My Very First Flea, The Cleveland Flea

I've always had some junk in my trunk...

...but never in THREE trunks!! 

Thanks to D and my Dad I was able to bring a lot of inventory. A LOT. But to me, more is better! Just like the little girl says in this AT&T commercial "More is better than less because if stuff is not less, if there's more less stuff then you might, you might want to have some more and your parents just don't let you because there's only a little bit. We want more, we want more like you really like it you want more."

True 'dat sista! We want more, so more it is!

  

One of my favorite sales of the day was to this awesome Rollergirl! She made my day when she bought these vintage wooden roller skates. And then she rocked my world when she put them on and went for a spin. 

THANK YOU friends & fam for coming out. It was a coooold day, but I think a few of you specifically the ones pictured below holding red solo cups stayed warm by taking advantage of the kegs over at the Market Garden Brewery Booth.

And the craziest moment of the day?? See the cute girl pictured above (bottom row, farthest picture to the right with the glasses on)? Well I totally loved her outfit, and of course thought that she looked familiar (no surprise there, I think everyone looks familiar!). So I started chatting with her and her friend to find out where they were from and see if I could figure out how I knew her. As soon as she said what high school she went to it hit me...

She was D's PROM DATE!!!!!!! How crazy is that!! Amanda, if you're reading this, hey girl!! 

The Cleveland Flea was an AWESOME first flea vendor experience. I met some great people, became friends with some of the other fellow thrift-loving vendors, bought some cool treasures, and sold quite a bit of stuff (an entire car load to be exact!) I will most definitely be back!

Goodwill: DIY Project #6

I want everything in our house to be white. Our bedroom furniture, our kitchen cabinets, our couches... Until that happens, I will be spraypainting everything else that crosses my path. Including this $10 lamp from Goodwill. Click on over to Goodwill Akron Blog and see some more pics and a tutorial on how I transformed lampshade.

Twinsie Tuesday: Tina & Michelle

This is my first season watching The Voice and I'm really into it. I just finished watching last night's episode on DVR and loved Vedo, Amber Carrington, Sara Simmons, and of course, Michelle Chamuel. Her performance of True Colors made me cry... and also made me realize that she looks a lot like Tina Fey!

The Cleveland Flea

Yippee! Yippee! Yippee! (clicking my feet together midair) I got accepted as a vendor for the next Cleveland Flea!!! (pelvic thrust, raising the roof, and a booty pop! and some over the shoulder fist pumping.)

Stephanie, the Cleveland Flea coordinator extraordinaire, is exploding with creativity and ideas. This weekend she put on a photoshoot and had a few cute local ladies curate and model collections they put together using vintage clothes and wares from the different flea vendors.... including some STBF treasures!

Some behind the scenes photos via Instagram (helloparfait, sarabot216, ohjocelynn, thepeddletheory)

1 | All the ladies: Sara, Zoe, Jocelynn, Stephanie, Allie and Christine
2 | Stephanie staging the STBF gold tea cart
3 | Allie rockin' her black vintage dress
4 | Me being the best photo assistant eva! I was reflecting light on Sara like nobody's business... and my arms are super sore now.
5 | STBF green kid's chair... on the wall. Why not!? Reminds me of Life as a Thrifter's awesome nursery.
6 | Christine's shot with the green chair
7 | Jocelynn in her nerd chic. That's an STBF red marquee letter on the chalkboard.
8 | Anna styling Zoe in her vintage nautical. See that flag on the stool... yep, STBF.

Hopefully you'll see the pictures from this shoot, courtesy of Suzuran Photography, pop up in some local publications promoting the Cleveland Flea.

The next Flea (my first-ever as a vendor!!) is on Saturday May 11th from 10-4 at the corner of E. 64th and St. Clair. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to see you there!!

For more info visit The Cleveland Flea on Facebook or at www.TheClevelandFlea.com.

Photo Friday: Because I love you, that's why!

1 | Mini Moccasins. I die.
2 | Vintage toddler Lacoste Vest. I die, again.
3 | Turquoise pattern plate. You had me at Turquoise.
4 | Not-so-mini-moccasin boots. Or they might be slippers. Don't care. Wearin' em outside.

1 | Two smiling faces at 7:30am. It's a miracle.
2 | Happy (and sticky) haircut.
3 | My barista.
4 | Twinsies...for 5 minutes. Then breakfast happened.

1 | Based on the title, I assume it was a best seller.
2 | Based on the blurb on the back, I know it was a best seller. Know why? Because I love you, that's why! 

Wrap & Write

I've officially decided to no longer give birthday cards. Not so much because I'm a scrooge, but more so because I spend an abnormal amount of time at the drugstore reading every. single. card. until I find the perfect one. Huge time suck. Secondly, I completely LOCK UP when it comes to writing a message in cards. I overthink every word and then get antsy and end up writing a lame message and sort of want to thrown the card out and start over. And lastly, probably the most truthful reason (and ok, maybe a little scrooge-like), cards are expensive!!

So, in lieu of cards, I am going to start writing directly on my wrapping paper.  Not so much like this...

But a little more like this:

All it took was a roll of brown butcher paper that I already had on hand (but in case you're wondering, it's like $10 for a 700 mile roll from Home Depot) and a white Sharpie Poster Paint marker.

For a hot minute I thought about designing something in Illustrator and then tracing it onto the paper, but then remembered I had a napping child that was about to wake up in 2.5 seconds. So, I went the hand-written route, with really straight, totally not wavy, dotted lines.

