A Little of This and A Little of That

Life is so busy

or is that just an excuse I use?

I am finally getting to see a wall in my living room.

The living room is always a treasure trove of items that have been finished and cannot

take either the heat in the summer or the cold in the winter.

We - well I use that term lightly, because it is Mr that does

all the heavy lifting around here.

Ahem, we..., are using up some of the items we have had

stored in the living room. 

For instance - I don't have a Farm Table in the center...

yes, that is where they go when they are finished.

Sometimes, there are two...

I do have a stack about two feet high of

old bound volumes of a local newspaper that went out of business.
Read about them here.

I am trying to figure out how to make some money on these

very large books that were donated to us.

I see that the University Library has the same ones in a Special Collection Section

of the Campus Library. They are not allowed out of the room.

Here they are, sitting in my living room, right next to a few oil lamps,

a wine bottle opener that we will sell, a bookcase, some back issues of some magazines

and so forth.

They are rather interesting to look at, but other than that...

Dating back to 1868 to 1944 - now that was a long time ago -

you can see the improvements to the city,

the cost of goods - incredible in these high inflation days.

Pictures of women's fashions, grocery ads,

news from the war front.

We went to a show yesterday, almost in our backyard.
It was called Mes Amis
(no, I can't say it either)

Here are a few pictures taken by Mr with my cell phone.

We were based on a little patio area and because of our E-Z up canopies, had shade the whole day.

Some others were based on the street under natural canopies of trees.

It is still in the 90's here in September. And, yesterday was no exception.

Notice the wonderful Farm Table and I see "me" in the background.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, likes the island in the background.

Here is a closer picture.

You can kinda tell when someone likes something, they come up to it and "pet" it.

We sold things that we really, really liked. But, we have plenty for our next show in about 3 weeks.

Does this remind anyone else of that children's book "Hats for Sale"?

A corner of a table was devoted to a "Wedding" Theme.

Well, that is all I have for now.

When we "do" a show, it is like moving twice in one day.

You get where you are going, unload, set everything up like in a house,

then, a few hours later, you pack it all up again and load it up.

We had a helper, in the form of a friend, "Frank" who wanted to help us

load up at the end of the day. He really put away some "gold, silver and precious stones"

with all his hard labor.

Thanks again, Frank.

A busy, busy day

We are readying ourselves for a sale in Downtown Sacramento tomorrow. We do this show/sale once a month on the second Sunday.

My preparations includes last minute yard sale shopping. There have been many times we have found a treasure while out yard sale shopping and then took it to a sale the next day and profited from it.

We are also rearranging our cargo trailer. We need to pack it up so that when we hit those inevitable bumps that  our items will stay in place and not fall down on something else, etc. And, because we always find something we think we need to take last minute, a lot of times I need to unpack what we already packed and repack (wow, that makes you tired just reading it)

We recovered an outdoor settee with some denim fabric to give it a fresh look. I got a duvet cover out of denim and it was just waiting for the right time. Mr wanted the scraps for rags, but I voted him down because I see some quilt squares from a pattern I just saw in a magazine. He graciously let me have them.

I am making our lunch today for tomorrow. Fresh vegetables and fruits, sandwiches, a salad or two, oatmeal packets (for the convenience), setting the coffee on the timer for an early wake-up (2am), and making sure my change is in the truck. Plenty of water, tea, etc. We are setting up and selling in our space for about 12 hours, so it makes for a long day along with my body thinks that it is noon when it is really only 8am.

I am also going to make a dessert and perhaps a salad for the Bible study evening we will attend after we return tomorrow afternoon.

All this and I need to get into my bed by around 8:30 to get a few hours of sleep before that alarm goes off. It is not even dark in the summer at that time!

Next week, we will be at a show in nearby Roseville. It was highlighted in a magazine for one of the best shows to attend.

http://theoliveandrose.blogspot.com/2012/04/huge-congrats-to-mes-amis-vendors.html

This blog author is the sponsor/promoter of the show. It has been running for several years and we have a good time. I do the same preparations for this upcoming show as I do now.

In other news... I have been working off and on, mostly off because I am making this up as I go along, on this project. I think I am finished.
Here is it = a jewelry bouquet. I have it sitting in a crystal vase with the wrapped handle down inside it to keep it upright.

