Closing My Booth

Most of my house projects have been put on the back burner.  My "extra" time now is spent focusing on closing my booth at Rockin' B.  My last day will be Dec 31st.  The booth needs to be EMPTY by then.  That's just 47 days away.  Really less, because of holidays.  Oh dear.

This is less than a month ago and lots of it has already sold.

I have loved having a booth.  I also love promoting Rockin' B Antiques online.  Doing both no longer makes sense for me.  I was unwilling to spend as much time and energy as it requires to be financially worthwhile.

I am yearning to spend more time on home and family.  I had originally thought I'd have a booth for 5 years and transform my house along the way.  It will end up being just shy of 3-1/2 years and my house is not how I envision it.  I think I'll be able to do more house transforming while promoting.  We'll see.

One thing I'm really looking forward to is not having messy "stations" all over the house.  A place to price, a place to store, a place to paint, piles of this and that all over.  I'm not a clean freak, but the mess has gotten to me.

Promoting, on the other hand, is something I really enjoy.  Bonus - it's not messy at all.  It's mostly digital. And I have become pretty darned good at it.  It's easy to become good at something you enjoy doing.

The booth hasn't started looking empty yet because I keep bringing more in.

Closing the booth is an interesting and somewhat fun process.  I continue to bring in more, slowly emptying my stash of treasures from home.  There are so many things I want to keep, but I'm forcing myself to let them go.  Every week my house feels a little lighter.  It's such a great feeling.

I spend a few hours in my booth each week marking things down.  I plan to keep marking things down until they are all gone.

The scary part is that time seems to be going really fast.  Will it all sell?  If you look at these pictures, taken over a space of just about 3 or 4 weeks, you'll see plenty of changes.  Things are selling fast, but my booth is staying full.  Still, I keep finding things at home to bring in.  The booth will never empty out if I don't stop adding to it!

If you want to see more about my booth sale, you can check out my First a Dream Facebook page.  And if you live anywhere near Newnan, GA, stop by and see it for yourself!

Color Play in My Booth

I am planning to make 2013 very colorful, especially in my booth.  I've already started the transformation with the signs at the top of my booth -  188  is on a very large chalkboard-ish background.  There's no mistaking my booth number!  The letters on paint cans with colorful coordinating tissue paper is such a fun way to pump even more color into my space.  It just makes me happy to look at it.

I also did a little rearranging and color grouping.  First I pulled some things out - especially the remains of my Christmas decor.  Most of my Christmas things sold, luckily, but I had brought in a few things to keep the holiday look going.

The showiest of the color groupings turned out to be the pops of yellows, golds and oranges on my corner cabinet.  Talk about cheerful!  That sweet corner cabinet isn't likely to escape anyone's notice now!

I'm working on some signs and hope to have them ready to hang on the wall soon.  Meanwhile I wanted to use the wall display space in a way that was fun, yet easy to take down.  I displayed my vintage albums.  Wow.  I really like them there!  *Oops - That top one needs to be moved down just a bit.

I moved the bamboo etegere against the wall.  I was able to hang the wrought iron planter on the wall inside the big shelf.  That's going to work well for some upcoming plans for this space.  The white cabinet to the left of the etegere is just for storage.  Still, the white is bugging me.  Clearly this cabinet needs to be a fun color - turquoise maybe???  I usually prop a large picture in front of it so it's not so noticeable.  Unfortunately, I have nothing to prop there at the moment.  I made do for now by just tying a burlap bow on the handles.

The shelf with the multi-colored backgrounds was way overcrowded.  I thinned it out and grouped a little bit.  Three things sold off this shelf before I could even finish.  See the holes?

Last, I changed the retro and wood table theme to green and turquoise.  Lousy picture.  It is much prettier in person.

Stop by and see it in person if you can!  Lots of the vendors at Rockin' B have been changing their booths and bringing in new things.  It's really looking great.

Sewing Theme Vignette

I put together a pretty sewing vignette in my booth at Rockin' B.  I had been thinking about this one for a little while. 

I was supposed to build the top for the sewing machine base myself.  Rudy was giving me lessons.  Truthfully, he pretty much did it.  In the midst of the lesson - just when he was going to show me how to put on the sides - I got a phone call.  When I got back, he'd finished it.  It's super sturdy.  We both liked it so much that we would have liked to have kept it.  I just didn't know where we could use it. 

