Reader Inquiry: Where do YOU Shop for the Holidays?

Vintage holiday wares were plentiful at this late-fall flea market!

We know it's past season, but we wonder, where do you do your ho-ho-holiday shopping?

Flea Market Style is assembling a list of our readers' favorite places to shop for the holidays!

So, spill: Where did you buy your favorite vintage Christmas and Hanukkah gifts this year? Where do you find vintage holiday decorations, tree ornaments and one-of-a-kind presents? Is there a special antiques mall you love? Or an occasional sale with a holiday theme? Did you find that something special at your go-to flea market?

Tell us where your nominee is located (and what's fabulous about it) and what fun things you've found!

If we use your nomination, we may quote you in an upcoming issue of Flea Market Style!

Submit your suggestions by sending an email to fleamarketstylemag@hotmail.com with "HOLIDAY SHOPPING" in the subject line. In your message, please include the name of the antiques mall/occasional sale/flea market/vintage shop and the city and state in which it's located. If you know its website address, write that down, too.

Give us one reason (or more!) you think it's a must-shop antiques mall. Is there one booth you love? Are the prices divine? What unique finds have you nabbed there?

Don't forget to provide your full name and contact information (and your blog/website, if you have them) so we can get in touch with follow-up questions.

Christine

Behind the Scenes: Great Dumpster Dive!

You already know that junkers are a resourceful bunch. But do you ever tire of seeing just how resourceful? We didn't think so. Neither do we!

Here's a great case in point! Check out that beautiful wood medallion, forlorn, in Lyons, Neb.! Cammie nabbed it from the dumpster of a building owned by an over-enthusiastic saver that was being cleared out. (One of her tipsters alerted her to the stash. Now you know just how far she'll go to find good junk!)

"They had been throwing this out the second story of the building through a door that went 20 feet down to the ground," Cammie said. "I looked out the door and there in a pile of rubble the medallion laid! I had to have it. So we went down and dragged it out!"

Once mounted on a metal stand, it made a stylish, one-of-a-kind screen for the non-working fireplace in Ki's Los Angeles living room (as featured in the Fall/Winter edition of Flea Market Style magazine)!

Now that's junker moxie at work!

Kim

Team Profile: Ki Nassauer!

Here she is! Flea Market Style's executive editor and virtuoso,

Ki Nassauer!

Shown with her son Tyson, above....

...and daughter Taylor, here, Ki savors her role as Mom to them and architect of the magazine whose spring/summer issue we fervently await!

Here is the last of our weekly FMS team profiles! We hope you've enjoyed meeting us as much as we enjoy working for you! And while her profile appears last, Ki is first in our hearts as she inspires us, and we hope you, daily!

HOME BASE: Los Angeles

FMS JOB: "A lot of some things and a little of everything. Project ideator and designer. Overal over-see-er. Conceptual planner-t0-proofing crazy person. Bookkeeper and keeper of the budget."

"DAY JOB": "That is it...along with my Junk Revolution Community, my Junk Revolution online store and my event, Junk Bonanza."

ALTER EGO: "Mike Rowe's replacement on the TV show Dirty Jobs, with a good singing voice."

"FROM": "Minnesota-born and raised."

FUN FACT: Ki is short for KiAnn

DREAM JOB (BESIDES THIS ONE): "Opening a retail vintage store in LA."

BEDSIDE READING: "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein.

WOULD SAVE IF THE HOUSE WERE ON FIRE: "My black appointment book and pics of my kids."

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: "Family, friends and horses."

THE PERFECT DAY: "A cup of dark roast coffee, 72 degrees, sunny. A horseback ride in the morning, flea market in the afternoon and dinner with my kids that includes a tall glass of chardonnay."

ON HER iPOD: "I listen to Pandora all day long (contemporary but easy listening while I work)."

IMPORTANT FAMILY/FOLKS: "All of them! I am blessed with the best two kids in the world and family and friends. I am the luckiest gal in the world for sure!"

PETS: "Aunt to Beans and Rigley, my daughter's dogs. Hope to have my own horse again soon along with a dog."

COMFORTABLE CLOTHES: "Jeans, tee, sweatshirt and sneakers."

WILL NEVER BE FOUND: "At a nail salon."

STARTS THE MORNING: "With coffee and more coffee and a glass of juice and a prayer."

GUILTY PLEASURE: Horses and wine

NEVER LEAVES THE HOUSE WITHOUT: "My phone and my black book."

FAVORITE JUNKING HAUNTS: "Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa with my junking buddy, Cammie. In the middle of nowhere. Neither snow, nor freezing temps, or extreme heat or mosquitoes can dampen my junking spirit!"

NO ONE WOULD GUESS YOU: "Are a bit of a minimalist when it comes to decorating my own place. Can adequately back a trailer, but couldn't parallel park a car 'til they came up with back-up cameras. I hate scents or perfumes in any products."

