We just went out for ONE garage sale, honestly!

...And came back 2 hours later, 5 sales later, the car full. Jeez, we thought it was late in the morning to be sale-ing, but I guess the weather (coolish and overcast) was on our side; and most of the shoppers MUST be at the mall.

I was getting a wee bit panicked with 2 shows coming up quickly in January and so much of our inventory tied up in the retail store. We really stopped doing any kind of serious buying months ago and have been working on trying to sell our existing inventory, but since one of the shows is the second Sunshine City show, the sister show of the one we did in October, I had that deer-in-the-headlights feeling that we'd better not have the same old, er, old things to bring. So we found some new old things today.

A glass topped bamboo cocktail table. A 1970's era framed abstract floral needlepoint in the colors of the age, orange, green, and gold. A Penguin round ice bucket (I love these!!) - every time we find one of these, we flip it fairly quickly. It needs a bit of TLC that my newly-tended to elbow can now give. Two cute vintage mini Santa mugs from Japan, very timely. A 1948 Zenith radio in a beautiful Bakelite case, a Tone Register model. The cord looks like it would set a house on fire nicely. A very pretty set of Alessi salt and pepper shakers from Italy - stylish and they have that instant vintage look about them. And a green glass sugar bowl of a pleasing shape. Oh, and what we went out to shop for - some assorted Wedgwood Queensware dishes in cream-on-cream.

I can relax now. Ahhhh.

Antiques are Green!!

Say it again. Repeat. And again. It's true! This year, National Antiques Week was promoted and celebrated in Great Britain during the week of November 23 - 30, 2009. This week long event with the theme Antiques are Green came at a pivotal time for the antiques trade when public and media interest is heightened by campaigns such as "Antiques Are Green" spearheaded by Nigel Worboys and the petition on "Antiques" designed to persuade the British government to provide more support to the Fine Arts and Antiques Industry.

Why hasn't this caught on here in the land of consumerism and mass consumption? Oops, wrong question. Why aren't more people educated to the high value of recycling housewares, decorative articles, and furniture that are widely available in the antiques and collectibles market?

Let's take a look at some facts about the purchasing of antiques as recycling:

Purchasing antiques antiques results in minimal greenhouse gases; no rainforests are depleted, and no additional minerals are extracted from the earth. Their carbon footprint has long been eradicated.

When looking at purchasing antique furniture, look for pieces that are solidly built and made to last - in stark contrast to the made to items that eventually self destruct, but provide instant gratification that are manufactured for big box stores today. Also, it's helpful to try to buy local - look for styles that are native to your region, rather than ones that might have been transported at great cost over long distances to end up in the antiques store.

With a little bit of effort, we can each do our part to encourage our customers to appreciate the impact that they can have on the earth by recognizing the recycling process in purchasing antiques and collectibles over newly manufactured products.

It's mighty quiet

The eCrater store has been silent since September. I've been adding items dutifully, posting about them on the member forum, and blogging here. Still (gritting teeth) have not paid for any advertising anywhere. Search after search for collector forums have turned up few, if any results, for me to post about our offerings. The odd hit here and there has new rules for those wanting to post about selling collectibles. No surprise, really, since the competition is so very fierce. But the few collectible forums that exist now exact a payment - nominal, but still - for those who want to post about their e-stores. As long as we're paying rent for booth space at Patty & Friends here in St. Petersburg; that is, paying out money there, I'm not keen about paying out more money on the internet to attract sales for the eCrater effort. One money pit at a time, as it were. This year it's the retail booth space. Next year maybe I'll try a marketing budget for e-retail.

The saving grace is, of course, that the eCrater store is not costing us any money. It's just sitting there. And sitting there.

I could be writing more Squidoo Lenses - but I'm still rather at a loss about best to utilize this tool. I know that it's a directional, traffic building internet tool; but I'm at a loss at how to fill the content to my satisfaction. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, or what a Squidoo even is, just try Googling it, and see if it makes any more sense than I can explain it here!! To me, it seems like more of an informational tool, rather than something that sends buying traffic to the store.

In the meantime, then, I've taken up with some limited jewelry making designs to use the odd, single earrings and broken necklace and bracelet bits that surface from our purchasing. Lately I have been dealing with a strained elbow injury, and so I found that a project using magazine pages actually used my non-dominant hand, allowing the injured arm to continue to rest.