I love my newest wood sign - a vintage sewing machine drawn in silver over a black background.  This is another sign that I secretly hope doesn't sell.  One day, I'll run out of room for my signs and I'll have to bring some home.  This one will go in my loft!

The machine in the sign is incredibly similar to the real sewing machine I have for sale in my booth.  I paid too much for the real one - it was pretty and I lost my mind. The price was great if I were planning to keep it, but too much to resell.  When it sells I won't make a dime, but it sure looks great in this vignette.

If it never sells, I am considering turning it into a lamp.  I think that would be pretty amazing, but since the machine is in great condition, I feel like I'd be breaking a "vintage code of honor law" to mess with it.  There are some things you just shouldn't re-purpose.  Is this one of them?

You can also see my blue and white booth sign in the photo above.  At Rockin' B, many of us are moving away from just being a number (I am 188).  We are literally and figuratively making a name for ourselves!

Fluffing the Booth

I can't sleep.  With the full moon, it's practically daylight outside.  I finally gave up, got out of bed, and here I am... blogging in the middle of the night. 

Today, I fluffed my booth.  I had two main themes to work in the booth, neither of which are right for the time of year.

The first was a wooden flag my DH built and I painted.  It's made from wood planks.  The paint is layered in multiple colors and distressed.  This is my first sign effort and I am fairly pleased.  You can't tell from the photo but it's quite large - around 46 inches wide.  I have plans for other board signs.

Here's the flag at home.  I propped it in a chair just before putting it in the car.  Miss Sissy struck a serious pose in front.  This picture is far cuter than the one of the flag in my booth.  Miss Sissy agrees.  Oh, my goodness, how I love this cat!

The other thing I worked into the booth was a group of Easter things.  I only meant to price the things and get them boxed up. Really.  I wasn't going to put the stuff in til after Valentine's Day.  I planned to play by the holiday rules.  But then, after I had them packed up, we had all this warm weather.  Spring Fever struck and the next thing I know, I'm loading the box into the car. 

I put it all together on a table.  These little bunnies and eggs and holiday knick-knacks are definitely not my usual style.  They were picked up here and there over the last year and I ended up with quite a collection. I am shocked at how much I had.  I think with each thing I found, I must have been telling myself that I would create a small Easter basket vignette. My booth look is moving in a very different direction these days, so I don't think I would choose these things again.  What's crazy is, despite myself, I like this display.  It feels happy.  Apparently, others are affected, too.  I had customers stopping by to admire.  Spring Fever has rendered us all hopelessly tacky!  Luckily, tacky is permissible in an Easter basket.

Unfortunately, with the red white and blues and the Easter pastels and the other assorted colors around my booth, including my small collection of Fiesta Ware that I decided to part with, I am missing a unifying theme.  I hope to change that soon, but for now, it's just an eclectic mix.

I'm still not sleepy, but that's all for this post. 

Two Booth Expansions

Well, I've been pretty busy lately.  First, The White Booth which I share with 4 other fab ladies, has expanded.  The White Booth had been in two 10x15 booths.  We now occupy three of them and our latest one is a corner booth.  We were getting a bit crowded and really needed the space.  We painted the floor and wall and moved in all in one 10am - 5pm day.  Here's one picture and you can see more on my White Booth blog.

What's funny is that this weekend we sold lots of big pieces and a number of things in this photo are gone.  But other things have been brought in. 

Just before we expanded The White Booth, I moved my main booth from a 10x10 to a 10x15 corner booth.  Mmmmm.  The corner booths are nice!  I really tried to convince myself that I was just fine in the cozy little 10x10.  It was just too cramped.  I asked to be put on the waiting list for a corner booth and amazingly, the one I wanted came open.  That's crazy because people are fighting to get a booth at our store.  It was meant to be.

As you can see, my main booth is the opposite of The White Booth.  This booth is big on color and getting bolder all the time. The White Booth answers one side of my personality - the desire to be clean and neat and pure and sweet.  But this booth is the real me. Bohemian and wild and changing all the time. This photo was taken right after I got everything moved.  The next day I tweaked and made some nice improvements.  This angle is not my favorite.  Ninety-nine percent of our customers approach the booth from the opposite direction.  I set up the booth with that in mind. 

I love the charm of this round table and tablecloth in the corner.  It looks really nice with the lamp turned on, but photos turn out lousy with the light.  You'll have to use your imagination.  Excuse the lopsided tablecloth... it's on straight now.

