NumberNineteen

August Flea Market Finds

It's time for another round of monthly flea market finds! I am quite thrilled with my finds this month.  There aren't many of them, but they are top notch. 

Hope joined me for the market today, which surprised me.  I was under the impression that she thought that any vintage hunting was "sooo BORING", but it turns out that flea markets are OK with her.  She always manages to find some kind of treasure, whether it is a bracelet, a book or a toy. She brought her own money and was very thoughtful about how she spent it.  She got two horse figurines (she is a horse nut) and a plastic lion mug that I must share with you:

It's a tiger statue...but no!  It's more!  The head flips back to make it a mug!  It cracks me up that this is the thing she zeroed in on out of the entire market.

Do you spy the new additions to my British royalty collection?  Let's get a closer look:

I really love both of them because they are a little different from the coronation souvenirs that I usually see.    But, truth be told, I'll buy just about any coronation memorabilia if I don't already have it and it's the right price.  I think that I was English in a former life.

I am head over heels in love with this 1950s tablecloth.  Look at those roses!  I sincerely don't think that I've ever seen a vintage tablecloth as pretty as this one.  The dealer wasn't in the booth when I found it, so I had to wait around until he returned.  Hope was getting pretty impatient, but I couldn't leave without it!

So, not a big haul (I also found a piece of ironstone that will eventually make it to Etsy), but I'm in love with every bit of it.  Well, maybe not the lion mug ;)

Thrifting Treasurers

Just a quick post about a few treasures that I found while thrifting a few days ago.  First, I give big thanks to my husband, who was working at home, and said "sure, Hope can stay here with me".  She is good for one thrift shop but a whole day of thrifting?  Not happening. Anyway, on to the good stuff :)

The Ball jars were the big steal of the day!  95 cents a piece!  The blue ones are circa 1923-1932 & the clear were made 1932-1960.  I'm going to use them to store sea glass and other little treasures.  The shop at which I found them is very hit & miss, but when they do have something good, the prices are rock bottom.  

I found these very nice pieces of English transferware at another shop that is also very hit & miss.  But, I find good stuff there just often enough to keep me coming back....  Both the plates and the bowl are from the 1950s and are in excellent condition.  I particularly love the pattern on the bowl.  All of these will go into my re-vamped Etsy store, which is coming soon, I swear.  

I was very disciplined during my spree and only purchased items that I really love and need.  I picked up a cardigan to go with a skirt that I'm going to make and an adorable red cotton skirt that I know that I'm going to wear all of the time, both this summer and once school starts. And, I found a Pottery Barn picture frame for 2.99 that is perfect for a little re-fresh that I'm doing in the powder room.

It was so much fun to bargain shop all day and come home with bags full of treasures :)

Lucketts Spring Market

I almost named this post "I went to the Lucketts Spring Market AND survived the mud!"...Haha...It was a great time but was I ever glad that I had on my wellies!  It had rained all night before, so the fields were complete muck.  But, by the time that we arrived, the rain had slowed to an occasional mist and we were fine. 

My friend Cindy & I show off our mud-splattered boots in the muck!

We really did have a great time and saw so much good stuff.  I completely meant to take lots of pictures but once we started checking everything out, I completely got involved and forgot.  That means that it was a good day, though :)  We saw Miss Mustard Seed's booth, which was completely decimated -- barely anything left by midday Saturday -- good for her!  I saw lots and lots of gorgeous ironstone, beautiful jewelry made of vintage pieces, a booth full of vintage fabric, lots of great industrial pieces, and the best chicken coop ever, called the "Coop De Ville":

The interior of the Coop De Ville (there was also an outdoor chicken coop attached):

I also caught up with Sue of Vintage Rescue, which is always fun. She gives me the inside scoop on the Virginia vintage dealing. 

So, enough with the chitter-chatter, lady -- what did you get???

Not the best photo in the world, but here are my goodies, plus a bonus find from a thrift shop.  I felt like I was buying at every other booth, but when I got it home, it doesn't seem like much. I  could have spent more ;)

Whenever I see something that is red & vintage, I snap it up.  This Kodak darkroom timer from the 1950s is already in the living room.

