November 19, 2008

Gifted: A Holiday Market

The time has finally come to announce our holiday market, which has turned out to be way awesomer (and more work) than we imagined when we concocted it--all of a few weeks ago.

The Flea has partnered with Time Out NY to present Gifted: A Holiday Market, featuring 40 vendors curated by Senor himself along with TONY Seek Editor Erin Wylie. Gifted will take place inside the historic Brooklyn Masonic Temple--the amazing building with the columns across the street from the Flea--on the 4 Sundays Nov. 30, Dec. 7, 14 + 21, from 11am to 6pm. (The "regular" Flea will of course continue on at the schoolyard during this time, with Dec. 21 remaining our last date of the season.)

We curated the mix of vendors at Gifted to be sort of like the Flea: stuff you can only find there; folks selling beautiful, unique items they made themselves; vintage/antique objects that are distinctive and affordable; snazzy jewelry; cool, quality art; and of course yummy foodstuffs. Our goofy tagline is "Edited + Eclectic for Everyone."

Here are some highlights: Layla, the gorgeous jewelry and Indian textiles shop in Boerum Hill; Acorn, the classy toy shop on Atlantic Ave.; Els Walleyn's beautiful mohair teddy bears--all the way from Belgium!; Flea regular David Sokosh, who will be featuring amazing antique clocks ("the gift of time for Christmas"); Jezebel Stationery, Moontree Letterpress, Perch! Design, and Mollie Dash's Brooklyn-made cards and goodies; Ornaments + Objects' mid-century jewelry and design pieces; I Lampe's lamps made from recycled Saarinen designs and the like; Pop Judaica's "Shlep" totes and menorah subway-map cards; The Flubber Gallery's vintage toys; Reiter8's totes made from recycled sails; and Fine + Raw's scrumptious raw chocolate gift packs. (Click here to see the full lineup; we'll have a proper Gifted webpage up later this week.)

We're really excited about this addition to the Flea, and hope that it becomes a sort of local one-stop holiday-shopping alternative to, say, big boxes or, gasp, Manhattan. Make a connection with the person you're buying from; support someone who lives in your neighborhood; give a gift there's only one of. That's what y'all wanted, right? Right.

Gorgeous flyer design by Noel Claro.

November 18, 2008

Finders/Keepers Week 18

Blustery day at the Flea, but that did nothing to stop Fleasters on the Hunt.

Check back Friday at noon for this week's items.

From left:
Megan Myers (middle) hops the G train every Sunday from Williamsburg to do the Flea, so she was on the ball at 10:30am for the "recycled bombshell bangle" earrings (made from 155mm bombshells dropped on Cambodia during the Vietnam War) from Lotus Jayne. She's sandwiched between LJ's Katie (left) and Jill). Lotus Jayne is around W35 every other Sunday.

Denise Siebe (middle) visited us (and her Brooklyn pal, right) all the way from Knoxville, Tennessee! She checked the blog that morning for the first time, and by 11:01am she was the winner of the snazzy German porcelain birdbath vase (which evaded Senor's lens somehow!). Peter (dba Anodyne) was pleased as punch to be part of the Hunt. He and his cute family sell inexpensive tchotchkes and clothes in W47 every Sunday.

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