What I Did this Weekend: Shopping Antique, and Library Time

No need for Low Fi or Valencia when you've got these kinds of old-school filters... right, Instagram?

Yesterday, I had the chance to visit the Puyallup Fairgrounds back home, for the Annual Antique show my mother, sister and I attend every year. I have this bookseller who specializes in antiques that I like to visit there, and we can usually find a bunch of old things to gawk at and marvel over along the way to her booth. For instance, I'm partial to vintage bake ware and dining sets, the Cheerleader likes looking at pinup girl calendars and vintage Disney memorabilia, and my mom's always trying to amp up her collection of sparkly brooches.

We also buy a new bug gem for my sister every year for Christmas - you'd be surprised how beautiful (and popular!) brooches shaped like insects are!

In terms of books, unfortunately, there wasn't that great of a selection this year. I've got a pretty particular type I'm looking for, in terms of taste, and lean towards old copies of Nancy Drews, pre-1950s homemaking and manner instructionals, and cookbooks. In terms of things that did stumble across my path, I found a secondary edition of The Whispering Statue (Nancy Drew #14) that still had its book jacket in really good condition, all the way from 1944... but I couldn't justify spending $25 on it when it wasn't one of my favorites, and I already have a copy sans dust jacket from the '40s, too.

I also realized, somewhat belatedly, that I am still on my 2015 Resolution, and thusly, wouldn't have been allowed to buy new books this year, anyways! Darnit! 

Tumblr aesthetic as hell, amirite? 

Chilling out with the bro's hedgie after.

Deep, deep regrets that I didn't spend $1.50 on this. 

Though all was not for naught: I do think I developed a new favorite antique find this past weekend, as some of my personal favorites from this time 'round included suitcases filled with old photos - like pictured at the top of this post! - and autograph books, filled with celebrity and schoolmate signatures alike.

It's amazing looking at such old pictures, and seeing what's passed out of fashion, but what's still the same: beautiful brides with their parents, family photos that have fallen to shenanigans as they were being taken, couples holding hands and best friends laughing. Not to mention the school "autograph books" that stood in the place of yearbooks, back when they would have been too expensive to print... rhymes that stood as the old-school equivalent to "H.A.G.S.," to heartfelt pleas to "Remember that time we fought..." or "I hope we're still friends in high school."

To be honest, I can totally see why Ransom Riggs was inspired by these old kinds of visual memories for his Ms. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children series, because there's still a lot of interesting stories to be gleaned from people who aren't necessarily around to tell them anymore! 

Best way to ease the lack of great old books I was walking away with? FAIR SCONES. 

Afterwards, I insisted on a trip to the library, because if I couldn't pick up anything old, then I wanted to make sure I got my hands on something new! Still, I am in the thick of the Quarter - and shout out to my fellow Quarter systems school chums - so I drew the line at four, from various genres:

• YA Fiction: Lair of Dreams (The Diviners #2), Libba Bray 
• (And it was right next to The Diviners, with its original cover, instead of the redesign... my mom agreed that the original was much better!) 
• Non-Fiction: Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, Mary Norris 
• Fiction: Hostile Takeover (The Intern's Handbook #2), Shane Kuhn
• Cookbook: Milk Bar Life, Christina Tosi

So I was able to head back up to Seattle with some exciting new reads, after all.

What bookish things did you do this weekend? Let me know, in the comments below!