Flea Market Adventure

There's a flea market near our house each weekend. Mr.ShowMe and I decided to venture out to it today. It's blazing hot here, more typical of 4th of July weather than Memorial Day weekend. We figured we could get out to the flea market early and be back home long before the hottest part of the day. I found some real treasures and captured many more on film like this pressed glass compote. 

Here's a little peak of our adventure. 


It's a popular place.

An old large domed glass oval frame with a baby photo. I always find these to be sweet, but a little creepy too.

 Some pretties placed on an antique dresser.

 Old cast iron.

 A doll house.

It wasn't all old items there. This dealer had fishing stuff, here's a just a few of his tubs of rubber worms.

An old pink grocery scale and a really cool stylized bird lamp base.

 Check out this neat old hat box!

And these gorgeous vintage dresses!

Several dealers had tables full of old oil lamps. These were particularly lovely.

Old teddy bears and their little black lamb friend.

The bright colors in this old painting really grabbed my attention.

More oil lamps.. these with metal bases.

This old Sante Fe railroad clock reads Hollywood Cal. on the face.

 This old rocker upholstered in red velvet was in really good condition.

I couldn't walk by without taking pictures of the old sewing machines.

Retro Anchor Hocking Fire King Tulip Bowls. (Their condition was so perfect, Mr. ShowMe and I wondered if they were repros.)

Here's an electric typewriter probably from the early 70's with the case and the proud union label from a time in history when we still manufactured things here in the U.S. and a World's Fair poster that might be a repro, but still had cool graphic images.

A really big wheel!

This dealer had a neat assortment of old, tiny, stuffed animals and had them arranged in and on a tiny wooden dresser.

Here's the items that were too tempting to leave behind.

A dealer had a basket of vintage fabric that contained a bag with 39 pieces of sample fabric. Each piece is 11" wide by 9" tall. There are 3 or 4 color variations of each print. I think they're upholstery samples. They're lovely and just the thing to use for some bags I'm going to make, (stay tuned for that!). They only wanted $2 for the bag, so they came home with me.

This tiny (3.25" diameter) Hot Springs souvenir plate came home with me too. It would have to be The Bargain Of The Day since it was free! I collect Florida souvenir plates, so I always look when I see one to see if it's from Florida. I just couldn't believe it when I saw it said Hot Springs. That isn't in Florida, rather Arkansas, but it's where I lived with my Grandmother when I graduated high school, so I just had to have it. When I asked the dealer the price, he told me, "It's yours". I tried to insist that I pay him something, but he told me again that I could just have it, so I quit arguing and put it in my camera case for safe keeping till I got home.

Old watches are great to craft with so at $2 that Elgin was mine, and when the dealer told me those disc earrings were only $1, I decided to find a second pair for the price and selected the turquoise drops with the red beads too.

So here's my whole $7 haul. (I keep telling Mr. ShowMe that I'm a cheap date. I think this proves it!)

The clamps and note pads for $1 rounded out the rest. I'm always scrounging around for clamps and clips to hold things until the glue dries, and I need to start keeping a note pad in my purse to jot things down when I have moments of inspiration for blog posts or purse & craft ideas.

I hope you're having a great weekend. 

Thanks for stopping by!

DIY Christmas Jewelry

I like dressing for the season as much as the next gal, but I don't like spending a lot money on costume jewelry that I'll only wear one month out of the year. I've accumulated a small assortment of Christmas jewelry over the years, but it was all either given to me, purchased the week after Christmas at a deep discount, or handmade. 

My favorite piece would have to be the antique style clothespin pin that my now all grown up daughter made for me back when she was in daycare. 

I've had to reglue his googly eyes a few times over the years, but he's still in one piece and he always brings compliments and makes me smile.

One of my favorite post Christmas deep discount purchases would be my Berenstain bear pin. Who doesn't like a bear all dressed up for the holidays?

There's the angel pins and bracelet. I love angels, don't you?

I'll let you in on a secret. I think the one on the left is actually a tooth fairy, but she has wings and a crown that could be considered a halo, so I wear her as a Christmas angel.

But here are the things I most wanted to share with you. These are some of the things I've made over the years.

A braided paper bow sold as a package decoration just needed a pin back hot glued to it and I have a cute pin that really pops on a black sweater. That's how I wore it today. 

Those gold plastic hearts encased in glittery tulle and topped with a skinny red satin ribbon bow are ornaments for a miniature Christmas tree, they just needed fish hook earring wires and ta-da! Instant Christmas earrings. They're as light as a feather and super festive looking. 

Those three items, the tree, Rudolph and Santa are button covers. Remember them? I'm not sure what they were sold as, but I just glued button cover findings to the backs. Is it just me, or does that reindeer look angry? 

I had a bracelet on a stretchy cord that I bought at one of those "trading companies" that are all over the place in our area. It had a mix of beads and charms. I went to put it on one day in December last year when the cord popped and  beads and charms went everywhere. I gathered up all the pieces and the next day sat down to restring it, when I had an idea. I took a short piece of chain and some jump rings and made a pair of earrings instead.

 I kind of stretched this one out so you could see what  I did. I added a snowman and a charm on a jump ring at the top of the chain, then two tiny bells and a tree charm at the end of the chain.

Here's the pair together. I kind of like the quirkiness of them that that aren't exactly the same. They each have a snowman at the top. But they aren't identical, and a Santa hat hangs at the end of one, with a tree on the other. 

So next time you're looking at Christmas decorations in a store, consider what you could use to make jewelry with. Do you have Christmas jewelry that you wear each December?

I hope you're having a good week!

Thanks for stopping by :)