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. 

Inspiration Notebook

I love our new little place, but I can't seem to get things right when it comes to arranging and decorating it. That's in part because most of what we have just won't work in the space and in part because I'm just tired of the same old stuff, blah. Some of our furniture is too large, and some pictures too small or just not right for certain walls. It's been a little frustrating for me because I can usually figure out what to do with what I have pretty quickly. But this time a lot of what I have just doesn't work. So I've been looking for inspiration in my favorite magazines (and asking people like Lisa for advice, which has been really helpful). Before we moved I thinned out my magazine collection significantly and tore favorite pages out. Last week I finally made notebooks of those pages. I have notebooks for interior spaces, garden and outdoor spaces, crafts, and table settings and cooking. I'm so happy I finally did this, and now that I have the books started it will be easy to keep it up. Here are a few pages of inspiration, some clean and fairly neutral, some rustic and colorful. I wish I could get our place to look like any of these!! Unfortunately I don't know all the sources for sure, but most of these are from Country Living, except for the one with the more polished living area with the black and white chairs--that one is from Domino. 

Borough Market

Last Saturday we went to Borough Market, which is one of London's biggest and oldest food markets. It's sort of like a huge farmer's market with a street festival vibe. You'll find stalls after stalls of fruit, veggies, meat, seafood, cheese, baked goods and just as many prepared food vendors ready to fill your tummy. This market is madness, just packed with people, but if you visit London, it's worth a visit.

Maptastic!

I love maps! They remind me of places I like and people I like. Also, maps just look really cool--the colors, shapes, the lines. Maps are great for all kinds of crafts (if you can bear to cut them up), and I just like them on the wall. My favorite wall in our place is the wall with our San Francisco map. I'm not too crazy about anything else I've done with our place, but I like this wall simply because of the map. Our map is pictured here last. Here are some other great examples of showing off your maps! Sources listed below. 

Last but not least, our map of San Francisco!

1. Elle Decor (not sure of specific online source) 2. Here 3,5 and 6. Here 4. Here 7. Here 8. Here 9. Here 10. Cupcakes and map, not sure of the source! 

Before and After

We have this unusual piece of furniture that I bought at The Pickled Hutch that we used to use as a bar. I'm not sure what it was originally built for, but it looks handmade, and I love it. It made a great bar (and I think it would make a good desk too), but I couldn't find a home for it in our new place, so I decided to make it an outdoor bar / potting table. I sanded it a bit, gave it a few coats of creamy ivory paint, and now it's our garden bar! Ready for some cute potted plants and lemonade or wine for guests. I want to have some potted plants on the side shelves, and maybe glasses on some of them, and then use the top as the bar. I think it turned out pretty well! Now we just have to get a nice table and and some chairs for the garden so we can sit and sip. You ready to join me on the patio?

Spring Pretties

Earlier this week I walked around the neighborhood and the park and snapped some pretty pictures of spring in bloom.  Everything looks so colorful and bright these last few days.  Here's a bit of what I saw.