The Brooklyn Flea Market

So this past weekend, my husband and I took a trip to NYC and had a wonderful time!  The weather was absolutely perfect and everyone was out and about in the city.  

I had always planned that the next time I visited NYC (which is not very frequently...the last time being more than 6 years ago), I was going to go by the Brooklyn Flea market, which I read about in Country Living....so on Saturday morning my husband and I took a taxi from Midtown Manhattan to the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn.  We had a wonderful time!

This picture is a great vintage chair that I found and thought it was just displayed perfectly!  I will have to say (besides this chair and some of the items in my other pics) the flea market was much more eclectic than what I am used to in Tennessee and Virginia...but I was expecting that and it was neat to see something new!

I found this wonderful retro pink patio set....I saw it from a distance and it just caught my eye...I am usually not this "retro" in my decorating, but if we did not have to get in a plane to go home, I think this may have gone home with me!

The Flea Market is located on the outside play area

of a local school and it is on Saturday from 10-5pm. 

You can find more information about it at 

http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/

They also have an inside flea market on Sunday, which I did not have time to go to unfortunately...but it is also described on the website above.

I found a few things that I was able to fit in

my suitcase...I was really into looking for a

vintage purse while I was there.  I think that was for two reasons...it was something I could bring home with me and a lot of booths had great purses!  I found a very classy white leather Bienen-Davis purse, which I am very happy with!  I also found a vintage apron, which caught my eye.  I hope to have pics of those items posted soon.

Below I have posted a few more pictures of the flea market....

  This is an overview of the flea market, but also showcases one of the great vintage furniture booths!

This is the school that the flea market was held at in the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn.

I loved this booth....the white and blue colors....and all the enamelware in her booth was fun to look at!

I hope to share some more pics from NYC soon...I found some great outdoor decorating ideas in the city, but I also want to share a bakery where I had some yummy cupcakes!  

Magnolia Bakery

http://www.magnoliacupcakes.com/

Caroline's Lost and Found Website

I am very excited about a last minute change!  

I have been working on a website since February with a web designer and it just was not going anywhere...so I decided to try to find a new web designer on Tuesday and that is when I found this wonderful web design template!  The web designer of this template (http://www.enchanting-webdesigns.com/) has been absolutely wonderful and the site is up and running.   I still have to plug in products and such, but it is up and functioning and I really like it.   Please visit it at www.carolineslostandfound.com and let me know what you think!  

Vintage Lilly and Linens!

Well I had a new experience!  Early...and I mean early...Saturday morning, I went to a neighborhood garage sale with two friends.  This was at a huge neighborhood in Williamson County, which is outside of Nashville.  I mean this neighborhood (Fieldstone Farms) never ends and I felt lost most of the time!  

The reason I felt lost, is that twice a year they put on a neighborhood garage sale where each family can create a garage sale on their yard and people drive around going to each house that they want to...so we were able to stay in the car and peek at what the house had in their yard (from the car) and if we liked it...we stopped...and if not...we kept driving!   

I got to my friends house...a little late at 6:30 am and we got to the sale a little before 7 am...the sale started at 7 am.  There were Uhauls and large trucks already there...for people to haul away their treasures!

So for whatever reason, I was into buying things Saturday morning...so I got a lot...maybe too much!  But there were some great finds.  One was some vintage "His and Her" handmade embroidered linens!  It was just too cute and I got it!  Robert would never have it...so it will go to the booth, but I have a picture now to remember it by.

Then...there was this great vintage Lilly Pulitzer skirt....in perfect condition!!  My friends found it, but they so nicely let me buy it!  And I just love LP!  And I have nothing vintage Lilly.  I was going to wear it to church on Sunday...but it needs to be tailored a little bit, but I cannot wait until I get to wear it!  

Oh, and my favorite sale shop for Lilly is http://www.thesaleshack.com/...this is the online sale section for C. Orrico (a Lilly Pulitzer store in Palm Beach, FL)-- their Lilly shoes are really marked down!

