Flea Market Finds

This weekend Walker and I decided to go take a grand adventure through the Rose Bowl Flea Market, a world-famous monthly shopping extravaganza in Pasadena.

Source: rgcshows.com

Even though I am a dunce and forgot my camera at home (you can google Rose Bowl Flea Market and see how enormous and awesome this market is!), I was at least able document all of the great flea market finds that we acquired along the way.

As you can see, we ended up with quite a few little trinkets! Our goal was to find some things to spice up the crate shelves above the TV in the living room (remember when we put them up?). Walker discovered a great retro toy lute that actually plays music when you wind the crank. It was fun, quirky, and definitely fit the style of our other trinkets in the crates so we snagged it for a measly $5!

We also found a really amazing navy/white hand-painted skull in the same Mexican style as the skull on our other living room shelf.

At the same vendor, we found another little hand-painted ceramic owl friend. The owl and skull were only $5 a piece!

The final addition to our crates was a $10 vintage soda bottle from England in the 1800’s. Fun history lesson: the bottle was designed so that the marble sealed the top hole when it was closed. When someone would first open the bottle, there would be a loud pop as the seal was broken and the marble rolled down to where it sits now. This is how the term “pop” came to America! The vendor also told us that kids used to break these bottles open so they could collect and play with the marbles. Turns out that his little story checks out… I think this website sums it up well if you are interested in reading more.

As you can see, our crates got a little more interesting!

The steal of the day was the handful of match boxes that we got to fill the jar on the coffee table. They were 5 for $1 so we grabbed 10 of the best ones we could find!

My favorite flea market find was a giant iron key mounted on burlap and framed. As you know, I am obsessed with skeleton keys, so I nearly jumped with joy when Walker pointed it out to me. I was on the fence about whether or not to buy it until I saw the handwritten note on the back:

I think it says “Key from Des Maries Opera House – 1800’s” (or maybe Des Manes?). How awesome is that!? Ok, I’m no idiot… someone could have easily made that up but I choose to be optimistic and believe it (life is too short to be overly cynical). Plus it only set me back $20 and now we have a sweet old key hanging on our kitchen wall! I re-mounted the key with some wire to clean it up and make it more sturdy. I am so glad I got it because I know I would be thinking about it now, kicking myself for not grabbing it. It looks so cool! :)