My favorite thing at flea markets is digging through tubs filled with a mish mosh of little odds and ends. And my favorite thing at estate sales is poking through desk drawers and piles…you just never know what little treasure you might find. For most dealers, the sorts of little curiosities I love most are too small to mess with—not enough profit in them to be worth the time, especially not if selling things online, where the time and cost of listing and packaging might outweigh the value of the thing itself. But I don’t care! Oftentimes it is the tiny box, or button, or pin cushion, or animal, or paperweight, or odd object, or whatever, that gives the greatest joy! And often these are the things that carry the most interesting stories and histories, too.
It’s probably not surprising that my favorite part of Christmas is filling stockings, or that my favorite kind of gift giving in general is wrapping up a bunch of little things rather than one significant present…it’s just more fun, and also I think offers more of a chance to acknowledge the complex personality of the giftee! To this end, I’m adding a section of “Stocking Stuffers” to the website search menu that I’ll keep in place year-round. Hopefully useful as a gift giving resource, it’s also a place to mine when you just need a little reward or pick-me-up treasure for yourself!
p.s. On Instagram I often post “flat lays” of lots of little just-in recent finds…follow me there @criticaleyefinds for first dibs