Handmade at the Flea

We are always looking for new fun things we can make here at the Flea. Valerie found this idea and we got our fingers working! She took about 50 -100% wool sweaters, felted them, and then we cut, sewed and voila! Perfectly picked little flowers for your fall wardrobe! We have about 2 dozen made so far in colors ranging from browns to blues. So be sure to check them out next time you are in the store. They look great on your fall blazers and scarves. Actually they'd also be great little additions to the pillows on your couch or for window drapery tie backs.....the ideas are endless for these pretty little things. The hardest part is finding your favorite! Hey there... this is Valerie and I wanted to add my 2 cents in about the felting process. While washing a load of sweaters (on very high heat), I did a little garage selling in my neighborhood. When I got back, the detergent had fallen onto the floor, knocked down from the super spin cycle, and liquid soap was all over the floor.... 5 gallons to be exact. No problem, since I just started to wash the sweaters... I soaked up the soap with the 20+ sweaters lying on the floor. When the washer was free, I stuck about 5 in there to be washed. Oh heavens FOAM!! My machine looked like a rabid dog with foam oozing out all over the place. It was a sight to see. It took 2 complete days to wash the sweaters (1 at a time with a load of dirty laundry). My apologies to the State of Georgia as I am sure to have contributed to our current water shortage.

Trip To Atlanta Chapter 2

After our Lenox trip and the chocolate fix, we headed for higher sights in the buckheadish area. We stopped at an area we'd both been wanting for awhile, but never had time. Today is the day we've got time! I did forget to mention in chapter 1 that by now we'd called the store and there was no answer at 10:30. Funny, it's Julie day, right? Well, the light then hit my head that this week was her wedding she'd be planning with a lovely bride for almost a year and she'd asked off for the day. No problem I probably said, Valerie and I are here on Tuesdays anyways. Oopsy! Called Ashley, got her to fill in for a few hours. Otherwise, note on the door, "Flea Chick's gone junkin". Sorry if any of you came by!

Anyways, back to the story. We window shopped the first strip of overpriced stores while gulping down McDonald's (no time for real sit-down food!). Walking to Pieces (fab looking shop we spotted in Domino Magazine) we spot a dainty tattered chair in wilted velvet. It wooed us over to a most unusal spot behind two buildings. Downstairs was locked but you could see into some amazing antiques and two sweet black kitties. The hand-written sign on the door said to go upstairs. It was a wrod-iron staircase and a bit spooky to be honest. Valerie even said, "Let's don't go up there". But up we went and boy are we glad. A couple hours later we'd managed to fill the suburban to the brim with treasures you will now find on our store floor, including 2 beautiful blue velvet chairs. Great finds, we'll be back for more!

Field Trip To Atlanta/ Chapter 1

We constantly feel a need to go out and explore what's out there for inspiration, store display ideas and new product ideas. After the 3 day Halloween set-up we had to mentally take a week off and then recharge our batteries with a field trip to Atlanta. Valerie has all sorts of fun places she likes to go, so we set this past Tuesday as our day becuase we have our Julie in the store. Valerie arrives promptly at 9am and we are off! First stop, and the most inspiring part of our day, was to Lenox mall's Anthropolgie. We anxiously stand outside the driftwood doors waiting for the 10am bell to strike all the while taking in their beautiful window displays. Cool thing today, they were atually putting the final touches on the window complete with open paint can on the floor, painters clothes, ladder, the works. Yes, we always wondered when and HOW they do all they do to their stores, because quite honestly they are amazing! And they do it just like us. Cool.

So in we go heading straight for the new ceder wall shaped like a birdhouse with a HUGE rolling track door. Man, are they getting in our heads or what because we'd just talked about wanting one in our store! Of course all the displays are amazingly put together. Just the right amount of this and that/ old and new...inspiring.

So what's up with the picture above you ask? Imagine this in your head for a moment. Valerie and I are determined to get some pics for our idea book, so camera in purse this is how she does it. She has a nice size purse over her left shoulder, arms crossed over her chest and camera tucked nicely between the arm and the purse so no one sees it. She snaps away as she walks. We are giggling...acting as casually as we can. By the way I should mention that we are the only guests in the store with like 10 workers who came up to us no less than 5 times in our 30 minute stay, are they customer friendly or what! So we exit ready to come home and make some new displays taking a look in her viewer to see how we did. We about peed ourselves when we saw the lovely selection of "Valerie's Arm in Anthroplogie Collection" we now have. You think they'd get some hits on Flicker? Anyways, can you tell what she was snapping? If you can, tell us and maybe they'll be a prize!

After that we just had to get a cookie at the cookie stand and off we went to our next stop...........

