Brooklyn Flea

We continue with the vintage+new tandem for the Hunt, which has a distinctly utilitaarian and summery feel this week.

When you find one of the items above, which can be hidden in any vendor booth, it's yours, absolutely free! Then we post your photo with the generous vendor here on the blog on Monday. Only one winner per calendar month. Items posted every Friday around Noon.

Happy hunting!

From left:

1. Box of Venus watercolor pencils, made by the American Lead Pencil Co. in NYC. Vintage

2. Cotton print dress in matching bag. Handmade in India. New

What's new mostly this year is the friggin' weather has been cooperating with ze Flea on a full-on weekly basis. Sacre bleu this weekend looks beeyooteefull!

Oh, we also got some killer new vendors.

Housing Works is back, Housing Works is back! Combining the prowess of the ambitious and excellent AIDS housing, health, and more organization's Gramercy and Brooklyn (Montague St.) thrift shops, the HW folks will have a sampling of vintage furniture, clothing, accessories, books, shoes, and more every Saturday in Fort Greene starting this week. Rejoice! B7/FG, Sat

Mary Ellen and Keith of Walker Antiques down in southeastern Pennsylvania are always a huge hit at the Flea, and though they're technically only new this year, we don't want you to miss out. They've got this country/industrial/salvage look (above) that makes some New Yorkers squeal with faux-pastoral glee--which we support. Old doors, dime-store signs, metal lamps, giant wooden workbenches, and the like. W1/FG, Sat

Stylish onetimer alert! Kit von Dalwig and her collective of Brooklyn designers and architects have an assortment of vintage collectibles, design items, and clothing to dispense with. We have a feeling a few folks will be willing to oblige. W6/FG, Sat

Speaking of industrial, City Owl Vintage is Ashley's upstart Brooklyn biz as a collector, and it's a doozy. Foundry molds, glass beakers, metal bins and lamps (right), all packed into an 8x8 booth. Scour and ye shall find. E37/FG, Sat

Fort Greener Amanda Carter has an awesome collection of vintage jewelry, specializing in Art Deco, Art Nouveau and Victorian pieces, with some newer pieces thrown in. E36/FG, Sat

The well-loved Red Hook soap and flowers shop Saipua (which is moving to Van Dyke St. this weekend) is setting up shop with their pals Box and Flea and Totally Bruce this Saturday. They have beautiful bandannas, totes, jewelry, and of course Saipua's trademark soaps. E24/FG, Sat

Chairloom was around a lot last season, but this is just their second appearance of '09. Upholstered classic chairs (right) and ottomans, no more no less. Expert to a T. V5/FG, Sat

In Dumbo for the last Sunday indoors, a couple of local folks will have tables worth seeking out.

Longtime film publicist Reid Rosefelt (Stranger than Paradise, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and his wife Melissa will be unloading a career's worth of DVDs and CDs on Sunday. They have mostly foreign and independent titles as well as some rarities--plenty to dig through for the cinebuff. #41/81 Front, Sun

Estelle Swaray has tons of designer dresses and handbags she needs to dispense with--please help her out! #19/81 Front, Sun

This Saturday you can catch a segment featuring the Flea on LXTV's First Look, which airs on Channel 4 WNBC in NYC on Saturday nights at 7:30pm and 1:00 am (after SNL). It will also show on taxi TVs that feature NBC programming in the near future. Bigtime!

The segment includes the 3 favorite places that actress/model Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, right) likes to go in NYC. Senor makes a brief appearance too.

Thank you Alexis--wherever you are--for being a fan of the Flea. We're humbled!

Peter, Jarka and Charlie. Sounds like the newest hipster band to come out of Williamsburg, doesn't it? You can actually catch them every Saturday at the Flea--although not in skinny jeans and Vans, but as the endlessly adorable and familial proprietors of a booth called Anodyne. Papa, mama, and super precocious 7-year-old Charlie.

Anodyne wheels and deals in vintage clothing that Jarka cleans, fixes up and details; objects carefully selected by Peter; and most recently, handpainted purses by lil' Charlie! Charlie also displays skills in the B2B industry, as she'll watch a vendor's booth if they gotta pee and even makes one-of-a-kind business cards, like the one in the slideshow. (Um, adorable!)

Peter, an accomplished Brooklyn-based sculptor by day, currently has a really cool show up at the Dumbo gallery/design shop Spring (right)--give it a gander after strolling the Dumbo Flea this weekend.

Anodyne is in W47 in Fort Greene every Saturday.

We at the Flea are fans of fabric: the social variety in this case. You may have noticed a cavalcade of causes along the Lafayette Ave. fence of late--these are folks who we like who spread the word about their work to Fleasters from near and far. It's the old-fashioned town square thang, so give those peeps a peep before you pop in to shop.

