Hi guys! I finally got my photos off my cellphone. I am sooo technically challenged! I am amazed I even figured out HOW to take pics with my phone. My phone is very low tech and can only hold about a dozen photos at a time anyways..next time I take my camera! I am a Midwestern farm girl, so to me, Atlanta is Big City. Traffic gives me fits and I gop out the windows at the tall buildings like..well.. someone who grew up with 3 story buildings being the tallest thing in town besides the grain elevator!( I believe the correct term may be a "yokel"!) We were spending the weekend going to Americasmart and Scotts Flea Market and checking out an estate sale.
Americasmart is a wholesale marketplace. There are 3 tall buildings connected by bridges. It is floors and floors of wholesale merchandise..each floor is sort of like a mini mall. There are elevators which are hard to catch and usually packed so we usually take one of the many escalators which are always somehow "handily" located on the furthest corner from wherever you are or whatever showroom you want to see!
You aren't supposed to take photos inside as the vendors don't want people making knock offs of their merchandise. I didn't take any merchandise photos but wanted to show a tiny bit of the inside. This gives you a bit of an idea. This is the central atrium of the building that holds mostly clothes,food, jewelry and some temporaries. Temporaries are vendors spaces of companies that are new or do not have a permanent showroom. For me, that is where you can see some of the newest, most exciting merchandise. We were mostly looking for hardware and items to sell in our Ebay shop. It is always interesting to just LOOK. I have learned to wear my most comfortable shoes, but still after a few hours my hip sockets start aching..I must be getting old! (age denial) We had a fun weekend..we celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary a few days before. We ate at the restaurant at the top of the hotel we stayed at. It was nice and there was live music in the form of an acoustic rock guitarist who was very chatty with the few of us in there. He asked who was married and when I raised my hand he said, "How long?" I replied 31 years and he gave us guff the rest of our meal..and dedicated a couple songs to us. It was nice to be dressed up a bit and out of the house!
Saturday morning we got up early and went to an estate sale where we got this lovely piece. It is a large, basketball sized vintage crystal ceiling light fixture. It is gorgeous and I will probably regret selling it! It will go on Ebay this week. I'd probably just leave it on a table top with an electric candle inside and admire its crystal pumpkin fabulousity! We got a few other goodies too. I scored a bunch of boxes of vintage mica..I will be in glittery flakey heaven for quite awhile! We were there on half price day..I hate to think what we missed..there was still a lot left... although glassware and china are usually not what I look for anymore.
After the estate sale we went to Scott's Flea Market. It is 2 big buildings full plus outdoor vendors. Inside is pretty much retail prices for me but I did buy some vintage brass jewelry charms. The outside has better prices. I got several small zinc cups/planters that I plan to upcycled into candleholders. We also got a batch of vintage hardware. The 2 main buildings are separated by a highway. You pay $5 per person to get in and you get a ticket good for both buildings. There is a shuttle or you can drive over to the other parking lot and park but SOMEBODY lost our tickets while he was paying for lunch or buying something so we never made it over to building 2..time was also running out as we wanted to get back to Americasmart and catch some more vendors we had missed the day before. I did get a few pics.. These first are of Balinese boatwood furniture. They are made of old boatwood. If you are an Etsy person, there was a huuuuge stink last year when one of the featured sellers was selling this furniture as HER "handmade". It comes in from Bali on a boat in a box and you assemble it. She'd had a story that inferred she made it herself complete with large price mark up and when outed by those who knew better (Including Regretsy) well..the poo hit the fan.
She is still referred to as Baliwood Barbie in some circles..lol. Etsy "smoothed" it over by having her reclassify herself as a collective..a group of people making the end product. Whatever..it just struck me funny seeing it for sale at the fleamarket. (It was also for sale at Americasmart!)
I only got a few pics..
There is a lot to see and it is much better than my photos! If you are in Atlanta on market weekends, (Google for specifics) it would be a fun way to spend your morning or afternoon. We also had some excellent BBQ for lunch there!
I liked this booth..cute vintage clothes and girly things. There is everything there from higher end, European imported furniture to primitives, to Mid Century, to industrial and architectural salvage ..clothes, ephemera, smalls to jewelry galore.
I liked this locker..
These chairs were cool too.
A funky lamp made from an old doll body!
A nice primitive cupboard..
and just lots of cool color and "smalls". A nice weekend! I hit another estate sale this Friday in a warehouse in Knoxville. I got a few pieces there including a shabby mannequin to be upcycled, an industrial cart and casters, old film reels to upcycle or sell, some vintage glassware, a jadeite coffee mug, a few more pieces and this cool sign (below)
It is heavy metal..Texas Joe & Marian Australian Whip Manipulators..too cool! I am envisioning one of those acts where Texas Joe whip smacked lit ciagettes out of Marian's lips while blindfolded ala the 80's Devo music video..crrrack that whip! Whip it..whip it good...I think that song is a soundtrack for a commercial now..I'm getting old! (yet again!)
Friday was also my firstborn son who is in heaven's 30th birthday. He was born with a heart condition and died during surgery a day and a half later.We were so shocked and grief stricken..not what a young couple envisions as even a possibility with their first child! So I was sitting in front of the warehouse waiting for the sale to begin, thinking about it being his birthday and I saw this heart on the bumper of a crusty old beater pickup parked next to the building right next to me. I seem to get "heart signs" especially on Tyler's birthdays.I have gotten a lot of heart shaped stones, a pink glass heart charm and a large red handmade glass bead that I found on his birthday a couple years ago. You can see that one in the nest of eggs in my "About Me" area above one the right "menu" area.One mother's day I was thinking about him and put my hand in my pocket and found a vintage mother of pearl pin that said "Mother". I was cleaning in my old store at the time and truly do not remember putting it there! Maybe coincidence, maybe a sign from above! Now that my store is closed, I spend my mother's days not at work, but at home being if not spoiled, at least left relatively undisturbed by my family! My upcoming week will be spent creating and taking photos for my Etsy shops and listing on Etsy and Ebay. I'm trying to get my Etsy shops back up to at least 100 items each! I'll have more photos to share of what I've been making soon! Until then! Julia
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