On April 6, a weekly Brooklyn flea market will kick off in Bishop Laughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene, but the event is a far cry from your neighborhood stoop sale or the dusty, glorified junkyards that linger in Manhattan.

For one thing the “Brooklyn Flea” is curated, said founder Jonathan Butler—until recently known only under his nom de plume Brownstoner.

Mr. Butler and his partner Eric Demby, a former communications officer for Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, handpicked about 200 up-and-coming designers as well as vintage clothing and antique vendors out of the 700 who expressed interest.  read more »

The creators of real estate blogs like Curbed, Brownstoner, and Apartment Therapy hosted their second annual Design Blogfest holiday party at the Henrybuilt furniture store at 79 Wooster Street on Thursday night.

“Last year we promoted the hell out of the party on our blog,” said Lockhart Steele, the creator of Curbed. “We had 400 people in a tiny room like this.”

A couple of dozen family, friends, “hangers-on and groupies” showed up Thursday, Mr. Steele joked.

Five years ago none of the five bloggers attending the party knew each other, but since the medium began to explode, an informal, uncoordinated “blogger ecosystem” has emerged, explained Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan, the co-founder of Apartment Therapy. “When we all met [around 2003] starting a blog was like living in a small town; they linked to you, you linked to them, then eventually we said, ‘Hey, let’s get a drink,'" he said.  read more »