FAVORITE QUOTES: " 'Those who discourage your dreams have likely abandoned their own.' --Anonymous, and, 'The more you know, the more you know you don't know.' ''

BEST ADVICE: "Be nice to everybody. Everybody. Never take off your rose-colored glasses. That is where you will find your inspiration and creativity."

Ki's outlook is unendingly rosy, because her creative hits just keep on coming! Among them will be the latest issue of FMS, which we hope is not too far off from coming to a newsstand near you!

Kim

Behind the Scenes: Painting Ki's Apartment!

While the wait continues for the Spring/Summer issue, we thought you might like to see the type of work that goes on behind the scenes in prepping for an FMS story!

These were scenes from Ki's Los Angeles living room, dining room, kitchen and bedroom over the course of several days when readying the piece that appeared in the Fall/Winter issue on decorating her new, post-Minnesota digs.

(She took the advice of pros: Paint a large swatch on several walls, and view it in the light during different times of the day and night to make sure it's what you want!)

It takes a village (of paint colors!) to choose a winner! As listed in the Resource section of the last issue, she ended up with a full phalanx of Benjamin Moore colors: Crown Point Sand, HC 90 in the bedroom, with Woodlawn Blue, HC 147 in the kitchen, dining and living rooms.

Says Ki: "I was hoping for my kitchen to be green but couldn't find a green I liked in the bright sunlight and at night. So I just painted the inside of my open shelves green and used the blue as it looked good all day long!"

The green? Folk Art 528!

We promise you more behind-the-scenes coverage, including posts from the new issue, as soon as it becomes available. We're hoping mid-February!

Kim

Team Profile: Stacey Willey!

Meet Stacey Willey!

The uber-rockin' art director is responsible for all of those gorgeous layouts, super typographical choices and pages full of incredible design that grace each issue of Flea Market Style (including the one for which we are all waiting patiently!)

She's a Macintosh-driving dynamo, and the subject of today's FMS team profile:

HOME BASE: Urbandale, Iowa

FMS JOB: "Graphic Designer, Art Director and haphazard photographer." Find her at staceywilley.com.

"DAY JOB": Full-time mom to two fabulous kiddos and freelance designer for various publishers.

"FROM": Iowa. Corydon, Iowa to be exact.

ALTER EGO: "A nervous, blabbering idiot in uncomfortable situations. (I so dislike the me that shows up when I am nervous.)

DREAM JOB BESIDES THIS ONE: "Owner of a jet ski/surf board/bicycle rental shop on a beach (any beach). The studio/shop will have old reclaimed flooring, turquoise walls and windows on all four sides with long white linen panels that move softly with the breeze that comes in off the water..."

FAMILY: "Husband, Joe. My kiddos, Claire and Brendan."

PETS: Lucy, the beagle; Tinkerbell, the morkie (Maltese/Yorkie mix and an ornery little stinker at that); Sam, the cat; Emmy and Casey, guinea pigs; and Fish #1, #2, #3 and #4."

COMFORTABLE CLOTHES:

Worn jeans, boots, and Raygun T's.

YOU WILL NEVER FIND HER:

"Eating water chestnuts. I hate nothing in this world, with the exception of water chestnuts."

BEDSIDE READING:

" 'Running Away to Home' by Jennifer Wilson

(Ironic that this is about an Iowan enduring a Croatian winter and not a book about the beach.)"

WOULD SAVE IF THE HOUSE WERE ON FIRE:

"Our kiddos and pets. And my laptop."

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: "My memory. I remember things in pictures. Probably not a true photographic memory but still. Procrastination. Dancing. Lil Bren and I dance together at least once everyday."

THE PERFECT DAY: "A day filled with my children's laughter while playing in the woods or on the trail searching for fairies or frogs."

ON HER iPOD:

Dan Arbach

Ok Go

Papercuts

The Head and the Heart

The Black Keys

Mumford & Sons

STARTS HER MORNING:

"With NPR and a frappuccino."

ENDS THE DAY:

"Cuddled up with two kiddos, reading and acting out stories/fairy tales before bedtime. And sometimes falling asleep with two kiddos."

GUILTY PLEASURE: "I like to eat bananas with cheese."

NEVER LEAVES THE HOUSE WITHOUT: "My cell phone."

FAVORITE JUNKING HAUNTS:

Walnut, Iowa in June.

Found Things, Des Moines, Iowa

Architectural Salvage, Des Moines, Iowa

NO ONE WOULD GUESS: "I feel claustrophobic when there is someone behind me in line at the grocery store. I think it's partly the fact that their food is so close to mine. And the magazine racks are so close. It's like a funnel."

BEST ADVICE: "Nothing is impossible. The word itself says, 'I'm Possible!' " -- Audrey Hepburn

Stacey makes beauty and inspiration possible for readers, friends and family each day! Keep counting down until sometime in February, when we'll see the latest creation from her and the FMS team!

Kim