It has been a work in progress. I saw one of these, but much, much larger at a shop. Then I went on etsy and I was astounded at the prices they were asking. If you know me, you know that I deal in vintage jewelry and I had many pieces that would just not work for resale. Here is a way that I thought I may be able to utilize them.

Here is it laying down on a silver platter that I picked up. Mr likes it upright, I may take both to see how well of a reception it will get. It is smaller than the ones I saw and hopefully that will be a selling point, because when you get a lot of jewelry on these, they are very heavy.

I have another one sitting, staring at me to do something else with it. It will be gold toned with white ribbon and "pearls". It is not something that I would use, (not planning on marrying again after 40 years with my husband), but there seems to be a market for these. We will see.

What Came First, The Chicken or the Egg?

A real puzzler, huh?

This is my find from a sale last weekend. During the winter, sales are few and far between. It had also been raining, so if there were any sales, they were inside the garage. I know, a garage sale should be in a garage, but most of the time, they are held in front of the garage, spilling over onto the lawn and sidewalk, and down the driveway if you are in the country.

Back to the find of the day.

These birds of a feather were all in a box at one sale. They hadn't even seen the light of day yet.

I started to ask about one and then decided to ask for the whole box. You know, no need to unpack, I'll save you some work, etc. Well, the whole box for $10.

There are a couple art glass style, and one that has feathers, but I am pretty sure he/she was never alive.

Several are wooden, a few ceramic and one that is like a primitive doll. Two more are pewter.

All in all, they count over 20.

We will be going to a show or two here coming up and I want to display them as a group in a wooden box. After all, they deserve to keep themselves company. 

And, somebody collects chickens...

Ramblings about Hankies

When I was a child, long, long ago. It was common to receive a pretty hankie in an envelope along with a card. Being raised sorta on 'the other side of the tracks' (meaning that I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth), I thought, what in the world was I supposed to do with this? Not actually wipe my nose... It was too pretty and it would lose it's starchy stiffness, and besides, it scratched. As a kid, my sleeve was just too handy. On special days - like 'hot lunch' day at school, my mother always put my quarter in the corner of a hankie, tied it up and then pinned it to the inside of my pocket. I must have not been too trust-worthy...

Now, in contrast, or whatever, my aunts always carried about -- disclaimer if you are faint...are you prepared for this?  a "snot rag". They were small fabric squares, just the size of a hankie, and they had a stack of them in their laundry closet! I remember folding them as they were often laundered...hmm, they would be over 100 years old now (my aunts, not the hankies) ... now, I want to make it clear that they had proper hankies when they went out in polite society.

yuk!

My grandmother had a 'hankie' tucked into her sleeve. But, these were days when a trip to the store meant you wore a hat, you dressed up to 'run to the bank'. (Do you remember when there were 'banking hours'?) Men wore a hat and 'doffed' it at lady's presence. And they always carried not one, but two hankies, one to use and one to give to a needy young lady or spread on a bench for them to sit on. Oh, the days, no jeans and T-shirts then.

How about the crime being solved because of the monogram in the corner of the hankie that was left at the scene of the crime?

I think that hankies were part of the 'well-dressed' young lady's wardrobe.

Now, we have advanced - we use disposable tissues. I'm sure they cut back on passing along colds, coughs and viruses. But, they are certainly not as pretty. Can you imagine a young man retrieving a dropped 'kleenex'? Or, saving it in his "handkerchief drawer" to remind him of his lost love?
************

Well, along my finds, I got a whole lot of hankies. I gave them a good soak in a fabric bleach for a day or so and then laundered them. I am now in the process of ironing them pretty. I have ironed 21 now and I am about half done. They have turned out really nice and I hope to sell them, if I can just come up with an idea of how to market them in a society that doesn't use hankies.

Marathon Month

October 2 was the start of a marathon month of shows.

Well, actually 4 this month. We did the Alameda show last Sunday and this Friday we will travel to the Roses and Rust Vintage Home and Garden Market, in Anderson, California, leave there Saturday evening and come on down nearer home to the Sacramento Antique Faire for Sunday. On the 22nd we will again travel a little north and do a show in Willows called "Gathering Better Junque". This link doesn't really tell you about the show, but rather the wonderful ladies that sponsor it and they do an incredible job at that.

