Friday Flea Market Finds

Last Saturday my daughter was so stinkin' cute when we were at the local market that we decided to go out to the Grafton Flea Market that they hold once a month.  Grafton is a little bit of a drive, but when we got out there we ate at the Loading Dock {an outdoor restaurant right on the river}.  There is a man who owns a boat that he renovated to look like a pirate ship and he rents it out for parties...5th Birthday for Brother???!!!

Sorry this is the best picture I got of the pirate ship. :(

After we finished eating we walked into the flea market....and this is a FLEA MARKET!

It is in a huge warehouse.

We loved walking around and seeing all the vendors and all the fun people.  I found lots of stuff that I would LOVE to buy.

Does anyone have an extra $125 I can have?  I'm pretty sure my son NEEDS this for his future bed room {when we are in a bigger house and he can have his own room...}.

I am going to go back and get one of these.  He had tons of them and they were only $7!  They are my "flea market regrets".  I always leave a flea market or thrift store and say, "I wish I bought that!"  That adorable Coca-Cola crate is my regret!

Love these trellises...the middle ones would look great side-by-side as a headboard!

This beauty was rather expensive but it is the PRETTIEST planter ever! 

In my ideal kitchen I have a beautiful display of vintage rolling pins.

I have seen these vintage spools at several different flea markets and I have been racking my brain to come up with a cool project using them.  You just wait, one day I'll have something awesome.  Do you have any ideas for them?

I ended up walking away with 2 vintage Sesame Street books, some yummy cinnamon-chocolate decaf coffee and a bag of corks from a local winery.

As we were leaving I saw this wall art.  People have glued all of these neat little things and nick-nacks onto the walls.

Fun carpenter rulers, saucers, postcards, coins, puzzle pieces, political signs and look at the awesome fire blower thing {technical term there!}

I can't wait to go back to see it grow through the summer months!

A Trip and an Art Fair

My absence over the past 5 days has been due to an amazing road trip we took this weekend.  We took our first family of four road trip back to Kansas.  It was so fun spending time with our friends and our kids in the town where the Husband and I "came of age".

On Sunday we went to downtown Lawrence and they were having an Art in the Park Celebration!  There were hundreds of vendors and artists showcasing and selling their wares.  I left my camera in the car which was parked like a hundred blocks away so unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but I collected business cards from each of my favorites to show you.

My ABSOLUTE favorite vendor was Emily Hamblin from Textile Couture.  She had the cutest set up.  Brightly colored empty frames, scrap fabric folded up in cute little cubby towers.  And that is just the extras!  Her bags and t-shirts are AHHHMAZING!  Her etsy shop isn't set up yet, but this was her first show.  She currently sells her shirts and bags at Au Marche, a European market downtown.  Dang I'm kicking myself for not having my camera!!!!  My friend Sarah bought one of her bags and here is a picture she took of it.

Emily thinks of ALL the details...instead of using boring tissue paper to fill out the bag, she used old cellophane bags filled with all her scrap strips and then she sews them up!  How stinkin' cute is this?!?

I LOVE Emily and I wish that I could have splurged and bought myself one of her totes or one of her sweet scrappy appliqued t-shirts, but I'll just have to wait until she has her etsy shop set up!

The Green Goat is a screen printer extrodinaire!  She has beautiful all organic and dye free screen printed children's clothes.  She uses images of intricate animals on beautifully dyed fabrics.  Here are my favorites from her shop.

Michael Williams of Metal and Nail Art has the most original art work I have seen.  He uses nails of various shapes and sizes to create 3d images.  It is stunning really.  I saw them from far away and could barely believe my eyes when I got close enough to see that they were nails!  Here are some of my favorites from his website.

Jerry Ann Dowdle of Terran Jerran is the up-cycling QUEEN!  Everything she makes is made of old or damaged clothing.  Her bibs caught my eye at the fair and as I got closer I had to look at them I realized they were made from old t-shirt sleeves!  Unfortunately Jerry Ann doesn't have any of her bibs on her etsy so you'll have to take my word that they were awesome.  Maybe she will be expanding her shop because she had sooo many things in her booth.  She made these gloves from an old cashmere sweater.

Thats enough for 3 posts!