Trash to Treasure and REAL Treasures too at {flea.o.logy}

Getting ready for flea.o.logy is a lot of work!  And I love every minute of it.  I am always trying to find fun things to make, or "reinvent" as suggested  by my blog title.  These funky cake stands, that I sell only at flea.o.logy sales start with the collecting of utilitarian strainer parts.  I love them and they come in many shapes and sizes.

For the bases I collect wire shaped candle holders.  I use E6000 glue, which dries overnight and holds well, unless you overheat it.  Since these cake stands or tidbit trays should be washed by hand any way,  it is unlikely that they will be put in a dishwasher so they are safe from the high heat issue.

 I then choose fun and bright combinations of enamel spray paint to make them pop!!  So with my craft project behind me I am ready to move on and do the other things I need to do to get ready for flea.o.logy, a flea market that has been held at my historic home in Payson, Utah since 2005.  (Though prior to this year it was just a nameless flea market, so thanks to Jenn for her suggestion that I come up with a name for it!!)

 We decided as flea.o.logists that we should reward our blog followers.  http://fleaology.blogspot.com/
Since people always seem to want a tour of the house, when they come to the flea market, I thought it would be a good incentive.  Of course the next best thing to shopping for antiques is chocolate, and what's better than Jenn's amazing chocolate chip cookies?

 So now we begin in earnest.  The booths are marked out on the grass, and dealers start to arrive.  This is James' and Judy's truck ... all full of goodies.   I love James' packing skills!! Don't you?

 And here is our flea.o.logy staff with our work aprons all ready to welcome our wonderful shoppers. (Cathie, Jenn, Paula, Patti and Wendy).

 The vendors have their areas in order and ready to welcome customers.  This sweet cupboard and crafts belongs to a vendor who is new to this show, Welcome Janna!!

 This old enamel bowl full of funky bottles was in Rosy's display!!  Rosy has been with us since nearly the beginning!!

This charming shadow box, and others, were created by Wendy!

 

 The charming wreath and the mannequin with wonderful necklaces are in Jenn's booth.  She is an amazing crafter and always has lots of fun surprises!!

This cubby full of treasures came to the flea market along with our dealer Michelle.  She always has fun display ideas.

 Michelle's daughters brought cute hair bows and baby onsies.  We don't usually do 'modern' crafts at our show, but these were too cute to pass up.

 

 We had several dealers who had painted furniture.  Since they all have different styles, it made for fun shopping for our customers.  These two pictures represent items from Judy on the left, and Janie of 'We Do Re Do's", on the right.  They are a well known Provo based refinishing group, whom we happily welcomed to our sale for the first time!!

 So with all the goods in place its time to welcome our biggest asset, the customers.  These people are all wonderful, and I took a few pics of individuals and groups so you can see what great customers we have at our flea market!!

This little cutie found the children's books right away!!

Here we see the main flea.o.logists with Clark, the great young man who did an article about flea.o.logy in the UVU newspaper.  You can take a peak at the article by following the link in the Blog Post about him on http://fleaology.blogspot.com/

 
These shoppers needed a bit of a break. There is, after all, so MUCH to see!!

This cute mom said she loves dressing her little girl in vintage style clothing.  I love the little blue dress with the Peter Pan collar she chose.

 
Here are some more of our shoppers.  The gal on the right found lots of fun necklaces, as they were half the usual price, and were all artist created.  She was very happy to find them and I love the container she found to keep them separated!!  What clever shoppers we have.

Two of these young ladies are on the UVU newspaper staff and came after reading Clark's article.  They said they all come from states that have great flea markets, and were all saddened by the fact that Utah doesn't.  They said they were thrilled to find us, and look at all the loot they have already collected?

Oh, and did I mention Deedle-deedle-dumpling?  I am not sure his name is John, but he is wearing his socks and is missing one shoe.  But that is not stopping him from enjoying the complimentary home made root beer that we invited our customers to refresh themselves with.

All in all it was a great flea market.  The weather was perfect, our 7 new dealers had great stuff that fit right in with the 15 dealers we had at our last market.  We are all looking forward to doing it again on the Friday AND Saturday of Labor Day weekend ... Guess I better get to work...  Thanks for looking!!