Mother's Day around the corner

If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden. ~Attributed to Claudia Ghandi

Our shipment of Porcelain and Sterling blanks have come in and we are busy printing up beautiful Mother's Day gifts at The Vintage-Flea. All orders given to us by Tuesday, May 6th are guaranteed to be finished by Mother's Day. So get your order in today! For more product ideas you can visit our custom products page.
sterling silver pendant $40 large/$36 small

Porcelain Pendant $22

My favorite gifts are those made with children's artwork. What a cute rooster!

And The Winner Is......

Sandy Wisenbaker!!!! Press play to see our sweet Mary call out your name. Congratulations on winning a $50 gift certificate to The Vintage-Flea. Sandy participated in our "what makes a house a home" contest. See you soon Sandy.

Dream in Color

We love looking at artistic blogs with lots of creativity and pretty photos. One such example is the SFGIRLBYBAY blog. I particularly love it when she puts obscure photos along side her featured photographs. So I decided to try it using one of my favorite books, Carolyn Quartermaine Revealed. Enjoy the following pictures... on the left are pictures from Revealed and on the right, pictures of products currently in our store.

We're Anxiously Waiting for Friday Night....

Actually we're not as calm as the birds are in the above painting around the Flea right now. We have been busying ourselves with new merchandise and a new look! Join us Flea Chicks for a late night of sipping margaritas, shopping our new merchandise and viewing some amazing new art. We have several artists participating this year, including some from Art Club! These emerging artists will blow you away! Art Walk is THIS Friday Night from 5-8PM. We look forward to seeing you then.

The above was painted by Valerie Dumas.

What is going on with your chair?

I've been hearing this a lot lately at the store, "What is going on with your chair?" Well I am happy to report that it is coming along very nicely. Last week I made 10 yards of cording.. that was exciting. This week I started putting the padding back on.

See how nice and tight? Lots of hard work to get it this smooth!

Now I know why I had to take my time when taking off the fabric, being careful not to rip or tear the fabric. This is actually my pattern for the new fabric. OOOHH speaking of my new fabric. Isn't it delicious. Chocolate brown with beautiful coral flowers. Green velvet will be my side panels and cording. How divine!

And my seat base is finished. Next will be the sides. Stay tuned

Beautiful Bird Sculptures at The Flea

My favorite weather is bird-chirping weather. ~Loire Hartwould

Our fabulous New York finds are flying in. These bird sculptures were our favorite purchase because they are all hand crafted by artisans living in Honduras. You will love this collection priced from $14.

Welcome Curious Sofa Bloggers

"What have you done now?" is what Jenni said to me after I told her that I had written to one of our favorite shop owners.. Debbie Dusenberry. She has two blogs, you see, one for her store called The Curious Sofa and one called Shop Owner. For someone like me who has the whole collection of business books from Victoria (The Business of Bliss, A Shop of One's Own, and Turn Your Passion Into Profits), Deb's Shop Owner blog is what I love to read the most. It is informative, educational, and has wonderful business advice. So my idea was to try to locate other blogs on the web that post about their stores, their pictures, and their business savey. I asked Deb for a little help. (You can read my letter to her on her Shop Owner blog).

So Welcome Curious Sofa Bloggers.. no doubt you found us through the links to the right of her posting. We hope you check back with us often as we continually post new pictures of our products, displays, and marketing ideas. I will definitley be looking at the other links on her page as I am sure I can learn from all of you. Thank you for making this "Sisterhood" project successful.

-Valerie

New Products

"If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun."

-Katherine Hepburn

They are flying out the door....

Entry #4 Kay Emerson (AKA Valerie's Mom!)

What makes my house a home?

Pictures of my grandchildren. My grandchildren's artwork
Pictures of my family and their family.

This is what makes my house a home for me.

