While I've never described myself as a 'morning person,' if there's vintage involved I'll get up at 4AM to cruise for junk at flea markets, estate sales or garage sales. Surprisingly estate and garage sales start much later here in Chicago than back home in Arkansas. Typically they open at 9 or 10, sometimes even noon versus 6-8AM back home where you have to stalk out your sale of choice to beat out all the dealers.

Two weekends ago my friend Albert and I made it to the flea market out in Rosemont by 7am. When I lived in LA I religiously went to flea markets (mainly the Santa Monica and PCC every month) but really hadn't explored the ones here, mainly because they are way out in 'burbland. At least 2/3rds of the flea market we went to would be considered swap meet fare, ie socks and bootleg DVDs but the third of the market that actually carries vintage is worth the trip.

Prices were low and dealers were also willing to haggle. I have to admit to being a horrible haggler, I usually just feel too guilty to ask for a lower price. Since I was buying multiple items from one vendor, however, I felt more comfortable asking for a deal.

There were no vintage clothing and barely any housewares at this market but I did walk away with quite a bit of jewelry (and buttons!!!). I'd hit a dry spell with jewelry so was glad to find all these flea market jewels.My first finds of the day were these two unusual gold-filled lockets, the one on the left opens like a book and the one on the right opens from the top. The couple I bought these from had quite a few lockets but since they were my first stop of the day I restrained myself and only bought two from them.Then I found even more lockets (they're my all time favorite thing to collect so I always buy them if they're a fair price). Not sure how old the two on the left are-- the silver heart is marked Sterling and is on a heavy silver chain. I suspect the large heart locket in the middle is more contemporary but the vendor pretty much gave it to me when I bought the tiny starburst locket (which is definitely older and is gold filled).These two lockets were my find of the day, they are both gold filled and probably from the 1940s. I like the detailing on the locket on the right, especially the little heart-shaped space for initials to be engraved. The best part was the photo of a handsome young man I found upon opening the locket on the left!I love finding old photos in lockets, they seem a lot more personal and carry a sense of history when they're still there.While pocketwatch necklaces have become trendy (I blame Urban Outfitters) I love this heavy watch necklace-- it still works and it only cost $1.A pair of charm bracelets, another mini-collection of mine. The brass one has coins stamped with the zodiac and a little round watch charm (sadly no longer working). It's hard to tell how old the silver bracelet is but I liked its tropical/beachy theme-- the charms are a pineapple, a mermaid, a palm tree, an open clam and a sand dollar.I'd been searching for a pair of cuff links for my friend Grant for a while... he's one of the few people I know that wears French cuff shirts! When I saw these I knew they were perfect, they have an Art Deco flair to them and the initial is classy yet fun. They're probably from the '50s and are marked Swank Art. You can read more about the history of the Swank Cufflink company here.Right before we had to leave I came across the button man, he had dozens of plastic containers chock full of thousands of buttons! While digging through the piles to choose the most colourful specimens, I felt like Amelie when she sticks her hand in the coffee beans, there was something oddly soothing and relaxing about poking through so many buttons! I spent at least half an hour collecting the little pile above, best of all he charges by the bagful so they only cost $2. Unfortunately he didn't have many rhinestone buttons this week but I snagged the few that were available (below).I wish I could think of a fun project to do with these buttons but for now they'll join the collection on my living room side table. It seems like I'm not the only one with button mania lately, check out these two wonderful posts on buttons over on the Vacuuming in high heels & pearls blog.A wee suitcase to hold all my baubles... while I have numerous small "weekend at grandma's" suitcases, this is the first one I've found that has carpet/upholstery fabric. It's most likely from the 1960s.These are the only items I found at the second market we went to, The Randolph Street Flea Market in the West Loop. I've avoided going to this particular market as a)they charge $10 to get in (thankfully $5 for students) and everything is overpriced there which makes me feel poor/depressed. The title of this blog post refers to an incident that occurred at the market, the first stall I visited was one that specializes in kitchenware and lo and behold they had a whole range of AQUA (!!!) utensils. For some reason I got fixated on this aqua-handled potato masher and slotted spoon. Unfortunately the vendor wanted $8 EACH and wouldn't bargain. Argh. So I decided to wander around the market and come back later to see if they were still there. So after half an hour I couldn't get that masher out of my mind so I ran back to the stall and it was already sold! Of course none of the other utensils were sold, just that masher! Who else in Chicago wanted an aqua-handled masher at 10 AM is beyond me but they were at that market. :(

Oh well, I was glad to find two vendors who were selling badge/heraldry symbol items pretty cheap, I've become fascinated with this type of iconography lately. The shield charms are tiny, about half an inch tall as is the Art Noveau pin on the right. I have no idea what country the middle bar pin is from... I'm interested in those crossed swordsk.

Anyways, I have tons more vintage things to photograph and post about (estate sale and thrift store finds) but the natural light in Chicago has been in short amounts lately. I was forced to photograph the above items on my windowsill, the one place that's been getting consistent light!