If you are ever in the Tampa Bay / St. Petersburg Florida area there are a few places that are a few rules and a few places that you must go.
First, you must go the first Saturday of the month. You honestly are not experiencing everything if you aren't going down 1st Street in St. Petersburg for the 1st Street Market. It only happens on the First Saturday of every month and you get all sorts of vendors and it's different each month. They sell everything you can think of and more from jewelry to candles to exquisite metal work to these weird stuffed animal purses where the mouth was a zipper and you could stuff them with whatever. They came in cool patterns and were shaped like the Ugly Dolls but unfortunately the lady wouldn't let me take a picture.
The best thing about the 1st Street Market is that these vendors line their tents up in front of all the vintage, retro and thrift store fronts so you feel like you're in an indoor outdoor flea market, albeit a tiny one.
Three Major Stops on 1st Street for your vintage finds:
All Sewn Up - Big Cartel Online Store
I always love their clothing but it just doesn't fit me. I mainly come for the jewelry. In fact I bought a lovely necklace for just $10 on my last visit.
Art Pool Gallery
Ok, so I'm a little biased for this review. Mainly because I love it and because Brittany worked here. So by association I know (?) the owner. I've met her once and was instantly a fan. She explained about the art work and how long it took her to paint the walls and set up the fixtures and simply from hearing her talk about this place I knew that she wasn't just some trendy shop owner but a true artist and that her heart and soul went into making this space as grand as it is. I love that it is always changing but always looks and feels exactly the same. You have to pay attention or you'll miss something. You could spend hours and not completely see everything. It's filled with tons of local artists goods. There's three pieces to Art Pool. When you first walk in you are presented with a choice. Forward, to the left or to the right. If you go to your left or straight you walk into the clothing area. There's tons of boots, knick knacks, jewelry, odds and ends and the largest selection of Mens vintage wear that you'll find in any of the shops in St. Petersburg.
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| I wouldn't be me if I didn't find the skulls! |
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So freaking adorable. These would be perfect for a Dia De Los Muertos altar!
I'm half Mexican guys, this appeals to me for a reason.
I'm actually super depressed I couldn't celebrate this with my gramps. Next year for sure. |
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| All the purses, gimmie! |
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Looks like I make a guest appearance in this one.
I didn't notice the mirror until I was editing this - whoops! |
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I love all of this but they are real bones and I just... yeah vegetarian...can't wear bones.
I follow a more Native American mindset. Where if you are going to hunt an animal and kill it for food or clothing then waste not want not. Use every part of that animal and say a pray of thanks for their sacrifice.
But I'm not Native American, I didn't hunt that animal and kill it to survive.
I live in modern times were life is precious and death can be avoided. |
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| I love gemstone jewelry. I really wanted this quarts point necklace that matches those earrings but with Christmas and my move coming up I can't really spend a lot of money. :( Boo. |
To your right you will be transported into a whimsical art gallery. There's display cases with jewelry of all kinds and if you look on the walls, some of the silliest, creepiest but coolest paintings you'll ever find. My taste is very broad and this gallery encompasses it all. Ivory of course spotted the only painting of a dog and went nuts. PUP-PEE! Everything was a puppy, so naturally we were like where's the puppy? Until she pointed them out we had no clue there were so many dogs! Dog heads on hangers instead of human heads, on jewelry, in pictures, on canvases. Ivory has the whole "I Spy Puppies" down.
There is now a cafe open where you can get healthy vegetarian and vegan eats (there's stuff for you meat eaters too) when you're shopping that just opened up. Brittany and I didn't get to try it this time because it actually opened on Tuesday and we were there last Saturday. :( But we'll be back and trust me, I will sample the food.
Misred
Brit is usually the one that goes bananas in this store. Especially with the shoes. I love their store fronts and of course their jewelry. Brittany actually got a purse this time around! Ivory enjoyed the music, dancing and such until Brittany wanted to pay for her purchase. She threw a fit and almost slammed her head on the ground but Auntie Sara has this song-and-dance down and I was able to place my hand under her head before she could make an even bigger scene. These lovely ladies were very patient with her and that was greatly appreciated.