Entry #3 Cindy Hopper

1. Welcome to my home. I love to see children climbing in the cherry tree and my dog, Trudy, sticking her head out of the upstairs window (do you see her?). Olivia is on the red chair probably dreaming of beautiful things (mini me). Notice the basket on the front door? It is from my favorite store (yes, The Vintage Flea).2. Like Jenni, I live in a cottage and it is sometimes crowded. I have four kids, one husband, two cats, a dog and a chinchilla. A lot of souls in one place. Sometimes a girl just need a space of her own. This is my studio. Here I get to have complete control, or at least the others let me believe I do. This is the design base for my half of the company, Tallulahs. I like to think that this is "where the magic happens". 3. If you turn around in the studio, you'll notice the dining room. I bought this house from my girlfriend, Barbara (the other half of Tallulahs). She painted this room. It's perfect. Here is where the memories of sitting around the table with my family and talking over meals are created. My kids complain when they have to set the table in the dining room (the kitchen counter is so much faster!), but I think they really enjoy the time together. Notice the red chandelier? My husband, Doug, moved it from our old house as a gift to me for Valentine's Day. Now it makes me smile for more than just the happy color. Also notice the big table. I scored it at the Pottery Barn outlet and love the size. It seats up to twelve (though not in our dining room!). It will be our lake house table someday so the grandkids can come and enjoy talking over a meal. Anyone have a lake house to sell? Or a mountain cabin?Our dining room is also our library, you can't see the shelves off to the side. Lots of beautiful (and some not so beautiful) books get stored here. And sometimes read, too. 4. Next is my bathtub photo. This is where I meditate, dream, pray. Bathing is my every day indulgence (sometimes twice a day indulgence). The trees outside of my window bring a sense of peace and serenity, which I need with my busy life. Notice the inspiration board on the left? It is another gift from Doug. Since this is where I dream and pray, this is the perfect spot for it. The little pink lamp was in my childhood home. Blueprint was my favorite magazine. Did you know it has been discontinued? I still get a lump in my throat about that. 5. I had to throw in one more photo. My family (and 3 of our 4 pets) gathered on the deck after dinner. I just doesn't get much better than this.Thanks Jenni and Valerie for pushing me to see the beauty that is already there.Cindy Hopper

Entry #2 Sandy Wisenbaker

What makes my house a home can be boiled down to a word: collections. Eachof us has our own collections that remind of us of something or that we justplain enjoy to look at/use. For us it is the books collected over the yearsthat now sit on shelves made by my husband, the ever growing collection ofphotos overtaking the wall like kudzu, the music collection that bringsdancing and laughter, the collection of matchbox and "Cars" cars hiddenunder the bed a little boy, an aspiring artist's growing collection ofartwork and projects, and my own obsession with pitchers and platters(accumulated from family, flea markets and fun shopping outings with my mom)that are functional when needed and displayed throughout when not. Whethercollecting "stuff" or collecting laundry on any given day - the collectionswithin our house are what make it our home.Sandy Wisenbaker

Let us "Hook You Up"

Okay, the pun was bad, but the hooks are great! We have a HUGE selection to choose from. Just look at this wall!

What's in a name?

Hi all.. It's Valerie this time writing a quick post in our Flea blog. Wanted to share with my loyal readers something that happened this weekend. Saturday I was enjoying watching my son's soccer game and chit chatting with the other moms on the field. One of my friends said to me that she wishes she could get down to the store more often but her house wasn't decorated "vintage" so she saw no reason to come down. I was flabbergasted that she said this to me. Yes we are called The Vintage-Flea but we don't sell just vintage items. Perhaps her definition of vintage means something different than my version....

Jenni and I spend a lot of time searching for the right mixture of new and old for our store. We go to all the Atlanta Merchandise shows and we went to the NYC Gift Show this winter. We hit every antique mall, flea market, and estate sale in a 30 mile radius on a monthly basis. And we are constantly looking at online venues such as Etsy, Ebay and Craigslist for undiscovered gems. So you see.. The Vintage-Flea is just a name. A rather clever name we think.

Oh one more quick note.. more new mercandise is on the way... Jewelry from Metal Monk, our signature candle line from Nouvelle, more gorgeous pillows, and much much more. Please come down and see. Support your friendly flea chick!

Entry #1- Heather Thompson

Okay readers! We've got a fast one here! This is Heather Thompson and here is what she has to say:

The main thing for me that makes my house a home is the people who live here....my family!

The 2nd thing would have to be my kitchen table. It is really nothing special. In fact, it is starting to become quite tattered & probably in need of repair. My husband & I bought it when we got married and it has become a place where we now share meals (almost) every night w/ our 2 children. It has been a gathering place for many meals for our family as well as extended family throughout the years & has moved w/ us several times.

