Phoenix Flea + A Christmas Tree!

Do you ever have those incredibly perfect weekends that make wish you could invent a time machine and travel back in time, just so you could live it all over again, second by second? For us, this past Thanksgiving weekend was one such weekend. It was filled with just about every single thing we love: family, friends, food, adventures and… more food! We spent Thanksgiving Eve with some of Chris’ oldest and dearest (not to mention completely hilarious) friends, had such an amazing, quiet Thanksgiving in Tucson with the Carter family (my first holiday with the future in-laws!) and ate turkey and pie to our heart’s content, covered the inside and outside of our little Arcadia nest in Christmas decs, got our teenage angst on watching The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part deux, ate a few more amazing meals, I whooped up on Chris on the tennis court (which may be completely false, but it feels good just to write it), scored some serious loot at Phoenix Flea and finally, found our perfect Christmas Tree!

Two of the highlights of the long weekend, post-Thanksgiving were definitely Phoenix Flea and our hunt for this year’s Christmas Tree! We’ve been dying to be able to go to Phoenix Flea ever since we missed the last one in the spring. We couldn’t wait for our chance to see and shop some of the amazing local vendors we drool over on Instagram and Etsy, and meet the talented masterminds that make us ooh and aah! The creative community is so strong here, and there’s no better representation of that than at Phoenix Flea. Everywhere we turned, we kept saying to each other “that’s SO cool” or “we just LOVE so and so.” It was total sensory overload and we loved every minute of it.

The awesome owners of our favorite home store in Phoenix, Urbana turned us on to MAME Soy Candles some time ago, so when we saw their booth at the market we were ecstatic! Naturally, we sniffed every delicious candle variety they had, and ended up taking home their “French Vanilla Dark Roast” candle, which we’ve been burning in our house every morning and night since. We also got to see the wildly talented and incredibly sweet Brendan from Jar of Buttons, and take home some of his clever creations… the pack of foodie-inspired, witty little magnets you see Chris holding in the pic! We’re pretty sure #bitchpeas and #I’mkindofabigdill need to be the next big hashtags on the chef scene. We also had the privilege to chat with one of the hardest working ladies around, the lovely Allison from Teaspressa, where Chris went right for a bag of the tasty Manhattan Black tea. Just as soon as she said, “It has as much caffeine as coffee” Chris was sold! If you live in the city and haven’t experienced her tea creations before, you must head down to Tea & Toast at Desoto Central Market and have a cup… or two! 

Two local food purveyors that we were particularly excited to visit at the Flea after long admiring their mouthwatering pics on Instagram were Fluff It Marshmallows and Waffle Crush. Both craft the most insanely scrumptious sweet treats, and both completely exceeded any expectations we had. At Fluff It, I got the pumpkin spice marshmallow, with white chocolate and graham cracker crumbs, and Chris took home a Christmas tree mallow covered in chocolate and sprinkles. Deeeeelish! When we stopped by the Waffle Crush truck, we shared one of their simple cinnamon sugar Liege waffles, and Chris wolfed that thing down so fast, I practically had to fight him for a bite! Though I don’t blame him because that was the tastiest waffle we’ve ever had!

Last but certainly not least, we ran into local photographer and videographer extraordinaire Dreylon Vang and Diamond Troutman, the adorable and oh-so-sweet lady behind the blog Paris Elsewhere. The duo brilliantly set up their own photo station, with some hilariously festive and fun props supplied by LetterCraft, and allowed Flea-goers to partake in a little impromptu “photo booth” action while they shopped. How genius is that?! As you can see from these three pics, we had just a tiny bit of fun hamming it up for the camera. Dreylon – thank you SO much for so kindly capturing our crazy. We love these snaps!

After we ate all we could eat at the Flea and Chris had a little quality time with the resident feline friend of the nearby Pizzeria Bianco in Heritage Square, we decided that we had one more really important stop to make to take this Saturday to the next level… the Christmas Tree lot! There has been much anticipation in our household about getting our tree this year, mostly because the guy at the Christmas tree lot last year basically put us on blast over the loud speaker about getting a wimpy four foot tree… a scarring event that Chris just can’t seem to get over!

Ever since, he’s has been anxiously awaiting this year’s tree hunt so he could get a bigger tree and reclaim his holiday glory. This was serious business people, and Chris Carter would get a five foot tree this year if it was the last thing he ever did! I know, one foot isn’t much bigger, but any improvement over four feet that would still allow the tree to actually fit in our living room was fine by Chris. So we shot up to Moon Valley Nursery, Chris found “The One” in about five minutes, and we were on our way back home to light that sucker up!

So here’s to loving local, tall(er) trees, and happy holidays with the ones you love!