Ruby Around Town Vo. 3

It's been a very full week with us at the rose...

(1) The week started out with one of my besties helping me out at the shop. After work we felt like we deserved a treat, so we did! Scout Coffee is San Luis's newest coffee house and we especially like their lil milkshakes. A perfect size for a refreshment.

(2) Road trip south...our most awesome crew covered us for the day so that we could extend our trip! First stop is one of our favorite boutiques, Plenty, in Santa Ynez. We follow them on insta (@plentyboutique) and the dresses they have been posting lately made us high tail it down...and we didn't come back empty handed!

(3) Second stop was another favorite shop, Wet Sand. It is in Ventura and is a curated surf lifestyle shop - we love their clothing, jewelry, and other casual living necessities.

(4) After a good nights' sleep in a friends' trailer - home away from home when in L.A. - we shopped the Rose Bowl for boots, clothes, purses, and jewels. We try not to let all of the other amazing merchandise keep us from focusing on the task at hand, but it is very hard.

(5) Back to San Luis to rest up so that we could hit the road for a very important appointment with one of our favorite suppliers! The mister and I hit the road again (very early) to pick from a container that was loaded in Texas. We love our new items and they should hit the store next month....stay tuned!

(6) All this work, we needed a bit of play! Yep, Bingo was it's name-o. A handful of us got our game on and had a lot of laughs. Next time we hope to win!! 

Yep, that was just one week. Oh boy. How has your week been? Do anything exciting?

P.S. In case ya missed it:

Ruby Around Town Vo. 1 

Ruby Around Town Vo. 2

Ruby Rose's Favorite Fleas

Everyone always wants to know, "where do you find your stuff?"...and truthfully, there is no simple answer to that simple question. We hit the road far and wide: from swamp meets and thrift stores to yard sales and secret spots - but our absolute favorite place to score goods is at the flea market. We've compiled a list of our favorites, put these fleas on your radar:

Alameda Flea Market 

aka Alameda Point Antiques Faire

When: 1st Sunday of every month
Where: 2900 Navy Way Alameda CA 94501
Prices: 6 a.m. - 7:30 a.m. ($15), 7:30 a.m. - 9 a.m. ($10), 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. ($5)
Details: More than 10,000 visitors visit per month. PER MONTH! 10K! We clearly aren't the only ones that are head over heels for this fabulous flea market. The Alameda Point Antiques Faire is the largest antiques show in Northern California with over 800 dealer booths, each selling items that are 20+ years old! It is an antique/junker paradise.Alameda by far is our favorite for the overall experience!The variety of merchandise and the displays are so creative. The food vendors and food trucks are amazing and delicious. Plus, for the loading the truck (my least favorite part) this market provides carts to get the large loads to your car and has an area to pull into to load.

Rose Bowl Flea Market

When: 2nd Sunday of every month

Where: 1001 Rose Bowl Drive Pasadena CA 91103

Prices: 5 a.m. - 7 a.m. ($20), 7 a.m, - 8 a.m. ($15), 8 a.m. - 9 a.m. ($10), 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. ($8)

Details:A whopping 2,500 vendors and 20,000 buyers flock to the Rose Bowl each month. This famous flea has been happening for the past 45 years and is still going strong. The Rose Bowl Flea has highs and lows for us. It is by far the best for vintage clothing, leather goods and accessories for us, and we can find what we need and what we cannot live without. The front area has some wonderful offerings, if we were shopping as consumers, this would be great, although when trying to buy for a store, we find the loading too great a challenge. The aisles are way too crowded, and loading zones are not friendly and lastly, there are not many food options, so we pack our own. Oh, and lastly, this is a great place for people watching and star sightings! This is a photo of Ty Pennington shot with one of our favorite vendors, uber chic!

Long Beach Flea Market

aka Long Beach Antique Market

When: 3rd Sunday of every month

Where:4901 E Conant Street Long Beach CA 90808

Prices: 5:30 a.m. - 6:30 a.m. ($12), 6:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. ($6)

Details: "chic, cheap, unique, vintage" is their motto. This is the flea market that started it all for me back in the 80's so it feels so familiar and easy! We love this market for all things vintage, retro, and industrial; and we love our vendors that we have worked hard to build a relationship with here. There are a few clothing vendors, but not as much as other fleas. The loading and navigating the aisles are good; but for food, there aren't a lot of options. 

