The Clever Craftsman's Notebook

...Come Flea With Us Was Beyond Successful...

2011-05-18T23:03:00.000-06:00

Even though it was a lot of hard work to get ready for the 2 day Come Flea With Us event last weekend, it was well worth it!  I can't say thank you enough to those of you that stopped by to say hello and support me in this endeavor!  What a BONUS and HONOR it was that all the following items (along with several others)were sold and that some of you purchased them:

I have already acquired and began working on new pieces for our next event that is scheduled for Friday, June 10th and Saturday June 11th. To keep updated, you can follow the blog directly at http://comefleawithus.blogspot.com

Make it a GREAT day!

LESS than 24 Hours Until It is time to "Come Flea With Us"...

2011-05-12T10:48:00.000-06:00

***Note: These pictures represent what type of wares we had at last year's sales. This season PROMISES to be BIGGER and BETTER!

Here is what we posted on the blog about our upcoming sale THIS Friday & Saturday....http://comefleawithus.blogspot.com/

That's right folks, LESS than 24 hours until it is time to "Come Flea With Us" at our upscale Flea Market!!

The Porch On Main

138 N Main Street

Springville

Friday, May 13th & Saturday May 14th

9 AM - 5 PM

    OODLES of Cool, AFFORDABLE Furniture
(Painted, Vintage, Retro, Cottage, Shabby Chic styles—we have it ALL)

    Antiques

    Primitives

    Collectibles

    Vintage household items

    Unique, One-Of-A-Kind Pieces

    Multiple Dealers

    Reasonable, below retail prices

Something for EVERYONE and it is TAX FREE

SPREAD THE WORD and DON’T MISS THIS SALE!!

Early Birds encouraged for BEST and first picks :-)

Cash encouraged, Local checks accepted

The 2011 Flea Market Season Has Officially Begun

2011-05-08T23:16:00.002-06:00

With the Flea.o.logy flea market under my belt, there is no idle time for me...

  

As a founding member of "Come Flea With Us", an Upscale Flea Market, I would like to extend a personal invitation to  you to come to our first flea market of the year.  We will have 5 dealers  and lots and lots of wares--literally eye candy!

Friday, May 13th & Saturday, May 14th
9AM-5PM

The Porch on Main

138 North Main Street

Springville, UT

Here is a sneak peek at some of the many pieces I have for this sale:

Don't miss it!! Hope to see you there!

Flea.o.logy Delayed One Week Due to Weather

2011-05-02T12:48:00.000-06:00

Yes folks, I realize that the advertised day of the much anticipated Flea.o.logy flea market (April 30th) has come and gone. Mother Nature's cruel trick of mistaking Utah for The Artic Circle last weekend forced us to delay the event until this coming Saturday, May 7th.

Ironically, I just returned from basking in the 70+ degree weather in San Diego with the family and haven't been near a computer until now to update you all. My apologies.

The good news...it will give me a few more days to put the finishing touches on the custom painted works in progress that I didn't get to and will be offering at very reasonable prices.

Cathie, one of my fellow flea.o.logists, featured this picture on her blog... very clever

We open at 8:00 A.M. sharp for the treasure hunting to begin....
218 N. Main Street in Payson

Hope to see you there!

Let the flea market season begin with flea.o.logy on April 30th...

2011-04-24T08:24:00.003-06:00

I have be invited back again this year (6 years and counting) as a dealer at my friend Paula's flea market being held at  her awesome historic home located at 218 N. Main Street, Payson, Utah. It is gained so much of a following that she and two of the other dealers are promoting it as...

We  are having 3 sales this spring/summer: 

APRIL 30th, JULY 16th, SEPTEMBER 2nd-3rd

Start time is 8:00 A.M.

I have been burning the candle at both ends getting things ready for the sale.  

Here is a sneak peak and a small sampling of some of the cool, custom, one of a kind painted furniture I plan to offer APRIL 30th at reasonable prices:

Hope you will stop by at flea.o.logy on Saturday, April 30th!! You won't regret it...

Trial and Error...