I picked up these old silver serving spoons for $1.50 each.  They polished up nicely and even though they have some loss of silver in their bowls, I love them.  The platter is a nice piece of English ironstone that I'll be selling in my Etsy store.

I'll also be selling these (I found two) gorgeous transferware salad plates on Etsy.

 

I got a charm bracelet for Christmas, so I've been on the lookout for charms.  I picked up these three at an adorable booth -- 2 for my "home" states and the crown for my love of royalty.

For some unknown reason, I didn't get a close up picture of the bread pan that I got for my glass cabinet, but I feel like it's a good find.  I love the embossed metal! 

My friend also did well at the market -- she found an adorable bright yellow glider for her screened in porch.  Success for all! And, as a bonus, I found the silver tray (pictured above) that I was looking for at a thrift shop on Friday night!  It's the perfect size and shape for my plans AND it was $10!  I polished it up yesterday afternoon, but looking at these pictures, I actually like it better slightly tarnished.

I'm really glad that we went yesterday, because I just read that the market was cancelled today because the fields are so bad that there is no place to park.  Happily, I found out about a barn sale happening locally in a few weeks, plus the regular Arlington flea.  I love this time of year!

Lucketts Finds

I meant to post about my Lucketts and Flea Market finds last week, but it completely slipped my mind.  We are in the throws of state testing at school, so it's as if all non school related things fly out of my mind until the weekend.  On Saturday morning, I wake up and think "Oh yeah, I have all of this life outside of work!".  It is a short-lived situation but I am very glad when the weekends come.

Onward to the good stuff -- Lucketts finds!  I did pretty well this trip, I think. All of my goodies, spread out....

Hope first spied these bowls at a booth.  I do not need any more bowls (just ask Glenn) but they are such wonderful colors and were such a good deal.

In the same booth, I found this tin.  I reminds me of old English chintzware, though it was made in Holland.  It has found a home in my craft room.

I found this little vase on the porch of the main store...even the porch has permanent booths!  This style of vase isn't something that I'd normally pick up, but I really love the flowers against the black.  So striking.  And, it was only $3!

One of the things that I love about Lucketts is that they stock the perfect blend of "finer" items with farmhouse style.  I picked up this basket because I really like the shape and size.  Another bargain at $10.

Along the same lines, I found a bunch of butter paddles in a booth....I picked up one because I think that it will look good with a breadboard that I've got in my kitchen. 

I'm thinking that they will look really good lined up on a silver platter.  I'm on a mission to find a big and cheap silverplate platter at a thrift store.  I almost bought one today but I thought that it was a little pricey...I'm looking for CHEAP :) 

I was not the only one to find prizes. Glenn found an old engineering book and Hope talked us into a plastic horse figurine.

Everyone left happy.

Finally, the two small white plates will eventually show up in my Etsy store. 

As I'm getting ideas for what to do with my finds, I think of how people of yore would think of the current style to mix high and low, as well as using everyday objects as decorative pieces..."why would you put an old wood butter paddle on a silver tray???"...."why would you just sit out a camera in your living room?"..."Um...why are you using dirty suitcases as a side table?  Don't you have money to buy a real table?"  Haha.  I can only imagine what future generations will do with our every day things.  Will iPhones be placed on a stand on the living room table the way that I have an old typewriter??

I will hopefully be posting even more Lucketts goodness very soon because I am going to their big Spring Market next weekend!

 

 

 

The First Flea Market of The Season!

April is here and that means the beginning of flea market season!  At the very least, I'll be out on the first Saturday of every month for the flea held in a parking garage in Arlington and hopefully, I'll be able to hit a few others as well.  I might even try to go to the big Lucketts spring market that you hear about all over blogland. 

I did really well this month in Arlington, as you can see from the photo.  The green shelf ($4) will go in Hope's room, to display her art class ceramics.  I love the color, but she wants to paint it purple (of course). 

I love this sweet little painting ($15) of a reservoir in Massachusetts.  That little red-roofed house!  I'm going to re-frame it and put it up in the front hall.

The pewter pieces ($8 for both) have already found a home on the dresser in the living room.

The little blue bowl/cup (does anyone have any idea what a little bowl like this was originally intended for?) is perfect for holding a vanilla candle.

