August 4, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

Rose Bowl Flea Market July 2014 Recap

We left our house at 5:00 in the morning to be sure to get down to Pasadena and get the good parking ahead of the crowds. I knew I wanted to pay the extra entrance fee to enter at 7:00 instead of waiting for the general public fee of $8 at 9:00 in the morning. The entrance fees per person go like this:

Before 7:00 a.m. = $20
7:00-8:00 a.m. = $15
8:00-9:00 a.m. = $10
9:00 a.m. and later = $8

I find that before 7:00 most vendors have not finished setting up, so it is generally not worth the extra $5. In fact I overheard a lady complaining about it to her companion that she felt ripped off when so many vendors had not even begun to display their wares.

Even at 7:00 there are still people arriving but the majority of the vendors are ready to deal.

We knew we wanted to be in and out.

Make a quick trip of it.

Here are a few tips:

1. Arrive early and then leave early to beat the crowds.

2. Haggle. Haggle. Haggle. I never pay asking price. It is the name of the game. It is a friendly conversation. They expect it. You should do it. It is fun. The end.

Wait. I spoke too soon:

Funny thing about that. We were leaving and these two hipster chicks were carrying the most amazing leather chairs to their Range Rover. I knew how much those chairs were worth because Emily Henderson has a pair. And Anthropologie has recreated them and sells them for almost $2500 each. So, I had to ask.

“How much did you pay for those?” I rudely quipped.

“$700 for the both of them,” one of the girls replied. I wanted to bite something in my jealousy.

“That is a fantastic price!” I told them.

“You think so? He wanted $1500 for both but I threw out $700 and he agreed really quickly… Almost too quickly.”

Ha! That happens every time. You always wonder if maybe you could have done better. Either way those girls scored. So be prepared with your offer and know what something is worth.

3. Bring a cart. We used to lug around a beach cart, but now we have a handy dandy cart that we purchased for $20 last year at the flea market. They rent them for $15 at the entrance but some booths near the back (of course) also sell them.

4. Read Emily Henderson’s Flea Market Tips. It is handy. I do not think you need a notebook because most of us have cellphones that we can just write the booth’s info down into.

5. Do not hesitate. We lost out on the coolest storage end tables because we decided to walk around and think on it. We did end up getting their smaller cousin for a great price ($20) and he worked out perfectly where we needed him (pictures in a future post). But they were something my husband really wanted, so that was a bummer.

Things are one of a kind so they sell quickly and early.

6. Pay for parking. VIP Parking is $15 for the upfront parking. It is a Godsend. You will be doing a tremendous amount of walking. Why walk more after a long day? This is especially true if you are buying large pieces. This is not a store and you are required to get your items to the car yourselves. It is worth it.

Okay, enough! Let’s get into the flea market all ready!

I waited in line until exactly 7:00. And I do mean exactly. The windows do not open even one second early.

I made my first purchase of these cool vintage carpet remnants that I am currently sewing together and finagling into a giant pillow.

We always forget to take pictures of the beautiful things and usually take pictures of only the weird ones. Sorry about that!

I guess from these pictures you can tell we are drawn to the wacky and strange.

As evidenced with the boar head above.

I did manage to take a picture of the coolest vintage foosball table that had immediately sold. Isn’t it amazing?

An anchor. Yes, an anchor?! For $600. I cannot imagine where you would put this, well, unless you are super practical and bought it for your boat. But if you have a boat that needed an anchor how is your boat remaining in place?

This poses the question:

Which came first the anchor or the boat?

It was too much pondering for my wee brain at the crack of dawn. It weighed it down, so to speak.

This has nothing to do with the picture above, but every single time I am at the flea market I see this lady selling a cool vintage cast iron garden bee. I love it. It has been there for three years.

It is overpriced.

She will not haggle.

It is extremely strange. And I do not understand how she can go to the flea market if she is too attached to her things to actually part with them.

This time she had a small garden gnome (I did not get a picture of her booth) and I asked how much he was. He was not anything special. Just a gnome.

She said, “Oh, you mean the magical rainbow leprechaun who grants wishes?”

Um, sure.

“He’s $25… $125.”

We walked away. ‘Cause no.

But now I wonder if she truly is a witch and selling magical cast iron creations. It would surely explain the prices.

We had not gone to the flea market for anything particular. We didn’t need anything.

Which is why we bought everything.

As it goes.

The only thing we needed was a stop sign for my son’s room because he wants one every time he goes to the flea market and his birthday is coming up, so I figured it would be a good surprise for him.