Melrose Flea Market

aka Melrose Trading Post

When: every Sunday at Fairfax (and starting March 15th every Saturday at Taft)

Where:7850 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90046

Prices: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. ($2)

Details: Melrose flea is easy and fun. We come here for clothing and accessories. They have great vintage, art, and trends. It is a small market, but there is great shopping and food all around. And it is only 2 bucks to get in! There is a parking lot and also parking on the street surrounding the market, watch carefully for signs and meters,...we have first hand experience with expensive tickets.

These boots were made for walking....

Last weekend, had you been at the Rose Bowl Flea Market, you may have seen a few of us down on our hands and knees, snagging boots left and right. As a result of our dirty palms and knee caps, we bring you a bounty of boots this week! And so you can begin to drool over the perfect pair, our inventory is separated out by size! Getting our shoe rack organized, because we can't resist a good set of shoes, and neither should you...



NOW PRESENTING...SIZE 6!


...SIZE 7!

...SIZE 8!




...SIZE 9!






...SIZE 10!






...you can begin trying them on this Wednesday at 11am!

photo cred: Kendra Aronson & Betsi Clark

Shoes!

Last weekend we went to the Rose Bowl to go a boot and shoe huntin'. We knew that going to this flea in August was not a great idea, since it is at the base of the foothills on solid blacktop with no shade. Seriously. The rose bowl has a handful of different sections--the back section is dedicated to mostly vintage clothing, accessories, and lots of mid century and retro...so this is where we primarily shop. We have found that it is important for us to have a specific list on what we are looking for because it can become overwhelming.

We found some fantastic pairs and in some very requested sizes! These are all priced between $46 and $85 and are in sizes 8 to 91/2. We are working hard to find size 10's. They are hard to find but we have the word out, so maybe next month!!

Hitting the Road

Photo by: Jen Manuele

A few of us are road trippin' to the Rose Bowl on Saturday. We have a lot of requests for boots in sizes 9, 10, and 11. More leather bags...stocking up on sweaters, sweatshirts, and...??? Any requests for our closet area? Have a great weekend! -S.

At The Rose Bowl...

We all happened to be in L.A. the other weekend, and after a bit of texting, turns out we were all headed for the Rose Bowl. Hilary, Kathy and I arrived there around 9:30 (that's the latest I have ever started)! Somehow, I fell asleep in the Starbucks parking lot and lost out on some valuable shopping time.

Once in, the first thing we saw was a filming crew and so we thought we'd check out what they were filming. Turns out it was a segment on a new show with Ty Pennington. As I went to talk to Kathy, she was right up in the filming and was trying to outbid Ty on an item. Yep, that is the back of her checking out the inventory as Ty was trying to keep up.

The booth they were filming at belonged to one of our friends, Chris--he sells wonderful items from overseas.

After the hullabaloo all left (why does it take 15 people to shoot such a small segment?!), Chris noticed that his t-shirt was inside out (that's why he's our friend)! Never a dull moment at the flea!

Sunday with Ruby at the Rose Bowl

A question we get asked a lot is, "where do you get all your stuff?"

The Rose Bowl Flea Market is where we find a lot of our vintage clothing, leathers, boots, linens, etc. all in one swoop. The flea takes place in Pasadena on the second Sunday of every month.

When you enter The Bowl there are a few vendors that have new merch, but the main body of the flea is filled with antiques, vintage home goods, accessories, collectibles...basically everything imaginable. We usually head toward the back where there is mostly clothing, accessories, and mid-century inventory. It is a bit overwhelming at first as there is so much to see! We try to focus on one booth at a time and scope out our style and price.

Occasionally there are celebrity sightings; this week we spied Tori Spelling and Heidi Klum. This particular weekend there were a lot of film crews. It seems that junking is in fashion.

Ruby found this booth with designer shoes and she had to drag me away! I'm still thinking of those Jimmy's...

Pretty much whatever you had when you were younger and have now sold, or the things your parents never bought for you but you always wanted, is here at the Rose Bowl Flea for your bargaining.

Lately, we have been paring down at our house so it is more cohesive throughout...but when I saw the Janis Joplin poster, something came over me and I had to have it. Fifteen dollars later, it was mine! Now...where to put it???

--S.