my love language: flea markets + yard sales

Our house is coming together and still feels like a major work in progress at the same time. Here is Jude prior to leaving for the Adirondacks in early June. Our deck was basically a basketball court. A very dingy basketball court for a very sweet little basketball player. I bought the hoop at a yard sale for $5.

Philip power-washed the deck once we got back from camp in July. And it looks so much better. And yard sale purchase for the win again...

Can you believe got this at a yard sale? Pier One, purchased the year prior and let's just say we saved about $1,000. God frequently takes care of us through yard sales. It is sort of silly, but I do find that to be true by the way we find the exact thing we were hoping for that we could never afford at full price. 

We have been also looking for newel posts at flea markets. Newel posts...those bannister things if you are not familiar. So far we have no quite found what we are looking for. And our stairs unfortunately still have unfinished steps (no hardwood) and one of those awesome half dry walls. 

Our flea market of choice is this happy place called Todd Farm Flea Market in Rowley, MA. It opens at I want to say 5am, but I have never made it out there before 6:30am and by then it is packed with vendors and people. It is my mothership. We usually grab some iced dunkin donuts or this week we stopped at Marty's a local delicious donut place in Ipswich. 

We stroll Jude man around and look for treasures. Hold me back because seriously, I could buy so much. 

Here are a few of my treasures from this week: 

And this is as far as we have gotten with them: 

(spray painted the B grey - scored the B for $10)

The little wooden box is being used for incoming mail and sunglasses, just counter storage in our kitchen. 

And the antlers I will do something fun with. So far they are gold tipped. I found a really cool oval shaped frame that I considered buying and mounting the antlers in the middle. One of the men working a booth asked if I were going to do some sort of voodoo worship and I said no....

Other finds recently from Todd Farm...

We also found this fireplace there (taken from a Harvard apartment) & painted it white. Philip thinks it should be painted a different color...thoughts? 

And this little table from a house in Cape Cod. Philip thought the seller said he got it from a cape as in the style house, but I am pretty sure no one would feel the need to tell you that got a table from a certain style house. (e.g. I got this table from a colonial...not necessary information)

There are all kinds of people at the flea market. There are some booths that are pure junk. And there are some that are the best kind of old stuff. There are also ladies that know how to style their booths and mark up the prices, but I am generally not looking for that type of thing. 

I have to laugh too because every time I have gone I see these girls - probably in their twenties - who get all dressed up hipster, dressy and march around like they own the place. Sometimes they have a little dog as an accessory. I feel like they think they are on some sort of vintage, repurposing home show. But I have never seen a camera crew with them. Philip doesn't understand why I think its funny, but its probably because I secretly wish I was them and had my own tv show too. 

Todd Farm closes in I want to say October so I have got to get my fix before the season closes. Its seriously tempting to me to go every week until then, but we'll see. 

So I am blogging about my house today...who knows what I will blog about next?