After a summer in and out of flea markets, auctions, thrift shops too many to count, vintage snapshots remained frustratingly out of reach. Saturday on the phone with my mother, cranky that summer was ending, cranky in general, feeling cooped up my mom suggested we try the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market. We hopped on the bus, made a pit stop at my favorite City Bakery (my standard antidote to most stress) and then headed towards the West 25th Street Market between Sixth Avenue and Fifth Avenue. This weekend outdoor flea market features up to 125 vendors selling antiques, collectibles, and other types of vintage and retro decorative arts. It was just what I needed! There were photos galore, amid used clothings, vintage velvet love seats, gay porno, vintage militrialia, and tools. 7th heaven. Then, we headed towards the Garage across the street, an indoor market with slightly higher quality goods housed on two floors of a car garage. Beautiful prints, vintage stationery supplies (triple yum), postcards, stamps, china, lamps, lots of prints.

Now that our apartment is pretty well full of every decorative object T. can tolerate, I’ve decided to start selling some of my vintage finds on Etsy since I love the hunt so much The lifeguard snap above is for sale as are some other finds from this summer (glasswear and dish towels). Give it a look and let me know what you think!

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This weekend found us in Tampa FL celebrating T.’s grandmother’s 90th birthday. My first trip since school started when I wasn’t doing reading or school work every free moment which made coming across the Oldsmar Flea Market all the more delicious (photos courtesy of Tour of America). We spent this morning scouting it out and it didn’t disappoint. We scored a funky magazine rack (JUST like one in grandma’s house) and some small picture frames that I have grand plans for. There was a great fresh produce market that looked and smelled wonderful. Not pictured but worthy of note were the salt and pepper shakers “makin’ bacon” which featured mating pigs. Needless to say a good time was had by all.

The Tampa area is full of flea markets and I can’t wait to go back:

http://www.bigtopfleamarket.com/

Wagonwheel Flea Market
7801 Park Blvd.
Pinellas Park, FL 33781
727-544-5319
49′ER Flea Market
10525 49th St. N.
Clearwater, FL 33762
727-573-3367

If you’re looking for good food in the Tampa/ St. Petersburg area you won’t be disappointed by Chattaway — an authentic burger joint with a beautiful garden (10 or so container gardens in old bathtubs!!) that was a nice respite from the big box strip malls that seem to be slowly removing any sort of authenticity from FL.
Chattaway
358 22nd Ave. S
St. Petersburg, FL 33705
(727) 823-1594

Today, at the flea market at St. Ouen I fell in love with the shop Daniel et Lili and I’m sure I’m not the first. It is stuffed to the brim, floor to ceiling, with clear plastic boxes full of buttons, hair clips, combs, earrings, beads, vintage ribbon, wallpaper, decals of all sorts of monuments in Europe, plastic bangle from the 70s and 80s (including some florescent colors I haven’t seen SINCE the 80s), cards, religious icons of the Mother Mary and misc. paper goods (more on that later).

I spent two hours looking at everything twice. A designer’s dream — a museum of sorts to accessory deign in the last hundred years. I felt like I was stuffing my face with the best buttery croissant except it was plastic bric-a-brac and paper goods I was gorging on. I ended up with red paper lobsters, gold paper elephants, tiny pink pigs, elegant blue and pink paper lovebirds nesting, cowboys, circus animals, christmas trees (in multiples), a decal or two, easter bunnies in elegant pastels, some interesting cards that I bought for their folds (they might become Abigail Stationery cards someday) and two pink art deco-y combs that made me feel cool and sexy in 90 degrees.

I’ll post images of all the loot as soon as I am home in Brooklyn with my scanner. UPDATE — Here they are!

http://www.lilietdaniel.com/pages/vernaison.htm