This enamel top table is was a favorite thing.  It sold really fast.  The legs and base had been wood colored.  I knew that a little paint would give it a new lease on life.  It did.  In fact, I nearly kept it, but how many retro tables can one person have... without being considered a hoarder?

The stool in the photo above is another recent redo.  I painted it with chalk paint.  It sold quickly, too.

Once the green table sold, I brought in this little beauty.  I had pictured it going in the booth in January or February, but sales are going faster than anticipated.

I wasn't crazy about the floor color, but there was no time to paint it the day I moved.  Once everything was in, the floor color felt just fine.  The wall was painted.  It had been a mustard yellow.  I seriously considered painting the wall silver.  I came very, very close.  If I had had to go to the paint store, that's probably what I would have gotten.  My sister-in-law had leftover wall paint so that's what I used.  Thanks, Nancy!!!

By the way, those things on top of the wall are not mine.  They are my neighbor's - Kathy.  She's also one of The White Booth girls.  Someone asked if those things bothered me or if I wanted to use the ledge.  The answers are no and no.  I don't like putting things up high where they are hard to reach.  Hard to reach = hard to sell.  Kathy can have that ledge!  By the way, one of these days I need to show photos of her booth. It's wonderful. Her booth is also a corner booth.  It's set up more open than mine towards the center aisle, but customers are approaching her booth from a different angle.  The customers in our store tend to start on the right side of the store and work around.  I think it's very important to know where your customers will be when they first notice your booth. 

One other improvement was the way my pictures are corralled.  There's never enough room to hang them all on the wall.  Many would end up propped on the floor.  I brought in an old trunk that had been in my attic and now the pictures and frames stay grouped.  They are easy to look through without sliding or toppling.  Some have already sold.  Now I've added some vintage windows.  I'll share photos of those soon.  I have some really nice chippy ones!

That's all for now.

Cute White and Red Kitchen Cupboard

I found this cute little kitchen cupboard yesterday  I had thought about putting it in my house, but the size wasn't exactly right.  Instead I did some rearranging in my booth and slid it right in.  It looks wonderful.  I'm more interested in it for display than a quick sale, so I put a semi-high price on it.

I did a really quick rearrange and I'm not real happy with the things I chose to put in the cabinet.  I can definitely do better than that.  I have plenty of new things to take in, so hopefully, I'll fluff this look next week.

Hmmmm.  Now I'm wondering.  Did I price it high enough?  Shoot.  If that thing sells fast, I won't be happy.

More Improvements to My Booth

Today I bought an old rustic wood table that is the perfect size for my new (old) blue metal shelf.  I took down the bakers rack and packed it away. 

A fold up bakers rack is such a good thing to have for a booth.  When something big sells, it can be set up to fill in a space and hold lots of smalls.

I had been using the bakers rack to hold vintage table linens.  Now, I have a display that is more "me".  Rustic, chippy, farmhouse, vintage...

I love bakers racks, but I have to say, I find this crazy display more appealing for my booth.  There are still improvements to be made with the display of the linens, but I'm definitely a step closer.

Once I moved the blue metal cart to the back, I needed to redo the front section.  I finished and sent up front to get my camera.  By the time I came back two big things had sold from it and I had to rearrange.  this is the second arrangement.  The platters look so-so, but I wanted to give them a little time up front.

By the way, those vintage orange glasses on the metal tray are so wonderful.  every time I see them, I'm tempted to bring them back home. If they don't sell this month, I probably will.  I need to take a better photo of them so you can see how wonderful they are.

On My Own in a Booth

Martie and I have shared a booth at Rockin' B Antiques for over a year.  Last week, we separated.  We joke that it's an amicable divorce.

We were in a double booth (10x20).  It was wide and spacious.  Now we are next door neighbors and we each have a 10x10 booth. 

Looking at our things side by side makes it apparent just how different our styles really are.  Martie loves traditional and formal.  She's well traveled and artsy. She's a born entertainer. Her booth turned out great - I should post photos.

I love beat up,  hunky things.  With strong vibrant retro colors.  And a farmhouse look.  Rust, chipped paint, galvanized metal and burlap are my friends. 

I won't lie.  My new booth is a bit cramped and after putting all my stuff in this space, my first inclination was to get a bigger booth.  I even talked to the owner about it and began making plans for a fabulous corner booth. 

