Left Behind

As much as I love treasure hunting at flea markets and thrift stores, I'm almost as happy to find something great for free in my very own backyard, or apartment building in this case. Recently I made myself the owner of two great things that some of our neighbors left behind. After the guy in the apartment above us moved out, I decided to take a peek up there to check it out. I just wanted to see what the upstairs apartment was like and check out the view, which I figured was better than ours. On the counter among some random cleaning supplies was this seashell box.

I love seashell boxes, especially old ones, so I asked our other neighbors (who plan to move into that upstairs apartment) if I could have it, and they said sure and that they were just going to get rid of it. And another upstairs neighbor moved out a few weeks ago and left a cute off-white bookshelf in the garage. I waited a few days to see if they were going to come back for it, but it was still sitting there after two weeks, so now it has a new home. I'm so excited about my new finds!

Treasures Now In My Shop

So in my etsy shop I've listed just almost everything I got from the flea market this past Sunday, including this cute child's tea set above. My favorite thing, though, is already reserved for someone! It's this envelope letter holder below. It's metal and really rustic looking with its rugged paint job, but I love it. Someone sent me an email earlier today asking how I part with the good stuff. Well, the truth of it is we just don't have room. And I don't ever want Peter Walsh to show up at my place and look in the closets. Not only that, but I think if you're going to sell vintage things, you have to sell things you really like, otherwise your shop will look like a garage sale--just the cast off stuff you don't really want anyway, and people pick up on that. So I parted with the really cool letter holder (displayed with one of Katrine's cute tea time cards) and will part with more fun treasures soon.

Flea Market Fun

On Sunday I made my usual trip to the Alemany flea market, which is one of my favorite times of the week. Andrew has daddy time with Lois while I have alone time to wander among all the flea market treasures, and I love it! I always bring a limited amount of cash, usually a very limited amount, and I don't bring our checkbook because some vendors will say they'll take a check and that could get me into trouble. This week I spent all my money before I made it down even 1/5 of one isle. I had only visited 3 tables before I was out of cash! I try to look around first then go back to certain vendors, but I usually just get caught up in whatever I'm interested in at the moment and end up barely looking around first. And sometimes I end up buying some things just because they're so darn cheap (not the best way to shop). After I spent all my cash, I did see a great quilt top. I love quilt tops and have found a few here before.

I've been wanting to make some pillows like the one I made for my mom out of cut up quilt top pieces, but I can't bring the scissors to a perfectly good quilt top, so I've been hoping to find one with holes or stains that I wouldn't feel bad about cutting up, and Sunday was the day! But like I said, I was already out of cash, so I told the vendor I'd be back. Sometimes you just know when you have to go back. I had to pretty much find my way back to him through squinty eyes so I wouldn't accidentally notice anything else I had to have. With eyes practically closed, I ran and got the quilt top and left.

What a Doll

I was hunting around trying to find more vintage Child Life magazines like the ones Lisa gave me a while back (she always gives me the coolest stuff, doesn't she?), and while I was looking I came across this cute paper doll page for sale on etsy. Right away it reminded me of Emily from the Black Apple and her cute fashion blog, Some Girls Wander. The little girl's hat, the way she's standing, her knee highs, the way her eyes are looking away, etc. As much as I love clothes and playing dress up, I feel like such a lazy slug, or a shlumpadinka as Oprah calls it, most days when I'm getting dressed to make my usual round of errands--get quarters for laundry (yes, we have to pay to use the machine in our building, which is really annoying), go to the post office, go to the grocery store, yadda, yadda (insert more boring stuff here), and sometimes pop into the thrift store (twinkle in my eye just thinking about it; it's the highlight of the errand running). So I often think of Emily when I'm getting dressed and feel inspired to reach for something besides the Levis I wear just about every day now. Rarely do I actually do it, but I still think about it. I guess when I don't want to play dress up for real I can still have fun playing dress up with Emily's own collection of paper dolls. I didn't even realize she created her own until after I saw the Child Life page. I think dress up is fun wether it's the real thing or on paper.