The last 2 pics are of my children's walls in their rooms. A dear friend of ours helped paint their rooms and we truly made them "their own" by putting my daughter's initials in hers & my son's same on his.

We considered moving at a point last year, but the hard work & love that went into creating these rooms would be hard to leave behind!

In all, what makes my house a home are our memories! :)

Entry #1/ Well, not really.

I thought I'd give you readers an example of what we are looking for. This would be my entry. I had a hard time narrowing it down to three photos! But here goes: Hello, my name is Jenni and what makes my house a home is in the little details. You see, we live in a "cottage", so every little square inch of our home is used. I have to choose furniture carefully, often the piece has a mulit-purpose. Like my coffee table/ trunk full of family games/ instant game table. Over the years we have changed paint colors, traded in couches (We are on #6 in 12 years), added curtains, and added nic-nacs. But what remains a constant are my favorite little things I have around. The handmade clay birds made by my children sitting right along my vintage glass bird collection is top of the list. Also in this cabinet are the nests William has found over the years.
I have lots of art hanging around the house (imagine that!), and most of the time right beside my art is Mailey and William's. Like above in the kitchen.
This isn't in the house, but just as important. I had to choose between the swingset we use daily and this tree photo. Yes, it's leaning, but that's what makes it so special. This was Billy and I's first Christmas tree. We decided to buy a tree our first year that we could plant and watch grow. Well, let's just say that this is one happy tree, because it has grown like crazy. In fact it has major braces to keep it upright! I often dream of a huge house complete with an art studio that has heat and air. And then I look out the window at this tree and all the other little things we've done to make our house special over the years and can't imagine being anywhere else. This is our home, and I love it!

A Call For Entries!

Get out our camera and take your best shot! Here's what we are looking for: "What makes your house a home?" I got an e-mail from Anthropologie yesterday with that same question. It was an ad for their new home collection catalogue. I'm sure they'd say what makes your home is their $4,000 sofa, $100 accessories and more! Here at the Flea we know that what makes a home is more than just stuff, but stuff is nice. And we have tons of new items in to help make your house a home you want to really live in.

Here are the details for the contest:
1- It is open to anyone! And not just people with houses, I made my college apartments pretty darn homey back in the day.
2- E-mail us at least 3 images of what makes your house a home. send them to flea@numail.org
3- With those images give us a brief reason why those elements make your house a home.
4- Look for them to be posted in our blog! Yep, our blog. I'll be posting all entries.
5- On April 18th, the night of Art Walk, we'll be putting all names in one big hat and drawing for a .............$50.00 gift card to the Flea! So let's see what you've got girls (and boys)!

Game on!

An End to the Rumor

So, there has been a rumor floating around town for about 3 months or so that we are moving. We know how it got started, we told one person, who told another, who told another, you get the picture. And it was true. We were trying to move to Ashley Park. Actually we tried to move there 4 years ago before we moved here.....and they still aren't quite ready for us. Our spot probably still has our name on the site map right next to DSW. 5 years from now we may kick ourselves, but for now, our families come first. So we are staying put. But here's the deal, we need for our loyal customers (who are now our friends!) to get the word out about downtown Newnan. We need a broader customer base to keep the Flea alive! So forward our flea bites to your e-mail lists, invite a friend to Ladies Night Out who says they've never been to downtown Newnan, spend a Saturday afternoon walking our streets instead of the aisles of Target, come to Art Walk(April 18), or just come by one morning. We'll be there. Probably re-arranging, again! Here's some hot new items we wanted you to see and intice you to come visit soon!
By the way, that gorgeous painting above was done by our lovely Julie. She's our creative Tuesday gal.
We went a little pillow crazy at the January show...and there are more to come! Great colors, don't you think! Add a little spice to your home with these!

Help Wanted

Yes, we are in need of a few good women who are interested in working on Mondays and Saturdays. You know our store......a little fun.....a little funk......a little creative......a little of this and more. What we are looking for is a woman who can manage her way through our computer system, get to know our fabulous customers, sell a bunch of stuff to those customers, be willing to sweep if needed, clean the door if needed, be willing to help with re-arranging (Which you KNOW will happen if you work for us!), and a little more of this and less of that. That being something we will discuss once applying! So come on by and fill out an application, and let's see where we go from there!