Here's some of what's on tap this Saturday:

Heart of Brooklyn, the consortium of top Central Brooklyn cultural institutions, will be making the Flea a special onetime stop on its HOB Connection free shuttle service this Saturday. Hop on the shuttle outside the Lafayette Ave. gate and get a free ride to the Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Children's Museum, Prospect Park Zoo, or the Brooklyn Public Library. The shuttle will also make stops at Prospect Heights restaurants and shops. Four pickup times: 10am, 12:30pm, 2pm and 4pm. All aboard!

PS 261 in Boerum Hill (Baby Flea's potential school?) will be holding a fundraiser at the Flea this week, with a trove of baby and kids clothing and accessories (car seats, high chairs, etc.). You can always get useful stuff super-cheap at these rummage sales--and feel good about helping a local school. They'll be in S4, by the bleachers and backstop.

Clinton Hill's PS 11 PTA is holding a doozy of a fundraiser for its classroom libraries next Friday, June 5, in the gorgeous upstairs space at iCi Restaurant on Dekalb Ave., featuring authors Colson Whitehead, Jennifer Egan, Toure, and more. You can buy tix ($30) for the event at their Lafayette table this Saturday only.

The folks from the Prospect-Lefferts Gardens House + Garden Tour (the 39th Annual if counting at home) features 11 historic homes in this stunningly handsome Central Brooklyn neighborhood (aka "Lefferts Manor"). The tour takes place this Sunday, and you can get your tix ($20) out front this Saturday from Rob and Elaine, who are OG PLG.

Ever been to the insanely awesome "Halloween House" at 313 Clinton Ave. (Lafayette/Dekalb)? Totally amazing over-the-top displays and performances every year. Spooky Janna from the house is raising funds for their ever-expanding scarefest out front, and she'll be back next Saturday, June 6.

Just a quickie newsflash that your favorite rapper/celeb Kanye West is a fan of our fab Dumbo watchmaker Matthew's Steel Cake Watch Co. "Ye" featured the snazzy Steel Cake Square Chrono (right) on his entertaining and informative UniverseCity blog recently, and basically we just thought that was cool.

Look for Matthew's watchworks on fashion biggie Stacy London's "What Not To Wear" TV show sometime in June.

This Sunday is the last for the indoor Dumbo markets at 76 + 81 Front--get it while ya can! (Not to worry though: Brooklyn Bridge Flea coming soon--starting Sunday, June 14.)

So I'm chattin with Joan Van Hees at B13 asking her to hook a chick up with a BFF but she's way too busy handling the hungry vintage buyers. I mean, I get it, everybody wants some. But sometimes we all need a little help in meeting that next special someone.

But just as you think you're gonna be alone for the rest. of. your week., the stars align and the racks part and there they are. Meet Joanna Spinks.

Where are you from?

I'm from Boston but I live in Clinton Hill now.

If you were a vendor at the Flea, what would you sell?

Clothes. Definitely.

What are you doing later?

Going to the gym. I'm trying to look good in my new dress!

Where are you going to wear your new dress?

Everywhere. Everyday.

What did you do last night?

Hung out at Smooch in Fort Greene and then went to a rooftop party in Bushwick.

Finish this sentence. Brooklyn is...

Brooklyn is no longer my home. I'm moving to Boston to get my Masters in French.

Thanks Joanna!

We hope that when you wear your Joan Van Hees in Boston, speaking that sexay French, you'll think of us.

Memorial Day was full of memories at the Flea. Click for some photo mementos.

You can comment on the blog now, so feel free to share your thoughts.

Word is out on the Hunt: Fleasters are scavenging high and low every Saturday morning, you can see it in their eyes. Our vendors love playing too--who doesn't love a game of hide-and-seek?

Left to right:

Leonor (left) is a regular from Crown Heights who "came to win," a spirit we appreciate. Here she is with Mark, the creative culinary mind behind Whimsy & Spice (his wife Jenna brings the design and finesse braun). Inside the mystery box were cookies, biscotti, brownies, and some of their insane homemade marshmallows. Like many of our food vendors (Salvatore, Nunu, Fine+Raw, Kumquat, Pizza Moto, Crop to Cup), we love W+S because they emerged and are growing on the same timeline as the Flea. Some folks call that community--we call it yummy. They're in E10 most Saturdays.

Lovely Lois (left) was visiting her daughter in the BK from Wilmington, Delaware, and found that cute pixie pushing a cart in John (right) and Stephanie's vintagesteph booth--inside one of the cool cabinets that John makes himself (they're a huge hit this season). John and Steph come down for Fort Greene and Dumbo most weekends from the New Hampshire coast (they run their own flea on the Mass. North Shore), and are as nice as can be. W20 most Saturdays.

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

What better way to kick off summer than rummaging through a schoolyard searching for free stuff--so American!

When you find one of the items above, which can be hidden in any vendor booth, it's yours, absolutely free! Then we post your photo with the generous vendor here on the blog on Monday. Only one winner per calendar month. Items posted every Friday around Noon.

Happy hunting!

From left:

1. Ceramic cart-pushing pixie dish. Vintage

2. Mystery gift box full of goodies. (You won't be disappointed!) New