I Like the Nightlife

A while back Lisa gave me these great club photo sleeves, which are all from the 40s and from San Francisco clubs. Photographers used to go around to clubs and take pictures and would offer people the pictures for purchase. They would mail a copy in a sleeve corresponding to the club you were visiting. I love the colors and unique graphic design of each card. I've been meaning to frame them but wasn't sure how to incorporate them into the look of the rest of our place. I think they might be best in our bedroom. I was going for a brighter look a while back, but gave up a little because I wasn't liking where it was going. These might be the trick to bringing it all together.




It's also fun to look at the pictures inside the sleeves. All of these must have belonged to the man and woman on the right. The man on the right is in every picture in each sleeve and playing the piano in a few of the pictures. I wonder who he is.

I love these menus, shown below, that I saw on Apartment Therapy from Lynn's house of Paris Hotel Boutique. They reminded me of the nightclub photo sleeves. I also love her lady portraits, too, of course.

Good Thrift

Lately the Salvation Army near my house has had something, if not everything, on sale 50% off. They have a huge banner on the building that says "recession rollback" in gigantic letters. You know it's bad when the Salvation Army is having a seemingly endless sale because of the economy. Yesterday when I took Lois for a walk, I was just on my way to get a cookie but couldn't resist taking a peek on yet another sale day. I'm the kind of person who can always find something (usually way too many things) at any thrift store, but I think Bracki-Land in Zurich may have ruined me. My usual round of thrift stores here just don't compare (same goes for the flea market). It reminded me that I haven't shown the rest of my pictures from the housewares section at Bracki-Land. I have soooo many more pictures, but these are just a few. All these pictures were taken with my phone, so they're not the best, but you get the idea.

It wasn't until my last visit to Bracki-Land that I found this room. Can you believe that? There was what I would consider a normal size housewares section near the checkout area, which I thought was the housewares section, but on my last day, I noticed a few people wandering into what looked like a back room, or stock room, but they didn't look like they worked there. So, I followed them into the room. It started out as a little hallway, but opened to this! This room was huge and seemed to go on forever. It was great!


Amazing teacups and teapots galore!


Again, I felt like I wanted to fill a U-haul and bring it home.

I also went back to the insane picture bins to see if I could find more good stuff. There was so much there, but I really didn't have room to bring more home at that point.

A few more pictures from the handbag section.


These little corduroy shoes were so cute.

I loved this trench. It had what looked like a little raindrop motif stitched onto it around the neck. Nice hanger too!

Cute summer dress.

I wanted this painting for Lois, but with three suitcases (we bought a 3rd), two carry on bags, the stroller, the carseat, and the baby, I really couldn't bring home one more thing. The zippers on our bags were close to bursting as it was. Oh well. We will be back, maybe sooner than later. Maybe not so close to Bracki-Land, but close enough to visit. More news on that soon!

My Style

What a goof I am! I just realized a day after I wrote this post that I think Lauren meant for me to show a picture NOT from my place, but from some other random place that expresses my style. Oh well, I already wrote this ridiculously long post about it, so I'm leaving it!

Lauren of Dear Golden tagged me to choose one photo that bests describes my design style. A fun game of tag! It's hard to pick one picture, but I think the one above would have to be it, for now anyway. This is the wall in front of our sofa, so it's what we see most of the time when we're at home. It pretty much sums up everything that's important to me in my design style--surrounding myself with things that are old, personal, and warm. What to call it, though--my style--I'm not really sure. What would I call it? "Flea market country" maybe, but I hesitate to use the word "country" because it seems to have such a bad reputation these days. I think it conjures up images of stenciled chickens and old teddy bears--poor "country" it's gone "rooster chic" as Decorno put it. Whatever you call it, it runs in my family, starting with my grandma. If you went to any one of my family member's houses, you'd notice we're all related just by looking around even though we all have our own personal style. I still don't really know how to incorporate Andrew's style more with mine, but one day maybe we'll get there. Lucky for me, he likes my style as it is.

