Bodhisartva ..... Art/Spirit/Life

Long Beach Flea Market in February

Whew!  I am soooo glad to live in Southern California.  In February.  While my relatives are digging out from record snow and ice, I get to go to the great Long Beach Flea Market. Where it was 72 degrees. And oh, so lovely.  (Sorry guys).

 Quite an eclectic and dare I say, dusty haul. The box with dividers is so useful.  The back is higher than the front; it's 16 inches wide and 5 inches deep.  Now that it is cleaned up, it's  holding these:

I am so in love with spirals and these old watch springs fit the bill. 
They are parts for old Big Ben alarm clocks.  Wish I could have bought them all.  I did get these neat little silvery numbers.  If a certain someone sees these, she will know one of them is about to wing it's way to her...if the snow will allow for mail delivery :-)

The guy who sold me these boxes has 110 of them!  From an old sewing emporium in France.  You should have seen the buttons!  

The hardware on them is very cool. Can't wait to label them.  I wish I could have acquired more - maybe next month.

This is very geeky.  I did not even know these things existed or how much I needed them. They are handles for files.  You just stick the end of the metal file into the end of the handle and tighten.  Currently, all my files have champagne corks on the ends, but these handles will be easier on my hands, which is good.  Then, again, I won't have to drink as much champagne, which is bad.

But, the real winner of the day is something rather surprising.  Here is a fairly mundane wooden box.  I picked it up and the vendor said, $2. So, even though I wasn't that interested in it, I couldn't pass it up.

I was cleaning up everything when I got home and naturally turned the box over to wipe the bottom-which was filled with this:

Joy, Beauty, Life.

What else can I say?  Except that you DON'T want to know what it originally contained.

Living on Air

As if I don't collect enough, I now have a new passion.  Tillandsias!

I blame Sara's boyfriend Jeff. He gave me one for Christmas last year, in a lovely hanging glass globe.  Then, I kept seeing them at the flea markets.  Recently, I found one in Cambria at GROW.

Some of them bloom.

Some are whispery.

Some are....NOT.

And some are just plain weird.

These are plant parasites from the bromeliad family that normally attach themselves to trees in the forests of the Americas.   They don't need to be in water; they can't be in water; they don't belong in soil.  You just dunk them in a bowl of H2O every week and put them back out in the air. Crazy.  Yes, they live on air. 

But I guess I'm done now. There are, after all, only 8 empty Patron bottles on my windowsill and they are each topped with a tillandsia.  Of course, there are other windows in my house.  And I suppose more Patron bottles somewhere.   Hmmm....

February Flea Market in Pasadena

Honestly, I do other things than go to flea markets.  Really.  

I may even share some of them with you one of these days.  For instance, a bookbinding class at Otis College - one day/ NINE books!  A journaling class with the amazingly talented Jennifer Joanou (and one of the absolutely nicest people in the universe).  Getting rear-ended on my way home (now THAT was an adventure). A wine-tasting trip to Cambria.  Seeing "The Music Man" on stage again after about 50 years.

But that's for later.

I know these are from clocks but have no idea of their purpose.  But, you know they are spirals, so that's enough for me.  Love the big clock face - it's about 4.5 inches in diameter.

Boxes, boxes, boxes.  Love the cheese boxes and silverware trays for keeping projects organized in the studio.  The middle box has a bit of a story.

I found it a few times over the past months and wanted it. But it was full of augers (as the sign says) and the vendor wanted to sell the whole thing....for $95! Well, I like the box, but not THAT much.

Here's why it is so cool - It is actually three boxes in one, with the neatest brass hinges and clasps.  AND, the auger grooves will hold pens and pencils, yes?

So this month, I had finished in the booth and had walked away when I glanced back and saw the box way back in the booth.  "Oh, I'll just go visit it", I says to myself. When I got to the back table, there was a price tag on it.  TEN DOLLARS!

Turns out that several people wanted some of the augers, so she decided to sell everything separately.  Halleliuia! The empty box is now mine :-)

A picture cannot do this carrier justice.  Handmade, deep, rich reddish brown.  And BIG. The sides are angled and I think I will display some of my books in those pockets.  Or tools.  Or....?

Finally, this teeny-tiny dictionery with a weathered cover.

Sweet.

January Flea Market - Pasadena

Honest, a lot really did happen to me between the last post (December Pasadena Flea Market) and this post for January's flea market.  I just haven't shared anything, mostly because I was essentially sick in bed for the entire month.  But, I rallied for Christmas and more about that later.

Meanwhile, here's what happened at the Flea.  Just after the Rose Parade showed the world how gorgeous it is in winter here, Pasadena kept it up with 75 degree sunshine.  I was actually glad to venture into the covered market just to cool off.

  I had fun finding these things, but equally as much fun talking with the vendors.  Everyone was very chatty and I heard lots of stories.  I'm reading some stories in here as well.

In one booth found all these books.  Luckily I picked them up and walked around with them in hand while the vendor dealt with another customer.  Lucky because when I tried to negotiate a lower price for all of them, the lady would not budge.  She pointed out a young man who had been waiting for me to put them down so he could snatch them from me! So glad I held on to them.

This is a lesson I have learned at yard sales and flea markets.  If you are even remotely considering an item - don't let go of it for a moment or it may disappear.

The three diaries were written by the same person - 1941, 1944 and 1947.  He and his wife and child lived in Colorado. There are many notations about trying to find work every day and how many eggs they were able to sell from their chickens.  When the baby was sick; having dinner with the folks; going to a dance.  

And then, every once in awhile, something interesting happened.  Like, oh, maybe December 7th, 1941.  In the midst of the mundane, he notes, "Japan attacked the U.S. today and we are now at war."  Not one other note after that for the year.

Lots of wartime info in the 1944 diary. But I was really excited to find this one.

You can hardly read the date, but it's the year I was born!  

And here it is. How could he have left blank such a momenteous date?!  Clearly, he did not know of my birth back in Chicago.

I mean, he could have written it with this nifty pencil.

...which I may keep in this coin purse.

I have wanted to add this to my collection for about 2 years, but the guy wanted way too much for it.  Today, we talked about how he was moving to Arizona and closing up shop.  And he gave me a ridiculously low price for it. Patience works sometimes.

I see that I have delayed again.  And now, it's February and I have stuff from the FEBRUARY PCC Flea waiting for me to post.  Stay tuned.