Check out what's in these glass jars! This is a great way for you to decorate your home with somethings you may already have. Grab those glass apothecary jars you bought from us in the spring and add: candy corn and a few chocolates disguised as eyeballs in one, mini pumpkins and bouncy eyeballs in another and last but not least, a couple of doll heads atop of old fashioned Mary Jane candies! We've got some extra doll heads laying around if you need them!












This great primitive cabinet is full of old amber bottles we found on a junkin' run. Along with our owl collection and a few light up Haunted Houses, it makes a spooky fun display! The skeleton is ready for a party with his fabulous party hat and scarf!

Sneak Peak at Halloween

We worked ourselves crazy for three days straight to create this magical Halloween experience just for you! We hope you will wander in soon and see all the really great products we found for decorating this year. We've got black light-up jack-o-lanterns, a new line of figurines, great flicker candles, pillows, dolls, silhouettes, spooky jewelry, bowl fillers and more! Here are a few pics to get you excited about your visit!



This is a view from the left.....silhouettes fill this area and create a wonderful table scape. The flocked witch in the moon and bats are a mantel must have! The glitter bats and spiders hanging from our ceiling, priced at just $5.00 each can fill your ceiling, front entrance or your porch for a fun trick-or-treater greeting! On the wall behind the table is our new find at the mart. These fun figurines are made of paper clay. Witches, pumpkins, cats, Frankensteins, ghosts and more all have adorable faces and some even bobble too and fro! These are guaranteed to be a fun collection to start.


Here's a view from the right.....Notice the fabulous blue velvet couch (A Valerie find) full of great Halloween inspired pillows. We also have a nice selection of banners for your front door, mantel decorations and some way cool tricks and treats!

"Spirits Tell Us...."

We bought this Ouija Board on our adventure to Nashville, TN months ago. Those of you who've read all our past blogs may remember seeing it in the pile of treasures from that trip! Of course there was always a plan for it to land in our Halloween display!

So board, do you foresee us having a fabulous holiday season? If this week is any indicator, the board is tried and true! Thanks to all of you who stopped by Tuesday night. We had spirits, food and fun for all. The front of the store is definitely a spooky filled grand display!

My Vent

Hey all.. well Jenni writes these things all the time but she wasn't with me on this adventure and I just had to share. So off to Atlanta I go with my Olivia (8) and Brice (5) in tow to the Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain Park. What a disappointment. Is it my imagination or was everything from a craft bazaar? I didn't see anything original or inspiring. But no matter- the real reason why we were in Atlanta was to pick up this cool couch that I found on Craigslist. We are putting out our Halloween merchandise next week and I thought this would be great in a display. So off we go to Canton.

When we get to the house....nobody was home. Now let me back up by saying the only communication I had with the seller was that we wanted to purchase the sofa and would pick it up after 5pm on Saturday. She said that would be fine and that she would be home. After about 5 minutes of ringing the doorbell, I left her a note saying that I would take my kids to dinner down the street and for her to call me when she got home. 1 hour later I get a call saying that she sold the couch 4 hours ago at 3pm!!!! A real honest women that one was...

It wouldn't have been so bad if on our way back home both Southbound lanes of Interstate 75 and 85 were shut down due to a bad traffic accident. All of us were rerouted to Interstate 285. 4 hours later the kids and I arrive home. I went up for a sofa but came back with this precious cargo instead.

He won't be for sale in our Halloween display though. :-)

HOLY COW! Grandma, where's that chair of yours?

"The infamous aluminum tube web chairs that society has taken for granted for so long are restored to accentuate their covertly true modern form. A stitched leather silhouette of the once web, new hardwood armrests, and mirror polished frame not only redefines the chair’s physical presence, but also its identity." So it's late, and I'm surfing the web, and just had to share this find. Those underlined words are directly from the website in vivid description of the "lawn chair" above! We had these way cute girls come in to the store today and through conversation, found out one's sister has a website with Lotta's stuff on it. (Lotta is featured in Blueprint magazine this month, you gotta check out her stuff. Love it!) The web shop is called www.greenergrassdesign.com. They offer way fabulous products and ideas for our store. Products and ideas for us to "springboard" off basically. And then I nearly fell to the floor laughing when I saw my Grandmother Adkins' favorite aluminum chair on their site under furniture listed for, are you sitting down? $2500.00!!!!! No lie! They have taken these chairs, used leather for the webbing instead of the scratchy plastic webbing, refinished the arms, and slapped a price of $2500.00 on it, plus shipping of course. So, if your Grandmother still has hers on the back porch, I'd sneak it off if I were you and bring it to Valerie and I, we'll fix it up real nice for you!

