Weekly Wrap

To get me slowly back into the swing of things in blog land, I'm starting a new series called The Weekly Wrap where I will post pictures of all the new items that we have gotten in over the week. I've been doing something similar on The Vintage-Flea Facebook Fan page but know that not all of you are fans... YET. (hee hee) If there is anything you are interested in, please call us at the shop for more information.

first up are my new Happy Spoons at $6.50 each.
love all the pretty colors they come in

I flipped over these hooks that have the chalkboard paint on them. $14 each

Queen of Hearts is a new addition to our Valentine table.. $26.50 and only 1 left.

an inventive way to make a wreath... vintage chip clip rack in a circle. $55 each

Swan Creek Candles back in stock... Fresh Linen, Cotton Crisp, Olive Verbena, and new Fruit Slices.

Love these.. The Glass Funnels came in with chips on the ends so I got a better deal from the company.. luckily we have a glass grinder in our back fused glass workroom and I was able to fix them up. Normally they would retail $22 in other stores, ours our only $12!! Only 2 left.

desperately looking forward to my Art & Soul Retreat getaway in February.. one of these sachets will be in my suitcase. $4.50 each.

new shells just in.. Bahama Starfish 9"-10" $5.00
Bai Shells .75 cents

Ruffled Clam Shell 9"-10" $12.00

Green Turbo $2.50

Just a quick note.. we will be sending out a special Valentine newsletter over the next week filled with new vendors, new products, and coupons. If you would like to receive our flea bite.. please click here. Have a wonderful weekend!

Taking a Rest

Taking a break for awhile from Blogging my friends. I just finished up a whirlwind 5 day shopping trip to the Americas Mart in Atlanta.. the most I have ever spent up there. Found hundreds of new items to bring into the store and met several wonderful people along the way.

January is always the hardest month for me with owning a store. I get so used to the constant ding-a-ling sounds of the cash register from September to December and the constant chatter amongst happy shoppers in the Flea. Then January comes and hits you like a brick wall... everything stops. So this is the time we try to re-invent ourselves, move things around, do a thorough cleaning out, and wait. Wait for warmer days, wait for customers to start venturing out for some sightseeing in our little town, and wait for the new merchandise to start coming in.

This will also be a big decision year for me as well since my lease will be up in March of 2011.The Vintage-Flea was started 6 years ago and it certainly has been a dream come true of mine, however lots and lots of mistakes have been made along the way. Although I am proud of The Vintage-Flea and what it has NOW become, is it what I had envisioned from the beginning, NO.
I had once heard the analogy that owning a business is like hosting a party. You prim and preen your store like your home, getting everything perfectly clean, arranged and "set" for the show. Then as the hostess with the mostess, you are suppose to be "ON" all the time by greeting people, conversing in small talk, and making sure they have a good time. The best part of being the hostess, is hearing all the compliments.. oohs and awes over your hard work. I love the instant feedback I get in the shop as well. Sadly it is one thing I miss in this blogging experience. I know that people read my entries because I see a stat counter but nobody makes comments (unless I have a giveaway of some sort). I am getting to a point where blogging is my lease favorite thing to do as I am always saying in the back of my head.. "What's the point, nobody will comment on it". So this is why I need to take a break from blogging and hopefully I will be able to start enjoying it once again in the future.

You can still follow me on Facebook in the meantime or the website, as I plan on making some changes there as well. Hope to see you soon at The Vintage-Flea.

Get up and Shake the Glitter off your clothes now.... -Katy Perry

Love that line from her "Waking Up In Vegas" song!! So I'll be shaking the glitter off my clothes this week as I head off to the Atlanta Merchandise Mart for another buying trip. I am on the hunt for a body care line, vintage inspired decorations for Christmas and Halloween, books, unique jewelry, dishes, towels, botanicals, and more garden. Do you have any suggestions?? Send me an email or post them here. I would love to hear what you would like to see at The Vintage-Flea.

Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.. this picture was found in Country living Magazine, circa 2002. The picture was taken outside the home of one of my favorite bloggers.. Sis Boom Day Dreams. I am really excited about 2010 and the direction I am going to go in. The Vintage-Flea will be more romantic and dreamy, frilly and fabulous, pastels and glitter. (oh Mary, our Tuesday&Thursday Shopgirl is rolling her eyes right now) Hope you will stay with us along for the ride.

Feeling Crafty Lately....

The next time you go to log onto Etsy, go to the search tab and type in "Tutorial". You will be amazed at the several hundred results that will turn up. This is where I found this adorable t-shirt craft project from Eliza Axel.

