Ocean Grove Fall Flea Market 2017

Oh heyyyy! Yeah, I know. We said we'd be around more often. #life. What can ya do?

I know that as a small business owner having a blog is a great thing. You can share behind the scenes studio bits & show new designs or whatever. But for us the blog has always been more personal. It's something we did "for fun" and as a way to reach out to like minded friends...like you. Of course we'll still share some behind the scenes biz stuff, but today's post is all about fun.
So with that being said...we had some FUN this weekend and we thought we'd share! 

See this sleepy eyed duo above? Well they hopped the train to Asbury Park for the big Ocean Grove Fall Flea. If you are a long time reader you know that we have been going to the flea for years! Ocean Grove is a tiny town full of Victorian architecture, Bed & Breakfasts, candy colored tent houses, old time-y ice cream parlors and shops, set right on the Atlantic Ocean. It is a stone's throw from Asbury Park. Yes, Bruce's Asbury Park. Home of The Stone Pony. And both these towns happen to be a short train ride away for us, which makes for the perfect day trip.  

So once you get off the train you have to walk through Asbury to get to Ocean Grove. Which is perfect because Purple Glaze donuts is in Asbury. So we always stop in for an early morning sugar fix. 

Some friends had mentioned seeing one of our donut plaques hanging on the wall at Purple Glaze, and they were right! We didn't remember shipping a donut to Purple Glaze, so we asked them where they got it. Well it turns out that one of their customers, an 8 year old kid they nicknamed "The Donut Ambassador," gifted it to them. Love it! 

In addition to their already amazing menu, Purple Glaze offers Vegan donuts! And they are GREAT! We got a coconut cream with toasted coconut, a chocolate with chocolate glaze and peanut butter drizzle, a chocolate/chocolate with marshmallow drizzle, and a classic vanilla glazed. They were SO GOOD! 

After our donuts we walked over to O.G. and passed one of our favorite rows of tent houses. How adorable is this one? That vintage clown cookie jar is everything! It brings so much personality to the house. 

We all know Jenny & Aaron brake for pastels. Too bad these prices were kinda bananas for a flea market. $10.00 for the pink planter wasn't awful, but most vases were like $40-$65. I was hoping for $10 and under. 

Some of you may remember that my fave find at last year's Spring Flea was one of these vintage boxed shell collections. Well I'm still on the hunt for these and would love a bunch more of them. I was hoping to find one with a pink background or more of an aqua background. I passed on these two, but now I'm wishing that I grabbed this yellow one. 

How adorable are these vintage S&P shakers? If the pink ones were Atlantic City I woulda bought them. Yeah I know...I'm so particular. ha! 

Here's a happy Aaron holding a "bucket" of our favorite flea market beverage! Caribbean iced tea! It's so so tasty. It's flavored with all sorts of fruit and lemons. Pretty sure any of our Southern friends would totally be into it. Not sure if Caribbean iced tea is a Jersey thing, but if it is I'd say it's the closest thing to Sweet Tea we have! 

These guys in the kettle corn tent were working like lunatics! People love their kettle corn! 

Pretzels. We love pretzels. And yep... pass the mustard! 

 This gal woulda looked perfect in our vintage seashore bathroom, but $30 was too rich for my blood.  

Look at this BEAUTY! I think I made some weird sounds when I saw her! Perfect condition. I don't think it was ever used! They were asking $129.00, which I'm sure is "book value" but totally not in my budget. I really hope it went to the perfect home! Geez, she's a beauty! 

I'm a big fan of nuts. We have some vintage paper mache nut candy containers on our mantel, and I'm currently looking for a peanut cookie jar...or would it be a nut jar? We'll most likely keep peanuts in it for our favorite neighborhood squirrels. 

Of course I stopped. 

Vintage Christmas collectibles are some of our faves!! 

If you're at a flea market in Jersey nearly every vendor has at least one Bruce item for sale. Bruuuuuuuce. 

bebe bun. 

Faces of the Flea

We LOVE the postcard people. They've been setting up at the flea since the beginning. You could seriously spend HOURS digging through these boxes. Aaron was looking at old postcards of our town and I was looking at all the old Wildwood NJ motel postcards. My favorite!!

The skies were picture perfect! The bluest blue with big fluffy white clouds! 

I could do a lot with this house. That upstairs sun room is dreamy. Right on the ocean too!

Of course we had to stop at our favorite dog treat lady's table. Me & My Dog Pet Bakery. We've been buying from her for about a decade!! Everything she does is perfection! 

On the train on the way to the flea we decided that Squirrel items were at the top of our list for the day. Would you believe we didn't find one! Well, except for these treats. 

Yeah, squirrels...that's a blog post for the near future. The adorable little guys who visit our deck every day have us obsessed. Not kidding. 

These chairs made us stop in our tracks. So good, so weird, so retro. And anyone that follows @jengotch (stories) on Instagram would prob chuckle. ;)

I mentioned this in the previous post...I have always loved beach souvenir shops. Some of my happiest memories are of the Wildwood NJ boardwalk and those souvenir shops! Shell mobiles, sun hats, souvenir plates, photo albums, trinket boxes etc...

Right there on the OG Boardwalk is one of the BEST beach souvenir shops ever! It really has everything you'd want! T-shirts, towels, chairs, magnets, mugs, sunglasses, kites, shell decor...

seriously everything! 

Some of you may be familiar with this face, and for those that aren't, his name is Tillie! He's Asbury Park's mascot! A similar grinning face was once the mascot of Coney Island.  You can read a bit more about him here. 

Here he is painted on the Wonder Bar. How FUN is this building?

Madam Marie, an Asbury Park icon. You can read more here.

Cutest little boardwalk crepe shop. 

After the Flea we walked back over to Asbury Park to grab something to eat. Being that Asbury is super vegan friendly we had lots of choices. We were both in the mood for pizza so Crust & Crumble it was! We had the best vegan mozzarella sticks and some killer vegan pizza with sausage, cashew ricotta, mozzarella, pesto, marinara and roasted peppers. 

Then finished the day watching swan boats on the lake and eating chocolate chip cookies and this perfect slice of carrot cake from Twisted Tree Cafe. 

Here's a little video of our day.

The Ocean Grove flea market never disappoints. Even if you come home with barely any treasures, there's so much to do and see in OG and Asbury. Especially when the weather is as perfect as it was this past Saturday. 

Ok, hope to be back soon!

Love from the Jersey Shore, 

xo Jenny...and Aaron