2011-04-19T23:30:00.000-06:00

Over the years as I have experimented with different techniques and finishes for the furniture I re-furbish in an attempt to mix things up a bit, there have been a few accidental successes but also failed attempts when I deviate from what works. During the creative process, I may get frustrated when something isn't coming together the way it should be. Then it begins. The same thought replaying over and over in my head, "stick with what you know. stick with what you know. STICK with what you KNOW"

It is quite irritating. Sometimes I have even tried to shake it off, chalking it up to paint fume overload -- the result of being forced to transform items in a tightly sealed garage due to the wrath of bad weather Mother Nature inflicts (as she has done this week). However, when I heed the warning and stick to what I know, what I find is that at the end of the day the finished product is exactly the way it was meant to be. It's all good.

Below are a few more items that have been in the works in preparation for the upcoming Flea Markets...

Make it a Great Day!

...from trash to treasure...

2011-04-16T00:02:00.003-06:00

I have been very busy getting items ready to sell for the upcoming flea markets that start this Spring.

One of the things that I enjoy most is coming across something that others see as being worthless and destined for the donation and/or garbage pile. Visualizing in my head and knowing exactly what its potential is I take it, re-purpose or refurbish it and MOST of the time that trash item becomes a treasure....either for me or for someone that purchases it.

Here are a few more items that I have transformed but have long since been placed in new homes of friends or flea market buyers. I will have TONS of items for sale again this season and resolve to do a better job at taking the "rescued and pre-transformation" pictures....

Make it a GREAT day!

...an Attitude of Gratitude...

2011-03-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

Gratitude fulfills the law  of multiplication. Whatever you genuinely feel grateful for, you  multiply in your life. Therein lies the secret of abundance and  prosperity. 

Think  about it, if you gave a gift to another and that person felt genuinely  grateful for the gift, you'd want to give that person another gift -  just so you can experience those wonderful feelings of appreciation and  perhaps to see a glow in another person's eyes, or feel really good  about yourself for being able to do a good deed.

Well, the universe, or life in general, works exactly in the same way. As you feel a deep sense of gratitude, you begin to release that wonderful vibration that draws into your life countless blessings.

I ran across the following Four Stages of Gratitude and think there is a lot of truth to it…

1. Take some time to think about the things, people and circumstances that are truly beneficial to you and that are enriching your life now or have enriched your life in the past and feel a sense of deep gratitude for those blessings.

2. There may be things, people and circumstances that are beneficial to you, but which you took for granted because they've been such an intrinsic part of your life that you're not even aware of their wonderfulness and usefulness in your life - such as the air that you breathe, the bed on which you sleep, the clothes that you wear, maybe even your family and friends. Think about the life that animates your body, the wonderful mind that you have. Feel a sense of deep gratitude for those things, people and circumstances which are enriching your life every day, but which you might have taken for granted.

3. The more challenging step for most people, is feeling gratitude for dismal experiences in their lives, for losses, trials and tribulations, for those people and situations in our lives that brought us even some pain and discomfort.
Suffering may be considered useful or useless. Useless suffering is when we've gone through the experience and haven't learned anything from it. Useful suffering is when we've gone through the unpleasant experience but have gained some valuable lessons. Perhaps the unpleasant experiences have helped us to develop some skills and abilities we didn't feel motivated to develop before.

Perhaps the unpleasant experiences have pushed us to the point where, unaware of any other choice to stop the suffering, we finally discovered incredible resources within ourselves, powers that were lying dormant and untapped.

When we express gratitude for these dismal experiences, we acknowledge the blessings within them and our power to transmute any condition into its higher state - instead of coal we begin to notice diamonds. In this way we also release undesirable conditions and embrace and amplify hidden treasures, because that's what we choose to focus upon.

4. Now, go one step further and think of those things you'd like to have in your life - feel how you would feel having them right now and express gratitude for them as if you already have them. Gratitude is the fastest way to draw those experiences into your life. When you feel gratitude for something, you acknowledge that you have already received it, you program this desirable experience as your reality into your subconscious mind, you expect it to happen, you begin looking for proofs that it is a part of your life, you begin acting as if this is true for you now and you begin to experience what may be nothing short of miracles.

PONDER

"To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. Everything originates in a will for the good, which is directed at you. Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude."

-Albert Schweitzer

Ponder this...

2011-03-02T22:20:00.001-07:00

I  have been thinking, is it okay for a  man/woman to glide on through  life, simply providing food, clothing and  shelter to those for whom  they are responsible? Don't we all have a  bigger/additional  contribution worthy enough to give? Some just choose  not to live up to  their potential. I put myself in that category at  times.

