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

Around here...

Even though I really love blogging, I'd be lying if I said it was easy to fall right back into it. Like so many other bloggers who temporarily or completely lapsed, I think I just got so used to sharing our little bits of life mostly on Instagram and Facebook. 

I love Instagram, but it is nothing like a blog. I have to get back into the swing of taking a bunch of pics throughout the day for the blog, and not just the one I might post on instagram. I have to share lots more behind the scenes stuff, more life, more of our process. That's the stuff I'd want to see on an artist's blog. How about you? 

The past week or so has been non stop work. Aaron has been non-stop cutting on the scroll saw. I posted the above pic on instagram and a friend was hoping that it was a pineapple on top of that stack. It's actually a potted succulent, but I was totally considering doing fruits and veggies! We do pizza, we do donuts, we do gemstones, and we love all those things. We also love fruits and veggies and eat a TON of them around here...so it could happen! ;)

A mix of pieces just prior to getting their edges painted. About two days after this pic was taken they all shipped out to their new homes! (Here you see the succulent that was mistaken for a pineapple)

This is a pic from yesterday, we were both packing up orders. We each took a stack of invoices and a bunch of pink tissue, got out the candy and the gold stars, blasted music, sipped smoothies, and  then had a huge pile of happy mail to take to the post office. 

So for years our workdays were all about cupcakes, and then it was macarons, and then donuts. And we are still making lots and lots of donuts. What's going to rule our lives next? 

Some of you old school blog readers and collectors may remember "Retro Baking Gal" from years ago! Well we brought her back and she is available as a 5x7 mini plaque! 

And if you are a Jersey shore local, you may remember our bra & pantie paintings from when we had a retail shop! Or maybe you saw them in a store near you! Those canvases were one of our best wholesale items. We shipped them to shops all over.

Really, it had been so many years since we made those canvases and we wanted to revisit the design but do them in a new format...as wooden diecut plaques instead of on canvas.

 LOVE how this set looks hanging! Would be so fab in a dressing room or girly bathroom! We hope to add a few more styles to the shop soon! Floral for sure! 

I was just talking about my love for vintage lady head vases and then a couple days later we spotted a super cute one at the OG Flea! She was similar to this gal that I've had for over 15 years. 

So I had mentioned previously that we moved our studio upstairs this winter since it was so crazy cold downstairs. Well here is a tiny peek at a fave corner of the room. It's still kinda empty in there, which is what we're going for in the studio...lots more room to work and spread out. We have a checklist of things that we still need to do, but we promise we will do a studio tour once it is finished! You may remember our little downstairs studio, well we still have that set up, but more for personal art & crafting, less for our day to day small biz art. 

Oh and if you are wondering...the "OK" planter is Oh Joy for Target.

 The "Do Your Best" flag is from Three Potato Four, and the abstract painting is by me.

Speaking of...I actually took this pic in the old studio. You can see my paper mache bunnies and things blurred in the background. 

Ummm how cute is this tiny porcelain chihuahua? My sweet friend Brandi  had read in my Ocean Grove flea market blog post how I was looking for porcelain chis, but had no luck finding any. Well this little cutie and two tiny puppies showed up in the mail!! I can't take it! So so cute! 

Brandi is an incredibly talented artist, and such a sweetheart! She and her husband are restoring an amazing old home in Savannah, and they painted the exterior pink!! It's so so beautiful! 

Well, as far as these little guys go...I definitely think a new collection has been born!! I need ALLLLL the tiny vintage porcelain chihuahuas now!! ha! 

I shared this on instagram a little while ago, but didn't share it here. A gal who knew I was a vintage ICE CREAM collector tagged me on Instagram letting me know that she had two of these up for sale! So of course I had to have it! It's the cutest vintage pamphlet. I think I might make a big print of the cover and frame it for our kitchen! 

And while we are talking Instagram...I LOVE this pic from @mrsjessicaroberts of her adorable little lady.

Our pieces look so happy hanging in her room! 

Lately we've been watching Preacher (on AMC). Yeah I know...we surround ourselves with all this bright cutesy stuff and we almost exclusively watch dark creepy stuff. 

I think it balances things. ha! 

Annnd I just feel like it is my duty to let you know how CRAAAZY GOOOD this Ben & Jerry's P.B. & Cookies Non-Dairy Ice cream is! Oh my worrrrd! 

As soon as we knew this stuff would be hitting stores we began stalking all of our local ice cream aisles. I can remember when I finally spotted it...I let out some really horrible, annoying sound. And I probably had a spring in my step for a good 30 mins. after.

 We tried all four flavors , as one should, and this one is OUR FAVE! It's ridiculous. And I truly do not think anyone would know it was non-dairy. So super creamy and rich! Made with Almond milk! It's non-GMO! All organic! Calorie free!...(ok, that last part is a lie.)

Sooooo, if you are vegan, lactose intolerant, or just really love good ice cream...You need to try it!  

Thanks so much again for reading!

I'll be back very soon!

Love from the Jersey Shore!

xo, Jenny...and Aaron