Positively Primitive.

Yesterday, we took a day trip to Zoar, Ohio. Zoar was founded in the early 1800's by a group of religious separatists from Germany. Several of the original buildings remain intact and restored, thanks to its current residents. Each August, they hold a Harvest Festival and Antique Fair. Since this was our first visit to Zoar, we were unsure what to expect, but in the end, it far exceeded any expectations we may have had. In fact, I regret that I didn't bring my SLR camera with me because there were so many wonderful things to see, and I would have liked to have been more creative with my photos (And boy - did I take A LOT of photos, as you will see!). Still, I'm grateful that I had a working camera at all, unlike during our trip to Kennywood two weeks ago when I lost my Nikon Coolpix fifteen minutes after our arrival. That being said, I was also looking forward to giving my new Canon Powershot a test drive anyway.

Our trip began uneventful enough. Lauren is a great traveler who will ride in the car for a good long while with very little to entertain her. As soon as we left our driveway, she started drawing with the crayons and notepad that I had brought. She continued happily drawing until we got about half way to Zoar. I had turned around to ask her a question when she opened her mouth and proceeded to throw up all over herself. Of course, I had forgotten to pack her a change of clothes. After we exited off the freeway twice to ask for directions to the nearest Wal-mart / Target / K-mart, a half hour later we had her cleaned up and good as new, complete with fresh clothes and underwear. Luckily for us, at that point in the morning she only had drank some milk, otherwise, it may have been enough for us to turn back. I also have to take this opportunity to brag about my kid because she didn't cry, whine or complain during the whole ordeal. She is such a trooper!



Once we arrived our first order of business was the antique fair. Above all, Mark's interest lies in primitive antiques. Unfortunately, all of the shows that we attend during the year feature more collectibles than antiques. However, the Zoar show is entirely made up of dealers selling primitives. There wasn't a piece of Fiestaware or a Star Wars lunchbox in sight. The upside of this was that there were many different and interesting items. The downside was that much of it was very expensive, so we left empty handed. That didn't stop me from taking photos of the items that I liked best - those were for free!



I adored this department store sign, but where would I put him?



Lauren took some photos too - mostly of animal objects. Here are some figural banks.



And a toy horse.



There were lots of primitive housewares, like these giant ladles.



Everyone had wooden bowls.



But only one seller had a collection of old laundry items.



I'm in the market for a primitive game board, so while I intended to include this Parcheesi board, I did not intend to include the unidentified man bending over in the photo.



But of everything that we saw, this was the item that I really wanted, but not for $1,800.

A few more photos from the antique show can be seen on Flickr, but many more photos of the rest of our visit to Zoar are still to come this week, including a pictorial of Mark participating in a tinsmithing demonstration - you won't want to miss it!