chaos

the store is in chaos...
..the good kind...most of the merchandise orders ive made since april have been to be delivered after the yardsale....and boy did it come in this week...80+ boxes, half christmas..

. plus our big fall haul from ohio,

plus jon got piles of goodies including about 300 pcs of nice ceiling tin, some cool paddles, several really neat farm tables and cupboards, plus good used stuff for the rough room, plus more furniture from the amish and the carpenters.....so we are fat and happy and a big mess right now.... around here its definitely more is better....

. plus we have shifted quite a bit of the store around....and we arent done....we cant go for the gallery effect around here...its more about you digging thru it all and finding what is just right....

we have worked like dogs all week....and i sure am thankful for all our workers!!!

our plan is GIT -R- DONE by the end of friday......

greenoak at 30

hard to believe but we are in year 31.... in the same place with 2 of the same buildings.....
and one great big new one...or it used to be new i should say.....
we have a lot to be thankful for....especially our customers....who keep us going ....
and we are all thankful for the dear departed who saved and took care of all this stuff

when we started the key was DO YOUR OWN THING, back then it meant make your enviornment a way that made you happy...as much as you could...a lot of decorating rules flew out the window...... our customers put manure spreaders in their yards for flowers, they brought barn relics in the house..... they turned quilts into pillows... etc etc. for us it meant make a business where we could do our thing and not be in someone elses big system...

and now we are still doing our own thing and still getting fun , adventurous OUTSIDE THE BOX, some very outside the box buyers...

NOW we have added lots of new names.....shabby, green,steampunk, foo foo, VINTAGE INDIE or indie shopping...... and it fits us like a glove... we have kept to our roots....outside the box and privately owned open to about anything vintage and interesting.....
just dont expect us to twitter or myspace.....not yet anyway.

our customers always know they arent in a hallmark!!!

store rules

our store is so big and chaotic...we have made some rules that have helped us survive and keep it going...... no credit, no layaways, no special orders.... we arent big enough or organized enough to offer some things that seem normal other places..and especially at our prices......we are more like the auctioneers, as is .. where is ... and if you want it you buy it...kind of old fashioned...

. but it keeps us on the right track and , we hope, in good with our customers....they know we dont offer that stuff and dont take it personal...

we do store things for free if they have to be left...and we try and tell all the damage we know about on the antiques...

but as far as ordering we just cant do it...

one guy asked for a certain cabinet last weekend and wade ended up saying, we are too unorganized to even think we could do that...

...actually, i felt awful yesterday when a really good customer wanted an entertainment center..she said all our furniture is from you and we want our tv thing to match....

it sounds so much easier than it would actually be... im the communication center and 3 guys are the manufacturers....

..i can barely deal with all we have going now.... and being too organized would really cramp me...even if it were possible.... there is a lot of total serendipity in this place and that seems to work and keep it interesting to me anyway..........

so knowing our limits..we say no a lot.....our goal is to underpromise and hopefully over deliver....

its pretty bad

its pretty bad when a customer on the phone tells you you need to rest and we arent getting any younger.....that happened yesterday...from a neat lady my age who was buying a gazebo ... she told me i worked too hard....well yea!!!

yesterday i had to deal with the 20 boxes we bought thursday...plus a whole lot of inventory they didnt get put away while i was gone wednesday when we went to decorate the mall booth for fall....
and thursday was kind of hog heaven...a huge pile offered to us....we took a lot of time and looked thru it..it was probably 150 big boxes of stuff....
but i had to bale out on it...it was too much money for my level of knowledge...i just didnt know what the pile was worth...i coyldnt even guess....and im pretty brave....
...so i called in a buddy..
..and he bought it.... the buddy is about 80 and 2 hrs away but when i told him it was 50 boxes of his thing and could he come right down, he said yes.... i dont know if the pile wasworth 3000$ or 8ooo$ but my buddy gave me a $300 group of stuff for calling him!!! and the seller gave me about 200$...
.actually in antiques the math is so wierd....i was supposed to get my pay /comission by asking 4000....but it looked so iffy.and my buddy had driven 2 hrs and i just couldnt buy it.....so, i offered it to my guy for 3500....then he offered the owner 3000....so there went my pay for making the deal happen.......for sure, im satisfied and i have 2 happy people, 2 guys who i have made a whole lot of money on in the last 20 yrs...so thats good...
.my old buddy..80 is what i call old, was in awe...it was the biggest pile he ever bought....
ill probably never know how good it was...i wouldnt ask....his wife said it would keep him busy for a year....i took it home for him in my box truck....
... hes called me every month for over 20 yrs to see what i got for him....im one of his pickers... he gets all my old gold and silver ...he gave me an 18k gold wedding band last year when mine got too tight....
..dh and i have used wedding rings .