The kit came in the mail and I was feeling crafty....

Basically the idea is simple. You will need 2 t-shirts to make 1 complete. one will rest as the base, while the other is cut up into fat hearts, or circles for the flowers. Two ways to go about making the flowers, you can take your needle and thread and baste stitch through the heart, gathering them at the bottom like a flower garland. Or you can make tiny circles and hand stitch them onto the shirt as seen at Hope Studios tutorial for making rosettes.

Once your garland is made, you can hand place them onto the shirt and then stitch them into place.

And Viola!! A fabulous & frilly t-shirt.

This was definitely a fun project. I've already found pink tutu's on ebay for my mannequins for a valentine display. I think they will be wearing fun tops like this as well!!

Thank you Santa

I wanted to show you some before and after pictures of our recent bedroom makeover which finished up on Christmas Eve Day!! Thank you Santa!! As some of my blog readers know, I have 2 large dogs... one has lots of hair while the other is a puppy. We had shag carpeting in the master bedroom so the puppy never quite figured out that shag carpet was not a good substitute for fresh green OUTDOOR grass.

Here they are with Sophie, our French guest this past summer, and my carpet cleaning machine. (which only put a band-aid on the problem). So you can imagine after 1 year of several stains and horrible smells....

We decided to re-do the floors, which led to repainting the walls, which led to recovering some old chairs, and so forth and so forth. Here is the finished product....

It smells so wonderful finally. And to help me keep up with cleaning the floors, Santa brought me a Roomba for Christmas. This sweet little girl zips around the floors and picks up all the debris and most importantly, dog hair. Love her!!

And finally a sneak peek at some new items that have come into the shop over the past week. Our Christmas has been moved over to one area and is now 60% off. Thus giving us room for our new bird sculptures, tramp art frames, bird cake plates, new pillows, lavender sachets and more....

The new shell shipments have come in and will start to trickle there way out to the sales floor very soon.

New apothecary linen sprays in a gorgeous cobalt blue glass are from our new Etsy artist The Paris Market.

New shipments from our fantastic botanical soaps company have arrived.

Adore this pillow which I put out on December 23rd.. sold both of them the next day. I hope to get more in soon.

Love these bird clips.

And finally these green apple candles which look good enough to eat. Hope to see you soon at The Flea.

Merry Christmas

We are not through with Christmas offerings just yet... come by Saturday, December 26th and receive extra savings at The Vintage-Flea & Brocante. The Vintage-Flea will be having all their Christmas on sale for 60% off (final markdown) and storewide for 15% off. This includes brand new Spring merchandise as well. Yes I was up late last night putting out 10 new product lines!!

Not only will the Flea be having a sale but my consignors have also jumped on board. Rustic Attitude, you know that fabulous spoon jewelry, is having 20% off everything. Jenni Horne is having 30% off everything.. including her original art. Legacy 2, oh those pear candles, is having 40% off her entire booth. The rest are having sales from 10%-50% off their Christmas decor.

We will be open from 10am-3pm on Saturday. We are going to be closed on Monday for a little R&R and shopkeeping and then back open again on Tuesday. Thank you to everyone for a wonderful Holiday "Shopping Locally" Season. We look forward to another great year with all of you.... Merry Christmas from the Flea!

50% off SALE

Look who came shopping at The Vintage-Flea. I caught this red cheeked man looking at the jewelry for Mrs. Claus when I pulled up to the shop. I finally got the nerve to ask for a photograph when he was leaving the store. He said he was on his way to the Festival of Lights Parade that was held last night downtown. Hope he had a good time!!

All of our Christmas decorations are now 50% off at The Vintage-Flea. Yipee!!! This includes Flea Tea Towels, Christmas Ornaments, Stockings, Santas, select Christmas Candles, and Christmas Stationary. Supplies are limited.

New Shipments

Over the next few days, I will be posting pictures of some new merchandise that has come into the store. For starters, these wonderful fingerless gloves by California Artist, Doriandra of CrowsCloth. Her incredibly warm gloves are made from super soft micro fleece and are machine washable.

We have Chocolate Brown, Lichen Green, Purple Plum, Espresso Black, and Brick Red in stock for $18 per pair.

Our 12 days of Christmas sale is still going strong. Remember 30% that day only.. today we have Archipelago Diffusers followed by Tea Towels, Soaps, Pillows, Hot Cakes Jewelry, Stockings, and finally Candles. Not only do we have the 12 days of Christmas sale going on but several booths have sales as well. Legacy II has 20% off her entire booth, Beverly and Marian have their Christmas 20% off, Georgia Ann has her Christmas 20% off, and Grit & Grace has her shirts 30% off. On Wednesday, December 23rd we will be marking ALL Christmas down 50%.