But then, a funny thing happened.  I began to love my little spot.  I rearranged a little and made better use of the space.  And I started thinking about the increased responsibility involved with a larger booth - the increased work responsibilities, working harder to keep the booth stocked, etc. Plus, I already have a 1/6th piece of The White Booth.  Suddenly it made since to keep it simple. The last thing I need to do is take on something pulling even more on my time.  Once that decision was made, I felt incredibly relaxed and happy.

Here are a few photos of the booth. Not everything in it reflects my style.  That's going to take time.  Heck, I'm still trying to figure out my style.  It's a work in progress.  In fact, I'm going over this afternoon to do some tweaking.  I bought a smaller, taller table for one of the corners and that will give me more room for the medium size (easy for me to handle) furniture pieces that I plan to focus on. 

Things have already changed several times since first moving in.  I had a fabulous, chippy yellow farm table on the left.  The color and style really popped.  It sold.  I had just finished painting this green one, so it went right in the same spot.  It's pretty, but I miss the stronger color.  I also had a colorful rug on the floor.  It sold.  I need to find another.  Lots of my colorful smalls have sold, too. 

In the photo above, you can also see that I have a spot up high on the right where I can hang a chandelier.  So, guess what I'm on the lookout for!?!?!

I have three shelves that are not for sale - two on the right and one on the left (you can see just a little of that one in the photo below).  I'm thinking about moving the one on the left to create more room for a transitional vignette.   Eventually, I hope to replace those shelves with pieces that have more personality.  Barnwood and wavy tin maybe?

In the corner, I covered a round card table with my pretty toile tablecloth.  That's where the new round table is going to go.  I wanted something smaller and sturdier that I could pile high with a fun display.  The tablecloth will still work.  I'll take photos and post them soon.

My back wall has a jut out in an odd location.  At first, I hated it.  I wanted a straight wall with no restrictions.  But, again, I am actually falling in love with this odd little nook.  It's 30 inches wide.  I put a square card table in there (30 inches square) and covered it with my burlap tablecloth.  It turned out fun and quirky, but I'm looking for something better. 

By the way, don't you just love the submarine man poster sticking out!  I may mark him up to some crazy price because it will break my heart when it sells.  I really like him peaking out.  He definitely grabs the attention of everyone walking by the booth.  Maybe he needs to be $99.95!  If it sold for that, I think I would be able to get over my grief.

Some Big Pieces in the Booth

I have been super busy and have so much catching up to do on this blog.  I'm not even go to bother to post in order.  I'm just going to catch up randomly.  I'll start with some new pieces I bought for my booth.

The previous post from a week ago shows photos of our new larger main booth.  I'm thinking it needs a name.  We call our white booth The B Hive.  We call our first booth our primary booth.  I also used to call it Booth 188, but we actually have two numbers now - 188 and 488.  It's very confusing and all of those names are really dull!  Anyway, once we moved the PB (Primary Booth) over to the new larger space, we had all sorts of extra space.  And suddenly, I came across loads of big pieces.  The booth is fairly full again!

My major find were three beautiful oak pieces.  A lovely army family was moving out of state and downsizing.  They had a sale and I was lucky enough to find it.

I wanted to keep all three pieces, but ended up keeping just the vintage fireplace mantle.  They had used it to create a faux fireplace at a number of Army base homes. They put a screen in front of it and made it look quite real.  When their friends would come over, they would all ask how they'd been lucky enough to get a base home with a fireplace.  Knowing some of the stories behind this mantle will make it even more special.  I'm so glad I'll be able to keep it.

I don't have a fireplace and have been really wanting to try a faux look.  I've seen some amazing faux fireplace looks on blogs and even did a post on that topic last November.  It's a great post with some wonderful inspiration photos.   I'll be revisiting it when I make final decisions on setting this one up.

For now, the mantle is sitting upside down on our bedroom floor.  I rotated the photos so you could get a better idea of how it looks.  On the inside of the mantel, they used a faux brick panel. It has a bit of it torn off, but that doesn't bother me because I'm thinking of a different treatment.

The mantle details are really pretty.

It looks like I'll have a place to hang my stockings this Christmas!

The other two pieces I very reluctantly put in my booth.  I hope they find a wonderful home because I really, really, really fell in love with the previous owners.  So now, this sale is personal.  Am I the only one who does that?  I'm doing it a lot lately.  I may need therapy.

This oak icebox was placed front and center in the booth.  It's a great piece and has obviously been well cared for. 