Otherwise, some other things I got were two old iron tables for next to nothing...they just need glass for the top...but otherwise have a great patina to them!!  I have the smaller one pictured below...I am currently looking for a glass store here in Nashville....

There were many other things that I bought...but I think I am just going to end it here.  It was a very fun day and I cannot wait until the fall when Fieldstone Farms has their next neighborhood garage sale!

Anything tole!

So I have had a few recent fun finds...a vintage tole tray and a pair of small Italian tole lamps....which I just love!  For whatever reason anything tole....just catches my eye and I cannot resist...especially if the price is nice!  These items do not seem to sell well in my booth, but that is okay...just gives me an excuse to keep them for my home!

The first is a muted blue/green tole tray, which I just picked up yesterday.  I saw it advertised on Craigslist (CL) and it was actually being sold by the same lady whom I bought a vintage chic white wicker rocker from last week!  I don't buy too much off of CL, but I liked her items and the prices on CL are usually pretty low!  It is also a nice to have a little bit of "retail therapy" at work...which is when I peruse CL.  I really don't think I am going to give this up to my booth yet, since I love just looking at it in my living-room right now!

The Italian Tole lamps are a find from Montgomery, Al. I was down there a few weekends ago to research a Junior League event that we will be putting on here in Nashville in spring 2010 and I could not leave until I went by a few re-sale shops and antique stores...of course!!  My husband was with me, so I did not go overboard, but I did find these adorable lamps at Eastbrook Flea Market and Antique Mall in Montgomery.  What a wonderful antique mall...the mall had three floors of booths after booths after booths... of all kinds of treasures!  Robert found an antique/vintage armoire for very little $$ and if we were not 5 hours away from home, that may have come home with us too!  The lamps are now residing in the dining room on our buffet....I don't know if they really "go" with the room....but I just love looking at them, so that is where they are!

Oh, I took a picture of the tiny brass band that is on one of the stems, which states that it was made in Italy...I just thought it was a nice touch that it was

still there!

New Inspiration!

So I have not been updating my blog recently and have sort of lost some of my inspiration with it.   Two things happened this week, which have re-inspired me!  

First of all, a friend sent me several wonderful blogs which she follows of other women who like  "old treasures" like me!  Also, another good friend informed me that she was starting a blog about what she and her husband are up to! 

So I feel re-inspired now and started to take pics of what I am working on for my antique booth and what we have been working on around the house, which I will share!

First of all, my next project for my booth is this wonderful old wood chest of drawers (the drawers are not in it right now).  The chest has a sticker on the back, which states that it is from a Memphis furniture company.  I bought it at a garage sale a few months ago and have gone ahead and sanded it (well my husband Robert sanded it) and it is ready to be painted! It had a really ugly brown paint on it...and it was so hard to sand it off, so that is why my husband was so nice to help out! I cannot wait to see what it will look like!!  

Then there is a picture of a vase of beautiful blooming lilies in our living room and in the background is an oil painting that my husband and I recently bought from a French artist we found when we were in Paris for our honeymoon.  Her name is Virginia De Zan and she has a website (http://www.virginiadezan.com/).  I think she just has a very unique painting style and she uses such vibrant colors, which I love!  This painting is called "Ne pas Deranger"...which means "Do not Disturb"....which I guess is not very nice, but I just loved the dog in it and the child's skirt!

The last picture (which is actually the first one at the top, since I have not figured out the best way to get the photos in the order I want them!) is of my grandmother's chair, which my mother had recovered.  I have placed two needlepoint pillows on it...the larger blue one...I found on craigslist and the smaller one with a Westie on it (of course)...Robert and I found in Paris.  I could not pass it up!

I hope you all will find this blog enjoyable!  I also am starting up an online store (in addition to my little booth at Gas Lamp Antiques in Nashville), which I hope will be up very soon and will share that as it comes along!  Take care....