Hope to see you soon!!

Pantone Unveils Color of The Year for 2010

If you see an extra skip in my step, or gleam in my eye, it's because Pantone unveiled its color forcast for 2010 and the color of the year is..... Turquoise. My favorite color!! Yippee.

What an exciting year this will be in home decor and fashion.

How many more days until 2010??????

Mainstreet's Cookie Exchange

Tonight, Friday. December 11th from 6pm-8pm

Come on by The Vintage-Flea, enjoy a little Christmas shopping and take home one of our cookies w/recipe. Toodles!!

12 Days of Christmas

The Vintage-Flea, The Other Side of The Moon, and Two Turtle Doves would like to give you


a gift this holiday season! The 12 days of Christmas!!

From December 13th thru December 24th, we will each have one item in our store on sale for 30% off!! You may come in or call us on that day to secure your items.... but when the clock strikes 5pm (closing time) the item will no longer be on sale. Enjoy incredible savings on Candy, Pillows, Candles, Jeans, Shirts, Ornaments, Rugs, and more!! Merry Christmas from the shops on Greenville Street.

Click HERE to preview what will be on sale and when.

Atlanta Show in Cabbagetown

So my best gal pal Jenni and I went up to Atlanta yesterday for two reasons. The shopping (of course) and to get me set up for my very first Atlanta Art Show at the Stacks Lofts in Cabbagetown.

These lofts are amazing. They were retro fitted into the very first textile mill in the South, built in 1881. Cabbagetown was built as the surrounding mill town. The mills' primary product was cotton bags for packaging agricultural products. The mill closed down in 1977. However, in 1996, the mill got renovated and is now the world's largest residential loft community.
The front of our loft where our show is held

In 2008 a tornado came through and destroyed parts of the lofts as seen here in this standing shell. The pool is now built on the other side of this structure.


Here is an adorable garden outside one of the loft buildings.

Here is a birdseye view of our loft which we are using to showcase the 11 wonderfully talented upcoming Encaustic Artists.

Here are my 6 paintings that I brought to the show. I have to be honest that I have been very lazy lately with the paint brush. I had wanted to bring new works but never got around to it. Hopefully after the New Year I can get back into the art studio.

The following pictures are my fellow artists. We call our group The Southeastern Encaustic Artists. All the members, except me, live in Atlanta so it makes it a little difficult to make it to the monthly meetings. I look forward to learning more from them though in the future. In our group we have Allison Miller, Adriana Blackard, Penny Treese, Dru Molen, Glenda Chamberlain, Edie Morton, Barbara Brenner, Rae Broyles, Judie Jacobs and Melody Trivisone.

So here is a little trivia for you.. why did they name the town Cabbagetown?? There are 3 possible explanations floating around. One is that back in 1881, the residents were mostly of Scots-Irish descent and they grew cabbages in their front yards. One could distinctly smell the odor of cooking cabbage in the neighborhood and soon the nickname Cabbagetown was born by the people outside the neighborhood. The 2nd explanation is that a train carrying a load of cabbages derailed by the mill and the residents quickly grabbed up all the cabbages and used them in every meal. The 3rd is that a local cab company gave nicknames to various neighborhoods that is served. The mill town was called Cabbagetown because of the constant smell of cooking cabbage. Either way it is a wonderful little town filled with artists, musicians, businesses, restaurants, shopping and lots of local flair.

Our show continues today from 2pm-8pm. Wish me luck!

Buy 2 get 1 Free Sale*

Is your tree up yet?? I'm a little late on getting mine up, usually I try for Thanksgiving Day but with our recent Turkey Twilight Event at the shop.. I've been slacking. Thank you again for all that came on by. It was a huge success!

Flipping around Flickr the other day I was mesmerized by the paper art of Carlos N. Molina. Here on his website, he as graciously given you the directions and templates on how to make his paper sphere ornaments

and Leaf ornaments. I see a window display in my future!! Anyone want to help me make a hundred of these??? Well if your not in the mood to make your ornaments this year...

Come on by The Vintage-Flea for our annual Ornament & Stocking Sale, the first week of December. Buy 2 get 1 Free on ornaments, stockings, or combination of both. Sale starts December 1st and will go until December 5th. *Does not include consigment items. (The Free item will be of equal or lower price.)

See you at The Flea!