Emerging Artist

I think most of our readers know that I (being Jenni) write the blogs, while Valerie writes the website and our "Flea Bite" e-newsletters. That being said, I can take some liberty with my bragging rights when it comes to my best buddy Valerie in this blog entry. Below is a picture of Valerie's art as it now appears in Pearl Arts and Crafts Center on Roswell Road. Yep, our little artist has spread her wings outside the four walls of the Flea with her art! Doesn't it look amazing all together! Makes me so happy to see it there for others to see.


Many of you have admired her art as it has hung in our store for several years now. She has sold several paintings to regular customers as well. Valerie has been painting with encaustic wax, perfecting her technique now for about 3 years. The most inspiring part of her body of work is that she really is a self-taught artist. And although she claims to not call herself an artist, I believe she has amazing talent and a gift when it comes to this art medium! This first venture outside the Flea walls is a stepping stone to more showings for her. I look to the future and see her art donning the walls of many more art enthusiasts in the coming months! I'm so proud of you Valerie!
***Thank you Jenni.. I couldn't have done this without your guidance. My art website is now up and running so please go to www.artbyvaleriedumas.com and tell me what you all think!!

MARTA 101 and other cool tips

If ever there was a Kodak moment for Valerie and I, it was yesterday. So here's the story, no pics I'm so sorry! We set out for a fun day with the children (minus Mailey because, well those who know her probably know why) for a fun day in Atlanta at the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival. I'd found a write up for it in Lifestyles and thought, heck let's go! So, here's how it went. It's long and extremely detailed, but I just could not resist. It's a good story, so follow along......

Valerie, Brice and Olivia got the truck from my house sometime while we were Sunday schooling and picked up her finds from the auction Saturday night in Hogansville. She then came to Cornerstone Church to pick up William and I at 12:15. (I've gotta set the tone and TIME for you at this point). We were hungry enough, so we ran through ZAXBY'S to get some good ole' fried chicken and fries(and sauce). We head back to my house to drop the now full truck and get her suburban to take on up to MARTA, because I remember saying, "Let's don't waste time going and unloading it now." Let me preface this next scenario with the fact that Valerie thought that it would be an "adventure" to all ride MARTA to this Grant Park art festival together and not have to worry about finding a place to park. I of course agreed to the adventure and went along for the ride! Timeline check: 12:30 leave Jenni's house; get gas in suburban: 12:35; head to MARTA: 12:45; get to College Park MARTA: 1PM. We are a happy 5 some: 1:05pm. In our heads we'll be there by 2PM ready to join the festivities. This is Valerie, Brice, Olivia, Me and William that is. We get our Breeze tickets and wander down to the depths below to catch the MARTA train. And we wait.......and we wait. It's okay though, we are up for an adventure!

Finally the train arrives and we hop on! We giggle and watch the scenery. William asks why so many buildings have art on them, I say it's "graffiti baby" and don't even think about trying it I think to myself! Olivia and Brice are just as wide-eyed and excited for the day's agenda. We get off at Midtown, the junction for the east/west train and get over quickly for the east train. While waiting, we view a map and decide we should get off at Decatur to get a bus to Grant Park. You see, we sort of thought we knew how to get there. I asked Billy and he said he thought we should get off at King Memorial, Valerie looked and it said bus 31, the map said J7. I'm telling you, we were lost. Finally (20 min+) the east train came and we hopped on. We went to Decatur only to find out from a nice gentleman that we'd actually gone too far and we should have gotten off at King Memorial (like Billy said) and taken the #32 bus to Grant Park. Well *@#%^$%^, we get off, and head back towards a west train. Off course at this time we ALL had to pee (except Valerie because she's a camel, but that's another story). So we ask a MARTA cop for help and a key to the potty. She let us into the potty only to find out that once we went out where the potty was, you had to pay to get back in again (of course this was after we'd crossed the line). But since it was our first offense she said she'd let us back in. By the way did I mention that the next train was running west in 20 min? So pottied, and back in, we found our way back to the westbound train with time to spare. We got back on, got off at King Memorial and then....well did what any white woman in downtown Atlanta with 3 children under the age of 8 would do, asked a gay black man! He said to take, get this, the short bus #32 and it would go straight to Grant Park and it was probably down there right now! So we all ran down three flights of stairs to the street only to find several regular bus riders watching and laughing under their breath at us white women and kids. Not seeing the short bus, Valerie ran back to the nice man who gave us initial instructions and he bee bopped right over, introduced us to the nicest woman in the coolest shades and said, she'll show you what to do. Get on this #32 and it'll take you to the back side of Grant Park. So we waited.......waited.......then it arrived! We hopped on that air conditioned #32 MARTA full of people going who knows where and rode until we were kindly told, this is your stop. The bus driver told us exactly where to be to get picked back up and that it ran every 50min. Have a I mentioned a time...well it's like 3:15PM. But there it is....Grant Park.