The chest of drawers is in the back, but it's actually in a very nice spot - it's not being hidden, for sure.

This photo was taken several days ago and the area around the chest has been tweaked a bit since then.  I tried to put a few things on the chest to create a nice vignette, but left it sparse enough that the beauty of it still showed.  It has a slight curve to it.  Oh, my goodness.  I wish I had been able to keep it.  Even now, I'm thinking I'd like to bring it back home and move something else out.  My hubby would not be amused.  He'd have to be the moving man and he doesn't come cheap!

When we went to pick up the pieces, I ended up getting a tour of the lady's house and seeing some of her other vintage items.  While looking at a fabulous Hoosier, I spied some fabulous tea towels. They had belonged to her husband's grandmother, but her husband had no interest in them.   I'm a sucker for vintage linens and tea towels are my favorites.  I seldom use new dish towels any more.  She was willing to part with some of them and I came home with two tea towels and a pretty tablecloth (oops - I forgot to take a photo of the tablecloth).  They will be loved and used by me! 

I will think of my lovely Army family every time I use them.

Quick Look at the New Booth

I stopped by Rockin' B for a photo session yesterday.  It had to be super fast since hubby and I were on our way to the grocery store.  I wanted him to see the new booth. It was a little messed up here and there, but there was no time to fluff.

The new booth is 5 feet wider and that 5 feet makes a world of difference!

This is our first style and it will definitely be finessed and improved on, but it looks pretty good as is.  Our goal for last Friday was to get everything moved and set up before closing time.  Martie and I made it... barely. There was no time left over to play around.

Once we had moved all the shelves and smalls to the perimeter, we set up Martie's table in the front as the base for a sewing vignette.  We didn't put a whole lot on it so the smalls wouldn't block the view of the table, which needs to be seen well in order to sell.  It's a great table - a pale gray.  It looks like some things have already sold from the vignette.  There was a vintage iron on top of the ironing board. I don't see it in any of these photos.  And it seems like there was something else, but I can't think what. 

The right side is the least visible side as you approach the booth.  Good thing because all those linens are a mess! They were neat when we left on Friday.

We have two bakers racks on the right and another on the back wall.  Folding bakers racks are fabulous for a fast spot to put smalls when a large cabinet sells, but they are not the best for long term small displays.  A shelf unit holds so much more, uses vertical space better and you don't have to worry about things falling between the bars.  We'll be on the lookout for better shelves or cabinets to replace these racks.

We seem to have a ton of fruit-and-vegetable-colored kitchen and dining items.  We grouped those together on the back wall.  

I didn't take a good photo of the left side, darnit!  The tall shelf is filled with blue and white items, the second shelf has lots of red, white and blue things and apple dishes.  We put a linen display in the corner.  The photos are a bit disappointing.  They really don't get across the pops of colors and the spaces here and there that invite you to come closer for a better look. 

We bought the rug from Cynthia on Friday.  She didn't have room for it in her new smaller booth and I knew it would look great with our concrete floors.  It has a few bumps here and there from being folded, but we hope to make use of some double sided tape next week to help it lay flat.  By the way, I'm so glad we didn't paint the floors.  I love the simplicity of the concrete. 

Speaking of painted floors, another vendor snapped up our old booth.  She was already moving in!

My goodness, our old booth looks so much smaller.

Fifteen Feet Looks Like Twenty???

I feel soooooo stupid!  Martie and I have been in our double booth at Rockin' B for almost a year.  A single booth is 10 feet wide.  A booth and a half is 15 feet and a double is 20.  We rented a double.  Ha.  By the way, this is not our white booth (The B Hive) that I'm talking about.  This is the primary booth that I share with Martie.

There were a number of times when I've laid out plans on paper and worked out how we might rearrange, but it never seemed to come out.  Once we would get into moving and realize that the paper plan wasn't working out, we'd quickly rearrange on the spot.  You'd think that at some point I would have realized that it wasn't working out because we weren't working with twenty feet. 

We knew when we moved in that both of our neighbors were over the wall line about 6 inches each.  When we painted the floor, we couldn't go all the way to our edge, but we decided it wasn't any big deal.  Both of our neighbors would have had to move a TON of stuff and we weren't going to insist on that. What we didn't realize was that we only had 15 feet, 3 inches.  Hello! 

