A Visit to Elephant's Trunk Flea Market

This weekend, Adam and I paid a visit to the large Elephant's Trunk Flea Market in western Connecticut on our way home from visiting my parents. This market opens nearly every Sunday between April and late November and always offers a great find! If you have heard of Elephant's Trunk, it's probably because you know it's one of Eddie Ross's favorite flea markets.

Sunday's trip to Elephant's Trunk was our fourth or fifth, and decidedly the gloomiest (weather-wise, that is).

Nonetheless, the lot was packed when we rolled in mid-morning. 

A mid-fall chill won't get in the way of dedicated shoppers, now will it?

Every time Adam and I have stopped at the flea market, we've always walked away with something that we love.

Today, I'll highlight some of the offerings that caught my eye on Sunday. Hope you enjoy!

Up first: the extensive selection of rugs. Clearly I have a thing for Persian and Turkish rugs because, had I the means, each of these would have been rolled up and carted back to Philly with us.

Many styles of furniture can be found at Elephant's Trunk, all for reasonable prices. 

The warm tone of this table, along with its delicious spool legs, stood out in the crowd. 

It was being sold for a fair price of $110.

Wouldn't this cabinet be a precious addition to a child's bedroom or playroom? 

I could see painting it a soft color and organizing baby's first book collection in it.

The traditional carved details of this pair of chairs would be the perfect unexpected combination for a modern, graphic print on the seat. Can you imagine it? They were less than $25 for the two.

 Certainly many mid-century pieces could be found at the market, including this pair of chairs, which look to be Paul McCobb (albeit covered in a hideous leopard-print fleece--seriously, what is that?).

A MCM log holder:

One dealer had a set of 8 tulip chairs (I didn't look to see if they were authentic) that were in excellent condition.

This set of 4 bentwood armchairs made me weak. Gorgeous. I hope they went to a good home.

 Like furniture, the many vendors of Elephant's Trunk offered a diverse selection of artwork, and I snapped a number of them that I think you'd all love to see.

Need a English hunting scene for your '30's-era smoking room or library? Voila:

 This oversized floral piece was spectacular, I swear! It appeared to be handpainted on silk and was approximately 4 feet x 2.5 feet.

 Still into the antler craze? 

Why not try this metal buck head ($110) for a spin on the trend.

 Portraits were also available at a number of great prices. 

This large painting was $15 and the colors were very soft in person.

Are you curious about what did make it home with us? 

A small oil seascape painting (which I didn't manage to take a photo of) and this mirror (which was $30).

Oh, and no trip to a fall fair is complete without some sugar-covered fried dough.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and had fun thrifting, crafting, painting, creating or flea marketing like I did. 

I highly recommend the Elephant's Trunk Flea Market and suggest you all go, as long as you leave some good finds for me!

Finds from This Weekend's Flea

Saturday's trip to the flea market here in Philly was a productive one, and let me show you my finds!

I walked away with this emerald-enamel Reed & Barton silver bowl for $2. 

It will be a smart looking candy dish (as soon as I get some candy up in here!):

this hand blown glass decanter for $15:

a copy of Ed Emberley's Little Drawing Book of Birds, for $4:

I also bought a beautiful framed floral poster that I'm going to work some magic on, and want to keep it a secret before it's finished. Expect updates on it posthaste!

What do you think of my finds?

Have you found any great thrifty items recently?

It Pays To Do Your Homework, or How I Almost Lost Big Time

This one goes out to all the kids out there who don't see the point in being patient or fully researching the unique, odd-ball finds we often come across at thrift stores, antique malls, and flea markets.

Up until last night, that was me. What changed you ask?

The discovery that this $5 flea market cast-off

may actually be worth something.

According to Wikipedia, the "Googie" ashtray was designed in the 1950's by Maurice Ascalon, the "father of the modern Israeli decorative arts movement" and produced by the Pal-Bell company.

Sure, the cool little figurine caught my eye in a lonely corner of the Elephant Trunk Flea Market late last fall; but not being a smoker myself, I thought it weird to have smoking-related paraphernalia around the apartment. So, off to Ebay it went.

That was until last night, when I wanted to determine if my $25 opening bid was warranted or not.

This is when I pause for you to check out this, this, or this link. 

Clearly, winning this for $25 would have been a joke. 

A total cosmic joke on me, that is. 

