A few weekends back, we made our way up the road to Clinton, SC to celebrate Shawn + David’s engagement. A good time was had by all!
Now, as usual when we travel, we make a road trip out of it and some piddlin’ time is always involved, so we end up stopping at every antique mall / shop / lean-to on our path. At this point, it’s hard to believe there are still places we have yet to visit or come across!
Stops included Columbia for lunch at Zesto…always very delish, and highly recommended by many! Then Newberry, SC …both en route to the Saturday night party. Downtown Newberry was a ghost town, but that was to our advantage.
Our first stop was Eurolux- a very fine, high-end antique shop with GORGEOUS mahogany butler’s cabinets, hutches, dressers, tables and chairs from Europe. We made a friend, Minky- who is a beautiful Siamese cat rescued by the store owner’s son. As I type, remembering sweet Minky, I wish I had taken a picture of his charming and inquisitive face with his blue eyes that were piercing sky blue! …mind you, I don’t even like PICTURES of cats much less real ones! This one stole my heart. He greeted us at the door, just as the owner stood to tell us about his treasures for sale. He leapt to the floor from the window ledge were we stood and followed us at our pace as if he were to be leading us on a guided tour. If at any point we stopped he would be sure to catch our eye as if to say, “do you have any questions for me?” It is not an exaggeration to say that Minky led us around the entire store, and kept us entertained and laughing as he would sneak up and over and sometimes under the pieces of furniture on the floor. I was impressed by his personality and intellect; what a cat!
After snagging a town “guide” we located a number of stores so Ryan promptly found a parking space and we headed to store #2: Antiques on Main. Well, this was more what we were hoping for. Separate booths with each their own “style” of antiques and plenty to feast our eyes on! It was an older man and woman running the shop and while they were not terribly friendly upon our arrival, or to one another for that matter, by the time we were settling up and heading out, she invited us for dinner at their house! HA! She was enamored with us when we told her we were from Charleston. She was a riot! Telling me all about the houses they almost lived in in Summerville and even who they were once owned by…oh my goodness, she was a trip. Our two finds from Antiques on Main included this nice small, gold frame for $3 
and this vibrant yellow McCoy vase which I promptly latched onto as a sursie to DeeDee for keeping our pup safe and happy at home! (She has got quite a collection goin’!)
Store #3 was our jackpot-there are many pros to having an architect for a fiancé, but perhaps one of my favorite things about having an architect as my piddlin’ partner is how it only takes him 3-5 minutes inside of a building, and he can tell me so much about the history of it, and its primary function! So this shop we stopped into was determined by Ryan to have been a boarding house or dormitory/orphanage…which was both really cool, and a bit eerie too. Well, it bordered between a pack-rat’s haven and a picker’s dream! It didn’t take long for me to put my hands on what may be, to do this day, the coolest, most unusual piddlin’ find I have ever come across. Behold, the Carolina bobble head!! 
And that was just the beginning! How can any piddlin’ find follow that, you say? Well be sure to feast your eyes on the precious vintage Valentine’s Day cards that will be included in my Valentine’s Day post!! Read it HERE
We woke up the next morning after the big engagement party fuzzy eyed and a bit drained but managed to make it back to Newberry to meet up and go to church with my brother (he’s a freshman there this year!). After brunch at The Flying Pie on Main Street (amazing), we headed eastbound and down to Prosperity and Little Mountain, SC. Wow, were we in for a great surprise!
If you have never driven into downtown Prosperity…it is every bit of a country mile (or three) from the interstate so be patient…it’s worth the drive. We arrived half past 12 to find the shop opened at 1:00, and after a good long glance in the store front, we decided we’d wait it out and in just 5 minutes, the owner pulled up and told Ryan she would open up early for us! We found a gamecock mug, a surprise pictured below to be given at a later date, 
and this (yes, I’ll admit) very cool Clemson cookbook from the year they won The National Championship in 1981, I can’t say I’ve ever seen that before! We gave it to Ryan’s roommates for giving him such a great place to stay until we get married. Needless to say, they looooooved it. 
Last stop: Little Mountain where we found this fab hunter green mailbox! 
I won’t keep you any longer than I have already, but clearly the piddlin’ has been getting better and better!!! I can only imagine what goodies there must be still out there just waiting to be found! If you stumble across a good find, I’d love to hear about it! Email me @ pigginpiddler@gmail.
Au Revoir for now!
Keep Piddlin’ | the p.p.
…but of course, we ran out of time. Overall, it was a such a great trip, and a much needed break from reality. mom’s are great like that.
piddlin' 