The photo is of my first ever necklace. I am pleased with the colors, and the use of a single earring.

Trying to Hold our Own

What kind of a title for a blog post is THAT? Oh, it's about diversity, not putting all of our eggs in one business basket, and trying several different approaches to see what works best for us. We think we have whole heartedly determined that indoor shows - even the Coliseum in St. Petersburg - are not ever going to be the best return for the money for the likes of us Time Travelers. They are expensive to sign up with; on the order of three and four times the cost of an outdoor show. Yes, we get the shelter and comfort from the elements; but it's a nailbiter to get to that break-even point on the cost of the show, and we've yet, after three years of attempts, to find the magical mix of finding what it is that people want to spend money on at our booth. If anything, the detailed records that we have been keeping have been showing that average sales are tending to go down, requiring higher and higher volumes. It's very difficult.

The website at the moment is in a dormant state. There has been a lot of chatter on the support forum about how the Google feeds have changed lately, not in our favor as independent vendors, but towards the big-box (and no-box) stores, like Target, Amazon, and other retailers with more clout. That would mean advertising dollars. Yes, I admit I'm in the doldrums on that front, what with the intense work that the eCrater site involves; but I'm still faithfully adding items on a fairly regular basis, as just doing that helps to keep the store in a more prominent position in the Google feed. (Of course, I have yet to spend a single penny on AdWords or any other type of advertising!! Note to self: get to work on another Squidoo lens, or two, or four.... mutter, mutter, mutter.)

Which brings me to the antique shop we have booth space in. I've linked to it a couple of times in the past - Patty & Friends. Bob and I are truly enjoying the sense of community that exists by going in to the store once a week or more, checking on our two booth spaces, sprucing things up; catching up on dealers' news, and of course looking at everyone else's booths. Sometimes I swear we are all supporting one another, buying each other's wares. (Hmm.) We secured a prime spot in the store when the season was slow, counting on being in the right place when business started to pick up again. That is proving to have been a good decision. The secondary space in the store has been less productive, but we are letting the entire shop have a full year of experience before we make any further moves.

The next outdoor show we have booked is not until January 2nd, 2010!!! There have been other shows around but this thing called Life gets in the way of participating in them all. Bob's Other Job has its demands too, and darn it if that position isn't the one that pays ALL the bills and keeps us with a roof over our head. So - the shows we book are the ones that we're able to do.

I think the overall tone of this post is not so happy and optimistic; I hope, though, that it comes across as realistic. We look for the business opportunities as best we can. We try not to be foolish. We're cautious but we're still trying new things (this year it's the antique store space). For myself, this mirrors how I'm feeling about the nation's economic picture at the moment. We aren't backing down. We aren't retreating. We aren't planning on "making a killing" either. We are hoping, instead, to hold our own.

The photo is of a B & C Limoges blank of a teapot form, dating between 1900 and 1907. These are usually seen hand painted with detailed floral designs and gilt edging; yet sometimes the blank forms were left unpainted for the sheer beauty of the shape itself.

A special addition to the website store

I'm very happy to add this beautiful, 1930's era Wedgwood Blue Dip tea set, in the St. Louis shape, to the Time Travelers store at eCrater. Items such as this come up rarely at auctions such as Bonhams and Sothebys, and we're thrilled to have found the set and have it on offer. It's in perfect shape and was obviously in the care of a loving collector before we came across it.

This link takes you directly to the item in the store.

Still in the process of transferring files from the eMac to the new laptop. Yesterday spent a LONG time moving all the photographs of items in the inventory over; important, because I still want links to work on tools like Squidoo and this blog, so I need the source files in the right places.

I rediscovered another resource for my Wedgwood knowledge in the course of going through my old bookmarks, too; and that's a comprehensive listing of the color names and visual representations of the Jasperware that Wedgwood has ever issued - what a wonderful tool. It's the Wedgwood Jasper Color and Date Guide, and there's the link to it.

Whew! What a lot of work for a morning - time for a cuppa tea :-)

Laptop is Working for Adding Items to Store

So maybe I'm the only person excited about this - but I'm up and running with my new laptop computer and am starting to add items to the eCrater store with this new tool. First on was a piece of Bunnykins tableware, a Don mug of marching bunnies going to camp.

