Fluffyland Craft & Sewing Blog

Tagged: flea market

the haul (rummage sale 2010)

This weekend was Fall Break from college, and, with the greatest luck, it fell on the same weekend of my favorite rummage sale. This was the 72nd Annual Ladies Board Rummage Sale held in Leesburg, VA, and it’s one of my favorite events ever. This is the third time my mom and I have gone, and it’s always so much fun.

tiny owl candle dish (25 cents) that i couldn't leave behind

They collect donations all year, and all of it is crammed (yes, crammed!) into multiple horse barns for the two days of the event. Prices are reasonable, and awesome stuff is everywhere just waiting to be uncovered.

a portion of the rummage sale fabric haul

Plus, since Saturday was the second day of the sale, everything was half price after noon. And clothes and books went from pay-per-piece to fill-a-bag. My favorite!

not the sewing machine.. just the book

I got this sewing book, along with a few kids’ books in German, a photography book, and four Vonnegut novels, for three dollars.

tin plate with ducks on it

And who can pass up a tin plate that’s in perfect condition? (especially since i had never before witnessed such a thing!) (& especially since it was a quarter!)

what is a hassock? this, apparently.

My two dollar hassock, which is a word I’ve never heard but am quite endeared by after meeting this little guy. Apparently it is a small type of footstool that many grandmas have. Would you know what a hassock was if I asked you?

The leather has a tear, but of course I wouldn’t have kept the green leather if it was in perfect shape. I’m excited to upholster it sometime in the spring; right now I’m thinking a heavyweight but bright solid fabric with white piping, but I’ve changed my plans multiple times since this little guy came home.

Not pictured here: a bag full of screenprinting frames (!!); a necklace with colorful, chunky wooden beads; multiple pounds of clothing for wearing, reconstructing, and scrapping to fabric; and lots of belts. We spent a total of $21 altogether. I think my thrifting needs have been satiated for the next year or so… and they better be, because I have plenty of projects lined up now!

a use-what-you-have kind of summer

coral reef fabricThis blog is filled with posts about me setting resolutions with the seasons and breaking them every chance there’s a sale… I keep promising myself I won’t buy fabric, and then I do anyway! Because buying fabric is fun, therapeutic, and inspiring.

But wading through bins full of that fabric is often much the opposite: it’s exhausting & utterly overwhelming. This summer, though, I’ve been determined to fight that overwhelmed feeling and make my way through my piles of fabric. Throughout my quest, I’ve been realizing that I have some really awesome stuff!

I frequently envy the many pictures of thrift shop or flea market finds that pop up on my favorite blog feeds. Often this envy is what sparks my desire to venture out into the world of fabrics to further saturate my stash. But through my current stash reorganization, I came to the conclusion that I, too, have fabrics and trims that are to be envied.

Today I’m cutting out a tote of this crazy-cool coral reef fabric, and reveling in my stash (and stash-busting). Now that I know what I have to work with, I have the power to make this a use-what-you-have kind of summer.

day 3: paris flea markets & le tour eiffel

up and up and up,
how small our world appears through
the eyes of a bird

bead stand at the paris flea market

flan de abrigot - an apricot custard pastry

the eiffel tower, as seen from the banks of the river seine

view of paris sunset from the top of the eiffel tower

river seine at night

climbing down from the eiffel tower, peeking through its frame

The boys would clearly be miserable during our day of scouting the Paris flea markets, so we took the metro into the city and parted ways. My papa and brothers headed toward a science museum, while my mama and I ventured into Les Puces de St-Ouen, the largest and most famous of the Paris flea markets.

We first walked through a market lined with booths of shoes and jeans. Every stall contained stacks and stacks of boxes of Converses; not at all what we were looking for. We walked past it all, and finally reached the market of Vernaison, one of the antique markets.

Everything was quite expensive, especially with the euro exchange rates considered, so we browsed rather than bought. It was fun to look at everything, and we found an amazing bead store with boxes upon boxes of beads. Fill up a cup for 16€; even though the cups were rather small, I was lured into the colorful world of baubles and “perles” and came out with a brimming cup of my own.

With tired feet and eyes done with browsing, we left the market after a couple hours in search of food. We got a baguette sandwich to share, along with Orangina (my favorite!) and the most delicious apricot custard pastry in the whole world. It was so, so good.

We walked and walked, stopping for various shops and pictures, then met up with the boys near the Eiffel Tower. After dinner, as the sun began to descend, we made our ascent. We watched the city grow dark, then light up again, and I balanced my camera in many precarious positions, using every stable surface as a makeshift tripod.

The view was amazing, and I got some great pictures. The twinkling of the Eiffel every hour on the hour after dark is incredibly beautiful. We got back to our hotel after midnight and went to bed.