Flea Market Loot

I'm back from a few days in London where I spent a day at Liberty with Sania Pell and her assistant, the lovely Polly (she is such a great girl!), working for about 6 hours on a tabletop concept for their store where we will be presenting on April 13th for the launch of my first book, Decorate. I have a great time with them both, we worked (though it felt like playing!) and ate lunch out at the yummy Flat Planet nearby, and then hit Muji and a few other shops for supplies.

The next day, I was at Sania's beautiful home (the cover of my book in the US has a view of her living room on it), located in West London in a very sweet area called Chiswick. We had breakfast and lunch there and in between we worked in her craft loft at the top of her house making things and chatting for hours. It was such an inspiring visit! The only thing missing was dear Leslie, who is also part of the demonstration at Liberty...

I came home feeling so inspired that I immediately took to the flea market today down along the river. I thought I'd share my loot with you and talk through the reason that I was drawn to each piece.

I came home and laid out my loot on the dining room table...

Papier mâché boxes, silhouettes, an illustrated vintage butterfly book..

I love this little boy and girl box, do you see it in the larger box above? It's papier mâché and so sweet.

I was lucky to find this old pair of silhouettes - I will paint the frames black and do something else nice to them that I'll show you later... :)

The brooch was made by hand by a nice older lady selling her wares -- I liked watching her make these brooches and thought that it was worth 10 Euros, especially since it was her craft and she was very proud of it. Pinned to a pretty sweater or velvet jacket in the winter, it will be quite nice I think. Also notice the old butterfly stamps. I have a thing for butterflies...

These finds were nice to come upon today, I loved going from table to table picking them up... It's so much fun to lay out your loot when you've finished flea marketing because you always see a pattern in your palette - at least I do - and it strikes me as so funny as it's always very unintentional!

(images: holly becker for haus maus)