prying cat paws!