Wanted! Your Favorite Vintage Sale Recommendations!

Photo courtesy of the Boys of Barn House's Summer Country Vintage Marketplace Weekend; shot in the booth of Platanitis Vintage Home & Garden.

If you have a hot-of-the-presses copy of the fall 2011 issue of Flea Market Style magazine, you’ve seen one of our favorite articles: Our readers’ 80 favorite antiques malls from coast to coast (Page 11).

When we asked for suggestions this past spring, we received close to 200 terrific emails. We especially enjoyed the mall descriptions from our readers, like Wendy Abel who described her go-to shopping stop, Antique Company Mall in McKinney, Texas, this way: “This mall reminds me of my Aunt Millie’s home. The building is one-of-a-kind with booths tucked into every nook and cranny and cute little windows with vines growing around them.”

Now, it’s your turn again! For our next issue of Flea Market Style, we want to know your favorite vintage sales. We’re looking for:

* small sales

* barn sales

* occasional sales

* flea markets.

We’re looking for big, small, and everything in-between. There are only two criteria that must be met: The sale must sell at least 90 percent vintage treasures, and it has to have been operating for at least one year.

If we use your nomination, we may quote you in the magazine. All submissions should include a sentence or two about what you love about a particular vintage sale. Great prices? Nice vendors? Fantastic food?

To submit your suggestions, send an email to:
fleamarketstylemag@hotmail.com with “FAVORITE VINTAGE SALES” in the subject line. In your message, include the name of the sale, the city and state in which it’s located, and a website or Facebook address.

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

Christine

Ugly Lamp Contest Fun!

Remember those 1o great Ugly Lamps from the spring issue of Flea Market Style? They took a road trip last week to the Junk Bonanza in Shakopee, Minn.!

They starred in an Ugly Lamp Contest! Don't you love the Vote Here lampshade? It was designed by Tieran Haskin of Olive & Company, the Bonanza's go-to shop for graphics and design!

Attendees voted during the three-day event!

Do you know which one you would pick?

The owl won it handily!

Check out the Junk Bonanza Blog for more on the ugly lamps, including the name of the, er, lucky winner!

Kim

Behind the Scenes: Getting the Cover Right!

Choosing a cover for the new Flea Market Style magazine involved an inexact alchemy, but one that's important!

Executive Editor Ki Nassauer said the team starts by looking at every story in the magazine to see which photos could work.

"We started with about a dozen photos, then Stacey [Art Director Stacey Willey] got to work designing covers." she said. "We had about six covers that we really loved; each had a different style and color. Then it was writing cover blurbs that (we hope!) will entice readers to pick the magazine off the newsstand."

Added Writer Christine Hofmann-Bourque: "It's interesting that Ki and I are almost always on the same page visually. I think we ranked our favorite covers almost identically during the creation process. Stacey and Ki and I all agreed from the get-go that this suitcase wall cover was our favorite, so we're super excited that our publisher also agreed that it was the cover winner!"

Ki also used visual aids to figure out how the potential cover would look on the newsstand. "I made sure I used a sheet of paper to cover the full cover as if it was in racks at the newsstand with only the top third and then the left side top half," she said. "Without a subscription base a great cover is crucial."

There are additional considerations when shooting the cover! Senior Editor/photographer Heather Bullard shot the suitcase ledges with items Ki pulled from her own collections.

About that carved wood clown bust? Ki bought it at the Farm Chicks show. You'll remember that Ki has a love of clowns, but not so for many of us! But the carved wood bust looks jauntily at home on the cover. Which just goes to show, there's a really big tent when you're decorating Flea Market Style!

Kim

Spring (Planning) has Sprung!

We may still be sharing behind-the-scenes stories from the fall edition, but the FMS team is also hard at work on the Spring edition!

Several stories are under way (and some have already been photographed!)

We've got project stories that use common objects in new and interesting ways, including quick and easy ideas that require no tools!

Executive Editor Ki Nassauer is excited about the homes that will be featured, "all with flea market style and spectacular design, and totally different from each other."

We plan to include plenty of reader input, too. So keep watching the blog; we'll send out calls for you to help us out!

Kim

Oh, Baby! FMS at the Bonanza!

Among the many uber-special creations at the just-ended Junk Bonanza are the incredibly fun and whimsical "baby dolls" that vendor Sara Smith creates.

Smith, who operates the Seasons in Carver (MN) occasional sale, brought several doll head/tin can creations to the Bonanza, each more clever than the last. Loved the cocoa can gal with measuring spoons for arms! Or the global doll with rollers for feet and a map tucked in to her sidepack!

