Monday, December 12, 2011

An old favorite... SOLD

When I knew I was opening the booth earlier this year, I made a few display items for the booth.  This harvest table was one of those items.  It was in my booth on day 1, but marked 'NOT FOR SALE'.  It was perfectly narrow and because it was so long it allowed me to have a consistent surface space to display tons of items.
A few weeks ago I gave it an official price tag.  It was painful to do, but with my new larger space I hope to always have larger pieces for sale in the booth that can double as display space too.  As I knew it would... it sold quickly.  I got the call this weekend that it had sold and I knew I better rush in today to do some reshuffling so I wouldn't have items on the FLOOR! 
Farewell Harvest Table
Today I added some gorgeous pottery pieces.  I love to collect pottery and ironstone pieces.  I used them for everything from actual food service to holding extra handtowels in the half bath.  If you love these versatile pieces too, I have several new pieces in the booth for you to see.
 I moved around the items on the large blue dresser...
 I love the miniature pedestals.  They are made to be little cupcake stands, swoon.  I've also used them for votives.  Cuteness!
 Got a second call from Packards from a customer that needed lots of my 1/2 pint milk jars... and she wanted the striped straws to go with them, grin.  They are so very cute for a party!
I still have some of the clear milk jars left, but I also added some other milk jars.  These have dairy labels on them.  I love their miscellaneous labels and shapes.
 And I'll leave you with a wider shot of the booth with the now gone harvest table, boo... but I was able to reshuffle and get everything in a proper place, whew!

Monday, December 5, 2011

Market Monday... obsolete??!?

Before I dive in to the new items in my booth, I'll handle a little 'business'.
For those of you that don't actually know ME... I am a SAHM and also a homeschooler.  I opened my booth space earlier this year and have been thoroughly loving my business and creative outlet.  I did really well with it and my business has grown... enough to actually warrant a larger booth size.
I am so thankful.
I did really well in the beginning of this adventure with posting weekly and staging photo shoots of new items, etc.  It was the end of the 2010/2011 school year then and then we entered the summer months.  But when our new school year began in September... I had to find my new 'normal'.  My youngest son's schooling became considerably more involved and my time to do all I needed to do here at home and all I wanted to do for my business became at odds.  Also, with the larger booth, I now have room for larger furniture items and I often need to load those on Saturdays when I have the added muscles of my husband at home and available.
So... all the above explanation to get to my very important point!  Mondays have become an inconvenient day for me to handle business posting.  During the school months of September to May... I must scale back on my posting as a whole, and that means no weekly Market Monday posts.  I will still make weekly deliveries to my booth... I will take pics and post them when I can.  You can add my blog to your list and/or become a follower to know when I have posted pics of new items... those are the best way to get updates since I will not be doing post on a set day any longer. 
In the end, this little business is the PERFECT match for the time and effort I can allow outside of my priorities here at home.  I must make the business work around homelife and that way I can continue to have a business.  All good!  
I continue to get requests for custom orders.  Custom Orders are not possible for me at this time... I can see where that would be a huge opportunity for me and business to grow several years from now... but right now, I just can not.
Are you exhausted from reading all that?  On to today's photos:

I had another large piece of furniture sell this past week!  Remember this gorgeous dining table and chairs?  They have found a home.  Yay!
 That made room for me to 'reintroduce' this darling farm table.  I had it in my smaller booth, tucked in a corner.  I hope now that I have it out in the open that it will SHINE.  It is amazing.  I did paint the base, my favorite shade of grey/blue to give it a fresh look.  Gorgeous.
It is the perfect size for a game table or a small dining nook.  I have 4 mismatched bentwood chairs around it.  I love that they all are different but all the same style!
 The white and grey chair are slightly larger in size and have solid seats.  The two stained chairs have caned bottoms and the caning is in perfect condition.
 This is a checker board made from a cuttingboad.  All you would need is buttons, for pieces,  to start a game ;)
 I love stools.  I use them for everything, including end tables in tight little spaces.  This is a black, metal draftman's stool... which means the seat will spin and adjust at any height you may need for sitting or as a table.  It is solid and so cute.
 I found this piece in my attic.  It is actually left over from a prior business I was involved in called Sisters, Inc., which I did with my mom, sisters, and sils.  It is a fun Santa painted on an old cabinet door.  The door has some of its original hardware.  I took a more zoomed OUT photo but it wasn't clear... so hopefully this smaller zoomed IN shot will serve as a little teaser to the whole piece.
So there you have it... a few of the items that went in the booth this week.  Have a great week!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Market Monday

The Holiday Open House was a HUGE success!  Thank you so much.  I had the large hutch sell in less than 24 hours of loading it into the booth.  So I went in this morning to reshuffle things around (one of the best things about this business... that I get to 're-stage' so often and I love to do it), and add a few new items and to restock the big sellers.