It was also my first experience uploading photographs from my camera to the laptop, which went well. Putting the photos into a folder was the most challenging part (I kept confusing "tags" with "folders", duh).

Nice cup.

'Tiquing and Bargain Hunting In Pittsburgh, PA

Last week we visited family outside of Pittsburgh (in Ambridge, PA) and got to see riotous fall colors, experience chilly weather and then Florida-like temperatures. In addition to seeing the city itself, we saw Falling Water (and drooled at the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright), ate some strange salads and sandwichs, and SHOPPED.

We decided to concentrate primarily at the bottom of the food chain, and aimed for thrift stores. This would seem to be a booming retail sector throughout the nation as people look for the best ways to stretch their dollars, promote recycling, and in many cases make charitable donations to worthy causes. There were stores we stopped at where we struggled to find a parking spot, so successful this retail model has become.

I had sworn to myself that this was not going to be a hunting and shopping trip. We have so many treasures already! I even packed a relatively small bag so I wouldn't be tempted to tuck those very items in amongst my belongings. Well, that plan went out the window within 24 hours of our arrival in the area. Bob started out with an internet search of the area for thrift stores - rated by consumers, no less - plugged the addresses into the GPS dohickey, and we were off. Sigh. Irrepressible is the word. Who am I but to go with the flow (or stay at home and watch the well fed squirrels rushing like mad with their nuts in the backyard)? So I flowed. It was easy.

So we found bits and pieces - jewelry, Wedgwood, a teacup, some kitsch (our favorite). It did require the borrowing of a duffel bag in order to get everything back home. And I should know better than to think that a trip to a new place won't include a hunt for us. And yes, I enjoyed it as much as Bob did; well, I think my fun center gets filled quicker than his. I do get burned out, and I'm the one to ask for the hunt to end. I didn't meet any resistance, though.

A Transition

I'm writing this post on our new laptop. Now begins the joyful process of transferring our files, photos, music (it feels like our entire life, sometimes) from our eMac, way past its "best by" date, to this machine of the Evil Empire. Thank you, HP. So far, so good. I hope that I'm back to adding some of the treasures into the eCrater store soon; especially as there are not as many shows for us to participate in so far this season.

Digesting the Sunshine City show

It took several days of recuperation following the 2 1/2 day show. I guess we're out of practice. Bob was plum worn out - Friday he put in a full day at his regular, paying job, while trying to set up. It was maddening. I'm thinking that if another show requires a Friday set-up, we'll hire a porter (that would be the young, strong types at the venues, usually provided by the promoters for hire) to do the hauling and Bob can help me as he's able. As it was, I didn't handle the two-fer career day well at all and showed no grace under pressure, I must say. Feeling sheepish? Baaaaahhhh.

Of course, we were set up in plenty of time and the booth looked fantastic. Of course!! It must have been my artist's tantrums that did the trick there. Er. Or not.

We were in a very good traffic spot, in the aisle straight ahead from the entrance. I do wonder what the official door numbers were for the show. There were a couple of moments during which the place felt great and mobbed, and others when we were wondering where everyone had gone to. Another marker that I make note of is the appraisal fair - we've been at this show when the appraisals have been so stacked up that they've had to assign waiting numbers to people with items, then call out on the P.A. where they are up. That hasn't happened for the last 3 Sunshine City shows.

Which is my overall way of saying that, once again, we didn't do spectacularly well here. Comparatively, though, we did just as well as last year and the year before; so, given the economic picture, that is very fine indeed. It does feel, however, that we can't seem to get the "mix" right. This time, we tried bringing more jewelry and less glass, ceramics, and porcelain, yet our sales figures were exactly the same.

One thing of note: the value of our higher sales is way down. We didn't have a single transaction over $30.00, whereas in the past we've had much higher single item sales. So people definitely are spending less money in our booth this year than they did last year, but we are doing more transactions. (Aren't math and statistics fun?? I'm so glad I didn't flunk out of high school altogether!)

I did enjoy the air conditioned environment by being able to dress up a little bit. I wore a dashiki that I'd brought back from a vintage clothing store in the Haight in San Francisco on our last trip out there, and a filmy beach cover-up (with plenty underneath, thank you) along a similar vein. I thought the outfits really captured the vintage theme of the show, and I had many positive and admiring comments about my wardrobe. I tried walking around the show like a Pied Piper, but didn't get any rats to follow me back to the booth...

