We've been meaning to share our day at the New Egypt Flea Market with you guys for a while now. I think we went the same weekend as the Country Living Fair. It had been such a long time since we hung with my sister Melissa, aka Missy, for the entire day. We used to all the time but it seems like our schedule has been so full lately that we barely get any time away from the studio. Well this particular day was perfect. We spent it zig zagging all over Jersey, stopping at flea markets and antique shops in search of things to add to our respective collections. It's actually shocking that we had never been to the New Egypt Flea before. We've spent yeeeears traveling the Jersey back roads and stopping in every little hole in the wall junk shop, but somehow we never once ended up at the New Egypt Flea Market. We had heard very little about the place and really had no idea what to expect.
Well we pulled in to see all of this. Rows and rows of these gravel lanes full of tables, and all of those little buildings are individual shops that are full of all sorts of stuff.
The place is nestled into the woods and sorta feels frozen in time. Apparently all of these buildings (maybe 40 of 'em in total) are old army barracks that were trucked here from Fort Dix in the early 1970s.
Missy found this little handmade cabinet in one of the first shops we came upon.
We parked in a central location behind a row of buildings, so it was convenient to carry stuff back to the car periodically throughout the day.
And besides these little shops there are also all sorts of storage containers and big trucks kinda being eaten by the surrounding wilderness.
The shops are full of antiques and collectibles, but there are also lots of tools, semi new things, and even handmade stuff like this Folk Art by Bob Justin.
I loved this big Santa cut out! love the pink bear and doll...she looks like she could belt out some Italian Opera music. And see that marble top dresser?…it was sooo cheap.
We were trying to get Missy to buy these.
Sweet little Charlotte. I prob shoulda bought her. But I'm telling you…it was like this whirlwind of goodness and weirdness overload. I guess I was more focused on the place itself and less focused on the actual shopping.
I also probably should have grabbed this entire bin of candy colored vintage plastic doll house furniture that was sitting out in the sun.
I had to come in to see what the "Nick Nack Nook" had. Because we all know Jenny is beyond down with Nick Nacks! Well they had souvenir plates galore! Totally right up my alley!
And lots of pennants!
I was hoping for a Wildwood or an Atlantic City pennant, but no luck.
But I did score this sweet Wildwood plate!
Here it is hanging in our bathroom among our little Jersey shore souvenir plate collection! :)
Ok, back to the Flea…a box full of kitty figurines basking in the sun.
As soon as I downloaded the photo of the box full of kittens to my computer I was reminded of this classic pic I found on the internet years ago.
And while we were there Aaron decided to open his own shop. Ha! I actually don't remember what was in this shop. But if it really was Aaron's it would only be Kluttered with BOOKS! (And by the way…he bought about a dozen books on this outing. He's crazy.)
Ahh and this sweet lil guy! The perfect Flea Market pup. And we heard from his owner…or to be more politically correct, his Human Companion…that this was actually his first day at the flea market! And he couldn't have been more friendly. What a sweetie!
I love these little buildings!
If the New Egypt Flea had a mayor, or a spokesman, or a poster guy...this fella should be it. I had to take his pic.
This gal needs a tubby and some moisturizer.
Missy got this awesome bag!
This is Kevin and Denean, the owners of This or That Store. They had great stuff. And in our brief conversation with them we learned some interesting things about the Flea Market and about their own past. Kevin was once a famous New Jersey professional wrestler known as The Pine Baron. And keeping in true pro wrestler character, he popped on his shades right before I snapped this pic.
They had a great selection of old bottles. We'll definitely be going back and next time we're going to bring our shopping A-game.
This is Keith, the manager of the place. Here he is holding a painting of the place done by a local artist. I wish I wrote down the name of the artist!
I can't tell you how much I love this sign on the door.
After we visited every bit of the New Egypt Flea we got back on the road and instantly had to stop at a diner to recharge. If you are road tripping in Jersey, diner stops are a must. We are the diner capitol of the world.
Ok, so I have to explain this pic. That's my plate bottom right. Aaron's plate is on the bottom left, our shared fries in the middle, and Missy's plate on the top right. Missy's is a Chicken Caeser Salad Wrap, which came warm, no actually hot. And the whole idea of a hot salad was a complete turn off. She was not thrilled. And Aaron, for some crazy reason strayed from the tried and true and ordered the "Swiss Cheese Sandwich". Yeah, even the waitress had to double check the menu for that offering...like really? She had to double check to see why in the world the menu would list something so boring. And in the end Aaron concurred…it was capital B Boring.
I was the only smart one who stuck with tradition and got "The Happy Waitress"…which is grilled American cheese on white with tomato, and a pickle on the side. You can't lose with The Happy Waitress. It's my go-to.
After the diner we ended up in Point Pleasant, grabbed ice coffees, and hit up some antique shops. Missy scored some great stuff that she'll be using for her pop up shop displays, and we saw some good stuff but nothing that we HAD to have. And apparently we didn't take any photos in Point Pleasant…sorry folks!
After Point, we headed to Asbury Park, which is where Missy lives. It had been a while since we had been in town.
We ended up running into some old friends and staying out way too late. We got delicious Korean street tacos at Mogo's and ice cream on the boardwalk, and laughed a ton. It was such a fun fun day.
We hope to do some more weekends like this before the summer is up. And of course we'll come back to share all about our adventures. Thanks so much again for reading!
xo, Jenny…and Aaron says hi!