And it would have worked because I found a cool weathered Stop Sign for $15 (priced at $25, but haggling is the best part). Except the sneaker saw me editing this picture and said excitedly, “So you did find a Stop Sign?”

Do not let me handle a surprise for you.

We found the cool ottoman coffee table. I love it. It is made from vintage crates and the fabric is a vintage Czech army blanket. This booth is always my favorite. The owners are constantly one step ahead of their competitors and one step ahead in terms of trends. The ottoman was a fabulous price and we are so happy with it.

I got this. I will showcase more of it later. It is just a sneak peek. I cannot tell if it was a good purchase or not, but either way, I had to have it.

So, we got into the flea market at 7:00 and we left the flea market at 8:50. I thought maybe I should meet some people down there, but we wanted to be quick. It was the perfect amount of time for us. We were in and out and home with the kids for lunch. We beat the heat. And most importantly, we beat the crowds.

Have you been to the flea market lately? Have you been to The Rose Bowl Flea Market (last year’s trip can be found here)? What do you look for when you go?

*The next Rose Bowl Flea Market occurs this Sunday, on August 10th.

P.S. I shared this on Savvy Southern Style.

July 12, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

It’s The Little Things: Matryoshka Doll

For my birthday, my family surprised me with this sweet stacking Russian doll. As an outsider looking in, this seems to be just a sweet gift. But there is more to this little doll than meets the eye. Let me tell you tell a little story…

When I was four years old, my mother’s best friend brought her back a Matryoshka Nesting Doll as a gift when she returned home from her travels to Russia. My mother loved that doll. I was fascinated by it. We grew up pretty simply in the country when I was small. And I think that made my childhood special. It left more room for the imagination. I could spend hours on the floor talking to a beetle. It was with great joy that my mother let me stack and unstack her new gift.

The best part about the doll was that it unstacked to the tiniest little doll. It was about the size of a grain of rice. I was obsessed with that thing. I loved (and still do to this day) anything miniature. One day, when I was playing with the doll, the worst thing happened. My mother, unaware that the tiniest doll was sleeping on the carpet on the floor in her bedroom (I know! How could she not realize that?), came in and vacuumed the floor. The small doll was vacuumed up. I was devastated. My mother was devastated. Sorry Mom!

And I never touched that Matryoshka Doll again.

Whenever I spot one of these stacking dolls, I always ask if it breaks down into a tiny doll. No one ever knows what I am talking about. Although, I am sure they are curious as to why I sadly proclaim, “it’s not small enough,” and walk away remorsefully.

Well, my family found this Matryoshka Doll at The San Diego Fair. It has the tiniest doll! My husband and daughter sneakily found it while I was waiting with my son while he got his sculpture made.

I love everything about this gift. The bright colors. The memories it invokes. The secrets it keeps inside. And the fact that my daughter found it for her mother when the opposite was true in our family’s past. Again, sorry Mom!

It’s The Little Things: The Littlest Doll. So happy to hold one again!

Do you own a Matryoshka Doll? Does it hold more than just miniatures of its own self inside? Does it hold memories, too?

May 31, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

Keepin’ It Real: May 2014

Every month, I try to do a summary of that month with outfit outtakes and a quick wrap up of things I might have missed blogging about in that month. May had some doozies in terms of outtakes. And it was a doozy of a month for a lot of people I know, my family included. When I told my friend we had to endure one more day of May, she exclaimed, “NO-O-O!”

I hear ya, sister.

If you missed last month’s “Keepin’ It Real”, you can find it here.

On to this recap. May, I will not miss you:

Recipe fail. My mom asked me the other day, “Do you post everything you make?” Oh my gosh, no! When you are experimenting with a new recipe there are going to be some misses. I have even made some recipes from very acclaimed chefs and have had to throw the whole dish away. So, no, I do not post about every recipe. Only the ones I would absolutely make again. And again.

The other day, I made this dessert. So bad. Tip: Do not add raspberries to Strawberry Shortcake. It sounds good. It is not good.

Outfit Outtakes:

As promised. A glimpse of Holy Holey Girdle. It is such a small glimpse. We saved over the other original pictures with the revised ones, so this is what we have left. Here is the actual outfit post.

It really is more like an extra pair of skin colored shorts than anything else. And to be even more forthright, the only reason I wore them on this day was to hide my colored underwear. The dress is so flowy, it hides a lot of flaws. The girdle is not the typical spanx. It does not offer much support, but it makes me feel more confident.

