What I Didn't Buy at the Famous Waldo Flea Market, A Shangri-La of Vintage Junk

The entrance to a small antique store part of the market. The real thing was MUCH LARGER but I can't get those photos out of my phone to establish scale. Boo. Real Camera coming next time...

I love taking US Highway 301 on rare drives from North to South Florida. Highway 301 is a snapshot of small town Florida, where decaying Mid Century Modern souvenir shops and fruit stands were erected during the glory days of 1950s road tripping, like a Tacky Tourist Florida post card. There are also rustic trailer yard sales and thrift shop stops along the way. I am definitely going to make a project out of beautifully documenting every single one of these fascinating stands and junk stops. The past Sunday my mom and I made a random journey to the most epic one, the famous Waldo Flea  Market.

Mixed in with straight-up Sanford and Son style junk displays (which I also LOVE, don't get me wrong) where some vendors with all the beautiful Mid Century Modern I seek I wanted that amazing lamp shade/lamp but it was $60ish. He had great stuff.

I also throughly enjoyed exotic animal galore. If you're wondering why this Husky is so large and brown-eyed, it's because it's not a Husky but a WOLF. She was a gentle and playful.

Edit: I don't advise having a wolf for a pet at all what-so-ever. Just letting it be known. Nor do I celebrate the treatment of this wolf as a chained pet. Simply reporting on what I saw while flea market shopping.

Beside wolfie where some Hispanic-style paintings that resonated with mom and I but they were too damaged. My mom's got a nice collection of Mexican/Puerto Rican art in her kitchen.

Tins are another fetish of mine, my inner graphic designer loves that typography! Very nice collection of vintage in this part of the market

Had a nice chat with this guy about profitable estates he's bought-out in New York and pristine vintage he's' sold off for the big bucks. He had a lot of pop culture toys I wanted but didn't take a risk on with little knowledge on what the pieces sold for. Inspires me to take more risks and hunt at more estate sales.

I love Avon Decanters but I leave them behind now, slow sellers.

This guy had the biggest collection I'd ever seen in one place. In retrospect should have looked more at the gun one. I do always sell those.

This guy had two very beautifully staged stalls. We chatted about art/design aesthetic, most vendors at Waldo were so friendly. I wanted to buy several unique mod items from but didn't risk it. Maybe next time. The ones I really wanted were all in the $20-$40 range but were the type of conversation pieces that sell for much more.

These rocks are likely vintage, no? The child-me would have died for this set-up. I loved collecting rocks.

This antique Microscope set's interior was messy but wow, glorious thing to behold. More stuff more my past amateur scientist to drool over. Gorgeous design on the label and interesting color choice, too.

More beguiling 50s-60s breakables to behold. Great collection, all expensive.

A close-up of estate-sale-guy's wares, he had so much to behold! Lots of random bits from his buying adventures.

I enjoyed these deliciously gaudy handmade/painted cement pieces, she had great prices on them too and I came home with one you'll see next week.

I wish I had photos to show of the outside right now, still trying to retrieve shots of this adventure from my phone. (Expect a follow-up!) but here's an example of the junky areas. Many piles of junk, many goats, chickens, and bunnies to pet.

But my favorite was this ring tailed lemur, bred in South Florida as a pet. Very well behaved, the body fur was soft like a chinchilla. Such an beautiful creature! I've seen a bush baby and huge exotic birds while yard saling and flea marketing but the lemur was the most enchanting exotic creature sighting for me yet.

Edit: While it's legal to have a ring-tailed lemur and other exotics as a pet in Florida if you go through the expense/time to earn a wildlife license it's difficult on both the owner and animal to have an exotic pet. Not advised.

Except maybe this bobcat! Just kidding, he's shed his mortal coil. How dare you tell me not to touch, sign, that's all I want to do looking at this regal hyde.

The dream! Seems like everyone wants a retro trailer for a pop-up shop these days.

