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

Our day at the Ocean Grove Spring Flea (2016)

This past weekend we went to the always awesome Ocean Grove Spring Flea. It was sunny and the temp was right there on the threshold of warm and hot. And luckily it stayed on the warm side of that threshold for most of the day. As far as locations go for a flea market, it doesn't get much better than Ocean Grove. The town is right on the Atlantic and it's full of super cute victorian cottages and B & B's, plus there is a whole neighborhood of these tent houses like the ones you see in the above pic. 

Yeah, they're amazing. We always walk by very slowly and peek inside like creeps, and if I was even creepier I'd aim my camera inside so I could get some pics for you guys to see. ha! But in lieu of that just take my word for it that they're magical outside and in. Old iron beds, antique dressers, chandeliers...not exactly what you'd expect to find in a tent.

We've blogged about our trips to the OG Flea it a few times over the years. We missed last year since it was happening at the same time as the Country living Fair. But we blogged the previous year here. This year was great because my parents are down for the summer and my mom came to the flea market with us. 

Here's Aaron in front of the Great Auditorium. We blogged a bit of the history the year before last (and coincidentally we took a pic in nearly the exact same spot).  The illuminated cross atop the auditorium was a gift to the town from Woody Allen after filming the movie Stardust Memories, in which the Great Auditorium played the titular role of the Stardust Hotel. 

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you'll know that I am a sucker for vintage holiday collectibles, especially anything paper mache! Paper mache candy containers are my absolute fave! Within the first 5 minutes of shopping I stopped in my tracks when I saw these Jack o' lanterns. They were a bit out of my price range, but definitely pic worthy! ;) 

I was just talking about vintage lady head vases the other day on instagram! This happens to be my favorite style. I had a Business English teacher in High School named Mrs. Brown and she held onto the beehive hairdo well into the 90s. These gals always remind me of Mrs. Brown, and every time I think of her I recall just how crazy my Business English class was. My daily assignments consisted of things like organizing Mrs. Brown's wallet and checkbook, and cleaning the junk out of her giant pocketbook. So I'm thinking that the term "Business English" means "grown-up lady chores"?

Loved this antique child's pastry set! And it was in such great shape! 

I love that these vendors put together a mix of similar items all from different eras. 

This huge illuminated Santa was so cool, and not a style that you see too often. About an hour later we saw a woman walking through the flea with it under her arm! (I always want to give people a cheesy thumbs up when I see that they grabbed something I was into)

Anyway, I'm psyched that it has a new home and I wish I could see where she displays it! 

The flea market spans two big fields, it's always super crowded, and there is endless stuff to look through. 

We ran into our friend Mary, and she had some great stuff in her booth! This glass case was full of an assortment tiny treasures.

This little booklet grabbed Aaron's attention. It's like a pocket sized morality tale that was printed and distributed by a church group. Kind of R. Crumb-esque illustrations.

One of the things on our wish list for the day was a really big framed vintage seascape. This one hanging here was the size and style I was looking for, and the price was great. But it was just a bit too sepia for us. It was actually even more yellow looking in person, so we passed on it. 

How cute is this little Worcester Ware tea set? 

We saw a few of these antique iron Michelin man lawn ornaments. They had some hefty price tags! 

Aaron hits the brakes for books. I really didn't get any pics of the great Ocean Grove houses, but the town is just loaded with gingerbread cottages and huge old victorian bed & breakfasts. The flea extends from the Great Auditorium straight through to the ocean. And the to the left and right of grounds are two streets lined with amazing old B & Bs. You can see some in the background here. 

I love kitschy cute shell art! 

We buy from this gal every year! She makes the cutest dog treats! Look at these little pizzas! 

And burgers! 

I loved this strawberries sign! Years ago we used to paint TONS of vintage style signage, so this piece brought back memories. 

Ok, so I got home and was editing pics and putting together this post, and as I'm looking closely at this photo I notice something peeking out from behind the strawberries sign...

AHHH!! It looks like the top of a chocolate and vanilla swirl soft serve ice cream cone sign!! HOW DID I MISS THAT!!?? I was kicking myself! There's just so much to see, and so much going on. 