First thing we do...get Margaritas! Kids get fabulous Italian Ice Cream and we are off! The atmosphere is fabulous here...live music, white little tents as far as the eye can see... we are set. We putt-putt at the 92.9 tent, view some way cool art, get some great ideas and then.....then we hear the thunder......and then we head for summer shade trees......and then the bottom falls out. We stay under the tree for a bit and then I mean the bottom really falls out! So we all run under an artist's tent and wait until the rain dies down. (5ish) Meanwhile we are all soaked, and giggling because what else is there to do, really. The kids have been so great, never once complained. Finally the rain dies to a sprinkle and we mush on. We find several great art inspirations, especially for our jewelry displays, a great found object artist and then head for the kids art making area. We eat, walk some more and decide with the impending rain beginning to fall more rapidly, perhaps we should head for our bus route. Dippin dots, lovely local brew and another fruity delight in hand we stand at our bus stop for fear of the bus riding right past and not stopping. Did I mention it's RAINING? And we are the only fools at the stop period on a Sunday in the rain without umbrellas? Well, the bus was running nice and on time (of course we had to wait about 20 min), we hopped on, tried to pay...think we did it right and got off at our King Memorial. We bought more MARTA Breeze tickets and waited again...this time playing 20 questions to pass the time. We even gained a few players while waiting. Hopped on the west train, then waited for the south train....then got off at College Park. Down to the suburban where there was no ticket this time on the dashboard and headed for home around 6PMish. Ahhhh good old 85 south. Orange barrels, here we come!

So warning for the MARTA wise.........Sunday they run a single track. What does that mean? That means it takes a heck of a lot longer than it ever should to get somewhere! Grant Park Summer Shade Festival was a real winner and a definite return venue for the Flea Chicks! Next time thought, we'll drive a flea chick truck up there! Wanna come?

PS MARTA ended up costing about $30, so driving would have been cheaper, but no where near the adventure for us and the kids! So no regrets for us!

New to the Flea Decor

Just in time for your fall decorating, we have a new line of "tuscan" inspired landscape paintings, rooster and chicken ceramic figures and dainty topiaries. These items would be a great addition to your kitchen or dining atmosphere. And priced the "flea" way, they won't break your budget either! Valerie also made a series of 6" and 4" marble trivets with roosters you can use as hot trivets, decoration on easels, house warming gifts or for that special hostess. As always, we order in small quantities and don't re-order, so hurry by to pick up one of these great finds.



Got the time? We do! Just check out this wall of clocks. These are light-weight and ready to hang in just about any spot in your home.

Sneak a Peak....

Many of our regular customers have been asking when the big "reveal" of our Halloween merchandise will be. Well, we've set the date and have big plans for a "Ghouly Open House" on Tuesday, September 11th. So be sure to mark your calendars and be checking your e-mails for the official invitation to this special night. You are all in for special treats both for your tummy and your wallet! Here is a little tease of the piles of stuff we will be unpacking and setting out this year. Each box is full of haunting decorations. We have several new lines to introduce to you as well as some handmade goodies! We are very excited about this holiday season.

The Candle Debate

Those of you who have been with us as customers since the beginning know this candle line has been our staple. We've tried a couple other labels, but this has always been a line we carried. This past spring we found Nouvelle candles however. They are the ones in the most fabulous ceramic urn, their smells are most divine. This fall Nouvelle also offered to start putting our logo on the packaging. This opportunity for our own labeled candles at first tickled us pink! Second, it made us think twice about offering other candles in the store. So we put all the candles on sale, even sold the half burned testers and were done, so we thought. We've had SO many requests for Paddywax again that we thought we'd have a bit of fun with it this round. Listed below are some of the 24 scents they sell. If you would, leave a comment for your top two scents. At the end of about 10 days from now, we'll place an order for the top 5 scents. Here they are: eucalyptus, key lime, limoncello, plumeria, rosemary, lavendar, new mown hay, olive tree, chamomile, mango cilantro, blood orange, peony, mission fig, cassis and verbena.

My favorite is New Mown Hay, Valerie's is Olive Tree. We've never had the eucalyptus, but I bet it is a great one, especially on those months when the sniffles come around! It'd be my second choice. Thanks for commenting. I look forward to hearing from you!

Artfully Displayed

We are trying a new look for our windows. I took these during the day with a bit too much sunlight, so they don't show them as well as I'd like. You have to all promise to ride by at night to see the windows all lit up in the evening. Valerie's husband, Albert, came in Monday evening and said he had to take a second look to make sure he had the right store! These are pretty cool looking. I bit of art we think. Hopefully it'll make you want to come on in and feel right at home. The left window is a tribute to back to school, the right one is full of little nesting birds. We talk so much about nesting, we thought it would be appropriate to fill the window with little sparkly birds ready to nest.
As the season changes, I am sure the windows will too, but the heart of the store will always remain the same. From our house to yours, we welcome you. Come stay awhile and be inspired.