Yesterday, one of our neighbors moved.  It just so happened that I was planning to rearrange to move in a new shelf.  That was a perfect opportunity to get back the extra inches on that side.  After I moved over a bit, I decided to measure my booth and the neighbors to make sure I wasn't taking more than was due.  I measured over and over.  It was 15 feet, 8 inches. I pulled in the neighbor for her to see the measurements.  Suddenly everything made sense and I felt like a complete idiot.  We were in a booth and a half - not a double!

Lorraine, the store owner, was fabulous.  She's giving us a number of options to set things right.  That helped a bunch, but it didn't help with how stupid I feel.  Fifteen feet does not look anything like twenty feet.  It's not even close.  Why had we never measured?  I have long suspected I've been losing my mind and now I have more proof!  Ugh!

Oh well.  Maybe this is just another blessing in disguise because we are moving!  It just so happens that two single booths right beside each other are coming open.  That's rare. In fact, that's such incredible timing that it seems this was just meant to be.   I love the location - it's right at a center intersection.  Not only will our booth show well walking up the aisle, but it will also be seen from the opposite aisle.

You can see the two booths in the above photo.  One wall is a very pretty grayish blue.  The other is white.  Lori was in the grayish blue booth.  She moved to a larger booth yesterday.  Cynthia is in the white booth - #110.  She plans to move to a smaller booth tomorrow. 

Martie and I will paint both walls white.  I love the blue gray color, but we have such a varied color palette that it's really best for us to stick with white.  I have been debating a lot about the what to do with the floors but haven't had much of a chance to talk to Martie about it.  I thought about creating a faux wood look.  I thought about creating a tile look complete with sprinkles.  I thought about another swirl pattern.  All of this would take time. Yesterday, painting the floor seemed like the way to go.  Today,  I started thinking that I really don't care about making the floor special.  Plus, I really happen to like the look of concrete, just as it is - very urban, modern.  Leaving it as is, would mean we could move in faster with a whole lot less hassle. I hope Martie likes that look!  This will all hinge on how the floor looks under Cynthia's rug.  If it has a big ugly stain, then we'd have to paint.  I really don't anticipate any floor problems.

Another bonus is the hanger thing above the pegboard walls.  That will be ideal for hanging a chandelier.  Mine sold, but maybe I'll find another soon.

So.....  it looks like all's well that ends well.  We'll have a fresh start in a new location.  I'm looking forward to a new look with a lot more space!!!

Chairs with Fabric Woven Seats

That title sounds horribly dull, but hopefully the post will be interesting!  Years ago, I figured out how I could re-do chairs that had damaged woven bottoms without having to spend a fortune taking them to a pro.  I could weave new bottoms and/or backs from leftover fabric or worn out sheets or dropcloths.  See tutorial here.

I recently wove a set of four ladderback chairs using dropcloth fabric. I put them at my store.  They aren't in my booth.  Another vendor had a vintage library table from Auburn, Alabama and the wood from that table went perfectly with my chairs.  The look great together.

The dropcloth fabric was a real mess to work with.  It ravels horribly.  On the other hand, the messy edges of each strip really give the finished seats more character. 

The color and texture look really nice with this dark wood.  It looks a bit like linen, but of course it's much tougher.

I wove another lone chair with brighter fabrics.  I used to use a real mix of fabrics and colors.  The last time I did that (see my Rocker Re-Do) I decided it turned out way too busy to suit me.  This time I stuck to a bit of a color palette - red, white, and pale green.  It's bright, but in a nice folksy way.

It's in my booth on top of a table.  There's another photo of it in yesterday's post.

You might recognize the green paint on this chair. It's one of the ones I painted while trying to find my perfect green. (See Experimenting with Green Chairs and one of my favorite posts - Smitten with Green) I really roughed this chair up, going for a very chippy vintage look.  It was fun to do.  I put the chair out on my porch for a photo and almost didn't have the heart to take it to my booth.  I'm selling it for $24, which is ridiculously low for the work I put in it.  Oh well.  It was fun. I saw a similar version on Etsy for $140 plus $30 shipping.  I wonderful if she has ever actually sold one of her chairs for that much.  I should probably mark any future chairs I weave a little higher.


The woven seats hold up well.  I have one that I wove over a decade ago.  It has been on a porch the whole time.  The fabric shows some fading but is still very strong. It's in better shape that a chair with a rush bottom would have been!

The next seats I weave will probably be for me.  I have four wonderful, large, oak rockers given to me by a friend, waiting to be cleaned up, painted and woven.  I'd really like to tackle that project in the next month or so.

