I went to the Great Park today in Irvine. Once a month they have the vintage/antique flea market on the first Sunday of the month. There is a farmers market open every Sunday, but it gets really crowded when the vintage people join them. I had never been to this one, but heard lots of good things about it and I wasn't disappointed. Most of the big fleas are huge and they are an all day excursion and customers have to pay to shop. I'm not big on that. The size of this one was just right!

I took photos of some of the vendors. Their information is at the bottom of the photo in case you see something that you are interested in.

This booth had terrific one of a kind jewelry and seashell delights. The artist is Marie
Campuzano-Garcia. Her necklaces and bracelets are so beautiful they could be worn for a wedding event, and her prices were so reasonable each of the bridesmaids could be decked out as well as the bride. She has a nice selection of bottles that are adorned with seashells as well.  You can find her at 1st Sunday, The Groves, Irvine (Great Park); 2nd Sunday, The Rosebowl, Pasadena; 3rd Sunday, Veteran's Stadium, Long Beach.  You can also email her at...  coquillesdemar@yahoo.com. I bet she has a site where you can see her things up close.

I bought a hat from this gal. How could I resist? She dyes the hats and embellishes them with silk flowers. When she isn't making hats she is painting french country designs on furniture and paintings. You can find her at The Grove (Great Park) Irvine the 1st Sunday of the month and the Veterans Stadium, Long Beach the 3rd Sunday of the month. If you see a hat you like or want a custom one made you can call her at 760-218-8992. Just tell her you saw her hats on my blog.

Look at these colorful frames. The owner Pam will custom make one for you. Her business name is California-Pickers and they alot more than just frames. You can find her colorful booth the 1st Sunday at the Grove (Great Park) Irvine and Koby's Flea Market in San Diego, they are open Fri. Sat. and Sunday.

This belongs to Bob The Biscuit Barren. He traveled all the way from Hemmit today. He is at The Grove (Great Park) the 1st Sunday and Anaheim Flea market the 4th Sunday. The Anaheim market is fairly new so look them up on the web to see exact location. Bob has a nice collection of old cans and I bet they would look great inside a restaurant or coffee shop to give it character. You can email him at    rsheandi4@aol.com

This was friends Monika and Michelles first time selling. I am impressed with how good their booth looked. The pillows are hand made. Wouldn't they look great on wicker chairs or in a beach house? The furntiure was refinshed and painted. I hope they continue to sell. They have a knack for it!

This gal has a facebook page called Cafe de Luxe with lots of photos 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Casa-de-Luxe/206639362720277
It also lists where she will be and she has a booth at an antique mall in Long Beach.

This is Seashell Treasures Gifts from the Sea. She is at The Grove (Great Park) 1st Sunday. If you want to know where else she will be email her at  karinhendricksen@cox.net

This gal has a blog!  http://thetarnishedcrownblog.blogspot.com/
and a facebook page   https://www.facebook.com/pages/Casa-de-Luxe/206639362720277#!/TheTarnishedCrown
The sign caught my eye. You can find her at The Grove, Irvine; The Rosebowl-N-15; and Long Beach   White-G-228

The owner of this booth wasn't there but I got a business card. She has a website...
http://seahousedesign.com/index2.php#/home/

The owner of this booth was busy with customers so I snapped some photos and her grabbed a business card. Most of her jewelry has a religious theme. She has a website and apparently she made the cover of
Romantic Country Magazine. Now I understand why she was selling copies of the magazine at her booth. Very nice!
http://frenchatheart.com



The following photos are random. I don't have information about them but I liked the individual items.

Isn't this door beautiful!

I bought this pair of circa 50s pooches. I have no idea where I will put them but she gave me such a good deal I couldn't pass them up. I don't remember if the owner gave me her information. Hopefully she will see the blog and leave a comment as to where to find her or her contact numer.

xo   Inge

I am still thinking about the mercantile market that I sold at on Saturday. I met soooo many talented artists! I met this one woman who even was published in Bella Amoire Jewlery Magazine! I went home with one of her Frozen Charlotte Angel pendants. It looks very similar to the one pictured above. The doll also has an interesting history...

http://reviews.ebay.com/Frozen-Charlotte-And-Charlie-Antique-Doll-Buyers-Guide_W0QQugidZ10000000000915405

I also found her website/blog http://bellalunaarts.blogspot.com/

She also has a facebook page which lets you know where she will be

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bella-Luna-Arts/35916190188?v=wall

Mother's Day is next month... wouldn't she look great wearing one of Bella Luna's one of a kind jewlery pieces?