You can sense the history of this place, the outdoor vendor's stalls had a look of being there (and decaying) for a LONG TIME. A nice example of Southern junking culture.

In the end I came home with a lot of glorious retro goodies and have made a tidy profit selling some of the pieces from my trip already. Will definitely make my way back and try to fit in more travel trips. And more hunting in general. My inventory needs fresh blood.

What would you have bought? What have you been leaving behind lately? More to come, there's a LOT you haven't seen yet...

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What I Didn't Buy at the Flea Market: Tempting Mugs, Robots, Knick Knacks...

With my antique mall booth stuffed to the brim (another expansion hopefully coming soon!) and my vintage stock finally dwindling a bit and organized I'm wary of bringing in new finds. My rules: no more wall hangings, mugs, beer steins, knick knacks that aren't of the incredible unique big-eye sell-fast variety, try to stick to true mid century modern, nothing that's not unique and incredible. Of course, I keep breaking my rules, but there's progress! Here's what I left behind this past frosty Sunday morning:

A beautiful beer stein! In green! I have the strangest vintage beer stein/mug fetish, totally unjustifiable. These souvenir types are especially risky so I exercised all my will power to leave behind another slow selling dust collector.

Unicorns! Unicorns actually sell really well for me and these have neon-spray-paint potential but I'm still iffy about that process. Exercised more will power to leave 'em. Go away! Out of sight knick knacks, sick of storing you!!!

I'm not letting myself collect anymore toys for the moment so I didn't even dig. Witness the requisite nude Barbie doll pile. People these days, I kept my dolls so pristine they're still looking like new in my parent's attic. Treat your toys nice, kids! You're turning me into my mom. Do you think money grows on trees?!

My "ceramics guy" (I'm a regular, often-known as "The Girl with the Camera" and frequently asked if these photos will end up on TV or my "next book"... I wish) was there as usual but I've already got so many planters from him to sell. And cookie jars and decanters sit too damn long.

I found an adorable matt brown version of the same exact cookie jar that sat forever before it sold at one of my antique mall booths for less than I would have liked.

And right next to him was my favorite "toy guy", Nick. His den must be wall-to-wall pop culture toy galore, he always brings out new goodies and lets me photograph his set-ups like a crazy person. He enjoyed the old toy collages I used to make.

M.A.S.K toys and Transformers aplenty, lots of goodness this time around! Look at the huge Metroplex! Want!

Wait and who's this!? Rodimus Prime!? I liked Hot Rod better but damn I still want a Hot Rod of Rodimus of my own. One of my favorite Transformers.

That's what he said, I heard it...

I really want the MASK van and this glorious Retro Go-Bot! Isn't he glorious! Too bad he was $20.00. Boo. My hunt continues. I will dream of this Go Bot tonight no doubt.

My "other" toy guy has an equally neat set-up with toys organized by type.

I enjoy the sight of these pill-guys grouped together.

And Transformers kept following me and haunting me. I want you all to live with me my beauties. I loved the juxtaposition of "battle scarred" Unicorn next to pristine Unicorn. He lost the battle of time and rough play with kids.

More Robots! Power Rangers HO! I still have that same red guy in the top left there to sell on eBay. It's HILARIOUS to scare your pets with them. Give it a try if you find one, I'll have to upload a video of Yuko being terrorized by it. I'm evil.

I really wanted these cute wall hangings and maybe should have took 'em home? What do you think? The only wall hangings I bought home cost pocket change so I could justify them sitting around for a while, but these ones had selling potential to me.

And a mug, of course! What the hell is with me and my mug fetish?! Loved this crab one.

Turtle Pile! The neon turtle coin bank was hyper close to joining my shop but had a small chip at one of the mouths. Boo!

This table set was absolutely incredible! Wouldn't mind putting that one in my apartment. Didn't even ask about the price, furniture is too slow moving for me to bother. I only have my apartment for storage, no room for anything to sit. And I hate lugging it around. Up and down stairs in and out of trucks, bah hum bug.