The ironstone cheese keeper and blue and white transferware bowl are going into my etsy store in the long run.  I'm actually working on changing the focus of my store, but am still gathering the wares that I want to make the store what I envision.  I'm excited to share the changes, but am still working on all of the parts that will pull it together.

Yay!   I love flea market season.  When I'm at a market, I'm in my happy place :)

Traditional Design on a Dime -- Thrift Shop Finds

You all know that thrift shopping is one of my favorite activities (Glenn would say shopping, period.  He's probably not too far off). I just love the treasure hunt aspect of it.  I find is such a thrill, especially at an amazing price! I find gorgeous things for my home at a fraction of what I'd have to pay retail.

Some of my favorite thrift store finds include the centerpiece of our living room, the tuscan painting, found this year for $40

Dozens of decorative plates through the years

Silver of all kinds and pitchers

Lets not forget our dining room set, $130 for the table & 6 chairs

I was at one of my local thrift shops recently and spied these gorgeous items. How stunning would this be on a mantel or in a dining room? $6.90!

I found 2 different sets of Spode plates on 2 occasions.  The top set: $9.90 for both.  The bottom: $6.90 each.

(gotta love the glamorous photography)

Right down the aisle from the blue and white plates, I found a Villeroy & Boch canister set for $8.90 (this would go well with the piece in the top photo!).

Right around the corner from the canister set, I found these adorable faience style painted egg cups. $2.90 for the set.

In the past, I have found lamps, lamp shades, Calphalon bakeware, an extra mixing bowl for my Kitchen Aid mixer, baskets galore, the previously mentioned silver, picture frames, books for display and reading and much more.

And, don't even get me started on clothes at thrift shops...this is post about home decor.  Let me just say on the subject of clothing that I got $200 worth of clothes from the Gap, Loft and Target this week for $45.  And, I often find Lilly Pulitzer, Hanna Andersson and Lands End dresses for Hope for $10 and under. 

What are your favorite thrift store finds?

Living Room Freshen Up for Summer

You know how one thing sparks an idea and then it leads to the next thing and the next?  If you give a mouse a cookie....Or, if you make a great vintage find...you change up the entire living room!

My wish for Mother's Day this year was to go to The Old Lucketts Store to do a little treasure hunting.  It turned out that it was my lucky (Mothers) day, because I scored a great find!  I was at the counter, purchasing a few small items when I saw this out of the corner of my eye....

A little navy blue steamer trunk, with travel stickers all over and just enough patina.  But...those trunks are always so expensive....I checked out the price (it can't hurt...)...$28!  Happy Mothers Day to me!  When I got it home, I did a little research and found that it is a sample trunk from the 1940s and the stickers were to inspire buyers as to where they might take their trunk.

I knew exactly where to put it, on the dresser beside the fireplace.  Perfect. But, it needed a little accessorizing. 

And, now the room needed a little more blue.  And, wouldn't it be great to get out my vintage suitcases to continue on the theme?  While I was at it, wasn't the room looking a little autumnal?  It needed brighter colors for summer. An evening of moving things around, a trip to Joanns, a bit of sewing and I'd completely freshened up the living room for summer.




I found the perfect spot for the suitcases and they now act as a side table where we didn't have one.

A few details....

 


What I changed:

• Added the trunk & candlesticks to the dresser
• Changed up the mantle, using more silver and adding the wicker wrapped candle holders for texture
• Stacked vintage suitcases as a side table & moved the globe to be on top as an accent
• Used a serving platter from my kitchen as a tray on the coffee table.  I grabbed a shell from a beach trip, a canning jar from the kitchen and faux greenery from a past project.
• Brought up a drop leaf table from the basement and arranged most of the items that had previously been on the dresser.  Bonus: it filled in a weird empty spot in the corner!
• Stitched up new pillow covers for the sofa.  The red & white striped covers were made from toweling that I found at Joanns.  I love the vintage french textile look of it.  The gingham was also found at Joanns.  I kept the polka dot pillows that were there previously because they look good with the red, white & blue theme.
• I replaced the red throw blanket with a navy cable one that I found at Wegmans(!).  I had been looking at one at Target but didn't pull the trigger on because it was over $30, more than I wanted to spend on my low cost refresh.  I found the blanket at Wegmans for $14!