Did I ever tell you ?

I was a massage therapist for nearly seven years? During that time I lived in San Francisco...a beautiful city, but living there day to day was quite stressful...even in my line of work. So I started educating myself about alternative medicine, yoga, meditation, and healing stones... at the time I was interested in crystals... even used them in my massage therapy sessions.

When I moved to Chico I unfortunately discontinued my massage work and stopped meditating... ( I plan to get back to that soon) but I still use alternative medicines for when I feel overwhelmed and yes one can feel overwhelmed even in Chico!

The other day I was surfing etsy.com and I discovered an etsy shop who makes healing stone jewelry! The owner and jewelry artist, Caroline Pinkney-Baird comes from a long line of artists and studied art in London and New York. She has been making jewelry for over eighteen years and studying and using alternative therapies for over twenty-two years, while living in Europe, South America, Africa, and the Middle East.

For thousands of years, individual gemstones have been associated with different healing and strengthening properties in the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual realms. Caroline was first inspired to use stones to heal by her study of the traditional healing properties of various gemstones, and by her first-hand observations of their effectiveness in healing both mental and physical conditions in herself, family members, and friends. These healing properties include improving focus and concentration, facilitating decision-making, aiding a positive outlook, promoting creativity, alleviating insomnia, and calming, motivating, and strengthening. Caroline currently works with over sixty different precious and semi-precious stones.

One area Caroline has particular enjoyed working in is making necklaces which can be worn by mamas and other caregivers when they are enjoying the company of babies, toddlers and children. As a mom, Caroline is concerned with the safety of jewelry she wears around her kids, so she has come up with a line of necklaces which are strong enough to withstand the tugs and pulls of a baby or toddler, yet elegant to wear at all times, and which contain no lead crystal or plastic/resin.

But what is this line of jewelry? Caroline refers to it as her "nursing necklaces" collection, but notes that the necklaces are NOT just for nursing. In fact, many customers don’t have little kids or any children at all - they just buy these necklaces for their elegance or healing properties! So what is a Nursing Necklace? For years, mothers around the world have benefitted from using nursing necklaces. At some point your baby's exploration of her world can interfere with nursing. When distraction, biting, pulling and pinching become part of the routine, a good way to distract your baby and focus on nursing is to offer a nursing necklace. A nursing necklace is designed to appeal to your baby's senses - vision, touch, hearing. Wearing a nursing necklace refocuses your baby during feeding time, encouraging her to explore the nursing necklace beads, rather than your hair, your clothing, or anything else near her. You can wear the Nursing Necklace or just hold it and let baby finger it. It's good to have a few so you can rotate and keep things new and exciting. Caroline's Nursing Necklaces are designed to be both tactile and visually-stimulating and help make breastfeeding or bottle-feeding a more pleasurable experience. These necklaces are not just for feeding, use them during diaper changes to keep your little one's hands occupied and out of the diaper. Wear during babywearing to keep your little one from tugging on your hair. The possibilities are endless!

Stones of Healing jewelry is featured in galleries and stores including:

BabyHawk Baby Carriers, California, USA; Bits For Bairns, Scotland; Kissui Baby, California, USA; Kisses 'N' Wishes, England; McKinley Kid, Alaska, USA; Nurtured Family, Texas, USA; Sling Jax, England; Tubac Center for the Arts, Tubac, Arizona, USA; Naturally Nurslings and Nurslings Boutique, Connecticut, USA; Next Generation Diapers, Tucson, Arizona.

You can also stop in her etsy shop www.stonesofhealing.etsy.com/ and her website address is

www.stonesofhealing.com/ Now it's time for me to do some meditating!

I like women who push the envelope!

which brings me to my feature artist...Katie Kutthroat who takes cross stitching and embroidery to another level!

She started cross stitching at age 14 and gave one of her first pieces to a guy she was dating at the time.. It was a towel with his name in cursive with little decorative designs in the corners. She started embroidering about 4 months ago and likes to use Sublime Stitching because they make so many amazing designs for her to play with.

She started making jewelry when she was about 17, but didn't get into it as much until she was living in New Orleans. She worked at a bead shop, actually called The Bead Shop, where she learned how to wire wrap and some other basic techniques.

Katie opened her etsy store about 4 months ago, which includes some Sublime Stitching pieces, along with Nintendo themed pieces and of course her witty one liners. "Sassy samplers make you rethink cross stitching.. its not just for grandmothers anymore! " Be sure to check out her blog http://katiekutthroat.blogspot.com/ and her etsy shop http://www.katiekutthroat.etsy.com/