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Monday, September 28, 2009

The 3rd Saturday

september 26th was the 3rd Silverlake Swap Meet for us folks at Better than Naked. it was another hot day, naturally, and the crowd was smaller than the last 2 times we had attended market. but that didn't make for a slow day for us! while business was pretty crummy, i'll admit...i had a great time socializing with all the fantastic vendors!
ok, before i get ahead of myself, i have to admit that i am a little bit proud of myself...I hired an assistant for the first time! the husband was looking forward to an exhausting Sunday and had made it very clear days prior that he would not be helping at or attending the swap meet with me. he also strongly suggested that i not go either. well, i decided against his opinion and went ahead with it anyways. i posted on facebook that i was looking for an assistant and my friend (and previous co-worker) Shelly answered the call...and I was happy it was her! Shelly met up with me around 8:15am on Saturday morning outside of Micheltorena Elementary School, which is where the Silverlake Art Craft and Vintage Market is held every Saturday. We cruised into the school and proceeded to set up the booth. After a successful set-up, Shelly was off the hook. Off she went and sitting I did.
After what felt like hours, I started chatting with the 2 sisters in the booth next to me, whose items were fairly similar to mine. But this time I had done things different at my booth, and played around with the inventory i was offering. bad move that I will never do again. But that's besides the point. The 2 sisters have a fun little business set-up: they collect email addresses and email their fans updates on where they will be so you can go on a shopping spree at their current location! and I'm not lying when I say spree. All belts were $3, Antique 50s Hats for only $15, and all clothing only $5 each! After some time, I took my sad little sweaty self on a tour of the market once the hubby showed up. Wait a minute, didn't he say he wasn't going to come?! well, he lied! (He showed up with sandwiches around noon and stayed with me until shut-down time, and I apologized for not helping and commended me on my job done.)
on my walk, i ran into a super cute girl named Corrie who had a super cute clothing line called David - Solomon. After admiring her dresses, we exchanged info, and I'm hoping she remembers to call me so I can come pick up my dress, which was only $25! Whatta steal!
After leaving Corrie's booth, I walked up on Mother-Daughter team Laurel and Amanda. Their booth was filled with all sorts of fun toys and trinkets, including a vintage Care Bears TV Tray. I admired it then shared with them that I had a similar TV tray in my booth, except it was ET.
Too hot to explore any more, I made my way back to my booth and tried to not look like I was melting. Wendy, the cute skinny girl in the amazingly fabulous vintage dress came by and we chatted about our Etsy stores. She runs a fab online boutique called Strim Vintage, and she's known to refurbish her finds into fabulous one-of-a-kind vintage pieces. We promised to "Favorite" each other on Etsy before she pranced back to her booth.
The afternoon crawled by at snail's speed, I'm not afraid to admit it. Anyways, everyone else was! I waiting until 4:00, not any earlier, to start packing up the goodies...many of which I had hoped to find a new home but was not successful in doing. After reviewing the days log, seems to be that purses and jewelery are still favorites and shoes are picking up. Home goods are better when sold online and $1 mystery bags...they're still a hit!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

meet you at the roller rink

roller skating...ahh, what a fun pastime. me and my friend, let's call her lynn, recently recalled our days of young when we made up dances on roller skates to the soundtracks of La Bamba and Dirty Dancing. lynn was a roller skating student of a very famous professional roller skater, so she would come home with all these super cool tricks and moves on her skates; shoot the duck was one of my personal faves. this skate obsession went on for quite some time, and still holds a special place in my heart today. 30th birthday - what did i do? went rollerskating! and mind you, i do not rollerblade.

today i discovered: the vintage blue roller skate shoe.

i had some time to spare in my day today, so i cruised into a personal favorite treasure hunt spot of mine to see what i could find. i lazily looked around, as there wasn't much going on in there. no luck with purses, shoes, belts...boring! then...just as i was about to give up all hope, i reared a corner, and, right in my point-of-view and in all its beautiful retro glory, were these funky-town, perfect condition, vintage blue roller skate sneakers with bright, fat yellow wheels and clean white shoestrings! i picked them up, waiting to be disappointed. but i wasn't! clean...blue...bright yellow wheels... never been worn...clean white shoelaces...vintage...retro

these blue roller skates will be available in better than naked's online boutique soon. but for now, you have these pics to admire them by. enjoy!




Thursday, September 3, 2009

1980s Plastic Charm Bracelets and Necklaces

yes, i was a child of the 80s...not a teen, but a kid. i was a fan of the smurfs, rainbow brite, the care bears, tom and jerry, bugs bunny and scooby doo...i was NOT a fan of teenage mutant ninja turtles, ducktales or any of those weird shows; by that point i was baby-sitting the kids watching those wanna-be cartoons. i'm just clarifying to make sure you know when i'm coming from.

so...i was at my parents house a couple weeks and i was going thru a closet in the room that used to be mine when i found something i've been thinking of for a while now - my 1980s plastic charm bracelet and necklace!

i don't know who remembers these, because some of the people i've asked just look at me with a blank stare, but these were so bomb! each necklace and bracelet is made of cheap plastic links and adorned with large, plastic charms (each about an inch or more) with small bells and make no sense whatsoever. for example, one of the charms on my bracelet is all white and has a bear riding a dolphin...?!

i brought my plastic bracelet necklace and bracelet set home. i looked up examples online and currently there is an ebay auction featuring 31 charms on a necklace - current bid is $47! while i would love to expand my collection, i know there's a die-hard bidder in there that will pay whatever need be to acquire this necklace, and I'm not that hard up (yet). i did find a smaller and cheaper auction where I'm currently the highest bidder...so let's keep our fingers crossed!

anyways, i've attached a photo of my plastic charm necklace and bracelet. the necklace is a red plastic chain with the following charms: a blue racket, a white roller skate, yellow fish, a hot pink fist, an orange bottle and a teal tansistor radio. the bracelet is a neon yellow and features a red hair dryer, yellow smiling frog and a white bear on a white dolphin.

i'm not planning on wearing these out, obviously...at least not yet...but i'm just so excited to have found them that i had to post my own! wish me luck that i win the auction!