Nesting is Done!

Our newest treasures were delivered first thing Monday am while Valerie and I were already in the process of a big "nesting" stage. After two days, our bodies tell us its' time to rest, and the store is beaming with a new look. We can't thank our Julie enough for walking into the craziness and diving right in without hesitation today. She always sees our vision without question! Here is a sneak peak of the re-arranged store. Thanks to all of you who came on by during this period of, well, the best word to use right this moment is a MESS! But through this mess came together a fabulous new look. We hope you see something in a new light that has to make it's way to your home asap! This little area is a little slice of the Bahamas I think. The china cabinet is full of capiz shell plates and soap dishes as well as soap and more shells. The gauzy canopy over the chair gives you the feeling of a cozy night on the beach. Makes me want to curl up and read a great novel by Hemmingway!








This chair is from the 1940's. It has this fabulous men's suit hounds tooth fabric on it. It had a matching sofa, but Sylivia came in within an hour of it being in the store and just had to have it for her craft room!











These adorable dresses have been in for awhile. We think they'd make great fall wardrobe additions. Add a little shrug or sweater hoodie and you are set for chilly nights. The cool thing about these dresses is no one in the Coweta/Fayette area is selling them but us.

Do you see the round table behind the wooden theater seats? This little baby has a beautiful leather top and the bottom, it spins around!

Mart Inspirations

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the mart as promised. This is a past vendor we decided to try again. They have fabulous white pieces we intend to use in our Christmas theme this year. We also love the tiered tables, very Star Provisions. Ironically, the showroom loved Star's so much they had some made just like them! We are now on the hunt for some similar for our displays.

This was a showroom we wandered in just for their displays! This one is a bit hard to see, but the cans are pork-n-beans. The bowls have corn husk liners, dried black eyed peas and spam in the center. Look for us to re-use this idea come father's day!


This is a vendor we really like but have never ordered from. They have fabulous displays however and let us take a picture of this for all our Halloween spooks. Now to just find two matching bookcases! By the way, for those of you itching to know what Halloween jewels we have in store for you this year we are planning a sneak peak preview party for the second week of September. Be sure to get on our Flea Bite newsletter list for this exclusive invitation!

"You Talkin' To Me?....SOLD!

Many of you wander into our store on a regular basis and always comment about the constant changes we make to the store layout. We do this for several reasons... for practical reasons we rearrange so you see something you may have missed last time around and most importantly we get restless and bored with the store staying the same all the time! We do buy new merchandise all the time. From where is always the fun of owning a business like ours. We dive into every antique mall, junk store and Goodwill we can find. We also buy from the mart in small quantities of products we'd love to have in our own homes. Keep in mind when you see these products, that if you fall in love with it, you should buy it then, because it might be a one-of-a-kind find and we don't reorder on mart items. All this to tell you the best part of owning a store lately has been the fun we've had at the auction house. This past Saturday night there was a local auction we were hesitant on attending for this and that reasons. So Mailey, Mom and I headed down to preview it to see if it was worth our attending. Five minutes into the preview I called Valerie (who was at a jewelry making class, can't wait for you guys to see her newest talent!) and said, hurry back, we gotta buy! This auction is run by a really fun family and last night was the brother/sister team all night on the podium. We've been at this auction before for up to 7 hours waiting for our last item to be placed up for bid. Last night there were some real treasures, and during the biding, he was cracking us up with this line "You talkin' to me?" to get bidders into the game. They appeared to be a bit short handed with spotters, and were packed with bidders, so this line came out of his mouth at least a million times. Valerie made a quick video for you to listen in case you've never attended an auction.

Click To Play

It is LOUD, fast paced, and really fun. We lost out on a bunch of stuff we really wanted, but knew our customer and jumped ship before prices got out of hand. Before we knew it though, we'd racked up about $1000 worth of treasures and our ears ringing from the auctioning team of the night. We headed home about 10PM talking the whole way home about where we'd place this and that. So, if you want first dibs on our newest truck load, it should be delivered tomorrow by early afternoon! My favorite personal buy was a piece of pottery, Valerie's were these cool prints of dogs in orange and black posted up top. Hope to see you in the store real soon!

Great Piece!