This one was all about Flea Market Style magazine, but Sara didn't want her dolly photographed until her "magazine" was duly signed by Executive Editor Ki Nassauer!

Done! And so, finally, good golly, miss dolly! You're a keeper!

Kim

On Location at the Junk Bonanza

Flea Market Style never sleeps!

The ink is barely dry on the September issue, and the team is hard at work on the spring edition!

This week, it's on location at the Junk Bonanza in Shakopee, Minn., shooting a large spread for spring. It's a natural synergy: Ki Nassauer, the mag's executive ed, also heads the Bonanza, in its sixth year, the Midwest's Best Junk Round-up with more than 130 juried vendors of vintage treasures, salvaged finds, antiques and junk.

That's Dean Riggott of Dean Riggott Photography on the ladder, one of the many talented photographers with whom FMS contracts to help produce the magazine for which you wait with such anticipation!

And, while we can't share with you the exact reason why he was up on that ladder (and that's why the photo is cropped from the bottom!), you'll have to take our word for it that it was to secure some shots for a feature we know you'll savor!

(And, after all, aren't we an incredibly credible source?!)

Signing off from the Junk Bonanza for today, and wishing you a wonderful weekend, full of fun and great flea market style! Catch all the Junk Bonanza fun on the JB blog, where we're posting throughout the day!

Kim

Follow the Junk Bonanza on the Blog!

Calling all lovers of Flea Market Style who are not attending the Junk Bonanza, starting tomorrow!

The Bonanza, the Midwest's Greatest Junk Round-up, is Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Shakopee, Minn. FMS Executive Editor Ki Nassauer also founded and heads the Bonanza, and she'd love for you enjoy it vicariously if you can't be there!

Just follow the Bonanza blog!

As scribe for the Junk Bonanza as well as FMS, I'll be posting each day from Canterbury Park, bringing you the swag, the sights, the bling and the might of all that cool vintage assembled under one roof, via the Junk Bonanza blog!

Join us for the fun!

Swing by the blog and sign on to follow on the right-hand sidebar. You'll get alerts when posts go up!

We look forward to giving the Bonanza a taste of Flea Market Style!

Kim

Behind the Scenes: Final DAZE Part 2

Blue-line proofs of the issue before fixes are made and the issue goes to press!

The feverish final weeks of production on the fall issue of Flea Market Style magazine elicited myriad reactions from members of the FMS team!

From writer Christine Hofmann-Bourque:

"It's crazy! Not sure how it's all going to get done in 15 days. Gulp!!!"

From Senior Editor/photographer Heather Bullard:

"It's the usual blur of fact-checking, the occasional photo swap, rewording. And there are lots of resources to be credited."

From Art Director Stacey Willey:

"Oh my goodness! I wish I had photos of my office on the 15th, the day after I Fed-Ex'd the magazine and the day we left for a week in Colorado. I had 9 hours of sleep in the three days prior to leaving that Friday afternoon. I think I am still in a daze. Oy!!"

(see an expanded, earlier post on Stacey's wild rides pre- and post-mailing here.

From Cammie Metheny, who helped stage and build, proofed pages and compiled resources:

"I'm looking forward to a small break. Very small. We're already talking spring 2011!"

And finally, from Executive Editor Ki Nassauer:

"The manuscript deadline was July 15 in New York, to be on the publishing director's desk. That week I spent most of my waking hours at the computer reading and re-reading copy. So many little details. Not my favorite part of the process!

"Did everyone get credit in resources? Are the right letters on the corresponding how-to instructions? Are the page numbers matching up to each other including table of contents, how- to resources and run-over copy?

"Emails whizzed back and forth as Christine and Stacey made the corrections. I carried my cell phone with on the farm (even to the bathroom) to be sure I didn't miss a single email and stayed up way past my bed time so I was available for questions. Stacey, a busy mom, tends to work into all hours of the night.

"As the emails flew back and forth an occasional joke would slip out and were able to keep it light even though we were all stressed to make our deadline. I think we were at least 20 minutes ahead of the last issue for meeting our deadline!"

We're so glad they did!

(This is a good time to note that life is relatively stress-free when you're on the blogging end of the operation. The deadlines are much more forgiving!)

Check back for more behind-the-scenes glimpses, including posts to come on the fabulous cover shot suitcases and the "science" of choosing a cover!