Today I'm revamping the jewelry display at our Patty and Friends booth to try to glam it up. Never a dull moment, specially when you're working with rhinestones. Ah!! Pun alert!

Necessity, creation, etcetera etcetera...

This coming weekend is the Sunshine City indoor antique show at the Coliseum, a beautifully restored dance hall smack dab in the down town of St. Petersburg; readily accessible from the highway and main streets; free parking and air conditioned!! Again, it's early for the season, but it will be a good barometer of the economic condition we face for the coming year in our business.

We've changed our approach already in restructuring the allocation of space devoted to different types of items. It would seem that for the time being, ceramics and glassware are taking a back seat to costume jewelry. We therefore have concentrated more on trying to make our displays innovative and different from our neighbors'. We already purchased more of the standard glass top cases for earrings, plus scratched our heads as to how to make the affordable and fun bracelets more accessible for trying on. (A breakfast tray holding an array of bangles makes them much more inviting to try on than keeping them behind a locked case - after all, most of them are priced less than $20 and we can easily keep an eye AND ear on them. They make quite a clatter while being sorted through and tried on. So they are secure but still accessible.)

An influx of men's cuff links, tie clips, tacks, and rings into our inventory made us realize we should probably showcase this category on its own rather than mixing them in as we had amongst the other jewelry items. I wanted a display solution that would accommodate all these various types of items in a single place, so that a pair of cuff links could be shown with the coordinating tie tack close by. I would not have thought that a ring display would be the thing had I not seen another dealer (and then another, and another) using just this display item to do just this. I think it does wonders for showing the best the of the jewelry while hiding all the fiddly bits like the chains and fasteners. The finished case is shown in the photo at the top of the page.

Another display issue that came up was long, dangly earrings. The standard earring cases are great for most smaller pieces, but BIG, mega hoops, elaborate pieces from the Disco Age (long may it rest, but sell in our booth!), many fine ethnic examples of worked silver and brass simply get lost in a tangle when forced into those cases, even into larger sections. We've tried laying them out flat on the tables, and it just can't do a piece justice when it's supposed to be hanging down to one's shoulders. I needed to be able to hang these beauties up without having one hide the one below it. And I didn't want to buy the usual acrylic earring stand - boring! Overpriced!

I used my search engine skills and found directions for making my own earring display - which sounded Oh So Easy. One quick stop at your local craft shop (yeah, right!!) would be all I'd need to do to produce a cheap and pretty display for our long lovelies. Well, it took several stops at some various stores, but I did it! I found a reproduction of a luggage trunk (overkill - a smaller, briefcase sized object would have sufficed. What I found was life sized.) on clearance at a home decorating shop. I had to repair the hinges as they were ripped out. Screwed those in and hot glued them in place. Hot glued a bunch of places on the article because the entire case appears to be made out of paper board.

Then I hot glued strips of fabric ribbon across the insides of the case. Then I nailed them down because I could picture the glue giving way in the middle of the show. I think the overkill, given the size of the case, was probably a GOOD thing. Anyways, now I have this homemade, funky display unit for my long, dangly earrings (I fit 75 pairs into the thing during its dry run at home). All are earrings that would not have otherwise made it easily on to our sales table for the show. I took a picture of that, too. I spent $12 on creating this mahhvelous display.

Enjoy, and please don't laugh too loud or spray coffee over your keyboard looking at my handiwork...

First show - *GASP* - of the season

Ah, autumn in Tampa Bay (or, more precisely, Dade City), where it still feels like the inside of a pair of pleather pants after a night of salsa dancing.

I'd say doing an outdoor show in September is pushing the season by at least a month. It's sweltering, it's a crap shoot with the weather (which we utterly lost this time), and people who choose to walk around a parking lot in this kind of heat are just plain crazy. Well, perhaps not as crazy as the people who choose to set up their booths and stand there before them...

