Paris Flea Market

That road trip I mentioned in yesterday's post? Today we went to the Paris Flea Market. Long road trip, eh?! No, not too long--just an hour and a half drive to Livermore where a group of women opens a large warehouse space to the public four days a month--it's called the Paris Flea Market. The shop is fully stocked with a bunch of antique, vintage, and hand crafted consignment goods, all with a shabby chic flair. (The have a sister store in Walnut Creek called A Room With a Past--same deal where they open four days out of the month.)

Sandy and Gran and I hit the road around 9:30 a.m. and arrived in Livermore just before 11. We knew we were at the right place because the street was lined with parked cars.

The "shop" isn't very wide--about the width of one room and a wide hallway--but it goes back and back, with several room as well as an upstairs "loft" area where they keep the vintage clothing. Here are some sample photos of some of the "stuff" they had:

The check out line snaked down the hallway, but that was okay with those of us who had to wait because the hall was lined with shelves and cabinets where all sorts of little treasures were displayed. Ah, we're finally getting close to checking out!

Once we gathered again, we headed off to the downtown area of Livermore for lunch and a stop at In Between Stitches quilt shop--but I've shown you photos before, so I didn't take any this time. And, on the way home? Well, we just couldn't pass by the Ghirardelli Chocolate factory without stopping in to see what kind of chocolate bargains were on offer. The challenge of the day was finding enough room in my trunk for all our purchases--and this photo was taken BEFORE Sandy and Gran had hauled their chocolate bargains out to the car!

What did I buy today? Well, I found some odds and ends, like vintage postcards and cards from an old board game. I also bought some blueberry jalapeno jam, bath salts, and a packet of vintage white buttons. But I wanted to show you this purse:

I've been planning to make a purse for myself for quite some time, and I've been playing around with different design elements in my mind. One of the things I wanted to do was to make some wool flowers, so when I saw wool flower pins today, I thought they'd be the perfect purchase--both for the flower pins themselves as well as for the purpose of having a sample so I could make more on my own. I noticed, though, that the purse WITH one of the wool flowers already attached was only $2 more--what a deal! I think I'll probably keep this purse "as is" and make additional flowers for the purse I plan to make. The one I make will be a larger size, so this smaller one will be nice to have for those occasions when I don't need to carry as much with me.

All in all, it was a very successful road trip! Viva Paree!