Treasures

Last week I went to the big flea, well, one of the bigger flea markets in London, the Kempton Park market. This time I rented a man and van. I usually get what I think of as "sold envy" when I'm at markets here: I watch people haul away loads of good junk! Since we don't have a car, and I can't really carry anything too large on the train, I thought I'd hire someone who could haul my junk home. I've been needing a bedside table and a small bookshelf for a while now, and I've wanted some small furniture for our little patio. So I made a list and actually found a lot of what was on it. Here's a bit of what I brought home. 

Paintings weren't on my list but I couldn't resist these two bargains.

My bedside table before...

And after! I didn't do anything to it really, as you can probably tell, but I like it that way, all chippy. I bought a handful of other things like a bookshelf, a bench, and some patio furniture. But I didn't take pictures of those yet. But I'll post some pictures of the patio soon. 

Our little patio has looked quite sad for months now until I found this pile of pots! I wanted to make our patio look better and finding these pots was just the motivation I needed. A guy down the street was tossing them. There were more than what's shown here, and most of them were big terra-cotta pots, so I made a few trips and got them home. Below is the patio in its before state, but after I brought some of the pots home.

And here's a peek of the after through our living room. More pictures of it coming soon.

A few Trinkets

Today I went to the Spitalfields market to see if I could find a few fun vessels to hold some of my sewing supplies. I'd really like something narrow and tall with lots of cubbies, like a letterpress box (like this one) to hold bobbins and whatnot. I didn't see one today, but I found a few really pretty tin boxes and an old muffin tin. The market today was so great (well, to me anyway), but I only had about 30 minutes there because it took soooo freaking long to get there in double decker bus traffic. Next week I'll try to take some pictures at the market. Today I just whizzed in and out. But I love the little things I came home with. Oh, and you might notice I'm doing a little blog make-over. Please don't mind the off-center header, which I haven't been able to fix yet. And some fonts, gotta change a few of those too. But I'm out of my blog funk, so you can expect more regular posts like the old days.

The BIG Flea

Today I went to the Kempton Park Antique Market (Sunbury Antique Market, according to the web site, but I've only heard people refer to it as the Kempton Park Market, so that's what I'll call it). If only I had a truck, a ton of money, and a much, much bigger place! I love this flea market! It's the best I've ever been to. Well, this one and the Vanves Flea Market in Paris--those two are the best I've been to. What really makes this market so great to me is the variety and the quality of merchandise. You really don't even have to dig to find any treasures. And people are soooo nice at this market. Nobody had a problem with me taking a picture; in fact, most people were just flattered that I asked. I can't wait to go back next month. I might try to talk Andrew into renting a car. These are just a few pictures, but you can see more from the market from my last visit if you click here.

I love seashell boxes, and this dealer had all kinds. 

I would have loved to take home this sign. It was sooooo freaking heavy. It must have been cast in concrete or some such matter because holy smokes it was heavy. But I thought it would look great over my mantel headboard (yes! I finally have a mantel headboard, which I'll show you once I have the room more together). 

I'm often drawn to industrial fixtures and whatnot, and I loved this textile rack. I thought it would be cool  in a bathroom with towels and magazines on it, or good for fabric piles in a craft room. This is from Paul and Lucy's Vintage Industrial Furnishings. They have great stuff!

They also had a number of these fun spools, which can serve lots of functions. I have some that I use as candle holders, and they said someone bought a few large ones and planned to use them as towel racks. Neat! 

More cool spools. These were smaller but still really fun (good for sewing trims, etc).

Fabric! So much beautiful fabric at this market. These are piles of various prints, but a number of dealers had piles of linen fabric and white cotton linens, most of which seemed to be from France. 

Always room for more buttons!

This dealer had lots of maps and educational charts and graphs.

Never a shortage of doll heads at a good flea market. They're the universal symbol of "flea market" to me. Oooh, I had so much fun! Just wish I took more pictures!! I was too busy looking around again to focus on pictures. I'll try for more next time. I can't wait to go back, and here's the link again to see pics from my last visit. 