I'm so pleased with the fresh new look of the living room.  It was fun to pull it all together on a budget -- my favorite kind of challenge!

October Flea Market Finds -- Vintage

I was back at the flea market again this month, searching for items for the etsy store as well as anything that caught my eye for our house.  This month's market had a lot of good stuff, more than I had money to buy....it's always like that!  If I have a lot of money, the market is bare of good finds; if I am on a budget, it is overflowing!  Here are the things that came home with me this month.

I love the detail on the edge of these little plates -- I got a set of 9 of them, which I think would look amazing hung on a wall.

It's that time of year again!  I returned to a lady who had told me that her booth would be full of Christmas items this month.  She was true to her word & I bought almost all of her vintage ornaments.  I'm hoping that she has even more next month.

All of these items will be appearing in my etsy store.

Year Long Goals Complete!

So, the house is kind of  a disaster.  And, we had what might be referred to in the future as the greatest paint spill incident of the Fleming family.  But, the powder room is painted!  The cabinet is done! Year long goals accomplished!  Wooohoo!  Pass me a cookie as I sit on the couch & recover from all of it. 

Starting with the powder room.  A simple project really.  Paint the room grayish blue, replace the towel rack & paper holder.  Enter a slightly overfilled can of paint, a tip a bit to far to the right & paint e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e.  Spilling onto the toilet, dripping down the sides.  All over the floors, into the hall & kitchen as I attempted to get the paint can in question to a large sink.  We recovered, moved on and the powder room is now painted.  There aren't any "before" pictures -- just imagine a white room with builder grade fixtures & you've got the right image in your head. We are going to replace the light & faucet too, but as Goofy said in one of Hope's picture books, "Slow & steady, steady & slow, that's the way we always go."

 

Now, the cabinet!  You may remember that Glenn was building me a display cabinet for the kitchen.  I was inspired by one of my most stylish friends and companions in vintage shopping (who moved to New York, sniff sniff) who had a large free standing glass fronted cabinet in her kitchen that displayed her collection of antique/vintage baking and sweet making equipment.  Everytime I went to her house, I was drawn to it & poured over it's contents. 

When I decided that I wanted a cabinet of my own, I found this picture on a blog and decided that I was going to do what the homeowners did: buy an old glass fronted kitchen cabinet, add trim & there was my display case. 

source

I even found a perfect cabinet on craigslist & was about to pick it up when Glenn said "I can make that & it will be even better".  It became apparent that it wasn't just about providing a better cabinet for me -- he really wanted to BUILD SOMETHING.  So, I handed the project off to him & the cabinet became his baby, with my only request being that it be done by Christmas of this year.  One month prior to the deadline, we are done!  Here is it, complete and filled with vintage food and cooking items, many of them handed down through my family.

Hope wanted to pose with it.

This week at work is my kind of week -- 2.5 days & then vacation!!!

More Vintage Finds -- Big Flea

I talked my family into going to The Big Flea with me this past weekend to search for vintage treasures.  The youngest member of the family wasn't quite convinced that it was how she wanted to spend her Saturday afternoon, so we came up with a scavenger hunt for her.  "Find a doll from Nana's childhood", "Find a diamond ring", "Find Christmas ornaments".  That kept her busy for awhile while we checked out the booths. 

Glenn found some cool things for the basement rec room/media room/man cave/whatever you want to call it.  He is going to arrange the film reels & drive in speaker in a bookcase along with the DVDs -- fun, right?  He thought of it himself too -- he gets some good decorating ideas every once in awhile ;)

I found the candy mold, which I've been looking for at a price I can afford.  This one is just the right age & at $12 was quite a good deal!  Right after that, I found the candy sales punch card.  It was used for some kind of promotion regarding candy sales which I can't quite figure out, but what really makes me love it is the graphic design.  I'm deciding whether I should mat & frame it or put it in the cabinet of vintage kitchen things.  Last but not least is the small translucent blue bell shaped Christmas ornament (in the center front of the picture).  It is simple & pretty.

The Big Flea was my one bit of free time over the weekend.  Its all about the last push of library school right now.  I'm doing a practicum, taking a class, applying to jobs and studying for comprehensive exams.  I apologize if I've said all of this before -- its pretty much all that I do!  I hope that you all are doing well.