I attempted to bring Harry to the flea market once before, when it was on Spring Garden in a warehouse right before 5th street. Unfortunately, a surprise snowstorm hit and prevented a lot of the peddlers from driving into Philly. Even though this is an indoor event, it's dog friendly. Just make sure your dog is behaved.
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| Harry drools with excitement at the flea market |
Harry really enjoyed himself. Not only was he surrounded by people paying attention to him, he was consumed by the smells of all the old things from strange homes. It was a struggle to keep him under wraps, especially around glassware and strollers. I was surprised by how appreciated he was by the sellers...I assumed they'd be annoyed by having a mutt sniffing their wares. Sellers came out and greeted him and they even had water bowls set up for the occasion.
Most exciting to me are my finds. Usually when I attend flea market events I go with something in mind so that I can browse with purpose. My intent in going to the Fairmount flea was to find vintage planters, or things I could use as pots for the roof deck garden. I ended up with other things obviously...
For example, this martini shaker. I definitely won't be planting something in it, but I may possibly be making an Old Spanish for my TV boyfriend Don Draper. It's clean, it works, and it was $4. Plus I have the recipes for all the groovy drinks from back in the day right at my fingertips. I plan to pair these with a bunch of Mad Men-esque tumblers if I ever find cheap ones and then spend my evenings vomiting as I can barely handle beer.
Next up is this cast iron wall hook that looks exactly like Harry. Notice his "zoinks!?" expression above. The lady who sold it to me was pretty batty, and I paid $5 which in comparison to the swanky cocktail shaker may not be a deal. But I'm a sucker for things that remind me of Harry. I'm hoping to use this in our wall that acts as a foyer to hold Harry's leash. We haven't named him yet, but I'm edging towards Larry, since they're almost twins.
It was at the Spring Garden Flea Market that I found a guy selling tons of vintage post cards. Some were written on, some were blank. He had them categorized so you could browse by city, country, or subject. I picked up a few of places the boo and I have traveled, some of Philadelphia, and I checked out the dog category obviously.
The one above is from 1902, and although I have no clue what the post card says, I like the script and the sprinting dog reminds me of Harry's wild man running in the dog park. I mounted it with double stick tape on some poster board and framed it.
This one really spoke to me. The dog looks nothing like Harry, but the handwritten message completely spooked me. It was only the day prior that Harry had eaten our IKEA chair cushion. Of course I giddily had to tell everyone around me the entire story and the man selling post cards told me about a guard dog in a museum in Graceland that ate all of Elvis's teddy bears. I thought he was crazy, but apparently it's true. Those post cards ran me about 50 cents each. Deals yo!
Our most recent acquisition was done online via Craigslist. I had been searching for a wingback chair to possibly reupholster (if I could figure it out) and stumbled upon one for sale only a couple of miles away. I immediately pounced on it, and we brought it home on Monday. It now sits in Harry's room so now he can have some company when he's in his crate. Best part is, I'm obsessed with the color and it's not too worn out. No reupholstering for me!
The treasure hunting is going to have to take a break for the time being. We only have so much square footage. But I think what we've found so far is pretty great. I think Harry feels that the new chair adds sophistication to his boudoir...let's just cross our fingers that he doesn't give it the same homecoming as he did our IKEA chair.
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