The Big Flea

Today's the big Alameda flea market. As I type this I'm sure the hardcore market-goers are scoring some great treasures by flashlight. I'd love to go, but we need to get a lot of other things done, and I know if I go, I won't get any of those other things done. Going to the big flea wipes me out, in part because it's so good and so big and in part because it always takes forever to get home across the bridge. But it's a great flea market and totally worth the traffic hassle. I wasn't surprised to see it in an article on the best flea markets in the world in the last issue of Budget Travel. Next month I'll be there. I want to find some vintage Christmas wrapping paper and ornaments for our Christmas tree to be. Here are a few pictures from a few months back.

Kempton Park Antique Market

It was hard to leave Painswick, but I had a lot more to look forward to so I tried to focus on that as the train rolled away from the green hills. I was especially looking forward to the Kempton Park market that Artemis told me about. She said it was a little bit outside the city, but it was totally worth the trip. I'm not sure I'd go again alone with Lois, though--too many trains, and too many stairs, but I'm so glad I went. It was a beautiful day, and it was a great flea market! It's held twice a month in the parking lot of the Kempton Racecourse, which is huge (and a lot of dealers set up indoors as well). Although there was a mix of all kinds of things, this wasn't a junky-junk kind of flea market. I saw a lot of beautiful silver, vintage fabric, monogrammed linens, leather suitcases and bags, vintage clothes, jewelry, and adorable vintage toys just to name a few things. I thought the prices were reasonable for the things I asked about, and everyone was so nice. Every time I asked someone if I could take a picture, they seemed flattered and said yes. Here's a little bit of what I saw.

Portobello Road

This morning I went to Portobello Road for the Saturday market. I got up bright and early and headed out solo while Andrew stayed at the apartment with Lois. I'm happy I went, but I'm not sure this market would be on the top of my list if I were just visiting for a few days. I've been once before a few years ago, but I didn't remember it being like it was today.

It was quite the tourist trap. At least a third of the street market consisted of new cheap goods, like vendors with knock-off Prada bags, and vendors with lots of tourist trinkets like little red plastic London double-decker buses. I got there pretty early, so it wasn't until about 10:30 when I was leaving that the masses of people became too much for me. I don't think I've ever seen so many fanny packs and cameras in one place! I admit I was one of those tourists (with camera, no fanny pack, just a big purse filled with random baby stuff). As I headed in the opposite direction back to the train station, it was like invasion of the fanny pack zombies, all rushing towards me, and I actually couldn't wait to escape!

The neighborhood is really nice, though, and I'd prefer to go any day other than Saturday and just browse in the shops and walk the pretty streets of Notting Hill. Having been to a handful of the antique markets now, I'd definitely choose Camden Passage Market over Portobello Road. Still, it was fun to have alone time and see the tourist madness that was Portobello Road. And it was a spectacular day. Blue sky, cool breeze, sun. Can't beat that. Here are a few pictures from the old side of Portobello Road.





I wonder how many times these Portobello Road row houses have had their picture taken. Lots.

Camden Passage Market

Yesterday morning, before going to the umbrella shop later in the day, I went to the Camden Passage Market. I was close to experiencing antique overload, if that's even possible, but I think I was close. The street market was great, but it was all the little cozy shops that made my eyes start to hurt from over-stimulation. It was like a little fake town at Disney, Antique Town, but it was real! Tiny shops packed with silver, china, books, tools, vintage clothes, and a whole lot more random old stuff. I'll have to go back again with Andrew because most of the shops were too small and packed to stroll Lois in with me, so I just peeked my head into most of them, but here are a few snippets from the market. Tomorrow I might get another dose of antique overload when I go to Portobello Road. I should get some rest.

Spitalfield's Thursday Market

Tiddlywinks. Sounds like a very cute British name for a game don't you think? I saw it today at the Thursday antique market at Spitalfields. It was a fairly small market showcasing a lot of the usual suspects: vintage clothes, toys and games, lace and buttons and fabric, cameras and phones, kitchenware, small rickety furniture, and one of my flea favorites--sort of a flea market icon to me--naked dolls and doll parts. It was a little pricey to me, but hey, it's London.





I had a great time at the market and plan to go back to the area and venture into a lot of other nearby shops like Blondie, Retro Trading Co., Labour and Wait, and Caravan, just to name a few. Ah, so many great places on my list! Those will have to wait a few days, though. I think we might have a market filled weekend, which will be just as fun.