31 Days, 31 Reasons to be Thankful: January 20: Color

col·or  

/ˈkələr/

Noun

The property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way it reflects or emits light.

 

Color bombards us from the moment we open our eyes in the morning until we close them at night. We spend great amounts of time and energy planning the colors of our home, our outfits, our cars...most everything in our life is, in one way or another, linked to color.

 

Being an artist, color is obviously one of the most important elements of my work. Since starting by business about 2 years ago, I have always been complimented on my "eye":  namely my choices of color combinations. All of my pieces are designed with the utmost attention to the juxtaposition of color, texture, style, and mood...but color always sets the tone.

My home is the perfect example of my love of color. Apricot colored couches, aqua walls, and bins full of colorful beads and baubles adorn the space where I love to spend my time. Even my car is orange...you will never, ever see me without some kind of color.

I think that color enhances the beauty in everything. I love finding a knickknack in the perfect shade of pink, a painting with gorgeous aqua and crimson hues, or a scrap of vintage fabric in dusty rosy pastels.

How do you use color in your life?

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for."  -Georgia O'Keeffe

31 Days, 31 Reasons to be Thankful: January 12: Flea Markets

"My name is Lucy, and I am a Flea Market Addict. Nice to meet you."

That would be my line at a support group if there were some sort of 12-step program for people like me. I am truly, madly, deeply in love with junk. Not junk junk, but good junk. There IS a difference.

This is what  I love about a good flea market...GOOD junk!

Recently, I traveled to Orlando, Florida to visit with my brother for the New Year holiday. What was by REAL objective? To go to Renninger's flea market in Mt Dora, where I also hit up my fave antique shops. And, thanks to a loving brother and his patient girlfriend, my objective was successfully met.

My best bud Jeanne and I

My friend Jeanne of juNxtaposition has, like me, made an entire business out of junk. She's older than I am so I will graciously concede to her the title of Queen of the Flea, but I proudly take the role as Princess of the Flea, immediate heiress to the throne.

Jeanne and I share a common bond: we are addicted to the thrill of the hunt. Scoring great deals at the flea market is a rush that, in my experience, by far goes unmatched. Here are some of my very best finds:

"At a flea market I always head for the junk jewelry table first." -Ethel Merman

We'd love to hear about some of YOUR fave flea market finds!

Back to the Flea!

The first Sunday in October, and I am thrilled to say that I spent my morning happily perusing the local flea market. The fall flea has an amazingly fresh appeal: the leaves are turning, the air is crisp, and folks are cleaning out their stashes in preparations for the holiday season. Unlike the summer flea market, which is packed full of vendors selling their finest, the fall vendors are the true die-hards. These folks haul out their vintage goodies, dirty, rusty, and otherwise unloved, and set them out on folding tables for hunters like me to sort through and discover.

Look at this haul!

Vintage Madalin tins and assorted bakeware

For me, there are few things that thrill me as much as finding a gorgeous old suitcase, a perfectly enameled pink bin, or a vintage jewelry box jam-packed with old earrings and brooches.

$2 was enough to score this pristine vintage round suitcase with impeccable kelly green taffeta lining

The perfect shade of pink enamel makes this vintage meat drawer too much for me to resist, and at $3 how could anyone pass it by?!

Boxes full of jewelry fuel my creative fire, and the boxes themselves will be great displays after just a little bit of love and elbow grease

As an urban hunter (a term I've coined...like it?), I am not only looking for things that are, but for what they could be. There are lots of fancy new words to describe it: "upcycling", "repurposing", "refurbishing", but to me, it's simply giving uncovering the possibilities that already lie within. That old jewelry box? A little spray paint and some pink velvet and I've got an amazingly adorable display. Rusty trays? Add some scrapbooking paper and Mod Podge and I've got myself an adorable tray for my dresser. The possibilities are truly endless.

A vintage silver hand mirror will give bel monili customers a perfect look at that necklace they're trying on, and with a price tag of $0 (it was "thrown in" with the green lined suitcase), the taste is that much sweeter

I have so many ideas for these little trays...

$1 for this gorgeous book, complete with adorably perfect vintage holiday graphics

So friends, here's to the weekend flea. Shop on!

Flea Marketing!

Here we are, another week gone by, another Sunday to cherish. Again, I find myself preparing for a day of creating, beginning with my weekly trip to the local flea market.

Most Sundays I happily peruse the aisles of the flea market, peeking through piles of junk and pulling out what I would call treasure.

It's something I have come to crave: The Thrill of The Hunt. Many of us feel it; it's a primal lure that calls to us like a siren, begging that we come with our dollar bills and sift through the seas of castoffs and rescuing the beautiful and the brave.

I have a special love for these kinds of things; the old, the unwanted, the items destined for landfill. It is these things I seek out so that I can bring them home, clean them, re-work them, and turn them into new works of art that will once again be loved. These bits of broken history are, by my hand, given a new lease on life.

Those earrings, the ones that hardly anyone wears, are rescued.

Broken necklaces and brooches, once cast aside, are again brought into the limelight.

So friends, there it is. Another week gone by, another haul of treasures, another group of misfits to be cared for and loved again!

I'd love to hear your stories and see your treasured finds!