What Makes a Good Antique Booth?

I haven't posted any booths pics here in a while so I thought I'd show you what it looks like these days. I sold the big beautiful mantle (see in this post) last weekend and had to get creative this week to find enough to fill the space before this weekend. I have a couple of large pieces in the barn that I'd planned to have ready but real life isn't allowing much time for projects lately. At any rate, this is it....

Pictures always highlight the gaps I need to fill! 

This is the quick fix for the void the mantle left...the metal tool bin is ready to hang with predrilled holes...
If I were to keep it I'd probably let it sit out in the weather and rust a little, then spray it white and let the rust  do it's thing...put it in the kitchen and put all of my little salt and pepper shakers in the cubby holes...

I've never liked this wall for some reason, but the beds work as well here as anything I've had here....so maybe they will sell soon and I'll be back to square one with...an awkward area!

Ugh! Big hole...needs something with a WOW! factor.

I took the doors out of the back corner for the other booth...now I see my neighbors drop cords coming in from 3 other booths...I am looking for more doors!

I am liking this little area and so are my customers...it's becoming  my magic table . When I move  something here that I've had for a while it magically sells!

The other booth doesn't get quite the attention from me that the Ranch Dressing Booth does...and it shows! I'm almost embarrassed to be seen working in it! If you're a reader of this blog, you'll remember it was intended to be a children's specialty booth with antique and vintage toys, furniture and such...the reason for the color scheme.

This was it during the Christmas season...

Dec. 2011...We did rather well...considering!

In January, I called my booth partner Cheryl and asked if she'd mind if I painted it out solid turquoise and get rid of the beige...we'd joked around the day we painted it saying that empty, it looked like a cantina. Well, it just never got any better with stuff in it! We also decided to let it be an everything booth after all.

This is it this week...Feb 2012

It still is plain Jane and I am NOT happy with it. There are some really great treasures in there but if I were the buyer I'd pass this one by in favor of the many, many other well thought out and creatively designed booths. Ours looks like something we threw together on the fly!...oh, well! We DID!

I know that it all takes time to evolve...and time is something I feel very slighted with these days! I do have some ideas..finally, for this one. Ideally, I'd love to have the booth directly behind my Ranch Dressing Booth to take advantage of our rough cut board wall that's already in existence but until it comes available again, we will make this one do.

Having a booth that is successful takes an incredible amount of work. I had no idea when I started!  I thought this would free up my time to work in my studio more by not having to keep my shop open myself. Now, I'm having to plan every little detail before making the hour long trip down there, where as in my shop here I can make changes anytime I need to. 

Booths not only need to look great, show creativity, and be stocked with great finds...they have to be straightened up weekly, cleaned twice a month and rearranged at the very least once every month...and then when you are fortunate enough to sell out you have to be ready to restock ASAP...which usually requires rearranging again! I have realized quickly that when I put a lot of effort into my booth I get a nice reward! It's becoming part of our lifestyle. Fortunately, it's fun and I'm enjoying it.

Yesterday after I had reworked the Ranch Dressing Booth a man came in while I was snapping pictures and complimented my efforts telling me it was "decorated attractively". YES! I left a happy woman. 

We have a lot of competition at our mall, The Depot, but we also feel like family there among the other 500+ booths...another of the benefits of working your booth regularly. It's nice to be known by your name by the staff in such a large place and be able to network with real people!

How is your booth doing? Got any tips you'd like to share? Leave a comment for all to benefit from.

Until next time,

Angie

Happy New Year

...yeah, I know I'm a little late...but at least we are still in January as I write this.

It's a rainy Wednesday here and I've decide to have a second cup of coffee and sit still for a few. I don't know about you, but I'm not focused so far this year. We've been on such a busy schedule for so long that now that I can actually slow down, I don't know where to start.

Sometimes, I believe it's okay to take some time to do nothing...but, that's hard for me. When I can't focus I know I need to sit and write, probably in my private journal, but here again, it's hard not to be productive so I'm filling the need here on the blog.

First off I want to say thank you to all that shopped with us during the holiday season. It was exciting to see things sell so quickly from our booths at The Depot and I'm always flattered when I have return "candle customers"  at my shop here at the ranch. We even had some online sales although I totally neglected the Etsy shop for lack of time. Thank you all so much!

Ranch Dressing Handmade and Vintage Booth in the Cotton Room at  The Depot at Gibson Mill

My only complaint is the shoplifting. UGH! Someone even took a jewelry display piece out of our new booth. Hopefully the things were just left in other booths when someone changed their mind about the purchase, but so far nothing has turned up. Boo! and Hiss! 