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| Brit's purchase was actually not shoes this time. Color me shocked. |
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| What, we read the same blogs? Huh. |
There are tons of other vintage stores of note on this street but those are the top three we ALWAYS go in and we ALWAYS buy from. It's weird because we like stuff from other stores but we can't seem to ever get out of any of these three without buying something. All of these shops are friendly with each other too. We went into one store and someone asked if they had a beret and the girl instead of just saying 'no we don't' actually directed them to another store. So we went and guess what? The store she directed them to in fact had a couple of berets for sale. These people aren't just friendly neighbors, they are friends. That makes it awesome to shop this area because they know what is not only in their store but in their friends stores and that helps make your experience better if you are looking for a specific piece like that customer was.
Music!
If you're craving music,
Daddy Kool Records is your go-to for everything from classic to current and while it's mostly rock and indie you can find some other stuff. They keep their vinyl in the back and that's where the good stuff is at!
Plus, they always have tickets free of service charge for any of the shows at local venues like State Theater (since it's across the street) and sometimes Jannus and a couple of other venues. They also have lots of in-store performances or signings when certain acts come into town, which I love.
Books!
One of the major downfalls for me is that these thrift stores aren't heavy on the book side of things. They mainly do clothes, knick-knacks and jewelry. That's not bad but I love old books and that's normally my first stop because I can't fit into most of the clothes in these stores. So to get my fix I stop into
Haslams, and it's conveniently located across the street from Art Pool! Haslams is one of the largest, and oldest bookstores in Florida and it often has a lot of book signings and celebrities stop by over the years. It's also a family run business.
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| Books and old people - basically all Florida is. ;) |
Food!
Brit and I were starving. It takes us about an hour in traffic to get to St Petersburg and we knew we'd have to have Ivory to her Grandmas by 3 or 4 so by the time we got there it was already noon, we didn't want to waste time eating we wanted to shop. Well, Brit ended up calling out of work for the night so we could actually stay and eat. We ended up at
Acropolis Taverna. I had no idea there were so many locations! Tampa, Ybor, and Riverview in addition to the one we went to in St. Pete. We weren't sure what was going to be good but Brit and I live in a heavily Greek area so we like the Greek food but this wasn't typical Greek Food. We ordered this appetizer... and decided that even if our food sucked, we'd drive down for this:
Sure there was tzatziki and Gyro's and Pita's and Dolmades but some of it was like "what?" For example, I got the Thessaloniki. Now, yes that is a town in Greece but here it's Mediterranean vegetables grilled in a pita with Baba Ghannouj (see Wedding Crashers for that pronunciation). I've heard of Baba Ghannouj, but had no idea what it was. So I asked. Eggplant something or other and I tuned out. Not an eggplant fan. Brussel Sprouts, Spinach and Eggplant are on my "
will not eat" list. Sorry. So instead of the baba ghannouj I got tzatziki because who doesn't love that stuff? Anyways the verdict for the Thessaloniki is:
OHMYGLOB YUM! The Mediterranean veggies ended up being peppers, squash and zucchini.
Yes, yes, YES!
Brit got fried felafel on a pita and it didn't look good. She also said it tasted awful. So I gave her a few bites of mine and thankfully she got steak fries, so she ate that and finished off the appetizer.
Ivory refused to eat everything we gave her (puffs, baby food, pasta, pita) but continued to throw a fit about being hungry. She wanted to get up and run around, so much so that she tried to slide out of the high chair like Houdini and come stranger helped us corral her back into her seat. She was just a little monster. Who could blame her, being couped up in a car or in our arms because we wouldn't let her touch anything at the stores.
There's a vegan restaurant called Leafy Greens that Brit wanted to go to but wasn't sure I'd like, but I was willing to try it out. She kept going "I don't want to go there and you say there's nothing you can eat. Plus they charge you for water." So we didn't go there. But it is on my list of "restaurants to try" so we'll see.
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| I take pictures of my stuff when I'm bored. |
So after that ordeal we decided to head home. It was the worlds longest drive once Ivory woke up screaming bloody murder but other than that not a bad day out on the town!
What are some of your favorite local thrift stores?
What types of things do you like to get at thrift stores?
