My day at the Long Beach Flea Market...

I had been really anxious to go to the Long Beach Flea Market for quite awhile. It's held every third Sunday in the Long Beach, California Veteran's Stadium parking lot. I had heard such great things about this market and prepared my car the night before. All seats down? Check. My new flea market cart? Check. Camera? Check. Measuring tape? Check. So when I woke up the morning of the market, I was sad to see that there was a light rain falling. Noooo, not today! Well, the ad on my flyer said "rain or shine", so off I went!

The closer I got to the market, the harder the rain fell. But I was not backing down! As I pulled into the parking lot, the rain had stopped and I could actually see a small patch of blue in the sky where the clouds were trying their best to part. By the time I rifled through my purse to find my fifty cents off coupon for the $5.00 admission fee(not much, but I'll take it!) and grabbed my cart, the sun was peeking through the grey sky. Yes!

When I entered the gate, I could see all of the vendors removing tarps and drying off their merchandise, determined to set up shop.

Man, it was wet, and puddles galore! I ruined my favorite pair of boots even though I tried my best to maneuver around them(the boots are at my local shoe repair as we speak. He said he can re-dye the leather? We'll see).

This vendor had some great chippy paint items and was crawling with peeps. She was off to a good day!

Loved this guys merchandising! I think he just pulled up his trailer and parked it. I actually love going through big piles of "junk", it's a total treasure hunt. This man was tough and wouldn't bargain on anything. I'm not sure he really wanted to part with any of it!

Yeah! The sun!!

The highlight of the day was meeting Emily Henderson of HGTV's "Secrets from a Stylist". I didn't know it was her because her back was to me, I was just listening in on her bargaining technique. She was pulling the ol' walking away trick, when the vendor caved and gave her the price she wanted. As she turned around, I realized it was her. I asked for a picture and she said "of course!". She was super friendly and wanted to make it clear to me that on her latest episode, she did not like the carpet used in the show, but that she had to go with it. She explained to me that the small sample she received that she based her decision on looked nothing like what arrived. So cute. Oh, and I'm not trying to be a rock star by wearing my shades in the picture. I just wasn't prepared to be in any pictures that day so I thought it best to leave them on!

I love anything that stores anything!

So attracted to succulents. Only $1.00 a piece. Cheap and low maintenance, just how I like it! 

Well, I made it out of there with some good bargains and I will definitely go back. I ended up with a really cool chandelier, an old table cloth(using to re-cover some seats), an old metal filing thing(the peeling off inventory sticker on the back says it's from the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C.), a Charles Chip Tin(the girl I bought it from told me of the memory of her mother always getting gussied up for her chip delivery from the good looking Charles Chip driver. Ha!), and a pair of boots(did I mention I have a slight boot obsession?). I have a picture of them all, but Blogger will only load it sideways? What's up with that?

Now that my cart was a little wider than when I started, I couldn't cut through the cars to shorten my walk. So I had to schlep all the way to the end of the parking lot aisles. I then realized I had no idea what row I was parked in(when am I going to learn to make a mental note?!). I used the car lock-unlock beep trick when I thought I was in the general vicinity. When I finally found my car, I looked down and had to laugh.

Well, well...looky here. How clever.