Has anyone seen my jewelry mannequin?

On a sad note, we lost our little Ada exactly one week before Christmas. She's in several of my shop photos because she loved to nap on the porch or come inside while I worked...and that's were she spent her last days...on my studio floor on a quilt. I won't go into much detail but we decided to let her die a natural death here at home since she didn't appear to be suffering or in pain. It was very peaceful and I'm glad I was with her.

Ada's spot behind my chair

Ada's spot on the studio porch

Ada's spot in the sun

It's been hard for the last few weeks to go in the studio. I can't bear to put her quilt away and I catch myself looking for her. I think my grief is probably why my focus is off. Time will help and I know she's here with me in spirit.

I will say too, that while I waited with Ada her last 24 hours, I was able to put things into perspective. Death will do that. I mulled over my regrets of being busy and not spending as much time with her this past year, and thinking how unimportant work will be when it's my time to leave this world. I guess that's what we are here for....to learn...but it sure hurts sometimes when it's the hard way!

I learned much last year and have put some serious thought into what I will do differently and what I will do exactly the same in the coming year as far as business goes. I plan to share some of that with you since I know from recent emails that some of you are wanting to get started in the same type business.

I do have a plan for this year and will talk more about that in my next post...which will be up soon...not two months from now I promise.

Until then,

Angie

Are We Crazy?

Why is it when we are overwhelmed we take on even more? That was our conversation as my friend Cheryl and I drove home from The Depot last week.

We had a brainstorm a couple of weeks ago that in addition to our own spaces at the antique mall that we should combine efforts and co-own a booth. Realizing that the time is upon us when we could really get a good start during the big shopping season that is quickly approaching we spoke up and asked if there were any available spaces.

The wait was short and in less than a week we had a space if we wanted it...if we were up to a little challenge.

Here is our challenge....what the heck?

Our first reaction was to laugh...and then on the way home...oh my!  What do we do besides gut it? The shelves are really sturdy although awkward, and there is no back wall on our side. The side wall on the right hasn't been finished and well, ugh! it's just a mess!

We had really hoped that we could maybe just paint and move in since we are both incredibly busy right now. Why don't these situations arise in the slow months? The location is even better than our other spaces and they are great, so we really do want to keep it. 

Over the weekend I tried to find ways to utilize the shelves thinking of all sorts of things that Rick just laughed at...I'm trying not to get him involved because we are renovating our kitchen finally, and he's still working a crazy work schedule.

So stay tuned....here we go again...another booth...but a booth unlike any we've seen there. That's why we are doing this...crazy or not...it's opening mid/late November.

The Booth...again.

The booth....seems like that's all I've been talking about on the blog for weeks is...the booth. It's probably because that's all I've been working on and finally we've taken our first installment down to The Depot at Gibson Mill  for the booth. I don't know why I even bothered to make a floor plan because I had to make changes first thing...but that's okay, it turned out fine. I hope there will be bare spots when I return with more things this week anyway!

Like in our shop at home, I tried to have areas of similar items, which is a challenge in a 10' x 10' space. This month, we are featuring all of our pitchers and creamers on the tiered unit on the left just as you enter the booth.

From the shop, we took out the entire side wall of treasures for little girls and ladies of all ages, including the matching vanity and chair, jewelry, dresser accessories and some vintage clothing, hats and some really, really cute evening purses.

I'm excited beyond measure to have a concrete floor to showcase my floorcloths! I normally have to hang them and no one knows they are rugs if they aren't familiar with floorcloths. Now, I just hope people will go ahead and walk on them. The one in the back is a 4'x6' and took over two weeks to complete and the one in front is a 2.5' x 3' and took nearly a week. There is a lot of preparation work before the art ever goes on them and then there are 6 coats of poly applied for protection...so go ahead and walk on them...it's perfectly safe. I've been making them for almost 23 years and I have it down to a science. About the only way to damage them is to fold them or place them on a carpet instead of a hard floor.

I should have gotten more pictures of the side walls, but I Erin was ready to go, bless her heart for helping me all day, and we had much to load back onto the truck before we could head home.

I hope you can get to Concord soon and visit not just my booth but the other 500+. I see something each trip that I need! Really!

Next week I promise to talk about something besides the booth! See you then.

Whew!

I've managed to keep my promise and post every Wednesday for three or four in a row now. This is working!

