Getting Ready for Toad Suck

Toad Suck is a yearly 3-day festival in Conway, Arkansas that happens the first weekend of May. There’s pretty much something for everyone. For example, kids can enter their toad into ‘The World Championship Toad Races’, adults can attend the awesome free outdoor music concerts (Skillet, Clint Black, Jason Crabb, and more!) or participate in “Stuck on a Truck” to win a new truck, and then there’s people like Caleb and me who go for the FRIED SNICKERS!  These are just a few of the many activities.

What is Toad Suck? The Toad Suck website describes it as:

“Long ago, steamboats traveled the Arkansas River when the water was at the right depth. When it wasn’t, the captains and their crew tied up to wait where the Toad Suck Lock and Dam now spans the river. While they waited, they refreshed themselves at the local tavern there, to the dismay of the folks living nearby, who said: “They suck on the bottle ’til they swell up like toads.” Hence, the name Toad Suck. The tavern is long gone, but the legend and fun live on at Toad Suck Daze.”

I wonder if this is why Faulkner County is a dry county now? (meaning no alcohol can be bought in stores and only restaurants with “club memberships” can sell it).

Many of the main streets in Downtown Conway will be blocked off so people can have booths to sell crafts, jewelry, food, etc.  Jenifer’s Antiques is conveniently located close-by, so I’ve started getting my booth ready for next week. Since I never got around to blogging about my finds last week, I’ll include those in this post as well.

The weekend before last I hit 6 out of 7 of the estate sales going on that weekend (I missed June’s estate sale because she didn’t call me back and didn’t advertise in the paper until Saturday so I didn’t know! 🙁 ). I had some amazing finds. The above mosaic shows a couple of them. I found the adorable Schnauzer and the totally shabby chic chest of drawers with custom glass top at Sale by Nancy. Nancy’s was a great sale because I also found a “Mr. Christmas Mickey’s Marching Band” set, which features Mickey and 7 other Disney characters who all ring bells to play 35 Christmas songs! I tried to capture them on video but the sound was horrible. I may try again sometime closer to Christmas, but in the meantime, click here for a video from someone with a better camera who recorded their set.

During yesterday’s visit to Jenifer’s, I “fluffed” the pie safe since I have sold so much out of it. I acquired the platters and almost everything on the bottom shelf from Saugey’s auction a few weeks ago — the stuff looks great together! I need to fluff the Hoosier cabinet in the top right of the photo too, but thought I’d share a photo of it anyway.

I got the gorgeous Homer Laughlin vegetable bowl and berry bowls (top left corner of above photo) at Bette Bogart’s last estate sale. Bette also had some amazing things, including the IVORY handled cake knife below:

Yes, you’re thinking right: The importation and sale of ivory in many countries is banned or severely restricted, so you don’t see this stuff anymore. I really didn’t know what to price it since eBay won’t let people sell Ivory items (I use eBay to help me price things I have no idea about), so I had to just guess what it’s worth. I think it was a great find regardless!

Also in the above mosaic, I got that neat yellow-with-red-flowers/cherries teapot from Roy Dudley’s estate sale he had at his Tanglewood location. That sale continues this weekend with a lot of the items 50% off! Roy has some amazing things in that building so I’ll have to stop by again!

I found the angels in the top photo at Anna’s Estate Sale. They are gorgeous wall decor that I couldn’t pass up.  And yes, that’s a cash register in the bottom photo. It’s a 1949 National Cash register that weighs probably 300 pounds. I never could get the till drawers to open, so no telling what’s in there!

Below is the china cabinet that I use to house blue carnival glass, Fenton glass, Westmoreland glass, and a beautiful set of K T & K dishes.

All that and more is crammed into a 10×10 booth! My mom has the double booth next to mine that’s a 10×20.  She lives in Searcy, so she doesn’t get to come fluff her booth as often as I do. As you can see, it’s packed – her motto is that customers can’t buy it if it’s not there.  Funny thing is that even though it’s as packed as it is, Mom is one of the most successful booth vendors.

Mom’s specialty is Bluebird pottery and Bird and Strawberry glass. Both are from the late 1800’s to very early 1900’s and very hard to find while out junking.  She also has lots of Currier and Ives dishes. Basically, if you’re looking for it, she probably has at least one piece of it!

Stay tuned as I’ll be posting about the estate sales this weekend soon. Thanks for visiting!