Inspiration . . . Flea Market Style

I recently found out about the magazine Flea Market Style on one of my favorite crafty blogs, Cathe Holden. As soon as I saw that someone had published a magazine actually called Flea Market Style, my first thought was "those are my people!" & I immediately jumped on-line and ordered a copy. It arrived surprisingly fast and within minutes of arriving in my post I was devouring the gorgeous content.

The magazine features all sorts of tips and tricks and how to's and is chock full of inspiration to anyone who's ever been drawn to treasure hunting in thrift stores and flea markets.

One of my favorite articles was on the Bachmans House - which I had never heard of. It's in Minnesota and is a "vintage-style showhouse full of junk-tastick ideas." Swoon! I want to go to there. I don't think I'm allowed to scan and post the images, you really must buy the magazine to see the fantastic images - every single inch of the house is jam packed with imaginative, gorgeous re-use projects. An old metal rake head becomes a wine glass holder, an old teeter-totter turned into a table... and so many more inspiring ideas for the home.

In fact, the emphasis of the magazine seems to be on home decorating, but there are plenty of crafty how-to's as well. There's a bunch of cute ideas for projects made from vintage men's button up cotton shirts that go beyond the obvious - striped lampshade with buttons, anyone? I also liked their vintage "top 10" round up of objects that they predict will be hot for 2011 flea market shopping.

I think their tip number 8; "Personality from Patina" must have influenced my recent trip to the Salvation Army "as is" department. I came home with a bag full of silver electro plated small goblets & tea service items.


They were languashing on the bottom shelf, unloved, but of nice quality and each one has a fantastic, broke down patina. I also picked up a couple of small glass bowls (ice cream dishes?) that I thought would be cute paired with the goblets. I've seem a similar technique somewhere that inspired this combination - though it was wine glasses turned upside down and with tea cups on top. I just did a quick google search and came up with this.

I just popped a couple on my living room mantle. I know the last thing the world needs is more tea light holders, but these would at least be pretty and very unique tea light holders!



And I also like this combo...


I don't know anything about silver electroplating. Most of the marks on the bottom say "EP brass", which would be silver electroplated over brass. I don't know if this is any different than regular silver plating. If anyone has any info, let me know! One of the marks says made in Spain, one says made in Italy, a couple of them say "Viking Plate; Made in Canada". Anyway, they were only $1.00 each!

Continuing on with the theme of vessels, I was thinking about all the bits and bobs around my studio currently being held in cardboard boxes of varying degrees of decay. So I grabbed this cute stack of old baking pans. My next fabulous find was the huge horse shaped cookie cutter. It will be hung my wall of horse-related kitch at the studio.

One of the things that reading Flea Market Style reinforced is the notion of small collections of similar objects grouped together as a pleasing display. This was a fun, affordable way to create an instant collection of pretty patina objects. Everything I bought that day cost exactly $10.00. Thanks to the magazine for the inspiration!

Vintage Score!

I work with vintage costume jewelry pieces and rework them into One-of-A-Kind pieces for my OAK jewelry line. Living in Vancouver, it's almost impossible to find fantastic, reasonably priced pieces in good condition. So of course that means field-trips!

Last Tuesday I booked my first Zip Car (a Prius, naturally!) and picked up my good friend Stephanie Prins and hit the road to White Rock. It's a smaller city about a 35 minute drive from Vancouver, close to the US border and right on the ocean - which is my favorite part of going there. Any small city or town on the coastline immediately goes way up in my estimation. White Rock is full of lots of old people who drive real slow and it reminds me a little bit of my hometown, Victoria BC - which is on an island, and yes, surrounded by ocean.

Steph and I hit 3 thrift stores all within walking distance of each other. I would recommend Superfluity if you are looking for some serious chachkas . . . they had a fantastic collection of vintage glass dishes, china dishes, figurines, and ceramics. All very reasonably priced. I had heard about this thrift store a couple of years ago after a customer mentioned it to me. I always thought the name kind of odd - until I figured it out - it comes from superfluous!

1 a: excess , oversupply b: something unnecessary or superfluous

Ah.

The last shop we hit up turned out to be a gold mine in my books. I'm looking forward to working with all these lovely bits and pieces for my OAK line in the weeks to come. Check out that little owl - how cute is he? He had a manky piece of fur in his belly that was a bit creepy - I almost left him there. At the last minute I changed my mind and scooped him up. I've now taken the fur out of his belly and I will replace it with a pretty flower or perhaps a glass gemstone? Not sure yet. Keep posted!

Cheap Date 2

Descending into the Salvation Army Thrift Store "As Is" basement is like descending into a combination of a garbage dump, thrift store, and Night of the Living Dead.

It's the place where all the stuffed animals, chipped pottery, and unloved cassette tapes go to die. It's also the place to unearth the occasional piece of genuine treasure. Located on 12th ave near Main St in Vancouver, it's been the source for hours upon hours of free/cheap entertainment for moi. It's about 97% crap with a silver lining.

In my opinion, it's also one best people watching & conversation eavesdropping places in Vancouver. Average, middle aged bargain hunters mix with Main St. hipsters, new immigrants, single moms and dads - a true cultural cross section.

There are a couple of suggestions for activities:

• If it's your first visit, jump right in! Don't be afraid to dig through layers to find hidden treasure. Underneath that tinfoil turkey pan may lurk the collectible item you've been searching for!

• Be careful of broken glass and shards of sharp pottery. The staff in the "as is" department do not care that small children and the elderly regularly sift through boxes squeaking with glass bowls rubbing against each other. It's survival of the fittest down there. And that's why the staff wear leather gloves.

• If it's a return visit - it's fun to set up a small contest. Something like setting up the cutest or creepiest diorama, or who can find the strangest object that no one has any idea what it could be used for. I once saw a guy who was re-organizinig all the vinyl records so that all the same albums were the front of all the displays. So there was about 7 Barbara Streisands covers, 5 Neil Diamond, etc. That guy rocked!

On my last visit there I actually scored the perfect picture frame for my booth display. I have been looking for this type of frame for about a year - and there it was! It's that really light, plaster or plastic (?) kind which is great for looking ornate, but still keeping the weight down. (Important when you are lugging stuff around!). There it was in a random box with a discarded typewriter just waiting for me. Crazy.

I spent about 1 and a half hours there and spent exactly $8.00! Now that's a cheap date. It's fun to go on your own as well - you don't even need a date.