...Since last week we've spent every minute being productive and honestly, I am glad this week is a regular  schedule.

Last Friday we made our annual trek up to Hillsville, Va for the big flea market.  This is the first year in 18 that I didn't find anything I couldn't live without. I came home with 2 sets of salt and pepper shakers, a pair of drawer pulls and a pitcher that wasn't even old...and something else I know,but can't recall. 

By early afternoon it was miserably hot and then it stormed on us about the time I finally found some things I was interested in for the shop. We waited it out for a while but most of the vendors kept their things covered up in case another storm rolled through so we packed up as well and left. All in all it was a fun day even though we didn't come home with anything for resell.

Saturday, we picked up Erin at the airport. She was easy to spot coming out the door..looking like Taylor Swift in her cute little dress and cowboy boots. She looks so much like Taylor that when she meets people that's usually one of the first things they notice about her. 

 Do you see any resemblance? 

Also, on Saturday, Rick started building sections of our Depot booth here at home. By about 8 pm he had most everything ready and I put a coat of primer on the side wall to save me some drying time on Sunday. Long day to say the least! He built everything possible here but of course, there were a few minor changes when we got to Concord on Sunday afternoon.

We had lots of help carrying in the loads of materials and tools. Two of Sam's friends went with us and saved Rick many steps throughout the five hours we were there. We had one wall already in our space and had to add another side and a back.

10' x 10' gets a little crowded with 5 people in it...thank goodness for the media room! Oh, and Sam is the tall one there talking to his dad who is the one that looks like his patience is running low.

  

The side went up quickly but someone (me) forgot to add the column into the plan and our measurements were about a foot off so here was when we (husband) had to recalculate a few things. OOPS. Sorry honey.

 The color was a last minute decision...but I like it. Rick was out the door on his way to Lowes Saturday morning and I couldn't find my paint swatches in the heap of stuff on my desk where they belong...so I had to mix up something from my acrylics in the 60 seconds before he left...all while on the phone. It's all good. Right?

Monday morning was again spent building parts and pieces for the booth. About 1pm we had everything  loaded and was headed to Concord in the rain to finish. I took advantage of the muscle power and got the mantle moved in too!

The idea is a saloon front...I'm not sure why I came up with that but it's just what stuck once it came to me...and something had to stick quick! The swinging doors are actually a headboard...could you tell?

 For some reason, we had some miscommunication between designer and builder...so our roof started a little higher than planned, but what could I say, but thank you!!!! It's perfect. It still resembles an old saloon front I think.

Rick worked incredibly hard for three days with only one day off between his 15+ days straight, crazy work schedule he is pulling right now. I couldn't have done anything like this without him! Tuesday began another 15 and he seemed to be happy as he got into his truck to leave. Hmmm?

...And the buggy wheel...that I hope my Daddy doesn't really want back since he saw how much they were selling for in Hillsville on Friday. Remember, if you've been reading my blog since the beginning, that he gave me four of them. The little shelf above it is for our marketing materials...and Sam said for candy. That may not be a bad idea.

Okay, I have work to do so I can get this booth filled up! I will see you back here next Wednesday with photos of stuff inside. I hope you have a good week until then.

New Growing Pains...

Since last week we've taken another step into the junk antique and vintage business...

We've taken a booth at the Depot at Gibson Mill...We will begin moving in in September. Why a booth?

We are bursting at the seams!

...and this is just two corners! I keep finding the coolest treasures and have continued to make new things as well. Also, we can't continue to work at this crazy pace, wearing ALL of the hats...this is supposed to be fun! 

But, not to worry...we will still be open by appointment here at the Ranch! This is manageable. We would like to have at least one big occasional sale a year, maybe with vendors...but we will see what time actually allows. 


 I'm hoping to thin out and be less cluttered here...and to use the shop to introduce new things so that family and friends get first dibs...but you'd better look quick! 

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Did you notice this little cutie in the photo above? We're getting a nice selection of vintage children's items like this very sweet Margaret Holbrook doll case.

...and these 1930's and 40's framed paper dolls...Snow White, Shirley Temple and Beth from Little Women.

In September some things will be on sale 20% off that are spring-y and summer-y. Give us a call for a private shopping appointment!

...and you will want to come stock up on summer candles to finish out the warm evenings...some are perfect year round in the bath, like Lilac, Cucumber, Sage or Jamaica Me Crazy.

Okay, so....

As soon as the booth is stocked I will post photos and let you know how to find us...our first hint...it's near the diner!