Sunday flea market -

After over 24 hours of steady rain and torrential downpours - much needed - the sun has come back out. The temps have dropped from about 35°C (95°F) to around 16°C (60°F). I wonder what ever happened to 25°C? The temps never seem to stop there. But I digress. It is Sunday. You already know that, on Sundays, I like to head out to a flea market - if there is a flea market that seems worthwhile to visit.
Apparently, quite a lot of the dealers decided not to chance it, because of all the rain. Little did they know it was going to be a perfect flea market day weatherwise. Would you like to join me?

A "frozen" Charlotte doll - these are not at all common to see - a whole doll, complete with body of leather. I am a bit undecided whether the body is original - it was in such perfect condition.

 A random shot. Love those green kitchen stools.

Christmas in July - vintage and antique Christmas decorations are available at the flea market all year. But they cost a fortune. Nice to look at, though.

A table full of iron and brass  - I could have spent hours looking at this stuff!

Not really flea market stuff - none of this is even vintage. But I love the way he decorates by colour. And I love the handwoven kelims (the carpets behind those coral necklaces). He always has a fantastic selection of pashminas. Amber, resin, coral, horn and bone beads; rings with carnelian and labradorite; necklaces with glass beads; wooden bowls from Indonesia... His booth is just eye candy.
 
Although it was not quite as exciting as last month (this is the big monthly flea market), when I found treasures upon treasures upon treasures - I still managed to come home with some booty for my stash.

Lace and some large frozen Charlotte heads.

Some vintage plastic cabs with crackled images transfers and some very old letters from around 1880.

A gorgeous stamp for glazing porcelain. Doesn't it look just like copper in the pic?

Max bought a bunch of needle files and gave me some!

And he bought me a cute little anvil! This one is tiny, it fits in the palm of my hand!

So, all in all, it was a successful flea market trip! Hope you enjoyed it.
Have a wonderful Sunday!

Stacked flower and how does the garden grow?

Have been playing with another stacked flower - this time, it turned into a ring. My husband says it looks dangerous.

Now that we have been having hot (did I say hot? I mean, scorching hot) weather, the veggies in our temple of tomatoes have really grown and are now starting to put on fruit - I mean veggies.

Zucchini

don't know what kind this is - Max bought it - some old style tomato

new variety of cherry tomatoes - date tomatoes

Italian tomatoes

Jalapeno pepper

We have several kinds of chili peppers this year - Max wanted them and bought several different kinds, but of course, they weren't labeled and now we don't know what is what. The only ones I can name are the Jalapeno and the Black Pearl (tiny little round chili peppers in the colour of eggplant and the foliage is also a nice purple colour - but I didn't get a good photo of them yet) - because I bought those two.

Wishing everyone a lovely summer day!

Get excited-thank you, Sunday flea market and some African bead love

Do you remember the Get Excited wave that went through the blogosphere a while ago?
I want to thank Debbie of Prairie Emporium for making this wonderful tote for me. I love it, Debbie - thank you so very much. Your writing is fabulous!

I was at a smaller flea market today - more of an antique market. A lot of higher priced articles. But I did manage to spy something, as usual.

A lonely cuff link, of Austrian origin - possibly Wiener Werkstätten. Art Deco era. Gorgeous!

Some lovely (knitted?) rayon ribbon, a spool of silky looking thread (unfortunately, the seller couldn't say which material the thread is) and some vintage lace. Aren't the colours of these ribbons wonderful?

As most of you know, my husband was in South Africa during the Soccer World Cup. He finally came home this week - hurray!!! And brought me some lovelies to play with.

Glass beads and recycled glass beads from Ghana and Nigeria, bone beads, seed pod beads, ostrich egg shell heishi, glass trade beads, sea shells and sea glass.
Can't you tell he knows how to thrill me?

Thank you, Max!!!!

Thank you to Hannia also - the owner of the Ilali Guest House - for taking my husband to those places he would never have found on his own!

Bead show

The summer trade fair is taking place in Munich this weekend, so off I went early this morning.
When I got there, there weren't alot of people - it was easy to access the booths and look at everything. Well, I looked around and most of the interesting beads - I still have in my stash (come on, admit it, we all have a stash - I think I am a dragon at heart)! But then - I found some incredibly beautiful stuff!!!! Just look!

labradorite, carnelian, peridot, apatite, garnet,
mother of pearl, moonstone, prehnite

rough hewn carnelian and jasper

garnet and carnelian briolettes

gorgeous labradorite and moonstone briolettes

awesome pyrite briolettes and beads

chrysocolla and chrysopras

extreme-bling glass beads

new earrings

Just finished a couple of earring pairs.

The little lockets have more of my resined paper on them and are combined with amazonite beads.

These Moon Drops have tiny polymer clay moon faces. The reverse side also has resined paper and I applied resin over the polymer clay and the copper as well. Accented with freshwater pearls in copper and cream.

Blogger generosity

I have been pretty lucky lately. I entered a couple of giveaways - and won (now I am wondering if I should buy a lottery ticket)!

First, I was the lucky recipient of some beautiful enameled beads by Barbara Lewis.

Aren't these luscious? If you aren't familiar with Barbara, I encourage you to take a look at her blog Painting with Fire Artwear - you know you want to!! I am still thinking about what special project I am going to use them in...

Then - it seems my stars were all aligned or I was being followed by lucky ladybugs or who knows what the reason was - I won the giveaway that Angie was having on her blog Hopemore Studio.

Isn't this a gorgeous pendant? And look at the lovely ribbons she sent along with it!

She also included these goodies - little dangle sized pieces. I think they are lovely!

Thank you so very much, Barbara and Angie!!!!