Toni's Vintage Trips: Treasure Island Flea

It's January and a new year has begun. I decided today to head to Treasure Island to check out its first flea market of 2015. And the weather was beautiful in the Bay Area. Even though we haven't had a drop of rain since Christmas, we did have 70 degree weather at the flea market. The place was packed with shoppers, including the doggies. The flea market has a special stall for them with homemade dog treats. I caught up with 4 of them being pushed in their own buggy and looking very comfortable.

I also was there to find interesting belated holiday gifts for my parents who I will be visiting next weekend. As I have told you in previous blogs, my mother, Fran, is a huge doll collector, especially those from the 1950's. I was lucky to find her 2 vintage Ginny dolls in their original dresses at a fabulous price ($10). This same vendor had vintage necklaces for $3 each and I got a Pierre Cardin watch for only $2. It will need some fine tuning, but I have a repair guy who will put it back in working order.

I also want to mention that I met the most interesting vendor, Randy Mistrot, who is an expert in bakelite jewelry and gave me an appraisal on the bracelets I was wearing. One of them turned out to be a cherry red bakelite bracelet from the 1920's that he would sell for $250. He told me how to condition it with simple Turtle Wax. I also bought a beautiful vintage gold beaded purse from him for only $20. Check out Randy's website at www.coincidentaldiscovery.com.

I'm traveling to the gold country next weekend and will be re-visiting Victorian Closet in Amador. It resembles a museum, but everything is for sale. I love time capsules!