It even doubled as a photo booth!

Kiddo Chairs Turned Photo Props

My friend Tara from TLG Photography was in need of some mini chairs to use in her photoshoots. Lucky for her, I had quite a few just waiting to be painted.

She chose for one to be shabby white distressed, and the other to be the complete opposite... hot pink and glossy!

My apologies in advance for these old pictures of snow on this 80 degree Cleveland Spring day.

Tara has already used BOTH chairs in two recent shoots, including this one for her 18-month old daughter.

Turns out there wasn't a whole lot of chair-sittin' goin' on for this little lady! Check out some of the other adorable photos from this shoot over at TLG blog.

If you're in the Akron, Ohio area, and interested in affordable family, child, or newborn photos, schedule a session with Tara today by emailing her at tlgordonphotography@gmail.com. She'll make your family photo dreams come true :)

And the Winner of the Candy Jar is...

It was so much fun reading all of your answers! For those of you who didn't have a chance to scroll through the comments, here they are in order of when they were submitted:

1 | Calorie Free

2 | Do Not Eat

3 | Mommy's Only

4 | Sweeter than Candy

5 | Yum!

6 | Sweet & Salty

7 | Did you wash your hands first?

8 | Just one More

9 | Yummers

10 | Eat Me

11 | Gurmeet's Treats 

12 | Yummy

13 | bonbons

14 | Dad Fuel

15 | Candy

16 | Nom Noms

17 | Candy Face

18 | Candy Whore

19 | Sugar High

20 | Crack

21 | Lend me some Sugar

22 | I AM yo' neighbor

23 | Mommy's Treats

We did a good ol' fashion drawing to pick the winner:

And the winner is....

Nick!!!!

According to Nick, "My favorite candy is snickers. But those wouldn't really work in that jar. As the only male entrant thus far, I'll have to say that I'd put some beef jerky nuggets in there and put "Dad Fuel" on the side."

Nick is a new dad of TWIN GIRLS! He's gonna need all the dad fuel he can get! Congratulations Nick!!

Somethings: Things are Getting Trashy Part 3

As we were driving home after Easter brunch a few weekends ago, I saw a guy pulling this metal stool out of his trunk and taking it to the tree lawn. "STOP!!!" I yelled to D as we were driving by. "I want that. I want that. I want that!!!" What can I say, I get a little crazy when I see good trash!  Thankfully he stopped (otherwise I would've grabbed the emergency brake). I got out of the car and asked the guy if he was really throwing the stool away and if so, could I have it? He happily approved. Turns out he had just moved his in-laws into assisted living and was slowly throwing out a bunch of their old stuff.

I checked online to see what these sell for. I saw this one for $104.99 on ebay, this one for $125 on Etsy as well as this one for $100 on etsy. Yowzers --to think this almost ended up in a landfill!

 Of course I took a peek to see what else was in his trunk and there were TWO vintage bikes!! I could NOT believe he was throwing them away. I only had room for one, but I am sure the other one got picked up in a heartbeat.

This is a Murray Titan X63. With a flat tire.

Not quite sure what I am going to do with it yet. I'll definitely be giving it one spin around the 'ol block.

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Don't forget, today is the last day to enter the candy jar giveaway!! 

The Cleveland Flea & My Embarassing TV Appearance

On Saturday I went downtown to check out the first ever, Cleveland Flea.

Taken directly from their site, The Cleveland Flea is "Part urban treasure hunt, part culinary adventure, part maker center...{it} celebrates the thrill of the hunt and discovery of new to you treasures. Find items crafted from cherished possessions re-purposed and ready for a new home. Peruse locally made jewelry, arts, crafts, clothing, {and} food...Come early, grab a coffee brewed just for you and get to it."

Um I think they just described my heaven.

photo via The Cleveland Flea Facebook page

I of course went to shop but also to see if maybe, just maybe this could be a place for a newbie like me to share and sell my somethings.

photo via The Cleveland Flea Facebook page

photo via The Cleveland Flea Facebook page

photo via The Cleveland Flea Facebook page

I walked in feeling soooo nervous. These vendors all seemed to have established brands, with amazing one-of-a-kind items, and I was questioning myself and whether I could really hold my own at an event like this. I wandered through the aisles sort of checking things out from afar and nervously envisioning myself being there. After making my way through the aisles twice, I finally walked up to a booth where they were selling vintage clothes and purses and started to look through the clothes rack. The owner, Lauren, asked "Do you wear vintage dresses?" I don't, but she continued "because I have this one that might look cute on you" as she pulled a sweet little handmade dress from the rack. It was totally not something I ever imagined myself wearing but Lauren and another shopper in the booth encouraged me to at least go try it on in the bathroom.  What do I have to lose, right? (Famous last words)

While in the bathroom, who else happens to be in there too? Dawn Kendrick, a reporter from 19 Action News! Looong story short, she convinced me to do an on-camera interview over at Lauren's booth, while in the dress!

THANKFULLY, 19 Action News cut a majority of the interview otherwise I would not be sharing it here with all of you. I had rididulous diarrhea of the mouth and probably made no sense when answering the interview questions. Lauren on the other hand was amazing! She was a total natural.

Watch it Here: 19 Action News - New Cleveland Flea Market

Needless to say, I bought the dress. And a purse. And I made a new friend, Lauren at Catitude Vintage. Check her out on Facebook.

I've applied to be a vendor for their June 8th event. Keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get accepted!

To find out more about The Cleveland Flea visit their website or their Facebook page.