I also enjoyed this small child-sized 1960s groovy rocking chair. It's seen better says but the fabric is far-out.

Holy Smexy Trailer, Batman! Stopped to take some shots, and when I came back there was another surprise...

It belonged to my "sign guy", I met him at a yard sale where I learned he does that installations at our local Urban Outfitters. I may collaborate with him on building shop installations if my brick and mortar ever happens! He told me his trailer's going to be transformed into an on-the-go coffee truck! He's agreed to let me document the process so stay-tuned for posts on that.

He had a great set-up and loads of quality goods. I bought the epic robot lamp in Monday's post from him and some nice wall hangings I'll show next week, ran out of time to photograph them this time.

He had a lot of temptations going on there! Eek!

I wanted almost everything on this table, Io love canisters and cups but kitchenware sits forever for me.

I'm on the prowl for a record player just like this one, this one didn't work and had water damage so I had to leave it. The hunt continues!

Also tempted by this vintage Lite-Brite with all the lights included! Sexy! The packaging alone is beautiful.

And one final glorious sight, it took a while to get a great shot of this squirming puppy. Those eyes! One of my favorite elements of flea market/yard sale hunting are the critters you'll see. I've seen a pet MONKEY, Lizards, Giant Birds and dog galore. A regular brings around sister-dogs that look like Coyotes that I want to steal...but this one! It's so cute! It's like an anime mascot; it's a Pokemon! (Actually a Siberian Husky mix.)

Anything you've regretted leaving behind lately? What would have tempted you in this post? Sound off!

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What I Didn't Buy: The Cleanest Flea Market You'll Ever See in Okinawa, Japan

A couple of years ago I embarked on the trip of a lifetime to Okinawa, Japan. I thought I'd lost all of my photos from the trip with a computer crash but I recently found an SD memory card where I'd backed up a couple thousand photos from my trip! Looking through these photos are incredibly inspiring, they're a riot of color, Japan is such a stimulating environment for the creative/designer's brain! We tried to hunt down places to thrift but the only place I encountered was this small flea market by the sea shore in a large shopping center.

I still remember the cloudy November day I set foot in my first Japanese Flea Market, which, as you can see, is immaculate and quite empty. It was probably an "off" day for the market.

There was no vintage as far as I could tell, just a random assortment of things to buy, many things for 100 yen. (About $1.00.)

This may remind you of flea markets domestically where vendors sell "Made in China" wares they ordered in bulk from overseas. A couple of tables where selling lightly-used clothing and housewares, too.

I still love this Dragon Ball Z poster and display of belts folded inside of coffee mugs. So tidy!

There were a couple of stalls where vendors set up more permanent shop, this children's clothing booth was popular.

Here's the view of the flea market from the upper level of a cafe where I sat with my friends, falling asleep into my matcha late from jet lag. ALL of the cars in Okinawa were of that soft-cornered cube variety. See that cube to the left entryway of the flea market? That was my favorite stall, it was loaded with merchandise and incredibly well organized.

I even loved the contrasting woods grain textures going on inside, I took so many pictures in just this one stall.

 I'm still in awe of all they fit into the small space efficiently everything beautifully displayed. Lessons I need to take to my own home-built displays for art shows and stores.

All the merchandise had its on packaging and a nice assortment of color. As you can see a well-curated modern version of shabby chic was popular at the time I was visiting. Not my style at all but I loved looking at it all.

 I'm thoroughly enjoying looking back at these photos from my trips to Japan, can't wait to share more of them! I always feel refreshed and inspired, I'll definitely be back to explore more of the country someday. Time to earn more and save up for it!

/Comments Off: I'm playing with having comments off on certain posts depending on my work load, the day of the week, and the type of post. Today is my one work day at "Shakti", a local raw vegan caterer and I want to work on getting ahead on posts before my shift (and bike orders to the post office!) so comments will be off today. Send me an e-mail or Instagram/Facebook/Twitter message if you have anything to say or wanna say "Hi!"

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