Valerie is the best treasure hunter I know. She spends countless hours on the computer searching for new products, traveling the highways from north Atlanta to Alabama for perfect finds (always with her sweet kids in tow mind you), or her new favorite stop, the auction house. She is always on the go, and usually quite successful in her quests. This is a great new piece in our kitchen area of the store she found. We set it up as a possible kitchen work island, but it would be great in a sewing room, craft room, kid's desk or other fun place. It is just the right right for stools. It is stainless steel all over so it's light, but sturdy. It'd be great to add casters to it! Priced at just $175.00 it is sure to not be in our store for long!

Nesting Time Again!

It's that time of year again. The children head off to school and you are left with days free to.. well, what do you do now? We say run on down to the Flea and check our new wares, or browse for some inspiration. I am sure there are several projects on your list of things to do that didn't get accomplished this summer. We sure do! What home is not complete without a beautiful nest. We have a fresh batch of quail eggs to go along with them too!


So come on down and nest with us. With our kids all in school now, (Brice and Mailey are both in Kindergarden now!) you are sure to see our creative juices flowing as we ready the store for fall inspirations!

The "Flea Bite"

We had our monthly LNO last night. It was a great group of ladies eager to craft their night away. We had a house full again which always makes it more exciting for Valerie and I (and challenging to come up with fabulous new projects!). This month we made fabric covered button bracelets and hair bobbles. Every one's turned out wonderful. Afterwards a group of us wandered down to Andre's off the Square for a dessert and drink. Come to find out the sweet bartender, Heather, has named a martini after we Flea Chicks called the "Flea Bite". How flattering! It has a yummy taste, with a bit of a bite of course. It is layered with vodka, something green and minty and then grenadine. The perfect combination! So next time you're downtown wanting a treat, we recommend the "flea bite" and this sinly dessert called chocolate melt cake.

Off to Market!

So Valerie and I are off at Market this week. We always get so giddy at Market. We get SOOOOOO inspired by all the new products out there and can't wait to share with our customers. (Don't be surprised if you see a new look in the store after these trips away!) We went yesterday and made some fabulous purchases to add to our everyday wares and of course a few additions to our Halloween brew and Christmas tinsels. We also met the owner of our Nouvelle candle line Brett. Valerie has the picture on her camera, so I'll post it soon. He was super nice. It is really neat to see the real people behind the product. It makes the BIG mart seem a bit more personal when the owner is in! Valerie took lots of good pictures for those of you who've never been to market, we will post a few for you to see the "magic/mystery" of this phenomenon. We head tomorrow for the temporaries. There is a floor called "High Design" we like to sip and see. We see only because the ticket makes us want to sip some more! We want to keep our customer happy with reasonable items, not scare you away! But, we have to admit the booths always inspire something. From a new Ladies Night Out idea, to an inspiration for a painting we are working on, it is worth it to stroll the floor.

Flemonaide! and other Fun Stuff

Here we are on Market Day this past Saturday. Pictured on the far left are: Mailey (5), Brice (5), William (7) and Olivia (8). The right picture is Me (styling a new do for those that haven't seen me lately), Mailey and Olivia in our matching Funktion aprons. The flea babies set up a lemonade/homemade chocolate chip cookie/homemade ice cream stand for Market Day. They did a fabulous job of selling their wares. The Mommy fleas have rubbed off on them! We thank each of you who bought goodies from our children. Olivia is saving for a new bike, William for a set of gold clubs. The babies, well, they just want quarters for the next prize machine! If you missed this past Saturday, then be sure to mark the next first Saturday on your calendar. The square was HOPPING! It was so much fun to walk around the courthouse and see all the local crafters, farmers and goody makers selling. What a fabulous outlet for them. We didn't do too shabby in the Flea either!

Trip To France

Today was our first art trip here at the Flea. I've always held art camps in the summer, but this year decided to try one day a week instead of week-long adventures. Well, this was soooo much fun! I had 19 artists and one fabulous helper. You'd have never known there were that many budding artists in the studio though because they were so busy working on sunflower paintings, watercolor landscapes, clay kitties, and a mixed media Eiffel Tower project. It was truly a fun trip to France in 4.5 hours! Can't beat that. I hope to see more young artists on the Thursdays to come. Be sure to call and sign-up though, already we are filling up! Pictured above is the class with their sunflower fields and Clara and Grace sporting their French mustaches!

Summer Fun

Summer Fun to me means lazy mornings, afternoons at the pool and late nights in the backyard swinging. School has been out only a few days and already we've gotten into this new swing of things. So don't be surprised to see us all a bit sun kissed around the flea.

Don't forget to add to your summer fun list art classes offered here at the Flea. Every Thursday from 9:30-2PM I'll be introducing art from a different country. We'll be looking at artists who influenced their area and the techniques they used. We'll be getting our hands dirty with paint, scratch art, markers, model magic, oil pastels and more! Space is limited and some are already full, so don't forget to call ahead for reservations!