In general, I like old things that make me wonder about their past lives--old painted furniture, old oil paintings, old rusty wrought iron, old wicker, old linens. Old things just have a lot of character to me. Like the painting above, I bought it for $15, I think it was, at a flea market near my mom's house in McDonough, Georgia, and it's one of my favorite things. I wonder about the person who painted it, where that little stream is--if it's a real place or just a place in the painter's imagination--I wonder what time of day it was supposed to be. Sometimes it looks like morning, sometimes evening. I wonder where it was that the frame got all scratched up. In some box in a garage for years? I also like that the water makes me think of my mom who loves the water.

I also like spaces that are personalized. My nephew's silhouettes are on this wall, and a few of the paintings are by my uncle who's an artist. Every year he paints something for all of us for Christmas. There's a little winter scene on the wall (just above the bar) that he did one year. Also, Connie, one of my grandma's closest friend's, paints a version of the Madonna every Christmas and prints copies of the original and mounts them on her Christmas cards. I have quite a growing collection now and have this one, above, framed on our wall.

I also like framed letters. It doesn't get more personal than that, does it? I just have this one note from a friend in high school framed right now, but I keep all my letters and cards (lots of others from high school, which are really funny to read), so I have plenty to choose from if I ever do get around to framing more.

And family pictures--I love lots of family pictures, but, for me, I only like them displayed on dressers and tables. I don't really like family pictures on walls unless it's one whole wall dedicated to family pictures. I think I get this from my mom and grandma, too--that's just how they do with family pictures.

Lastly, (gosh, I'm going on and on, aren't I) we always try to bring something home from our travels to remind us where we've been. There are little things here and there all around our apartment that we've brought home. The little girl silhouette I got at a thrift store in Zurich. She's cute and now reminds me of being there.

My mom is probably most responsible for my style, in large part because she gave me so many things that I have, like the painting above, another one of my favorite things.

So I think that about sums it up! Lois' room is my favorite room in our apartment though. I like it more than our own bedroom. Enough about that, though, now I guess it's my turn to tag, so I tag Lisa and Caroline to show one picture (or some pictures!) that best describes their design style. Hope ya'll don't mind!

Flea Market Fun

Today I went to the Alemany flea market and had a great time! Or maybe I should call it the Ferragamo flea market. I must have seen about 30 pairs of vintage Ferragamos. The bin below had about 5 pairs (including that tan pair you see there with the classic Ferragamo logo shimmering inside). Unfortunately, my two favorites didn't have their mate. But there were plenty more to go around, and I got a few others. I used to think finding a great pair of Ferragamos was a rarity, but here in San Francisco, they seem to be everywhere.


Lots of vintage clothes today. The seashell pink silk jacket above is so cute and has little bows stitched on it. I've looked at this many times and it's always still here week after week. It has a few unfortunate stains on it so I have a feeling it might live on the rack for while.

More fun vintage shoes. The red wedge espadrilles are so cute, but one sole was coming off. And the little cream suede lace-ups on the top rack there are Ferragamos too. This vendor wanted a pretty penny for them, so I had to pass.

I did get a handful of really great bags, including the three above, which I'll list this week in my etsy shop. The foldover kisslock clutch is in great condition and so cute, the inital bag was calling my name (my initals are L M, which is the inverse of how it's printed, but that's okay, I still couldn't pass it up), and the woven basket bag was really cute too.

Above are some clothes from Ms. Ellie's space. She always has the best clothes. Her clothes are always in great condition and you really don't even have to pick through them to find great stuff. She had a really pretty 50s floral party dress beside her that I asked about. I wondered if maybe she was holding it for someone. She said it had a spot on it and she was going to take it home to have it dry cleaned to see if it would come out. She showed me the spot and I could hardly see it. I know she takes good care of these clothes. I bought the dress below from her and I love it! It fits me, but I bought it for my etsy shop, which is where it is now. (Update--it already sold! I guess I won't be keeping it for sure!)


Here I am trying it on and looking over at Andrew who said, "hey, you should keep that one!"

Now I have to rest. The flea market was so fun, but I'm tired!