Rosebowl Flea Market

Alicia, Marisa and I Sprintered (yes, it's a verb :) down to Pasadena this weekend to scavenge the Pasadena Flea Market! We left early Saturday morning and drove down 101 to the Langham hotel - just in time to enjoy sidecards and the sunset! Then up EARLY Sunday morning to shop til we dropped. It was 100 degrees and PACKED! We didn't love this flea market as much as Canton Texas (could never get any better!!) or our home turf Alameda Antique Fair. Rosebowl was not well organized so it was hard to stick to a path of travel and there were lots of grouchy people - maybe didn't help we had our GIANT cart going down small isles collecting our goods!

And to top it all off it was Marisa's birthday!! Happy Bday!

we walked all over the property to find the last inches of sun

and we found sidecars on the terrace bar - cheers OJannie!

Early morning arrival!

We bungeed out carts together - it was awesome. and yes that's an industrial launry cart!!

what? We're pickers!

The saddest moment of the day - realizing we MISSED this white peacock taxidermy!! But we made BFF's with it's new owner. Love the flea market culture! (just better in NorCal and Texas than LA!)

and our final round we couldn't leave 400 year old St Francis behind. We love him even with his missing fingers (No, saints do not flip the bird)

Back to the hotel to crash- Juicy pants, club level snacks and cocktails and BAD TV! heff asked why the heck weren't we going out on the town... TOO TIRED!! And when 3 moms leave 8 kids at home, THIS is vacation.

surprise evening entertainment from our balcony. An intense Persian wedding, complete with Cinderella carriage and a 3 hour set up (guests dressed and waiting for three hours)

Monday morning heading home - love you Sprinter!

Somebody's gotta do it

Thanks for another fun scouting and scavenging adventure A & M!

I was pretty excited to come home to my stinkers... and my husband for taking such good care of them (he took all four to Target on a Saturday - he's nuts!)

Canton Texas Trip - First Monday Trade Days

We are back from an awesome trip to Canton, Texas for the July First Monday Trade Days... with a U-Haul full of flea market finds! It was the first time Heff and I left the kids for a few days (what a good sport - I asked him if he wanted to go to a flea market in the middle on nowhere and he was game :) Canton is east of Dallas and it's 23 miles of walking paths of booths. Lots of junk but some really cool gems mixed in if you dig hard enough! Alicia is Director of The Makery and Marisa is Director of The Botanist so they came along to find some cool stuff for the shops.

We preflighted Wednesday and Thursday and then Heff joined Thursday night and was on "logistics" helping us rent the U-Haul, get it packed up, make the final decision on all the "should we?" finds we had hidden and find a driver to get it all back. 4 days, 23 miles, 107 degrees... and a whole bunch of cool stuff!

Arrival in Dallas - we rented a truck and of course it's cherry red!

tractor ride from the parking lot. We were practically the first ones there

ready to dig!

#ilovetexas

made some new friends

we filled these carts every few hours and took them back to the cart rental station

Friday morning back at it!

Heff was the braun we needed :)

we made time for one dinner out in the Big D! Nothing fancy- just a burger joint to "test" burgers for The Alley ;)

and this was my favorite sign ever. #restaurantownerproblems

high class

my dinner dates!

and then when we thought we were done... we found the secret warehouse behind the warehouse! Hand carved wooden fabric stamps we had been SEARCHING for!

U-Haul with random bat facts? Thanks for the knowledge U-Haul

and that's a wrap

BBQ breakfast and Fried Pies on the way to the airport (I voted Applebees but Heff made us eat somewhere authentic ;)

Dinner with Warners

We had another fun Thursday night - with the Warners! Rachel and Steve came over with some good wine and their cute kids Helena and Ben who entertained the girls all night. Poor Ben - the only boy got dressed up in a dress and makeup, what a good sport :)

pizza making Steve and Rachel - so much fun to catch up with them!

kid approved dinner