I've always wanted to have my own little "Antiques Roadshow" discovery, and I did. 

See, kids, it pays to do your homework.

What cool worth-way-more-than-you-thought treasures have you found?

*Update*
Many of you asked what I plan on doing with my snail ashtray--the answer: nothing, nothing at all, at least for the time being. I'll take Bri's advice and hold on to it, hoping it's eventual sale will supplement my retirement.

NYC's Antiques Garage

I mentioned on Friday that Adam and I were heading to New York to stay with friends and celebrate another's birthday, and we certainly had fun! Tomorrow I'll share more about how I spent Saturday, but for now I'll be recapping our Sunday morning visit to The Antiques Garage in Chelsea.

By no means the first visitors, Adam and I walked leisurely through the indoor flea market (located in what we estimated was a parking garage) at about 10:30. Quickly I knew what the market's strongest offerings were: the fabulous vintage artwork!

Check it out:

A vivid illustration of soldiers, $58 I recall:

This painting will always be remembered as "the one that got away" because I couldn't determine its price or its seller...imagine my annoyance!
Wouldn't it have looked lovely in my den!?

And just to round out a great weekend, we stopped by Wogies on Greenwich & Charles for a cheesesteak before heading back to the city that made this its signature cuisine.

I can tell what Adam's thinking here: "Just 20-something days 'til pitchers report to Spring Training." Ha!

Hope you all had as great a weekend as we did!
More on NYC tomorrow!

Weekend Report: Clover Market & Other Happenings

Adam and I spent a large part of this weekend driving around the lovely suburbs of Philadelphia. Saturday, we drove around aimlessly. We don't own a car, so when we can borrow one from his parents, it really feels like a treat.

On Sunday, however, we were much more focused. We headed to the suburbs once more for the opening day of Clover Market, held in the lovely Main Line town of Ardmore. All morning I got the sense that Adam was as excited about The Clover Market as I was. He kept saying to me, "I hope it's great." I do too, Adam. I do too.

We arrived at about noon, and apparently Philadelphia-native Patti LaBelle also made an appearance (sadly, we didn't see her). It was a treat to see so many people supporting a new idea like this. For more photos, check out the Clover Market blog.

Again, the weather agreed with us, and I found these lovelies:

The antique crock ($13) now sits proudly in our kitchen, holding our larger utensils while the planter ($10) will soon house a re-potted orchid. I also spoke with Molly Worth of Chairloom, and am hopeful to get moving on the loveseat reupholstery I wrote about here.

While in Ardmore, we drifted into the Junior League thrift store, where I scored a pastel plaid taffeta high-waisted full-length skirt ($10). A bit long for my 5'4" frame, I will likely chop this skirt to a flattering knee-length. It reminds me of sherbet and The Stepford Wives all rolled into one.

We made our way back to the city and rewarded ourselves with a little South Philadelphia present from Tony Luke ($8/each). All in all, a weekend full of Philly treasures (most of which cannot be found in your grocer's freezer).

More Philadelphia Spring Events

I posted earlier this week about Clover Market, which is already on our calendar for April, but this isn't the only opportunity to scrounge through the others' goodies. Phila Flea Markets is "the largest outdoor flea market in Center City Philadelphia," and rotates locations throughout the city. Proceeds benefit various local organizations, such as The Friends Of Jefferson Square Park and The Fairmount Community Development Corporation (CDC). How wonderful!

Beginning on May 1, this event runs through October 23 (with a break during the warm summer break when Philadelphians head to the "Shore," aka Jersey).

(via Phila Flea Markets)

I'm already planning the spring and it's not even officially here!
I promise to report back on my findings.

Clover Market

With the sadness of last week behind us, I am looking forward to the exciting things in store for us this spring.

One such exciting event that is Clover Market, which Philadelphia Magazine describes as the Main Line "version of Brooklyn Flea," (subtext: fewer hipsters).

Vendors include Chairloom, the upholstery company of creative genius Molly Worth. Molly reupholstered the chair in the heading of this blog (recovered in Rubie Green's East Village fabric). The fun and vibrant prints of Molly's pieces surely complement the experience of spring in Philadelphia.

The 2010 dates for Clover Market are:

April 11 and 25
May 9 and 23
June 6 and 20

Looks like we have at least a few weekends planned for us!
Who wants to join us?