flea market finds: ghosts and green monsters

the days have been getting more beautiful each day here in Gibraltar.  clear blue skies and cool, breezy days.  perfect for a carboot sale!  of course i wouldn't want to let this opportunity pass.  remember, they are so few and far between here in Gib! 

people have caught on! over the years  i've observed that there are more and more people checking out the goods!

so before i and the mister took off for a little getaway, we just had to stop by and shoot a few pics and browse a few stalls :) 

against the backdrop of the imposing Ibrahim-al-Ibrahim mosque in Europa Point, the only mosque here in Gibraltar which also contains a school, a library and a lecture hall and was a gift by the King of Saudi Arabia in 1995

i only bought a few items as i think i enjoy the rush of seeing different and unique things more than my impulse buying (although, i recently sold one of my flea market finds for a good sum!).

here are my finds!

(1) two chinese jade-colored candle with a weird mama creature snuggling with two of her weird babies (i am guessing this is part of a chinese zodiac candle collection)

 (2) i was intrigued more of the title than what it really is.  after doing a little research, i found out that the author had been a commentator and a staunch critic of the Marcoses during the late 70's.  definitely now in my to-read list :)

so yeah those two are just what i bought but i had fun browsing and taking pictures of the things i wanna take home with me :)

from left to right: Gibraltar crystal hand-blown vase, lime green Moroccan sandals, a handmade doorstop (more for a finca i think!), a glittery top (boogie nights!) and the most delicate cups and saucers i ever did see!

from left to right: a cute smiling voodoo doll(?) or maybe a charred gingerbread man?  he's dapper though!, a wooden bowl, a repurposed crane, an old camera and a couple of jazz aficionados

ahhh, one sweet day! 

i end this post with a pic of this elderly lady, with prams and suitcases brimming with goods, as she waits for the bus heading home happy and contented.  she probably can't wait to show off her finds too! 

boo!

halloween despite being the invention of the Celts, is very much the most celebrated of all holidays especially in America.  here in Gibraltar, it is not so noticeable apart from the occasional zombie or witch that we see on the weekend prior to the eve of the first of November smoking a ciggy or drinking a pint while discussing first world problems.

i try my best to be “evil” every year so this year i put up my usual decors (just varying the function and placement for variety), bought some candy and wait for the fun part (which is to hear that knock on our door by tiny cute blood-sucking creatures).

made with scrap fabric from my ribbon-making days and left-over spiders and spiderwebs, a raven cut-out and googly-eyes, all attached to an African grass trivet that i got from a shop that was closing down.

the scariest plastic bats ever i bought from a little boy for a pound (for a pack of 4) at the carboot sale last year.  i suspended them from the ceiling in the verandah with a fishing line and voila!

we eat locally so let’s see if we can scare a little wee vampire or two like we did last year :)

(monstrify yourself at www.picmonkey.com)

damascene jewelry

first, my big thanks to everyone who gave such positive feedback on these tiny black and gold earrings that i found for .50p at a church sale last saturday.  shout-outs especially to heidilisa of Never Rush Ranch for peaking my interest in doing more research on them :)

i found out that these are called damascene or "damasquinado de oro" which means, "the art of decorating non-precious metals with gold".  apparently, this  art of jewelry-making has roots in the Middle Ages and originated from Damascus, Syria  (hot in the news lately).

there are only two very different cities in the world which produces this type of jewelry...Toledo, Spain and Tokyo, Japan!

here in europe,  two distinct styles emerged:  the Renaissance and the Arabesque. the Arabesque features geometric designs while the Renaissance motifs include... you guessed it... birds and flowers!

i took a pic of it again with a 5-pence coin beside it for comparison.  i found a retailer online and you can see some pieces that are quite similar :)

i am not sure yet if this is authentic or not but i am stoked that i am now the proud owner of a Spanish Renaissance damascene piece :)  

olé!

flea market finds: head to toe and everything in between

its lazy sunday!  

i finally went to my favorite shop last week and well, initially, i didn't find anything i like.  after a few more days of browsing and even with their new stuff coming in, i STILL didn't find anything i like.

oh well.  