Big bro Steve, though, did great business at the show. Our photos sold well. I did well studying last year's sales figures and we took the correct items for the show. It made for a relatively easy set up - fewer items of china, porcelain, and glass; and more fiddly things like the jewelry. It made (thank goodness) for easier cover up and break down when the storms came. We gave up and went home early on Sunday after the third storm had just started; I had already changed once out of my completely soaked clothes, only to go through it again. Neither of us was mentally prepared to do it one more time, and frankly, it takes a toll on the stock that is not weatherproof. A couple of torrential rains came through on Sunday, and Bob and I had preplanned how we would move the tables for quick cover up, and had the tarps to the ready. Some other dealers were not so fortunate, including the man across from us, who had books lying on the pavement on blankets. When the ground turned into a stream, he lost a fair amount of inventory. But, as he noted, he had plenty more where they came from. (At this remark I shook my head mentally - I can't abide throwing any of my hard found treasures away!)

At one point we were down to a single table all piled with bits and pieces of items that hadn't yet been packed away, under our tent. Bob was methodically wrapping and packing the bigger stuff, and I was trying to make sense of what was left on the table so it wouldn't get all tangled up upon unpacking once we got home. We pretty much had just a straw basket of earrings and a tray of bangle bracelets that I was trying to get put away. In the midst of this chaos a Mexican family - mom, grandmother, and 3 small kids - started rooting through the basket and trays. We sold 5 items in the last 15 minutes to them, while we anxiously looked at the approaching clouds. It was one of our best sales of the day.

Now we have a 2 week respite before, thank goodness, an indoor show in St. Pete. It's still quite early - the local population will not have swelled to its seasonal numbers yet - but we'll be comfortable in the air conditioned splendor; and it will be an opportunity to show off what we've collected since the last season.

Seasons change, and so do we

One of the two stores closed. We're in Patty and Friends still, and in two booth spaces instead of one. August was our best month yet, and we ran a glass sale to further things along during this the slowest season. It helped us to wean down our impressive (read = overly large) glass inventory that came with the original purchase of the business. There are only so many vases and bowls that you can carry to any given show! And we never seemed to whittle down the numbers.

The glass sale did the trick.

In the meantime, my brother Steve has sent on an incredible quantity and quality of jewelry to us for selling. Some truly exquisite items. Looking at our past record of jewelry sales, it makes sense for us to expand the selling space of this type of merchandise. I've been sourcing display ideas, trying to stay away from the conventional locked glass cases that you see, crammed with everything under the sun. Yes, they are easy to travel with and set up; but as I pointed out to Bob, they are visually overwhelming, and when was the last either one of us stopped and asked a dealer to unlock a case in order to take a closer look at something? The answer is: NEVER. We just keep on walking.

I think for us the key is accessibility, good visual merchandising, competitive pricing, and keeping the items sorted by color, type, or perhaps customer preference. We now have enough cuff link and heavy chain necklaces to have a "Manly Stuff" case, and we'll see how popular that proves to be.

The other experimental approach we are doing is working with another jewelry designer who will incorporate elements of our jewelry into organic, woven bracelets and necklaces that she makes herself. We are always left with bits and pieces of jewelry that have become separated or broken off from where they started; Cecile will be able to repurpose those items into new pieces that retain their charm.

The website has been stumbling along, with no help from me (as evidenced by my lack of posts here). I'm averaging a few sales per month, with international sales to Canada and Australia starting to happen. I have some great Wedgwood pieces that we found this summer and also Bunnykins that I have yet to add to the site.

As I feel better and sometimes not so well, I devote my time and energy to the site, to blogging, and to the business overall.

This picture is of a Wedgwood Queen's Ware vase, flared and fluted, with blue oak leaves in bas relief and glazed overall. This type of stoneware was reintroduced after 1946 by Wedgwood.

So you sit.... and you wait...

Our stock is in the two stores.

I'm adding a couple of items to the website every week.

This is what we call the Slow Time. A time for tweaking, critiquing, making refinements, perhaps taking another look at the pricing policies. Are they way out of whack with the current reality? We are seeing the errors, perhaps, that had been made in the past year of buying. Not saying that I Told You You So, but - not sure just what niche some of these items belong in now, that we've defined ourselves a bit more clearly. It's all part of of that learning process.

I've had a few inquiries from Australia, but had to tell them that the cost to ship to such a destination actually exceeded the cost of the item :-( (Which is why I don't have the country as a option for shipping - who would want to double their cost for ANY desirable item?)

Still, it's nice to be getting emails from so far abroad.

