hitting the flea yestreday

Yesterday morning i took a drive over to the Columbus flea market (Columbus, NJ). it's about 45 minutes or so from me. you have to go early as it gets hot and the vendors pack up around 10:30/11:00 since they've been there since 4:30am. i usually go to Columbus on Thursdays, as that's when all the vintage/antique people go, but some guy i spoke with was telling me i had to go there on a sunday as it was great. Well, i beg to differ! there wasn't as many vintage/antique people and it was a lot of crap. it was hot, smelly and there were soooo many people. it was like family day with 20 family members in tow all toting strollers and screaming children. it was crowded to the point where passing people and even looking in booths was difficult. drove me nuts! quote me here, never again! anyway, enough complaining. i found a few things that were fun before hitting the road. i got an awesome bag of vintage plastic and metal cracker jack type of charms. so when i got home, i immediately put them to work as turned them into bracelets. they turned out great and hopefully will go over well at the Country Living Fair (CLF).




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then as i was leaving the flea market, i saw a garage sale so i stopped. he had a bunch of awesome stuff. i picked up a darling pair of vintage green gloves in the prettiest green color ($1), a box of (4) vintage Mustang hubcaps (1960's) for a project that i'm going to do with Dillon ($5), a wood level for jeff (.50 cents), some junk jewelry ($2). but the best thing was this white portable washer on wheels. the guy said he used it to clean out parts, but i looked at it and saw a cooler or something i could do tie dying/coffee staining in. it also might be part of my display for CLF. look how great is it? cost? now don't get mad - but it was $3!

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i took a different way home as i wanted to stop by this other flea market that i've seen before (and heard about) but had never had the courage to go to. it is very SKETCHY. It looks like something out of the bayou's of Louisiana - almost as if you will enter in, but never come out. It is very run down and the it is full of shacks (shantys as i like to refer to them). the first thing i saw was the scrap yard, which i ventured into, but it really was more of a dump. so i gamely headed back into the shack area. the first shanty i went into was run by a woman with very few teeth (see what i mean?) but she turned out to be really sweet. i asked her about the place and she said it's always been a flea market, for 50 years or more. she said Wednesdays were the day to go as it was much busier. there must be 30 or more of these shacks on the premise all full of "stuff" - most of them were closed. i picked up a few things here and there. all in all, i found the people to be very nice and friendly. if i have time, i might go back wed. just to see how the action is and then do a post for flea market junkture.