Workshop Fun and Movie Stars

So Valerie and I headed to Atlanta for a four day workshop on Encaustic Painting this past weekend. Valerie has been using this wonderful technique for about 2 years now, I am sure you've seen her beautiful work hanging in our store. When an R&F Paints workshop became available for our area she asked if I wanted to come along and I said heck yea! The four days were a great experience for me because I am always up for a new art medium to explore. The first day there I walked in a bit late because it was the last day of school and my little William had his awards ceremony. So I walked in as we were doing introductions. The gentleman between Valerie and Gina (our fabulous instructor) is Linden Ashby, one of our classmates. After he said his name and that he'd recently moved here we moved on to the next person, Ann Berry from NEWNAN, then Lauren from Tyrone one of our regular customers. Small world, isn't it? So back to Linden, I knew I knew him. I even asked if he was from Newnan, or perhaps went to Auburn. Then Valerie chimed in with the "You just moved from LA, right?" "Are you an actor?" Well, yes he is. So giddy as girls at a Rick Springfield concert, I was able to get this photo of our nice classmate with Valerie and Gina. In the other picture is Jena a retired art educator and Layton Chavis. Layton is the nicest man who is about to move to North Carolina to go back to school for a masters in art! Man, I gotta give him a thumbs up for this. Valerie and I made a bunch of new art we can't wait to share. So be looking on the walls soon!

Super Sponges and things like that

As most of you know, Valerie and I are Jack , or rather Jill's, of many trades. We dabble in painting, sewing, jewelry making, decoupage, collage, this and that and then some. One of our favorite little jewels to make are the fused glass pendants. This past Friday Valerie decided on her day off to come in while Brice was at school, and together we would make some for us to sell. You see, we say this kind of thing often. We hired Julie for Tuesday's so we could "make things to sell" and Mary for Thursday's so we could "make things to sell". Well, "making things to sell" doesn't happen too often because we get started rearranging, or Valerie gets in her hidey hole on the computer and press, or I have to do art studio recovery, or things just happen and the next thing you know it's time for us to leave. But this Friday was set, I cleaned the glass studio Thursday, got Lily and myself to the store about 9:15ish and then the routine started. Here's me, "Hey Valerie, Lily and I are going to walk to Espresso Lane because I had no cream or sugar for my coffee this morning and it is WAY past coffee time, wanna come?" and Valerie says, "Sure". So we three strut on down to Espresso Lane and I pick up my tummy warming and brain starting coffee and..... well I can't remember what Valerie got actually. Then Valerie says, "The Half Shell has great cookies that would be really yummy with these beverages". And I say, "Let's go." So the three of us set out again on a beautiful day around our quaint square. Cookies, coffee, Lily, Valerie and I then finally make our way back to TVF for a morning of creating. But first, I have to get junk outside, not real junk, but items to entice you, our customers, to come in through the doors of our amazing store. Oh, and Valerie wants to pull up a website for inspiration, but the computer is soooooooooooo slow (We need a new one but opt for more merchandise instead). Oh, and did you make a deposit? and what about e-mails?, you checked for any messages? man I need to check the belt buckles from last night upstairs...... Don't let Lily out! etc....etc....etc.... So I imagine around 10:30ish we finally get into the glass mode of thinking. That's when we decided to get out the glass grinder that had been sitting under a table in the back for 8 months or so to use for our morning of "making things to sell". Okay, I am right brained, Valerie is right-brained, and Lily, well she walks on her hands! As I think back I am giggling a bit at us putting this *@X@?X thing together. The pics I've attached up top are of the "SUPER SPONGE", man would Spongbob be proud! This thing cracked me up, I just had to have a before and after photo with it. After much ado, we finally got the glass grinder thing together and started our creative process when Fused Friday friends came in. We love these girls, so Valerie did a demo and got them started because in the meantime, my Mother had appeared for a portrait drawing 101 lesson to do with her kids at Heritage for a t-shirt design for a program yaddy, yaddy, yadda. Next thing I know Valerie is running out the door saying, "Gotta get Brice" Already 11:30? 10 minutes later she comes in saying gotta go, not a good day to bring little man in to the store. I take a deep breath and do a bit of a pout because our morning of "making things to sell" has once again been a futile attempt. Good news is though, I got amazingly busy and didn't have time to pout long! Man I love my job!

Tour du Georgia?

Okay, so today was a big day for Newnan. The Tour du Georgia bike race came riding through town right in front of our store. Yep. And they did it while Valerie and I were in the store so we missed it. We'd given up on their impending arrival and had just gone back in to....well.....work of course! We had some fun waiting with these GIANT hands though. This is Julie, me and Valerie out front waving and Valerie and I giving some serious high-fives. You betcha these will be re purposed in our store somewhere. And I am sure if you ask Valerie, she'd sell it to you. I am thinking about borrowing one for tonight first though. tisk...tisk....