I'm thinking that just as I was checking out this booth a woman walked past pushing a stroller filled with 3 lil' weiner dogs! So of course I got side tracked...anyone would. 

I feel like if me and my little brother Walt went halfsies on a booth it would look a bit like this one. Of course the stuff in the foreground is my half, and the live edged tree slab tables in the back would be his. 

This face is ubiquitous on our part of the Jersey Shore. It's Tillie, the mascot of Asbury Park. A mural of Tillie adorned the old Palace Amusements building forever. 

This local artist was selling Tillie necklaces she made, and the details are perfect. 

Pickles on sticks! 

I think I snap a pic of  The Albatross Hotel  every single time I'm in town. And I'm certainly not alone in loving this building. If you were a fan of Boardwalk Empire you might remember Nucky Thompson living in the Albatross Hotel for a season or two. Only it wasn't exactly this building. The set designers had pretty much an exact replica built.

I just loved this sign! I bet it was originally a darker purple, but the sun made it the perfect shade of lavender. 

We were also looking for framed rose studies. This one was super pretty, but not exactly our colors. It was also priced super low! I hope it went to a good home.

Cute little boxed bow ties. 

Loved the little lavender wood bathroom set. And right alongside were these babies that were just so weird. I knew I could do some creative googling using their names...John, Mary, Alice, Irene and Peter.  

And here they are. They were part of the Renwal Hospital Nursery Set! I found an auction site where this set in it's original box went for over $400.00! Seeing them in this context might make them seem much less weird, but at the same time there is definitely a super creepy factor despite the pretty pastel tones. 

It goes without saying that I would love to own this set!   

And while we're on the subject of weird...this guy had a jar of dentures. He was a character too. I think he offered us a discount, but only if we tried some on for size! 

Also, when I saw these I instantly thought of Kaylah (The Dainty Squid). 

Aaron and BOOKS! While I was looking at homemade bath bombs Aaron was talking with some ladies about the books they had for sale. They happened to have a 1968 first edition of one that he'd been wanting for a while, "The Studio" by John Gregory Dunne. Of course he started nerding out a bit and commenting on how this book is "one of the quintessential Hollywood books", and then the lady told him where it came from. It turns out that the producer of The Godfather has a home nearby and he recently got rid of a bunch of his old books. Right away Aaron was looking inside for notes or an inscription...he didn't find any. But he did notice some handwriting sorta embossed into the glossy cover. Someone had written an address on a piece of paper and used this book as the writing surface. So Aaron used his forensics expertise (held it up to the light above our kitchen table) and figured out the address. After googling he was disappointed to learn that it wasn't Pacino's pied-à-terre...just some industrial building near The Bronx...oh well.

And oh yeah, all of this nerdy fun only cost him 1 dollar! ha!

I love vintage porcelain animals. I was hoping to find a chihuahua, no luck. But this mama and kittens set was adorable! (there were also a couple super cute mice in there.) 

I LOVED this vintage sand pail! And loved that the vendor had this post card stuck inside! Matching pails! 

Also, the pink table and those bits of aqua def stopped me in my tracks. 

At the end of the day you see everyone walking back to their cars carrying their finds. Most likely blocks and blocks away, unless they got there at 6 am! We've done that in the past because parking is really tough sometimes. The streets are narrow and not many houses have driveways since they're little seaside cottages all crammed together.

 I snapped a pic of this cute couple with their stuff in front of the tent houses. I yelled: "Smile like you had a GREAT DAY!" 

It took them a second to register that I wasn't completely crazy. 

In the end we didn't buy a whole lot. These days we really have a pretty narrow wish list and kinda stick to it. But one thing on my list was vintage shell collections, specifically this type...specimens. The type that you'd buy at souvenir shops. They remind me of one of my favorite exhibits at the Museum of Natural History. "The Spectrum of Life" in the Hall of Biodiversity. You can see pics from that trip here. 

Ocean Grove holds the Big Flea 2 times a year! The next one is the Fall Flea and it's on September 10th! So if you are looking for a fun day trip or weekend getaway on the Jersey Shore, you might want to plan it around this! You can find more info on the town here. 

Ok, that was a little bit of trip to the OG Flea. We'll be back soon. Thanks so much again for reading! xo Jenny...and Aaron