For quite a while we have been gathering special items for these shows. For this weekend, we will be featuring "I wanna be a cowboy" theme. I have tin dishes, cowboy hats, boots, bandanas, deer horns, horseshoes, and old cast-iron griddle, etc. I wish I had taken a picture (vingette?) of it before it got packed into our cargo trailer. We also have another theme we have been working on: children's things. We have a small oak table with two chairs, a child's rocking chair, two dolls, a cradle, complete with the padded mattress and quilt, Winne the pooh clock and other "stuff". Sometimes in our gathering of things we just seem to run across items that go together. We have been saving them for a theme and we will see how this all works out.

Last Sunday we took many similar items to Alameda, here is a taste. And where, oh where, did my "watermarks" go? hmm
Okay, looking into the space, and traveling left side around the back to the front - does that even make sense?

a metal hutch top from a parts store on a metal topped bottom, with casters

Locking red nightstand on a small desk with a chair

A variety of nightstands, they seem to be the "butter on the bread" for us

A queen size quilt that I made - yes, it is the "block of the month" one. They are not my colors, but perhaps someone else will enjoy it.

A hutch/bookcase with glass doors

This is a 3 piece set, chest, mounted mirror on the chest and a small bedside table

A red island, work station that got so much attention (and sold)

A vintage grey rocking chair on a stained wood farm table and under that is a coffee table with stained parque wood top and shelf. There are vaious small benches and plant tables also here. The table and coffee table sold to a couple that are opening up a gathering/business place on Filmore Street in San Francisco and they wanted the dark stained wood furniture to decorate it with.

Here are two hutches, one with a metal top and the other wood. The all wood one sold.

I have some ironstone dishes and silverware in the basket on this red farm table with red legs. Under the table you get a peek of bed springs that were rather popular. Yes, bed springs! Decorators use them for candle holders, funny vases, grouped in threes - who would of thought? old rusty bed springs!

It is hard to describe the beautiful day that accompied our sale that day. Lovely clouds, the skyline of a huge city in the backdrop and temperatures that would leave those in those hot states drooling.

It is getting ready to rain, so we have packed all we can into the trailer and we are pretty much ready to hit the road on Friday. It will be around 3 hours up to Anderson, a quaint town with a rural feel. In the spring when we went there, we really enjoyed the laid back attitude and the friendliness of the shoppers, for a reminder of our time see here. It will be a different venue (or place that they are having the sale), but I am confident that we will have a good time, even if we don't make tons of sales.

An outing to the Coast

Recently, we went on an outing to the coast.

To the sleepy little village of

Moss Landing

http://www.seemonterey.com/moss-landing-california

On a good day, the population is around 200.

When they have their annual Antique Street Fair,

it swells to over 8,000!

In its 42nd year, it is looked forward to by shoppers and vendors alike.

Just outside the "city limits" (about 100 feet down from the previous building)

is where the 200+ vendors set up their wares, along both sides of "Main Street".

Here is that same general area

We set up there also.

you can see a tiny portion of me (when do you ever say that)

more of our products

I tried my hand at this table display

Silverplate place settings on ironstone plates with pewter teapots
on one of Mr's farm tables.

It was a lovely overcast day. Beautiful weather.

about 65 degrees

There was food (artichoke cupcakes???)

And more food

This (all those empty chairs)

Turned into this:

Hardly a spare chair to find to eat your lunch

Along the way, a street musician - set up.

There were the true antiques

 along with

bangles and bracelets and designer styled jewelry

*******************

At the end of the day, we recieved this

Boy, was I surprised!

To see more photos
https://picasaweb.google.com/bustoshelen/MossLanding#

Marketing Questions ? ? ?

Do you have a favorite way to market your items?

I have been loosing sleep trying to figure out new ways to market some of my items. One I am going to try is this:

It is a silverplate place setting of all the same vintage pattern tied together. Would you pay $8 for that? I don't know if my prices are too high. I want to put a place setting on an ironstone plate on one of Mr's Farm Style Tables. What do you think? (place setting of knife, fork, spoon, soup spoon)

I love the older vintage silverplate patterns. Some date back to the early 1900's --- that is more than a lifetime for some of us.

The older patterns are so pretty. This one is "Gardenia", 1941 by Rogers & Sons.

 

So, what do you think? Any suggestions? I am open...