Growing Fleas

Lily is growing like crazy, especially in the belly!Man I wish I could lay around like she does some days, especially on these long spring afternoons! As your spring fever hits and you go ninety to nothing like Valerie and I do getting your house clean, the flowers planted and the pollen off the cars, be sure to stop in to say hello and check out our new finds. We just had a truck delivered from an auction so we have tons of new furniture for sale!

OOOO... I almost forgot to mention our spring cleaning sale in the art studio this Thursday through Saturday. If you missed out on this one in the fall, you'll not want to miss now! Up to 75% off Easter, Christmas, Halloween, store fixtures, and just junk!

THE SCREAM!

As I was being rolled down the driveway to get the van positioned better for being jumped off, Valerie took this picture and said this has got to go on the blog, you look like Edvard Munch's Scream! There are a few similarities, don't you agree? The situation definitely suited a scream!

Beach Babies

I just have to show off a few of our favorite pictures of our baby fleas. Aren't they the cutest kids ever? On the left is William (7), Brice (5) and Olivia (8). The girls above are Mailey (5) and Olivia again. Mailey and William are my fleas, Brice and Olivia Valerie's.

I have to say this really was a great week for all of us. The weather was fabulous, great for shell searching and football throwing! The pools were heated which made for a nice afternoon activity. We also filled our time with games, movies and naps! Our favorite night activity had to be the Seaside Artwalk. There we meet some great shop owners, found some inspirational ideas, and the kids danced under the moonlight on the promenade. I imagine we will do this again next year!

Jinxed!

Hey Ya'll! Yep, you guessed it. We are the traveling flea road circus! If you've read my old blogs, you would know that road trouble seems to love us. So here's the latest story. I'd have let you known earlier in the week this silly saga, but we had no internet access. Talking about feeling like the dark ages!

Let me preface this story with the real beginning of the road trouble. We headed out of town Monday morning with the kids and cars loaded for a week of sun and fun. We both packed and decided to meet at the store for the journey to begin. Sunday night while packing my husband had COPS on. They of course had a lovely woman pulled over for speeding who just happened to have a warrant out for her arrest. That is when it hit me that I had a pile of parking tickets from downtown Newnan (where the meter maid is relentless!) in my glove compartment. Guess what, if you don't pay those $25 pain in the -----s they put out a warrant for your arrest. So needless to say, we made a little trip to the police station on the way out of town to pay my 5. I had high hopes that this would ward off any pending road trouble later in the trip. Boy was I wrong!

We arrive Monday afternoon with no trouble, and quite a pleasant ride too I might add. Valerie had the boys, I the girls. It took about 7 hours with several junkin' stops, several potty stops and several junk food stops, but we made it safe and sound into the dreamy beach village of Carillon. We unloaded, dressed for the pool and swam until way past bedtime. As we settled in for the night, there was prediction of rain, so I ran out and rolled up the windows to my van parked in front of Valerie's Suburban. We spent the next day at the beach and pool all day. I guess it was late that afternoon that Mailey was looking for the mermaid Barbie I thought might be in the van. That's when I discovered it locked, and moments later discovered that the keys were yes, in the ignition. Not worried because we had the suburban, I walked up to the guard house and asked if the police could be called for a jimmy. Informed very politely that they do not do this, I was given Dana's locksmith #. After a call in to her I decided that calling Billy to mail the spare would be cheaper. Only problem, no key for the mailbox. UPS! So, he located the extra key and placed it in the hands of our dear brown service. I received the keys on Thursday morning and placed them in my purse. Happy that the $6.00 was very well spent and we could get home. That afternoon we were headed to Seaside and all hopped into the van only to find that yes, you guessed it, it was dead. So, I won't bore you with many details, because the pictures tell it all above. We had to get the cuttey pattootees from two doors down to help roll the van down the drive and then jump it off. I parked it carefully front facing this time and sent the boys on back to Atlanta! We ended up having to leave it connected to the suburban for a long bit Saturday morning prior to our long trip home. Luckily, it made the whole trip home without a hitch!

Much Needed Vacation

The Flea Chicks and their baby fleas are headed to the beach for some much needed R&R. We are taking 2 cars full of stuff (everything but the kitchen sink as they say!), tons of sunscreen, no husbands (or a babysitter) and our fingers crossed for happy weather! I am sure I will have more adventures of car tragedies once I return. That's why we are taking two cars, so we have a back-up if one doesn't make it! We hope for a hidden junkin' treasure mart along the way too. Our kids are turning into flea market junkies by default, and hopes that they too will find a treasure! We hope you and your family have a fabulous Spring Break. See you soon!