Flea Market!

Over the past few weeks I have been to a couple of flea markets and came home with a lot of cool stuff. We attended a market in Albany that was supposed to be Linn County’s largest flea market, and I found some great buys. We got to the market early so needed to stand in line in the cold. I was proud of myself in that I had bought a long, warm Banana Republic sweater at the consignment store for $8 and it works great to go to events like this. It is warm enough to stand in line outside, but cool enough to not get overheated inside!

At every flea market, estate sale, or antique mall we go to we always find some item that is the “theme” of the day. At the Albany flea market, we saw quite a few of these old safety razors. They were everywhere!

Old safety razor. This was from a booth with very reasonable prices.

Here are photos of the things I bought at the Albany flea market. I got this lamp , which Marnie very nicely carried out to the car for me. I also got a vintage Fisher Price Little People village and a bag of cars and people to go with it, a large number of Hardy Boys books for just $8.00, a big bag of letter magnets for when the grandbaby is old enough to put words together (there are enough magnets to have some at Baby’s house and some at Nana and Grandpa’s house!), some Tupperware from a booth that had so much vintage Tupperware I didn’t know what to do with myself, a beautiful hand-tied necklace made of rose quartz beads, and other things!

I can’t resist these lamps if they are a good price. It might soon become a problem…

The village was a really good deal! It has the two sides pictured. An arch with a traffic light attaches the two sides together, but it didn’t come with the arch. I will be looking for one of those for sure!

These were a pretty good deal.

$8 for all!

I loved these when I was a girl.

These scoops and spatulas are very hard to find, so I bought 2 of each. The cake taker top was just what I needed as well, and only $1!

Hand-tied rose quartz necklace – worth much more than $3!

After we were done at the Albany flea market, we decided to go downtown for lunch. We chose to eat at the Brick and Mortar restaurant, since we had eaten there before and I wanted breakfast for lunch. The restaurant was full and they have the technology to text you when your table is ready, so we went next door to Sniffany’s Pet Boutique to check it out. It’s a lot bigger inside than you can tell from the outside, and oh, what a selection of pet things they have! More for doggos than kitties, but we enjoyed looking at all the fun things and petting the shop cat.

These are doggie treats!

The shop cat. We didn’t get his name.

But then we saw these:

😦😦😦😦😦😦

And these:

😧😧😧😧😧😧

And THESE:

😨😨😨😨😨😨

We tried to have some fun with them, but we really got quite a case of the heebie-jeebies, and while I’m sure these chewies are great for dogs we both decided that we wouldn’t have them in the house! Ewwwwww…

What is that? Why, it’s a…hog snout. 😳😳

The restaurant texted shortly and we went in and sat down to get ready for our brunch. Thankfully looking at the doggo “treats” hadn’t ruined our appetite, and we both ordered our breakfast foods. I had my hashbrowns “mortar style”, with cheese and all sorts of other things, and they were delicious.

Marnie concentrates on the menu.

Here is my brunch.

After our meal we walked around downtown Albany for a little while. We searched for and finally found a clothing consignment store we were interested in and looked around in there. Then we walked back to the car (at least we got some steps in!) and came on home. All in all a profitable day! I’m so thankful that my bestie likes to come with me to these events!

Flea Market

On Sunday we went to the Polk Flea Market at the Polk County Fairgrounds. The flea market is held on the first Sunday of the month, and we hadn’t ever been to this one until now.

The market opened at 9:00 a.m. for general admission ($1.00) and we got there around 9:12. You can pay $5.00 admission to go to the early bird times on the Saturday and early Sunday morning. Obviously many people had done that, because the parking lot was quite full by the time we got there! We went inside and started at the far end.

Whenever we go to estate sales or flea markets there is always a theme — some item we see over and over. This day’s theme was dark red dishes and corn-shaped cast iron cornbread pans. I didn’t get a photo of any of the cornbread pans at the market, so I’ll put on one from Etsy so you’ll know what I mean. We saw so many of those I even exclaimed to one of the sellers about it.

Photo from Etsy. Click to go to the listing.

I saw this deer head on the wall and had to look at it more closely, it has a weird antler. The seller there had a taxidermy business advertised on his shirt said said his son had mounted the head. There was another head that the man informed me was the three-point buck he had shot on his son’s third birthday. He said his son had passed away and he had no room to keep all his things. That interaction was rather sad all around. I’m not a fan of hunting but I understand it’s important to some people.

In one of the side rooms of the main building I found this vintage “Sift-Chine” sifter. The seller said it had been in their kitchen for years. I asked was he downsizing then, and he said yes, most of the people in the place were! I already have one of these sifters with the green stripes, but the price was so good I couldn’t pass it up.

We made our way to the other building and found all sorts of goodies! At the antique mall last week I had seen a vintage melon baller with a green handle, and from what I could see it was priced at $10 or $12. In that booth there were a number of green-handled kitchen gadgets, but they were attached to a board on the highest shelf. It would have been hard to get it down anyway. At the flea market we headed into Building “C” and I found this for just $1.00!

The lady that sold me the melon baller also had this in her booth — haha! It’s an egg baby! Well, it’s really just an extremely weird pincushion. I wouldn’t want to put pins in something with a head! She also sold me an old photo dated Easter 1946, which I bought just because 1946 was the year our house was built.

Written on the back is “Baby Frankie B., Noila (?) Jean, Bobby, and Helen – Easter 1946”
Why do people not print the names clearly and put last names on the backs of photos? Let that be a lesson to you!

Here are all the other nifty things I got at the market. The ambulance is a Fisher Price Adventure People toy from the 1970s, we played with the same one at the neighbors’ when we were kids, My sis had the Adventure People medical people but not the ambulance, and I had a hiker set with backpacks and a rock climbing rope. Fun! The green bed and yellow chair are Weebles accessories from the 1970s, the stretchers, bed with white figure, and wheelchair with yellow figure are Playmobil toys also from the 1970s, as are the cow and dog. The little white vehicle is a gurney from a Tonka Toddlers set (and the nurse cap in the back may be as well). I don’t know where the brown rubber broom came from. The two nurses are also Adventure People. The things that attracted me first to the box of goodies were the 1970s Fisher Price Little People sinks, chair, suitcases, and scale! I have been looking for the suitcases for a good price, and the furniture is always welcome into my collection. 😀

But the most important thing (besides the FP Little People things) was that the lady who sold me the melon baller and the photo told us about Google Lens, which is an app where you can take a photo of a thing and Google will tell you what it is. It’s unbelievable how much research that will save when I’m looking to list things on Etsy! It brought up the Tonka Toddlers item right away. I might never have figured that one out if it hadn’t been for Google Lens. What a blessing!

Here are some other things I saw that I hadn’t seen before:

Flamingo Pink Pyrex!!

Square Pyrex bowls! I have a round yellow one but had never seen square ones.

After the flea market we decided to stop in West Salem to get a pizza at Walery’s Pizza. We are very partial to their pizza! While we were waiting for the pizza, I noticed this over by the game room. I hadn’t seen one of these since I was a kid!

I decided I needed to get an egg. It was 50 cents. You put your money in and the chicken clucks and “lays” an egg.

Inside my egg was a strange temporary tattoo. I used to love those when I was a kid, but I don’t know if I would have liked this one, ha!

We had a fun time on Sunday and it was nice to spend some time with The Hubs, who has been working quite a lot lately. I’m looking forward to the next market when I think I will try to get in on the early bird time on the Saturday!