There's nothing like rooting through piles of old junk and finding fun little treasures and amazing bargains.
I secretly want to grow up to be one of those weird, quirky little old ladies who appear at weekly antique markets, with stockpiles of randomness and maybe just a little too much makeup.
Red's my favorite color. So, in honor of this and Valentine's Day, which is fast approaching, here are some items i've picked straight from my Etsy Favorites.
-Kissing Booth Letterpress Poster from RollandtumblepressAs a crafter, i get bored really easy. Plus i just like challenging myself and trying new things, just to see if i can do them. At one flea market i was a vendor at, a girl was browsing my table and asked if i was selling the earrings i had on. They were a pair of moderately sized, vintage glitter-encrusted button studs and they're one of my favorites...which says a lot because i have an excessive amount of jewelry.
Anyway, this week i tried to make my own, and luckily, i was successful!
Here are the results:
I also made some necklaces, which will soon be listed in The Shop! I can't wait to make more of these!
So, i bit the bullet and opened up a second Etsy shop for my vintage (mostly 80's) deadstock jewelry, and also for supplies. Check it out!
--->ILITT SUPPLIES & VINTAGE <---
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.
Lately, i've been toying with the idea of setting up a shop on E-Crater or Big Cartel just for my deadstock jewelry finds. I have tons of earrings, brooches, and other stuff that's straight from the 80's (and some from the 70's) and i sell them at flea markets, but other than that, they just sit patiently in my storage closet waiting to see the light of day. I used to list some deadstock on Etsy, but i'm thinking i should keep the two separate.
E-Crater is free, but it's plain and ugly. Big Cartel costs $9.99 a month, but i can "decorate" the shop however i want. Really, though...do i want to add another thing to my huge to do list???