Venturing into Retail - Antique Stores

Bob's decided to take the plunge and put our wares into two local antique stores. The first is a locked cabinet space in Patty and Friends Antiques in St. Pete, a business that's been established for a long, long time in the area. The cabinet has narrow shelves with short spaces, so we've had to think small in setting the retail area up. The store is in the process of doing a lot of upgrades cosmetically, so it's nice to be part of a refreshed retail environment.

The other place we've literally set up shop in is in Hannah's Antiques and Retro, which is in the Grand Central District of St. Petersburg, close to the revived Kenwood neighborhood, with its beautiful Arts and Crafts era cottages. We've got an open cabinet space there close to the check out area, with stock scattered throughout the shop as well.

We've had a small sale at Patty's already, and it's going to be a challenge to keep the areas in these stores looking fresh, interesting, and relevant. This is pretty much Bob's area as I am sticking to my guns of concentrating on the website (which had two sales in a single week once I restarted working on the site - wonderful).

I'm continuing to work with my health care team and trying to become more productive, as at the moment I'm able to do about one task a day. (Not really what I'd like to be able to do.) Medication adjustments, wait and see, patience - not my best virtue.

The photos show our current set up at the Patty and Friends store, showing how we are trying to utilize as much of the space as possible.

Evolution of this Blog

Trying to stave off those feeling of guilt for not having posted for so long! We had a fantastic show in Dade City - the best we'd ever done - in spite of having had the most challenges to date. First off, our wonderful Live Oak tree that provided so much welcome shade and retro "Old Florida" feel to our booth was gone! As were at least two others, upon suspicion that they might have harbored some dread tree disease :-( :-( :-(

And the second day of the show, Sunday, was not the best of weather - intermittent showers, and gusts of wind. It all cleared up around 12:30pm, and then we had to start packing up at 3. But in spite of these downers, we did very, very well.

We also got to get to know another couple of dealers a little better, by going out to dinner with them. We pretty much yapped and laughed and screamed and finally remembered to order our food before the kitchen closed. I think we were all surprised by how much we enjoyed ourselves.

That show, at the end of April, was the end of the season for me. I've been working slowly but steadily on the website again, after a break of (gulp) four long months.

And I've been so quiet on this blog front, and so much has been going on, kind of like this extremely strong undercurrent that's been commanding all my attention and energy, yet it hasn't seemed to be the correct venue to address the subject here, either. But I've come to the conclusion that in trying so hard not to address that very subject - my personal elephant in my very little room, if you will, I do myself more and more of a disservice; and I also don't give my the credit for the struggle that I am, indeed, winning, in spite of my own expectations at times.

So that's a lot of words for trying to say that I think I'm slightly changing the character of this blog: to focus just as much on this antiques and collectibles business called Time Travelers; but now also to address how I manage to maintain (or not) the business while at the same time taking care of my mental and emotional health.

For you see, I haven't held a "proper" job for several years now, due to some troublesome issues. This business is the most responsible venture I've been able to apply myself to, and I'm so grateful for it. But there are days, if not weeks, in these past four months, when it's not been possible for me to attend to the business in any way.

I guess I'm trying to say that I'd like this blog to become more about what it's like to manage our business while I live daily with the issues of depression, anxiety, and PTSD. (Whew! There, I said it.) It casts rather a different light on the whole consistency of the business; the continuity; and yes, the integrity. I'm more determined than ever with Time Travelers to keep moving onwards and upwards, even as sometimes I make entirely backwards strides in my mental health :-\

Whether or this blog keeps its readership will be interesting. But in the name of authenticity and professional and personal growth, I think it's the right time to take this turn...

St. Petersburg Antique Fair (groan...)

Last weekend we did Jeff Francis' alternative offer to the Tampa and Sarasota shows of 2008 that he had to cancel, held at his warehouse property in St. Petersburg.

I could say a lot of things about this show, but will keep it short: the worst one we've EVER done. Hardly any dealers, hardly any customers, and on Sunday we made one solitary sale.

OK, I'll expand a bit.
Awkward location. People had a lot of trouble following Jeff's directions to the show.
Poorly promoted - so poor dealer participation, and poor customer turnout. It's tough to hold randomly scheduled shows like this - at different dates and locations than his previous shows - and expect to get a good turnout. But I can't for the life of me figure out why he wouldn't at least put an ad in one of the trade journals to attract vendors. More vendors means more rent income for him, and more money to spend on promoting the show locally... it just wasn't going on.