yesterday was Clean Up The World day of which i am a regular volunteer (tell you all about it on my next post).  i thought... maybe... before i pick up litter i might as well drop by a church sale, the St. Andrew's craft and collector's fair.  might be good to check it out and maybe pick up a few things or two since i haven't dropped by in a while.  this church usually puts up this sale every first saturday of the month with just a handful of sellers.  true enough, i found a few treasures. these are my finds:

this is a small pair of black and gold stud earrings with a depiction of a bird.  i can't quite make out the maker because its so tiny but it looked like its made by hand. the clasps are a little crude but i think it has oodles of character which is why i bought it for a mere .50p!  tweet, tweet!  it also reminds me of Biba (an iconic fashion store in London in the '60's with an Art Deco vibe by Barbara Hulanicki which used a lot of black and gold back then)

if Sweden has their wooden dahla horses and Russia has their wooden nesting matryoshka dolls, Japan has their wooden kokeshi dolls!  this one however is made of ceramic and sporting pigtails instead of the usual bowl cut do the kokeshi dolls usually have.  she is 4 and a half inches tall, bought for a pound and is now best friends with my matryoshka dolls :)

y'all know i have a fondness for turquoise, teal, cobalt, seafoam... (well, basically all the variant colors in between blue and green. i can't quite make my mind up yet!) the tallest and bluest of 'em all in the picture above i bought for £3 in a Facebook page here in Gib selling secondhand stuff. forgot to mention that i didn't buy this in the church sale.

and lastly, in the church sale, i bought this brand new fluffy pink house slippers for .50p (but in the picture i have already worn them) all because my usual Homer Simpson house slippers were now looking a lot like Homey... in terribly bad shape!

i lurve my first finds for fall!

*linking to The PennyWorthy Project @ hey what's for dinner mom? :)

a sight for sore eyes

flea markets, bumper cars, The Bourne Legacy, eat-all-you-can, arts and crafts, best friends... these pretty much sums up my weekend, oh and on top of these; dealing with a leaky toilet, laundry, grocery-shopping, clothes that needed mending and a pesky worm problem with my mint herbs.

all in a weekend's work!  but on to some lovely things that i left at the flea market :)

 all things gilded!  old-world charm :)

a beautiful sun tray (did i ever tell you about my fascination for yellow?)

i sent this to my sister because she loves Melissa shoes :)  i found this in a snooty posh seller's stall. all her stuff were designer but as i was trying to inspect a beautiful pink Hermés clutch, she rudely snatched it away from me as if i am going to steal them away from her.  so, i walked away and decided no dime shall be spent on her stall! 

a train track!  a boy of about 8 can be heard shouting "comprar! comprar!"  (buy, buy!) to his dad :)

and there they are again :)  globes!  the one below is an old globe with a hidden bar/wine storage selling for only 35euros!  i looked them up online and they sell for up to hundreds!

the little figures below might look scary to some people especially in America (i froze to death when i saw them the first time!) but they actually represent persons seeking penitence during the somber occasion of Holy Week until Easter Sunday here in Spain.  it is a strong Spanish tradition observed since the Middle Ages.  (the pointed conical hat is called a "capirote")

now on to the animal kingdom which never fails to fascinate us :)  i am so glad this piranha is stuffed :)

 deer antlers!

a stuffed seagull(?)  not sure what kind of bird it is... but take a look at that huge candelabra/chandelier behind it?  really nice in a big airy dining room don't you think?

 horsing around :)

well, well, well... lookee here... a decorative plate from Gib :)

i try not to feel regret at all the beautiful things i left behind :)  *sigh*  i am beginning to have an idea what those people in that TV show "Hoarders" feel now :D

one swallow does not...

... make a summer!

howdy!  i have been remiss for the past week because of the colds and boy do i miss y'all :) i also miss reading my favorite blogs :(  but on the up side, i got to finish my fabric bird mobile from Spool :)  

here they are now swaying in the summer breeze and giving smiles to the folks passing by our verandah :)

i thought i'd add a short video so you can see them happily greeting everyone :)  and i am so happy to announce that there has been an increase in bird visitations (of the real variety) ever since i put them up :)

i am still nursing a bit of a cough but i am getting there, by Jove!  and i will be visiting ya'll now that am back on the saddle :)  have a great week everyone!

birds of the same feather...

...are the same birds!

a bird mobile post from Spool inspired me to make my own little birdies of which i planned to hang outside our verandah especially now that its summer :)

but of course, it took me a while to sew (my greatest frustration in life!) and i found out later on that balancing them on a stick is like solving the meaning of the Nazca graphic lines! it is endless trial and error!

i am still in the middle of a balancing act at the moment but will deffo post my finished mobile soon as i figure this out (harder than rocket science, i tell ya!) in the meantime, i leave you with pics of my little birdies flitting all around our house :)

("huddle everyone! this is the nth time she's stuck our butts on another itchy stick!)

("is she nuts??? a bird bouquet??? seriously???)

("wish we're in Rio right now...")

("dudleyyyyy, stop staring into the abyss, man!  you're scaring us!)