And I could not resist adding this picture because of the unfortunate placement of my hand.

So, I fell in a cactus (picture of my cactus hand is in “Keepin’ It Real: April 2014. Link above). And my twirling has never been the same. The outfit post for this photo shoot is here.

This picture makes me laugh.

“True Detective”, anyone? Just a bit of an odd thing to find around town.

Peonies! Everywhere?! Yes, please! Tip: Trader Joe’s will let you take the plastic bucket if you ask nicely. : )

Does this alert ever make anyone’s day better?

At San Diego Children’s Hospital, the ceiling tiles are randomly painted overhead. Isn’t that just a nice unexpected thing? That way, when a child is being wheeled through the halls and into various rooms, they have something to look at and look forward to.

I could hug whoever thought of this.

My mom gifted me a gift card to Anthropologie and these for Mother’s Day. Isn’t that the sweetest?!

Father’s Day idea. My kids each made my dad and my husband some of these hammers a few years ago. We just painted a wooden hammer and then shellacked it. I found the idea on Pinterest. Easy peasy.

And my most exciting purchase of the month. Seriously. These barf bags. I have a post about them ready. If you ever get car sick or have children that get sick, these are priceless.

With that in mind, May, you can be on your way.

Oh my gosh! Last night my husband and I were dancing with the dogs in the kitchen to “I like to move it.” When we sing it to the dogs they dance with us. It is actually quite cute and comical.

The dogs are funny, too.

Well, Ollie got too rambunctious and did a back flip! He hit his head so hard. We immediately stopped dancing, but I felt so bad for him. You can see the beginning of it in this picture. Who knew he had it in him?

Coming up in June:

Maui posts! We are heading back to Maui next week and I cannot wait to blog about it!
My Husband’s Secret Part II… She had to find out sometime. ; )
Honey Ice Cream! My favorite treat in the summer.
Whirlin’ Twirlin’ (Free People Mixed Print Tunic).

What did you think of May? Will you be happy or sad to see it end?

April 11, 2014 by gn0mel0ver

It’s The Little Things: Phone Camera Lenses

I never knew these existed. Did you? But I read about them last month on A Beautiful Mess here. They compared different photo lenses for phone cameras. Some of the ones they showed were expensive. I knew as much as they intrigued me, I probably would not be indulging in them. But they also showed a pack of lenses for sale at Amazon for less than $10. They are the VicTsing 3in1 Lens. I thought it would be fun to play around with them.

Spoiler: I was right! So, so right!

Duh! ; )

This is what the three lenses (that really does not sound like a word. Does it?) look like. There is the fish-eye lens and the macro/wide view lens. The macro and wide view lens screw together. To use the wide view, you keep them together. To use the macro (super close-up), you unscrew them and attach only that one.

This is what a lens looks like attached to my phone (I have an iPhone 5).

This one is my favorite. I think. I really love them all. It is the fisheye lens. It makes everything look distorted. I think it is so cool! This is sweet Ollie using the fisheye lens.

This is a selfie. I am on my knees (in case you were wonderin’). Probably beggin’ for clothes.

Or a cookie.

A flower in our backyard.

This is a picture of our backyard without the wide angle lens.

This is the same spot with the wide angle lens. You can definitely tell the difference.

And here is the macro lens. A flower petal in our house.

My eyeball.

Because why wouldn’t I?

An in-depth look at a pompom.

Here it is without the macro lens attached. It is a definite difference.

It’s the little things: getting more uses from something you all ready own!

I hardly ever use my camera on my phone. But now with these easy lenses, I can take fun pictures anywhere I am. These lenses will fit easily into any purse I own. I am thrilled with this cheap little indulgence. I am going to buy a pack for my daughter, too. They are a cool little gift.

Have you heard of these? Have you tried them? Do you use your phone’s camera?

* I was not paid for this post. I purchased the lenses myself, because I really wanted to try them. However, the link provided is an affiliate link. Purchasing through that link will provide a small commission for this blog. I will never write a post about something I have not purchased myself or that I would purchase for myself. As in anything I review, your experience may vary. I am not a professional photographer and I tried to use the lenses to the best of my ability. And my ability… it ain’t much. ; ).

Gnome Lover

Stumbling through life while still having fun

photos

Rose Bowl Flea Market July 2014 Recap

It’s The Little Things: Matryoshka Doll

Keepin’ It Real: May 2014

It’s The Little Things: Phone Camera Lenses