The flea market is finally done and over with!
It was a successful one, and i'm now psyched to get back to work and replenish my stock. I'm psyched to have gotten rid of a lot of old bags, shoes, clothing and jewelry. I'm psyched for the ideas i have for my space at Mew, which is in need of a major overhaul.
Oh, yeah...I'm also psyched 'cuz i'm about to stuff my face with a really awesome cheeseburger.
Like last Saturday, yesterday was a super crazy day. Ryan and I hit up 2 flea markets, one "mini" flea market, a nearby thrift store, Mew Gallery, South Street, the diner, and then the Nada Surf show. This included two trips to the city and back.
We went to the first flea market, which is held twice a year, to look around and hopefully find some good stuff. I'm not sure how much time we spent there, but we made several trips to the car so we could free our hands and continue browsing and shopping. I participated in this flea market last year, but it wasn't the right venue for goods of the handmade variety and i only sold stuff to my friends who had a space next to me, and a local Etsy seller who knew i was going to be there. This is an awesome flea market though, definitely a mix of new, vintage, and antique finds.
I was so engrossed in looking at everything that i didn't take any pictures of all the cool stuff i saw, but as always, i did take pictures of the stuff i came away with.
Here's a toy jewelry maker from 1974. I bought it so i could display it on my new shelves above the soon-to-be jewelry/computer area in my workspace. You take these little plastic square pegs and crank the machine so that they attach to these plastic clips, then you link the clips together to make really horrible jewelry. I probably would've have died for this toy when i was a kid, even though it works like complete crap.
Next is a deck of adorable vintage unicorn playing cards, which i plan to use as new ILIKEITTOOTOO jewelry cards.
Then some jewelry and red & yellow plastic ashtrays from Japan.
Two scarves and a pair of ridiculously awesome splatter paint sunglasses from the 80's.
And a very odd wooden plaque with little painted mushrooms, which i found in a 25 cent bin!
Not pictured is a set of 4 books about marketing ones arts and crafts and all the steps necessary to operate a small handmade business. This set was a steal at $10, only because i've been meaning to look for these titles online and always tend to forget.
Ryan came away with a box full of old wooden frames, lots of records and cassette tapes, old Halloween notepads with funny monsters, and THE COOLEST metal tray with an illustration of a kid dressed as a chef with sloppy junk food. This will be added to his ever-burgeoning burger collection, of which i helped start.
Next on the schedule was Mew Gallery, so Ryan could drop off some stuff for consignment. We had a good amount of time before we had to be there, so we stopped by a nearby thrift store. Then we just drove around and eventually found our way to two more flea markets! The first one was a mini flea market of sorts, where Ryan spent a whopping $3 on a vintage dart board that probably would fetch way more than that at an antique store. At the second one, he scored more frames and records, and i purchased some more jewelry and a Knocked Up/Forty Year Old Virgin cardboard display. Because, yes, i'm a huge Apatow nerd.
Recently, i've been going crazy looking for fabric on Ebay, so much that it's an obsession! Actually, i do this every once in a while, but i've never purchased this much fabric from Ebay before. I've purchased a handful so far...okay, more than a handful, and these two (from the same seller) are the first to arrive.
Vintage fabric with neon abstract sailboats
Crazy geometric knit fabric from the 80's
I'm dedicating this week to custom orders and some stuff that i promised to make for people, so i'm not sure if i'll get to these just yet.
Wow, so i haven't blogged since Friday, and i don't even know where to begin! Not that anything exciting has really happened the past few days.
On Saturday, Ryan and I *attempted* to go to the Giant Flea Market & Craft Fair in Merchantville, NJ, but it started raining on the way down and when we got there, and we didn't even get out of the car to scope things out. I'm all for looking through peoples' junk, but not peoples' wet and possibly muddy junk. Someone even had a computer sitting out in the rain, uncovered!
Later on in the day, i went to several thrift stores and came away with some 80's deadstock jewelry (for myself), a new purse (which everyone seems to think is horrible), a book to rip up and make into new things, a Sha Na Na record (purchased strictly for the album cover), and this little lady:
I wanted to buy this as well, so i could clean her up and maybe even give her a makeover, but i somehow managed to hold back:
On Sunday, my mom and i got up early to go and buy some storage cabinets for our garage, because i still have a ton of books and art supplies taking up space. I also got a utility cart where i now keep some miscellaneous sewing items, the patterns i've drafted, and sewing projects that are just waiting to be put together. It's one of those red steel utility carts that are used in garages and it's as big as my desk, but i love it. Later on, my cousin had me help her pick out scrapbooking stuff at the craft store. Scrapbooking isn't really my thing, but it's always fun going shopping with someone elses money.
I have a lot more sewing to do before the flea market, namely my larger bags. I worked on these, which was an item i sold a few of on Etsy, and even had custom requests for. I was so in the zone that i actually forgot to sew in the velcro closures! Sooo, i have to go back, rip them open, put in the velcro and sew them back up. Yay! :/
Knocked Up came out on DVD today! I got the 2-Disc Collector's Edition, which came with a deck of playing cards! I don't even play card games, but really, i'm a sucker for anyone in the Apatow crew -especially Seth Rogen- so now i have my very own deck of Knocked Up/Seth Rogen playing cards. I've already watched some of the bonus material, and am trying so hard not to watch it all in one sitting.
My brother needed to go to the bookstore, and unfortunately for me, all of the new issues of the magazines i read came out. I blow lots of $$$ on these and a few others every month, but i'm thinking that maybe i should subscribe because it's way cheaper.