A *SMALL* Booth Update

When I first started renting an antique booth last August, I was told that smalls would be my bread and butter.  They would pay my rent even in a very slow month.  Smalls are what they call the knick-knacks or chotzskies.  Our booth is overrun with smalls and they sell well. 

On the other hand, large pieces are selling well in our store and that’s where the big money is. Through observation and experimentation, we are finding that people buying the large items don’t like to look at them if they are covered in smalls.  They are reluctant to ask someone to clear off the piece so they can take a better look.  The boothies who sell the most large items don’t clutter them up.  They put their large items out front where they are easy to inspect and easy to move in and out of the booth.

So, how to have the best of both worlds?  Martie and I share a large 20 foot wide booth.  We thought we had come up with a wonderful idea.  We were going to make a small 8 foot wide area for smalls.  It would be a sort of wide hallway lined with shelves.  We were calling it our treasure hunt area.  It would have a 4-5 foot walkway, open shelves on one side and several lamps to keep it from feeling confining.  We would fill it with smalls.  the larger area would feature our largest pieces.  Genius… or so we thought! 

We met yesterday and tore our whole booth apart, making a huge mess all around us.  We moved our shelves and a million bakers racks in place for our treasure hunt area and hated it.  Neither area would be appealing. 

It was a good exercise because it led to a better idea. We are now lining the perimeter of our booth with shelves and the center space will be filled with our larger pieces.  We tried to put very little on those pieces – just enough to draw the eye and make it feel decorated.  We had two large tables so there wasn’t as much walk around room as we hoped, but we were both very pleased with the outcome!

This is the view customers have when they approach our booth.

Martie’s table is one of the items highlighted in the center of the booth.  We tried not to put too much on it.  There might be a bit more than we planned, but we just couldn’t help ourselves.  We had a lot of yellow smalls in our booth and we started putting them together and loved the look.  We scattered yellow around the perimeters and featured it on this table.  Since the chairs had black seats, we added a bit of black on that table top.  Our goal was to feature the table and make it appealing.  By the way, it looks like there’s a smudge on the table, but that’s a price tag.

My table ended up with less on top, but more around and under it.  We had a lot of medium sized pieces to work in and that was the best spot for them.  Having two tables to fit in was tricky.  I love my green chair on top of the table.  I just finished that chair this week, along with four others.  I need to show them off in a separate post.  The table was one that I found back in September, but I didn’t show it for sale for very long.  We ended up putting a fabulous tablecloth on it and using it for display in our booth most of the winter.

Martie took home her large wood shelf to paint, so we were in need of fast extra shelving.  We both brought in extra bakers racks from our homes.  Those are life savers in booth – they’re light and easy to move. 

This shelf has a few Easter things and colors to coordinate.

The tall quilt rack was made for me by my sweet hubby years ago.  It’s now home to a collection of tablecloths, which keep selling like crazy.  Most of the tablecloths have come from Martie and she has sold quite a few that I have been very tempted to bring home with me.

There’s an odd corner jut out in our booth.  We maximized the space by fitting it two bakers racks. The one with all the blue on it is one that I re-did a while back.  Right now, it’s display only, but I’m going to put it up for sale soon.

The chest of drawers is one of our large items that we just didn’t have room for in the middle. Once a table sells, if this piece hasn’t sold, we can move it to the middle to be featured more prominently.  The wicker shelf is for sale, too, but I’m not in a hurry for it to sell. It’s a fun display shelf for the booth.  The wicker lamp in the upper left corner sold.  I just brought it in. Now we need another lamp in that spot.

This display ended up with lots of pink, including the set of Texas-Ware I just got from Susan.  

The white bakers rack is one we are using on loan from the store.  It belongs to Lorraine, the owner.  We’ll return it a.s.a.p. so it will be available for someone else.  These extra shelves are great when something big sells – it keep the booth from having a big empty spot. This side of our booth is the least attractive.  It’s not ugly, but it’s just not a coordinated look.  By the time we got to it, we were having to use what was left.  This is not the side that is most visible to customers coming down the aisle. 

We could have kept improving, but we ran out of time.  It doesn’t matter – after the weekend, hopefully, there will be plenty of gaps from where things have sold and we’ll need to move things around again. A booth doesn’t stay the same for long!  Having a booth is one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done in my life!  My only regret is that I didn’t discover it sooner.