Shopping the Rose Bowl Flea Market

A lot of people have asked us if we have have shopped the Rose Bowl. Here is a re-post of Val's adventure at The Rose Bowl Flea Market.

I have wanted to visit the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, California, since our sweet friend, Ki of Junk Market Style, told us about how fabulous it is. This was confirmed by another friend, so when my DH said that he wanted to visit Santa Anita, I whipped out a map and said "Only if it is the weekend of Rose Bowl Flea Market, and you will let me take two empty suitcases!" A Red Shed Girl never misses an opportunity to SHOP!

I had one day before the BIG ONE, to scout out the local antiques scene. Before I left I pulled up Google Maps and entered "antique stores" and "thrift shops", and both Arcadia and Pasadena lit up like a Christmas Tree! So with maps in hand, my first stop was to Patties in Monrovia. It was full of interesting items, but most of it was priced to high to buy for the Shed. There were several other stores on the quaint street called Myrtle.

The funnest thing I found was tons of these great white wood cutout dividers. They were all over her store in various shapes and sizes.

I would have loved to pack up a couple of those babies to take home, but unfortunately I was still under the AA luggage size rules........
Since I couldn't actually buy at the antique stores, I was off to the thrift stores (or "kind of like Disneyland" as my husband says). If you look down this street at the signs, there were 5 thrift stores on one street!
And then the sign of the grail......... I will show what I bought here at the end of the post under "what I actually bought"....

One more quick stop at an Architectural Salvage shop.....Gorgeous corbels, doors, stained glass.....loved these old stained glass store signs that said, "Candies", "Stationary", and "Toilet Articles". They were about $500. they were also having a sale, and I was able to get a great deal on some crystal door knobs.

Then I did my "pre-trip" to the Rosebowl to make sure my GPS was set properly and I would have NO problem finding it the next day.

Some guy always has to crash in our photos, but tell me......does this look like the same guy....

Who crashed Paris Photos last year?

I digress.

There was NO EVIDENCE of recession in this part of California. People were out in droves...

And if you think that our sales are a circus.........
I was given instructions to head immediately to the left and keep walking. It didn't take long before I found adorable, hurt me cuz I don't have a truck to drive back, furniture.....
..




Prices were not really great, but they were OK depending on the booth, and there were a lot of really interesting pieces.....

I was there 7 hours and saw maybe 1/10th of the market. In the antiques section there was absolutely everything from ancient European, Primitives, Asian, you name it...
Though I really enjoyed several booth's lovely white and black, shabby chic and cottage, this was one of my favorites, because everything was so interesting. They were all over sized pieces from old Hollywood and Palm Springs hotels, and the prices were VERRY reasonable...

It was almost the end of the day, 230pm and they start packing up at 3p. Then the unthinkable happened. I walked around a corner and found a piece that was exactly what I had been looking for MYSELF for about a year. You have to understand, I never buy anything for myself, but I had been looking for a narrow secretary desk, with lots of storage and a bookcase, and had to be Shabby adorable. In my dreams, this is what I saw.... you always see secretaries with a flat front, but this one had a curved front and lions paw feet.....The CUTEST insert.... I started to feel faint. Guess how much? $200. I asked him if he shipped, NO, I asked him if he knew anybody who shipped, NO. I cried, I walked away. Then I thought, there HAS to be someone who would ship this for me. So I started asking, I asked ticket takers, and guards, and vendors, and the information center. Finally I asked all of the guards in the loading area, and they pointed to one guy talking on a cell phone. I start talking to him and found out he is from Houston and comes out the the Rose Bowl each month, delivers furniture to all of his established clients, makes a few thousand bucks, then drives or flies back to Texas. Sure...he says, show it to him and he will quote me a price. I FOUND A GUY TO DRIVE IT BACK TO TEXAS!! Happy ending? Afraid not. I ran back to the booth and the vendor told me he had just sold the piece to someone else. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!?!! I just sucked in my breath and tried not to cry. Can you say "Not meant to be?"
Oh well, maybe whoever bought it will be selling it in Round Top for less than $1000.00.

So what did I actually buy for the Red Shed? First I got this great black dress form at the thrift shop that was going out of business....

A pair of wonderful aqua and crystal sconces....

This amazing face from an old French fresco that had fallen apart except for the face (this is about 20 inches tall and weighs about 15 lbs, and yes my husband got stopped by TSA at the airport asking "what was in his luggage")
Two beautiful lamp grates, with a luminous amber backing...

I love this autoharp / zither. I saw one at Lauri Annas in Canton and I just loved it!

Some wonderful linens and smalls..............

I really had A Very Good Day! Even though I didnt get my secretary, at least I found a guy to drive our treasures back should we decide to take a group of ladies shopping at the Rosebowl....Who's In?!

PS. We still have a few spots open if you would like to join our Paris & Provence Flea Market Group Shopping Trips in October 2012.