Some might  give their time to the trivial, superficial and  unimportant. Sad  really. It takes guts and hard work to put yourself out  there and aim  higher, whether it's in an occupation, an organized  religion or in  one's community. I'm not saying that it isn't noble to be  a good  provider and I acknowledge people have a responsibility to their   dependents, but isn't there more to life than just that? There are so   many ways to share yourself, your talents, your time with others. Ways   that hopefully will make a difference in the world. I often ask myself,   what can I do better today?

Make it a Great Day!

-the clever craftsman

Who is this Clever Craftsman fellow anyway?

2011-02-26T18:14:00.005-07:00

You may be curious as to why I chose the self-proclaimed moniker of The Clever Craftsman. It is a reflection of the deep seeded desire I have to never let go completely a part of me that some people don't know exists--the desire I have to take something that may not be of value to someone else, give it a little TLC to repair a broken chair spindle or table leg, elbow grease and paint and breathe new life into it. That is the Craftsman part. 

The Clever part applies to the times when I have looked at something that had a primary purpose (such as a vintage wooden crib) and literally envision re-purposing it into something unique and perhaps a bit funky (in the case of the crib it was taking the two end panels that have spindles, flipping them vertically, attaching a vintage yard tool to it and you have a rack that can hold magazines, newspapers or towels. One I sold and the other I gifted to my sister who exclaimed, "Is THAT clever!" when she saw it. It made my day and I knew that this one of kind piece was meant for her--a one of kind herself! 

Below are some of the items that I have rescued and refurbished and long since sold: 

before the transformation

after

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before the transformation
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before the transformation
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after

I have been known to frequent second hand stores, yard sales and yes, even the basements and garages of relatives scavenging for "treasures to transform" and give new life. My father-in-law has dubbed me his "scrounging son-in-law" a title that fits me well and in no way insults me. This is a extra curricular activity of mine that has been in the process of being cultivated for many years. Some may see it as a bizarre personality trait bordering on neurosis, and they are right--to an extent it is. Others, however have been behind me all the way, supporting the need for me to tap into the creative side that yearns to be manifested so I refurbished things, mostly furniture, and resell it. In retrospect, it really isn't the monetary gain (although it is nice) that motivates me but rather the satisfaction that I would get when someone purchased one or several of my pieces. It was exhilarating and warmed my soul when I would get the simple feedback of, "How clever is that! You are very talented." As simple as it may sound, it feeds me and it completes me when I bring someone joy through something I created.

Make it a Great Day!

-the clever craftsman

...the thrill of the hunt...

2011-02-24T11:19:00.003-07:00

I have found ways to earn extra income from reselling many of the items that I purchase. I like that one of a kind or vintage look that I can achieve from acquiring what some would call secondhand merchandise.

Since I am an refurbisher, it is gratifying to find that one piece that needs a fresh coat of paint to become a truly cherished "new" item for someones home or garden. I have never been intimidated by a little fixing up, a little painting or maybe just a little cleaning.

One of the really great things about Flea Market decorating is that we are recycling good usable items, keeping our landfills from being overfilled with many things that are still of value.

Be bold and fearless about shopping secondhand, but buy what you can reasonably use.

Remember that while an item may seem like a good deal, it can become a burden on available storage space in your home if you really don't have a use for it.

There are a lot of good magazines on the newsstands and in bookstores such as Flea Market Style for example, that will give you some great ideas for using or recycling home decor items.

Keep looking. Be diligent and patient. Part of the rush comes from the thrill of the hunt...

Make it a great day!

-the clever craftsman

...simple things for a simple man...

2011-02-24T11:16:00.002-07:00

I have realized over the years that I enjoy simple, old things that have had a previous life prior to coming into my possession. Maybe it is because I am a simple man in a lot of ways or that I was probably born with an old soul.

One of the simple things that made me stop and think is a vintage farm plow. I acquired it a couple of summers ago and although it has long since been retired from its original purpose, it is now part of the landscape in my backyard:

Although it is simple in form and function, the thought came to me that someone–maybe a father like me, used it to plow his fields in preparation for the planting of a garden for his little family. It probably was a lot of work yet a necessary implement needed to yield a harvest for his family. I am certain that he was grateful that someone had invented and manufactured this plow to assist him in his efforts to be a good Provider...

PONDER

What invention are you glad you have in your life?