Sunday, September 13, 2009

A Case of Blue Balls...

Get your mind out of the gutter, I'm not talking about a certain effect on the male anatomy (much to Mr Trail Mix's relief :). Nope, I'm talking about blue ball mason jars!

I went to the Chelsea Flea Market today with bridesmaid J, looking for a pair of earrings to go with a dress I'm wearing for a wedding in two weeks. J is a photo editor at a major (seriously major) magazine and her taste is impeccable, so I've been using her as a sounding board for wedding decor ideas. We'd tossed around several concepts for centerpiece containers, including miss-matched yellow and blue vases (too expensive, even going the flea market/thrift store route) and clear glass vases (too traditional), before finally settling on blue and/or clear mason jars. I was using this as my visual inspiration (ignore the lilacs, I'll be using yellow and white flowers):



So guess what we stumbled apon today at the flea market? I'll give you a hint:


Yup, a whole lot of blue ball mason jars. I can't take credit for the find, J is the one who frantically called my cell phone, saying to come up to the upstairs floor of the flea market IMMEDIATELY. Thinking she had found me some earrings, I excitedly headed upstairs. Instead, she pointed to an entire shelf of my dream centerpiece containers. Between the 3 different sizes (all pictured here, taken by moi), there were a total of 17 jars, which I purchased for $40 total! I can't believe I got such a great deal on these, I've seen them sell for upwards of $10 dollars each, so paying less than $3 each is a bargain. Here's another shot of my pretties:


I love the light blue glass and the country connotation behind these. I'm thinking the flowers will be a very loose, organic mix of yellow and white blooms that evoke a wildflower feel. I can't wait to see how it looks on the tables. I'll definitely have to play around and post pictures of ideas for the centerpiece flowers. Buying these was such a rush, since it's one more step towards making my vision for the wedding come true. Anyone else had a thrift store or flea market score?

PS- Just for fun, here's the earrings I bought at the flea market today as well, a total steal at $5!
I'm wearing a beautiful, navy blue silk wrap dress with bronze shoes. I think these will complete the outfit perfectly. Hooray for flea markets!


3 comments:

  1. Looove the blue mason jars. And the earrings! What a great deal. I'm hoping to find some unexpectedly affordable decor elements at flea markets and such around here as well.

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  2. Amazing finds!

    I plan to go to flea markets/second hand stores to find plates and cups that I can glue together to be "shabby chic" cakestands!

    -Miss Pug

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  3. I love the jars! We are using them in our wedding as well and it is always nice to see other brides find them for a good deal. We have been to every garage sale in our very small Midwestern town until we found enough of them it was a lot of early mornings but totally worth it.

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