back to age....dh sent in my social security today...so i guess im getting it..doesnt seem possible.... i dont feel that old...

back to the store...so all the stuff i got is all over the store, everything was a big mess then at the end yesterday ,ups brought 14 boxes., fall merchandise .from the buying trip to the chicago gift show......so its really bad this morning...and saturdays and sundays i really like the store to look good and not a big cluttered pile....
wade and lisa and i will be working hard this morning....
back to the gigantic pile...i couldnt face about 50 jim beam bottles so i left them for the dumpster...plus a lot of books....

in my pile for the store...i got big morning glory horns , lots of primitives, an old mickey mouse tea set, tools, st clair glass. little showcases, some beat up musical instruments, and a bit of furniture...and a dress dummy.... and an old bell.
this week i felt like an antique dealer again.... a good feeling...hot and sweaty and surrounded by stuff!!

im in chicago!!!!

dh and i are in chicago buying for the store....right now, we are on the 21st floor, see picture from the room, , next to the merchandise mart, and can see the river, and all of midtown....
we spent all day yesterday buying, mostly christmas stuff ...
our first buy was wonderful.....lots of great new pictures and containers and crowns and fun frenchy stuff for the fooo foo room....and the best thing , it was from one of our wildest customers.....the one who takes her customers on a field trip to paris and helps them buy whatever they want and get it home....she invited me one year!!! so sweet ...her booth was fabulous..see picture, ..and there was one of our cupboards.... all full of her new wholesale line..... http://www.peacockparkdesign.com/ .. the site is new so you might want to check later..
she has a great antique store in michigan...peacock antiques.... http://www.peacockantiques.com/ you can see what a fun vision she has!!!!
i love going to the shows to see the wonderful displays the companies do....it is always inspiring....

dh has me on a budget!!!! dang!!!!!

MATH

the antique world is wierd....it kind of makes a joke of money and what value means...things are so relative.........this weeks thing....i bought a very unusual cabinet at auction for 200.....i knew it was really old, not from the 20s.....it was rough..... it had metal edges and lots of great features..... i sold it for 800.....that person knew a higher person on the totem pole of antiques and sold it for a lot more...... the value of it when restored is about 8000 according to the big guy... ..... apparantly all three of us are happy as clams..... im happy for my buyer and shes happy for her buyer....and the big time guy is happy with all of us...
probably someone at the sale thought i was an idiot for paying that much for a big dirty frenchy piece....
i have accepted my place on the totem pole of the antique world...
......bloom where you are planted comes to mind...

my theory is if i had to know everything before making a sale i would be very very cramped and end up resentful........also i made way more money than usual....and have a very happy customer.....a good wholesale customer who might buy more and more..... if they think im crazy for selling something that good that low....well thats good too.....they will both have to stop and see what else i might be dumb about when they are in the area......
it was an 1870s french vitreen.

bloom where you are planted

orphan ideas

....i get so many ideas and wish i could do them all........

VINTAGE ALTERED ART SUPPLIES.... i have al the stuff....pages from old song books, tonsof buttons, piles of sewing misc, all kinds of vintage scraps in the 100 yr old range.....
i see companies selling copies of old paper...and i have the real thing.... but no time and who knows if it would even work....

FLEA WITH ME... i would love to do this one....rent a big bus!! and take a group to a big flea market.like kane county or springfield or brimfield........and save tons of room on the bus for the stuff they find.....one of my favorite customers , favorite for being about the wildest woman in business that i know,, and thats saying a lot!!!! she takes a trip like that to paris ...and gets it all home for them...she invited me but i dont fly...

AMERICAN MADE..build a company featuring all american made stuff....i think the retail buyers are s o ready for this....the trick would be to get the prices where americans could afford to buy....i wouldnt be thinking art gallery prices!!!..i would aim for american made at affordable prices... i just dont get it..here we make big cupboards out of good wood for under 300$ so why cant more companies come up with good stuff locally made? we arent that special....and we do make money..... i would love to run a company like that, that reallly produced good stuff made here....i think the big companies have given up trying...

CRAFTERS FOR HIRE.... a company where you could figure out an idea and how it looked...and take it to the crafters and they would produce it for you....i would love that!! i have so many ideas so far over my abilities.... stuff i would love to see and sell but that i dont want to make myself....

TEACH A GRANDMA TO SURF.... this would be such a good girl scout project!!!!i used to have a troop.. the girls would teach their old folks real basic computer,internet, and how to email , just simple stuff that would enrich so many far flung families... i know a lot of women who would ,imho, love the internet if they only knew!!