ALAMANY FLEA MARKET IN SAN FRANCISCO

First thing I search online when arrive a place? Local Flea Markets! Last year when I was visiting San Francisco I attended Berkley Flea Market and this time I was lucky enough for being in SF for the weekend so I got a chance to visit Alamany Flea Market. It's every single Sunday from 8am until 3pm but at 1pm many vendors start packing up so don't arrive too late. It's situated in 100 Alemany Blvd and you can get bus number 9 to get there. If you are driving there's plenty of space to park your car. We walked almost one hour and in the way we found Bernal Peak, a great hill to have a great view to the city and to the bay.

MEALS IN MINUTES VINTAGE BOOK

You know, I'm a book lover, if I go deep in the story you can pay me a trip to Bali and I won't go just to read the whole book (hmmm Bali? Wait a minute! I might go!). Then I can't resist to vintage items, a vintage book? That's way tooo much to handle.

OH SO AMERICAN: THRIFT STORES

I thought that would be fun to share with you guys american lifestyle thru my eyes. In these series I’ll post about what I've seen only in USA that I’ve never seen in other countries in the World.

I decided to start with Thrift Stores because they are one of my favorite things about USA and you can find these kind of stores in every state you go.

Thrift Stores are places where you can score great clothing, kitchen ware, books, decoration items and mostly everything you can think of for a very cheap price. You get to buy a book for 0.50 cents or 1 dolar, a jacket for 3 bucks, an amazing painting for 5 bucks. How does it work? People clean their closets and find things they don’t want anymore so they donate to thrift stores. Mostly of the thrift stores I’ve been are non-profit, all the profit goes to community projects and to help people in need and all the staff is volunteering, usually retired people. (this is a great way to spend your time doing something useful for the community!)

FLEA MARKET IN AMSTERDAM

Everytime I'm travelling I always search for nearby Flea Markets to take a look what looks like antiques in the country I'm visiting. I also search for vintage shops, they usually have such a beautiful and inspiring decoration and I admit, I love to meet the shop owners or staff hah! I usually spend one hour or so exchanging information about vintage and I always bring something with me.

VINTAGE SHELVES MAKEOVER DIY

I always dreamed about a small before/after DIY project so I'm super happy to share my latest craft project! It includes a small bookshelf I found in the trash for 2 years and a delicious vintage fabric I found in a flea market for more then 5 years, finally I had the guts to cut it off (auuuchhh).

FLEA MARKET @ LISBON

 I visit Lisbon often because of many reasons: I cannot stay too long at the same place, it's a wonderful city full of culture, events, courses, alternative shops + pubs and my dear Bruno is from there.

Last times I wanted to check the Flea Market or Feira da Ladra (Literally "The Thieve's Market") was raining or too cold but this last Tuesday was good weather enough to explore vintage gems. But how silly Iam, we got there at 4pm and, of course, the vendors were about to leave. I still took some pics of some faves!

VINTAGE COOKBOOK: O MEU LIVRO DE COZINHA

 During the interview at A Venda I found this treasure! A portuguese cookbook from the 70's that I just couldn't resist to open and find out what was inside. First, the pages smell of old times and then the graphics, colors, designs and photography of another era.

There are many good designers out there now a days but these kind of books are special because you cannot find them in bbok stores anymore. You'll find them at your grandparent's or any second hand store, someone is selling it for one dollar because they have no idea the real value of these old items. Actually I think they are priceless. I'm completly crazy about vintage books, especially related with food. It's funny to see the recipes of old times and you always find kitschy vintage items on the pictures.  

SMALL BUSINESS LOVE: A VENDA

Today I'm super excited to share the results of my visit to A Venda, a small cozy shop situated in Faro (Algarve, Portugal). I invited the beautiful people behind this interesting project Ana and Vasco for a small interview and take inspiring pictures. They accepted and I felt like a real journalist!(my dream job until I found out that I love too much my life to spend 12 hours per day working) After this I felt more motivated to interview more adorable-to-me small biz and that's how born the new feature in the blog "Smalll Business Love". I will try my best to include as many countries as possible in this feature so you can travel with me.

VINTAGE BOOK: GUIDE TO ENTERTAINING

From 1969, this is such a cute, admirable and fantastic book. And it's not only the vintage colors and items in the images, also the text is pretty interesting with great advices how to throw a sucessful party. Vintage Books and Movies rock! By the way, watch Populaire, it's super!

HUNTING VINTAGE AT RELATIVE'S

Hunting Vintage Items is one of my favourite hobbies, it's the History behind each item and the unusual design quality items that fascinates me. Now a days mostly of stuff is made in China with low quality.

The other day I had the brilliant idea of checking out my father's godmother house and as a granny, 80 something years old, she has the coolest fabrics, kitchen ware, singer sewing machine and all those antiques you wish so hard to have to yourself.

So this is what I brought for myself, or better, to my Etsy Online Shop. All items here are ready to ship worldwide to find new homes to love them.

FLEA MARKET FINDS

I attented the very last Flea Market of the year in Almancil, Portugal. I only slept 3 or 4 hours, why flea markets are on Sunday mornings? Saturday night is that time you want to enjoy with your friends :D My biggest motivations to come here: after 6 or 7 months, I wanted to know about the new rules for selling, I heard now it's forbidden to sell things in the ground, otherwise you get a ticket by the police! In the other hand, I was dying to explore vintage goodies and I was alone which means more time to do whatever I want. My mom is the only one that is patient, after while she just goes to the coffee shop, drinks a coffee and waits for me.

WHAT I BROUGHT FROM CALIFORNIA (PART II)

I posted about this yesterday here, but there's more stuff I wanna share with you :)

 I'm a sucker for grannie glasses, this are in vintage perfection. The other item I'm still trying to figure out what is it? I thought was a bookmark and then Bruno said was for the hair to keep a bun or so... 

WHAT I BROUGHT FROM CALIFORNIA (PART 1)

Off course I brought tons of experiences to share but I also have my materialistic side, I just try not to buy excess or stuff I don't need (what I do is: "Marta think, do you really really need this? For what?") and mostly of these stuff I'm gonna show you I bought as Second Hand in this fantastic Thrift Stores, Flea markets or Yard Sales for prices between $1 - $4.

It's a shame we don't have thrift stores or yard sales in Portugal but I attend flea markets every Sunday, we call them Feira das Velharias or Feira da Ladra in Lisbon every Saturday morning.

Long time ago, when the Flea Markets in my area (Algarve, Portugal) started sellers had antiques only but now a days the concept changed and you also can buy second hand clothes and actually anything, I'm always impressed with the weird items they sell, one day I will take pictures and post about it.

MELBOURNE'S MUSEUM - VINTAGE ITEMS

I was looking at the pictures I took when I spent 5 weeks in Melbourne, Australia and I found this beautiful vintage items. They belonged to ozzie families 50, 60 years ago and now are in this Museum.

Something I found out is that vintage is wayyyy more expansive in Australia then USA or Portugal, one item can cost 5 times more! I guess it's because they earn 5 times more? ; )  And there are no cents items... hmmm maybe I gotta find different stores next time. Hey Ozzie friends any cool vintage stores I should take a peek?