It left me in a real funk, with a sore back, and it took two days to really get myself off the sofa, to mull over this coming weekend's show. It's the "Trash To Treasures" event in Tarpon Springs and last year we were surprised to discover it was basically a flea market. This time we're prepared with the right quality and price of merchandise so it SHOULD be an OK show for us.

I no longer expect great shows.

First 2 shows of March done

March has been booked solid - we're doing shows every weekend. We started off with The Thieves' Market on Anna Maria Island on Saturday the 7th, the last of the season there for us, as April is too hot already and the snowbirds will have flown home for the season. It was sparsely attended by vendors as the date had changed from the usual 2nd Saturday of the month (due to some community scheduling conflict with another event). But the crowds came, fairly early on in the day, and we did a steady business in books, jewelry, and some ceramics.

As ever, it's a pleasure seeing the other vendors that we've come to know from the previous season, and to see visiting vendors from other shows who came by to check the show out for the following season. Bob and I both enjoy the sense of community that we've already discovered from just one cycle of shows doing these shows.



Yesterday we did another one day event, Antique Alley, up in Bellair Bluffs. It's an outstanding show that is well advertised, very well attended, and we were lucky that the weather was perfect (a bit breezy, but that was welcome, and I had protected our booth as best I could, so we suffered zero casualties). Bob did the - yawn!! - very early set up, then a panic as no sooner than he had the booth all but set up than he was offered the empty spot next to us as well, as the promoter had a no show. Someone had prepaid but then became ill and was unable to use the space. Talk about a scramble - he pretty much had to tear down an entire side of the booth space, then spread everything out to fill up that extra spot AND unpack absolutely everything that he had brought. It's not as if the van was packed with inventory ready for a double spot!

I joined him several hours later, having been able to sleep in, have a leisurely cup of coffee, snuggle with the cat, and read the paper at home first. By the time I arrived the early shoppers were out in force and the place was buzzing. Although sales are still way off compared to last year - every single conversation that I overhead was about the economy, the economy, and more of the economy - people still shopped, but spent less. High value sales are not the norm for now, and we've adjusted what we bring to the shows to reflect that.

Another strange thing we've noticed is that people are more apt to negotiate for "your best price" - and then walk away without making a purchase. I don't think there's an intention to buy, but there's still the desire to go through the motions of making the deal. I swear I could even see the emptiness in people's faces as they went through these motions. I could tell, as we would go through these little dances of price negotiations, that there was no sale to be made; but still the dance would go on.

Then there was the lady who licked my pearl earrings (is this a check to see if they are real or what flavor they are?) who left lipstick on the display card and of course, did not buy the earrings. Someone told me that elsewhere at the show the same woman was licking silver plate dinner ware. Ewww...

So, more shows to come. The website will continue to languish as we concentrate on the live activities this month; then as the summer heat descends, I'll turn my attention back to the eCrater store.

Just glad that I'm doing as much as I am.

I've been mighty quiet...

But it's been a mighty quiet season.


And I haven't been well. (Less said about that the better.)

There are fewer shows to do, so fewer opportunities to get out there and show our beautiful stuff. The folks are not as willing to part with their harder earned - and less valuable - dollars. We've seen a shift in what people are attracted to this season, as well. They are loving our single old photographs, loving the jewelry, and mostly price checking everything else we have on offer. (Personally I think they are looking to see what the items they own themselves are worth.) Foot traffic is also down compared to last year.

It's tough times.

The eCrater store, if I could pay more attention to it, would be tickling me pink. As it is, it's pickling me a very, very pale shade of pink, but only because I haven't been able to put the effort into it that it really needs. We've had sporadic sales there, and I do have a little pile of goodies waiting to be put onto the website. All in good time - I still have some healing to do, and my priorities, truth be told, are a little shuffled around at the present.

But I see that I'll be back at the shows shortly, ready to help Bob out. He's been such a trooper. I'll be able to work on the website soon too. Once I'm up and running, I'll be back up to speed pretty quickly.

I've missed my blog, this world, the newsiness of it all. It's waiting for me, patiently.