Springtime at the Flea

Springtime weather has finally arrived in the midwest and with warmer weather comes the flea markets. I thought I'd share a few of this past weekend sites.

Mother Nature & Father Time always create the best distressed finishes.

I feel like I should know exactly what she is, but I don't.

There's always nice framed art there.

Then there were these creepy babies.

Cool old store display pieces.

Old lamps that have seen better days.

I can't pass up the opportunity to take a photo of a neat old purse.

Pretty painted glass shades.

Play kitchen appliances.

What a sharp looking old piece of luggage.

Julia was there.

  And Mel too.

  A crude little Gypsy fellow.

 Someday I'd like to restore an old trunk.

 I bet some fun times have been had on this bike!

 What regal chairs!

 A clever sign, but I didn't see any ladies flocking there to buy the new models.

 A floral dog :)

 Old glassware and an old fan with super shiny brass blades.

I told myself last year if I lost enough weight I'd buy one of these pretty dresses. Hmmm... 15 pounds to go. It seems achievable. Wish me luck!

Please keep the good folks in Boston in your thoughts and prayers tonight and in the coming days and weeks, as another city tries to heal from a senseless tragedy.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Vintage Buttons In Our Etsy Shop

Not long ago we decided to try some vintage buttons in our Etsy shop. They seem to partner nicely with vintage sewing patterns. Today we got the nicest shout out by Lauren over at Wearing History.

She bought these really cool vintage red filigree buttons from us that look like they were made for the sweater she put them on, don't you think?  

She sells this pattern via .pdf download here. 

It's really fun to get to see the finished product of something made with items that we sell.

Thanks for stopping by :)

Life Magazine - Time Machine

I love looking at old magazines. They are a fun step back in time. And while the articles can be fun to read, for me anyway, it's the ads that really tell the tale.

We went to an estate auction recently and one of the boxes of crap treasures we came home with had a 1954 Life Magazine in it. I'm going to reap a few blog posts from it, as it's a great issue all about fashion, but I'm going to start with one about the ads.

 Get a load at that price! $2.95 for the set. Do you know what complete sets of those Anchorglass Mixing Bowls sell for today? Ones in good condition bring over $100.00.. that's some appreciation rate!
 I love how the two women in this Briggs and Statton lawn mower ad are both mowing the grass in skirts. 

 What a fancy dress for admiring the new window air conditioner!

These just made me giggle. From the lady in the flamenco dancer dress who's constipation worries are over, the innovative step stool that lets housewives "work relaxed", and the woman who dreamed she flew a kite in her new Maidenform bra!

 Here's two more things we can all be thankful for. The invention of a better toilet bowl brush and the 10 key calculator!

Do you eat open face hot dogs with a knife and fork? I guess you'd have to! And how fun is this Libby's Pineapple juice ad?

 Never forget... if you want to win the boys, stay sweet as you are! And of course that starts with Listerine mouth wash! heheh

      
 I guess some things were lost in translation over the years. I'm not really sure how shrinking cotton causes you to be "swept away".. and besides.. when your waist is as small as your neck do you really need to worry about your clothes shrinking?

The "48 states" caught my attention. It wasn't for another five years after this magazine issue that Alaska and Hawaii joined the union and we became 50 states. 

 Due to my watch fetish I had to pay homage to this old Timex ad. I just don't know why the pups look so sad. They're advertising watches! What's there to be sad about?

And I guess after an evening of watching the little woman hang the wallpaper, she could go to the kitchen

where she could sit on her step stool and relax while she cooked dinner using her "pride and joy" Wear-Ever pots and pans! 

Thanks for stepping back in time with me. I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did. 

Have a great week :)

I'll be joining DebbieDoos and other fun parties this week, check out my Link Parties page for the complete list.

A Bag For My Bike

With Labor day coming to a close it's time to bid adieu to summer time. We didn't get to take an official vacation this year, but Mr ShowMe and I did take up bike riding. We've had quite a lot of fun with it. My bike's an old hand-me-down, but I really like it. It has a sort of retro vibe and of course you can't beat the color!

It didn't take too many trips out on the bike with my keys and other personal effects crammed into my pockets that I decided I needed a bag for it.
My intentions were good. It's not as if I don't have a lot of wonderful fabric in my stash. I searched the web. I even picked one bike bag as my favorite. 

Tamara at Etcetorize posted this lovely bag that she made for her bike and even provided a tutorial to take out all the guess work. But before I got that far I ran across a ready made zipper bag that I received from the airline both times I flew to the Philippines with my job. 
They gave us these bags with toiletries in them. I had one from each of my trips there. They aren't really big enough to use as a travel bag, but with me being a bit of a pack rat, of course I still had them. 
I hand sewed on strips of some nylon strapping that I had and added Velcro on each. 

It turned out to be the perfect size for the front of my bike. The fabric will be more water resistant than anything from my stash would have been any way, and it's plenty roomy to hold my keys, cell phone, Kleenex and inhaler for my allergies, and even my camera. 

So on one hand I cheated, but on the other hand I recycled something that I didn't really have a use for otherwise. Maybe I'll embellish it with fabric flowers or something so I don't feel like a complete sell-out! (But if I do that, I'll stick to embellishing just the bag on my bike. I don't think Mr. ShowMe would find it as aesthetically pleasing on the one I put on his bike! hehe)

Did you have any fun adventures over the summer?

Thanks for stopping by! :)

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!