West Avenue flea market

Finally it was after 10am and the SweetHomes Antique Mall and Flea Market on West Ave was open. I forgot to take pictures as I walked in but I've posted a link where you can see a vendors pictures of everything. The place used to be an old mill and there are metal shaving pressed into the wood floors. I had been to this one years ago too but the setup had changed. I wandered thru the open booths and came across a booth called the "Vintage Needle" owned by Debora McFearin. I found lots of craft supplies at great prices. As I went to pay for my finds I saw this beautiful display cabinet and asked if I could photograph it for my blog.

It's a 1909 German Simplex all original. I was amazed by all the vintage patterns that were still in perfect condition. She even opened the case to show me some of the stuff.

Please visit her photo album on her site to see pictures of the whole flea market http://vintageneedle.net/album/sweethomes/
Here is everything I bought from her...




And the only miniature related finding...

Yard Sales, Thrift Stores and Craft Stores finds

First off I want to thank all of my followers.. I can't believe I already have 99 followers. Thank you. I can't believe 99 people on the web read my random posts. I love following everyones posts. I try to follow all of my followers too.

Saturday was such a beautiful day I had to get out and do something. So I went yard sale shopping. There was one little one on my road so I went there first. I wish I had thought to bring a take a picture there. She had the biggest collection of frogs I have ever seen. I found a few craft kits and a metal ruler for $2.

I found another sale across town in front of a used furniture store (I didn't know about.) I got this box of old checkers and dice for $2.

Then I got this cute little "Doggy Tales" scrapbook set at another yard sale for $2.

I stopped by my favorite Antique store in town to see what "new" old stuff he had aquired. I love this trunk but there is just too much rust on it for $35. But I love the ornate metal. If it weren't for all the rust holes I probably would have bought this one anyway.

The one below it was in much better shape but they wanted $70 for it.

I must have walked past this one half a dozen times before I spotted it. I will probably got back and inquire on the price of it this week. If I can get a deal on it I'd love to pull off all the old canvas and refinish and stain the wood. I'd use this one as a coffee table.
Our house is too small for non functional furniture and I could really use the storage for bed linens. We only have one closet in our whole house that 3 people share.

After checking out all the local stops I decided to go to Michael's Crafts & Hobby Lobby. I picked up most of this stuff on clearance. The DMC floss are the colors I would like to try in my rug design. (I already have black) I got the bead loom at Hobby Lobby but I'm not impressed with it. It doesn't work the way it's supposed to. and the springs are only about 2 inches apart. I'll probably just rig up my own loom. I bought the Liquid Sculpey because I've seen all the cool things other bloggers have created with it so I thought I would give it a try.

BEADS!!!

My grandmother had a big yard sale this past July. All of the family was there to help out with it. Of course we got first pick of all the stuff. While helping set up the day before the sale I found a 15"x10"x6" box labeled "Beads and craft stuff Whole box $1" . It was packed full of acrylic boxes and a plastic jewelry box. She said she had used them to make fancy beaded Christmas balls years ago. I claimed that box without ever looking in the acrylic boxes within. Over the following weeks I started sorting out all the different findings. Every box contained a lot of rusty straight pens so it was a little dangerous digging in them. Here are the pictures of the majority of my finds.

Sorry this is blurry my camera just wouldn't focus on the white beads.

All of these large beads are covered in tiny holeless beads.



These are the random things left in the bottom of the jewelry box after I picked out the above picture.


Jewels

Yard Sale Finds

Last summer a local antique store was having a yard sale from the left over stuff from an entire estate purchase. I wandered around the yard looking at random junk and was about to leave when they opened another storage pod and started bringing out more stuff. I saw this wooden box and knew I had to have it. When I tried to pick it up I discovered it weighed about 20 lbs.

Look at all the goodies inside...

20 lbs of craft wire... for $2.. I would have paid $2 for just the wooden box. Paid for it and took it straight to my car.. but I didn't leave I stuck around to find out what else was in that storage pod... A few miniutes later they set out 3 wine boxes (two were exactly alike with handles)

I knew I had to have all of them too. As soon as I opened the first one I was sold.

All three boxes were filled with vintage seed beads made in Japan and a beaded flower instruction book. $5 for all three boxes and a bag full of vintage sewing stuff that is now stored in the other wine box.


Now I've just got to learn some bead stitching. I found some videos on youtube that help me alot with understanding the process but I haven't figured out what to make yet.
Thanks Casey and Tessie for inspiring me to get my beads out.

I spent $7 and brought home more supplies than I could ever use so if anybody needs some beads or wire let me know I'd be more than happy to share them.