May Day

No May Basket flowers on my doorknob! How about you guys?

from Martha Stewart Living

I fought the traffic to the flea market...the roads were all closed due to a marathon and bikeathon and other  endeavors of an energetic and athletic nature. Making it a marathon of sorts for flea market lovers too. The market was HUGE! Just packed with dealers and shoppers and...(sigh)...junk.
Maybe I was overwhelmed?
On my list: linens, fabric, quilts, mason jars, other old jars/bottles. Blue and white plates & / or pitchers. Blue or turquoise graniteware. White ironstone. Old wooden crates. Pincushions. Old funnels. Old pearl buttons?

All a big, fat No! But: hey, lady, we got tube socks! Twofer ten bucks! (yeah, right.)...

Or all the usual beachy stuff? Ships in bottles, seashells, old seaglass collections, Nantucket baskets? Uh, no....

I did find this sweet pink silk heart...a hatpin holder, I think....

The note inside says it's in its original box.

C.1920?

And a couple new hearts for my silver hearts collection necklace.

(Yes, it's for sale on etsy with 100 silver hearts but I keep adding! because, well, ya never know?)...

A guy had adorable blue pansies and sweet lavender planted in handmade rustic little crates...so sweet! But OMG, $16.oo for three little pansy plants? C'mon.

And let's see, what else didn't I buy, but kinda liked: a couple ho hum blue transferware plates (Henry Hudson Discovers NY? Get out! Nice border though...); "silver" golf club cufflinks; an etched glass apothecary bottle with a silver ring top (new/ Marshall's-ish, but pretty); a blue & white striped pitcher (England); a b & w polka dot pitcher (Japan); some random boxes of buttons. A tiny b & w Willoware "Blue Willow" teapot, doll sized. Three or four neat old handmade tin cooky cutters, mixed in a batch of 50s aluminums and recent plastics; the guy said I had to buy ALL. Again, no.

How is it possible that a market with 200 dealers had not a single Mason jar?

PS I even brought quite a few dollars for the surly young man with the lovely Victorian jewelry, but he wasn't there. I am so wanting stacking rings, old wedding rings? And he had a beauty---rose gold with tiny flowers, miniscule pearls and paste centers, but last week when I gasped at the 138.oo price he looked down his nose at me (and he was sitting down! Good trick, my boy!) and he said, It is verrry old." Well, me too, lol---or at least that's how he made me feel!

MSL

Maybe next week?
What's on your flea market list? Any special wants or must-haves?

love

          lizzy

.....gone to the beach

Remembering...

From the poem by Irish writer Nick Laird....

excerpted from Pug, from On Purpose, Poems by Nick Laird

Pug



Bruiser, batface, baby bear
bounce in your moonsuit
of apricot fur with some fluff
in your mouth or a twig or a feather


....you tend to get hiccups.
you squeak when you yawn....
your weapon of choice is the sneeze.
the Buddha would have liked you....

I miss you every day, I catch glimpses of your ghost...
That Rainbow Bridge thing better not be wrong!

I love you.

[The Rainbow Bridge is a fable about pet heaven, how our beloved friends are supposedly waiting for us...I won't post a link because It always makes me cry, prob would you too....]

lizzy

April Showers

Oh how trite! Ol' April is milking the showers thing down to her last days of '11, isn't she?

The good news is the endless encompassing deadly white fog lifted about an hour ago...

The bad news is that it was washed away by a big, dramatic thunderstorm that is keeping me indoors.
I was all revved up for my spring fix-up and wall painting, headed off to Lowe's despite the fog, list in hand...
When the storm hit. So I stayed indoors. Really...tomorrow is another day, is it not?

I tried to take pictures of the rain on my windows but...OMG, blah...so here's the windowsill junk accumulation from the winter past, with just a hint f sad grey skies behind....

I do love the beach glass bottles!

Aren't the purple ones neat! They change color due to something (manganese?) in the old glass. I've read that purple bottles always date from 1900-1911---One hundred years!---because the trace element that turns purple was only used during that time. (urban legend?)

The darkest purple one is not a beach find, it is a dump dug find, from Illinois, from my dad's collection....

And the marbles, used here as stoppers,  are found on the beach also, tho I never find the really worn ones, maybe my sand is too soft?

These are cool old bottle bases....

And a few favorite, very white shells moved to a prettier location.

Every spring I weed out the windowsill collection, pare it down--usually  paint the darn window frames, boy, do they ever leak!
And start again....

So here's to starting again, getting ready for summer! And plans postponed, for now...

[Wonder if we'll have a rainbow...the sky is getting brighter, even as I write...I'm off to take a look!]

love


         lizzy

gone to the beach

linked to Sarah's  Good Life Wednesdays atA Beach Cottage