Now the team is hard at work on the spring issue, so you'll soon have more fabulous Flea Market Style to love!

Kim

Behind the Scenes: Final DAZE, Part 1

Now that the September issue of Flea Market Style has arrived, we can share some of the fun with you that went into the mag. Or, more precisely, some of the hectic moments!

Today's post is in the words of Art Director/Super Mom Stacey Willey, who neglected to shoot a picture of her office before the mag went to press. She offers this simulation, above, minus all of the "frappes and Gatorades" and a floor covered in magazines and paper!

Stacey's recount of the calm before the storm:

"There is always a period of mass chaos when I am working on a publication. I bury myself in a *hole* during the initial stages of research -- looking for the perfect font or glyph that I need for a feature or during those last few long days and late nights before shipping a publication to the printer. I spread out and take over my entire office and sit in one snug corner of it.

"My kiddos walk though the office and slide on magazines across the floor; my apprentices (Lucy and Tink - the ones you see happily working in this photo) try to find a bare spot on the floor to rest while Sam, the cat, usually sleeps behind the monitor in that *sunny* patch of light; empty frappuccinos and Gatorades dance across the back of my desk; and cereal bowls of past dinners are stacked nicely in a corner. This is what my usual chaos looks like.

"This summer, however, was a different kind of chaos. The day after FMS shipped to the printer, we left for a weeklong Colorado vacation to do some riding, hiking and biking in Boulder and Breckenridge. I shipped FMS Thursday night at 5:50 with 10 minutes to spare (or I would have had to drive to the airport to catch the Fed Ex plane.) Then, I went home to finish packing myself and two kiddos so we could take off at 3:00 a.m. for Colorado the next day.

"I had things gathered for the trip in every room of the house. I was also pretty tired since I had three late nights - up till 2:00, back in the morning at 6:00 - prior. However, my husband, the kiddos and I made it to Colorado and had the best time.

"The day after we got home from Colorado, we hopped on Ragbrai for a weeklong bike ride across Iowa. Silly? Insane?

"Well, perhaps, but it gave me some good thinking time about the next issue of FMS. I noticed fonts on billboards, restaurant menus, maps....icons that I sketched out on my forearm or thigh so I would remember my thoughts. I came home fully rested and ready to dig in on the next issue of FMS.

"As for that messy office...Well, I am sitting here surrounded by a new mess of chaos: The dogs are sleeping peacefully at my feet and I have research spread from wall to wall. This is a whole new mess, though.

"So, the next issue of FMS begins. I cannot wait to show you what's up our sleeve next."

While you're still savoring the fall edition, the FMS team is already hard at work on the spring issue!

Stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes looks at putting this issue to bed, and beginning work anew!

Kim

Beating the Heat at the 2011 Junk Bonanza

As a member of the Flea Market Style team, each year I look forward to my northward trek to the Junk Bonanza in Shakopee, Minn. It is flea market central! As a victim of the great Texas Heat wave of 2011, I'm praying for nice Fall-ish temperatures like we had last year.

I not only thrill to browsing all the fabulous junk, picking out my favorite smalls to ship back home and marveling at the amazing displays...
I also meet new friends each and every time.

Last year I had fun hanging with Tamara from Australia and we met up with these lovely ladies from Junk Fest and elsewhere. We all had a great lunch at Bachman's, after touring the Ideas House that Ki and Cammie had worked on.

Cammie is also on the FMS team and is an extraordinary finder of fabulous junk!

Some other things to do at the Bonanza:

Visit the Junk Revolution store, operated by Ki's sister Karla and her daughter Taylor. Many of the sewn items you see in the store and in the magazine are Karla's creations.

Magazine signings of the September issue of Flea Market Style with Ki, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Thu and Fri, Sept. 15-16 and at 11 a.m. Sat the 17th.

Lucky Friday, where attendees can register for hourly drawings for coupons totaling thousands of dollars from more than 40 generous vendors and businesses! Each coupon is valued at at least $50 and can be redeemed for merchandise Friday and Saturday with the donating vendor. Corporate donors Dunn Brothers Eden Prairie, General Mills, Gorilla Glue, Howards Products, Junk Revolution, Tomboy Tools, Sever's Corn Maze and Fall Festival and Vintage Textile Soak have also given generously. Check out the list of participating vendors on the Bonanza blog.

This year I'm looking forward to bringing home not only junk but new friendships, too!

Say hello if we pass! I love talking with readers and fellow junkers. You never know, you might be on my "new friends" list for next year.

Blessings, Margo