In the space that the hutch was in, I reintroduced the harvest table that I had in my single booth before my move.  At that time, the table was marked 'not for sale', but now that I have the larger booth and will have more flexibility in furniture arrangements the harvest table is for sale.  It is a great piece.  I had several people want to buy it in the past so I hope it can find a new home soon. 
 I also brought in this small buffet.  It could even be used in an entry for storage.  The details on this buffet are beautiful.
 New trays.
 There was only ONE banner left when I got there this morning.  I am so glad that I made several more over the weekend.
 And the letter and number ornaments/tags sold well.  I introduced a new font and size... larger than any I had before today.
 Someone left a little message... considering I wasn't even born in 1967 it doesn't relate to me or my business but it made me laugh nonetheless ;)
 A new addition to my ornament line are these twig wreaths.  Again, using sheet music as an accent... they have a cluster of 3 rosettes and leaves.  Simple.
 And I also sold all the sheet music wreaths.  I made 3 more for the booth.  I am thrilled that these are being well received as they are fun to make and I think they are so beautiful!
 I restocked the glass in the booth.  These glass bottles and milk jars are so versatile and please note how thick the glass is on these older bottles/jars.  The reason I love their 'weight' is because it does make them perfect for holding water and flower arrangements... they are substantial enough to hold gorgeous displays!  I have a whole cabinet in my laundry room reserved for beautiful bottle/jars to have for table centerpieces and to line mantels, etc. Love them.
 Have a Great Week!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Packards' Holiday Open House

Thanks to my mom, dad, kids, and 4 loaded trucks/cars... we got the booth loaded for the Holiday Open House beginning today.  Once the huge furniture was all in, the real fun began with me adding sparkle.  Except for a couple key pieces, everything is BRAND NEW to the booth!  I will show some photos now with some explanations of a few of the items.  In the upcoming weeks I will be adding more, so check back often.  Hopefully you can find some things to help with your gift giving.  As I always try to do, there are items from $2.50 on up, so I'm sure you could find something in a good price point for ya!  Enjoy!

Not sure where to begin, so I think I will just start from one end of the space to the other.  This is looking to the left of the booth.  I made another slipcovered wingback chair.  
The lines of this chair are a perfect blend of classic wingback but with a very clean modern silhouette.  Loved how 'she' turned out.
 I wanted to do a non-traditional tree... and so these branches in an old urn planter fit the bill!
 Are you familiar with german glass glitter?  It is a phenomenal type of glitter... reminds me of what mercury glass would look like if it were all crushed up.  The glitter actually has a patina.  I made letters and numbers in this glitter to use as banners and ornaments or even to use as tags for gifts.  You could collect the monograms for your whole family!
 I think the little red snow shovel (child's size), above, would look adorable on a front porch or even by your Christmas tree.  Below, is one of my favorite 2011 ornaments.  They are angel wings made of antique hymnal sheet music. 
 On our trip to Destin this year, I found many treasures that I knew would go into my Holiday booth.  I found a bag of antique chandelier crystals.  I sell them in a set of 3 and there are 'drops' and 'french pendants'.  They are already in a white gift box in case you want to gift them too.
 And here is a magnificent dresser I found.  The curves are amazing.  I painted it in my new favorite shade of grey blue and the hardware is original and is in graphite grey.  It has many imperfections which add to the beauty... and my kids would vouch that it is s.o.l.i.d!  It was the single hardest piece to transport.  Whew!! 
 Also in Destin,  I was in the back of my favorite antique store there loading a door out there back exit, and saw a few old boxes with Amish symbols on the outside.  I asked the clerk what was in side.  She just said, "old bottles".  I looked closer and discovered they were old 1/2 and whole pint glass milk jars from an Amish Creamery.  The box was deteriorated, the bottles dirty and some broken... but I bought all they had.  I will keep many to use decoratively and as juice glasses for our B&B and my sisters have snatched up a few, but I still had some to add to the booth.  Do you need some?
 More of the german glass glitter ornaments/tags.
 I have a pinetree that drops these miniature pinecones, so I dusted some with the glitter and left others plain and bagged them up for sale.  You can get some if you love the littles.
 I have a new hutch in the booth, it has been a while since I have had such a large piece, and these hutches always go so fast.  I took the doors off, I think so many antique hutches are only dated my the doors.  Removing them makes them more up to date and functional.  Classic in a dining room, but would also be great in a bedroom... the bottom as dresser storage and the top shelves could hold books or stuffed animals for a child's room.  Possibilities are endless!
 More old bottles, that cleaned up beautifully.  The swingtop bottles are all functional and could hold your favorite drink or would look wonderful filled with holiday candies.  The bottles pictured to the front left are my favorite!
 These are the 1/2 pint milk glass jars that are perfect as juice glasses... swoon!
 This chalkboard is the window frame out of an old house or church.  It must have had an old lead glass window or art piece in it.  The frame is HUGE and heavy.  I want to keep it, seriously I do.  I make no promises that I won't cave and bring it back home.  Probably the only reason I did take it is because it was a BEAST to restore and convert into this chalkboard and I was a tad angry with it... I can hold grudges.  My husband saved my sanity and made it work.  It incredible!
 I'm sure you have noticed my 'sheet music' theme.  These wreaths are made of old hymnals and I loved them so much a actually DID keep one.  Proud of myself for setting one aside.  They are quite large and would look great over a mantle for the holidays, or truthfully year round!
 I have a diningtable for sale too.  It has 3 additional leaves, so it could seat many people.  It is old and has had many treatments over the years.  I painted it out white and did not try to 'erase' its past life, I think the layers are what make these older pieces so beautiful.  The six chairs go with the lines of the table perfectly and I covered the seats with an upholstery grade natural linen. 
 And I'll leave you with a few pics of the table centerpiece.  Just tons of different glass strewn down the middle, could not be easier and visually it sparkles!  The table runner was made by simply taping pages of organ sheet music together.  Add a few natural berry twigs and pinecones and the look is gorgeous!
Tons of vendors were at Packards yesterday... the parking lot and back loading door was packed, so I think you would have tons of fun shopping this weekend at the Open House.  Thanks!!