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.

A Bummer

We got our deposit for a couple of shows returned with the following letter today. Seems the economic hard times have hit the local show promoters, which is really no surprise - a disappointment, for sure, but understandable. The note from Jeff reads in part:

"It is with my sincere regret to announce the cancellation of all 21st Century Shows scheduled in 2008 and 2009. The sluggish economy, reluctance of dealers to travel to shows, weak customer spending, and continuing increase in the costs of renting facilities, advertising, and energy costs, have forced us to make this decision which we feel is in the best interest in our dealers and customers."

Bummer, like I said. (Interesting to note, though, that it was just last week that we ran into this same person at the international airport in Atlanta, where he was returning home from making a purchase of 10,000 license plates. I know that you have to invest in your business in order to grow it, but maybe he could have managed to put on a few of the shows instead of canceling ALL of the them had he not decided to buy all those mother lovin' pieces of metal? Just a thought.)

So that freed up our calendar a bit, again - there's a show that we had rejected out of turn because it was immediately after one of the 21st Century Production ones, so we'll look into getting into that. And we've been able to book a spot in this fall's Antique Alley show on November 9th in Bellair Bluffs. This is one of those shows that we've faithfully attended as shoppers for years now and have had our eyes on as dealers. Last spring we failed to get called on the stand-by list; this time Bob was proactive and gave the organizer a call to see if any spots had opened up. (The squeaky wheel gets the grease!) And what do you know - she had a dealer cancel due to medical reasons, so in we've squeezed.

I think that we'll find other shows to cobble together the season, but perhaps they won't be what we originally planned to do - I'm not averse to some creative thinking :-)

A Jewelry Purchase

Here's a photograph of a jewelry lot purchase made this week in St. Petersburg. My magpie eye did the choosing, I'm afraid, and I probably passed over some other, perfectly wonderful pieces in favour of these that most definitely caught my fancy.

They range from an Austrian brass belt buckle that's inlaid with enamel and malachite; to a Peruvian stylized bird brooch of hand hammered, oxydized sterling with plain sterling silver overlay; A Taxco pin by Bernice Goodspeed; a figural brooch of sterling and mother of pearl; a Norwegian sterling and enamel bar pin; a German pendant of an Edelweiss flower; a Star Trek-like pin with an onyx stone; an old Mexican brooch of a flower basket with green turquoise stones; a cross-hatched rectangular sterling pin; a cast sterling bracelet with a lovely turqoise stone with fine spider veins - it doesn't show at all in this group photo, and a pair of Georg Jensen earrings that have been converted to clutch-back from screw-back type.

Quite a lovely collection, if I say so myself - and I sure have, haven't I?

Hurtin' for certain

Oh, well. It was a nice weekend for sitting outside! We did about a third of the sales at this Dade City's Antique Faire as compared to the same event last spring. So much on the economic landscape has altered - gas prices are at a new, higher standard; many people have watched their investments take their own wild rides; the silly season of the election has many people on edge as the future leaders of the country are a couple of question (and perhaps some exclamation) marks; - it's a much different world to be trying to do business in.

I did a side-by-side comparison of the sales records of the events from this past weekend against the same one several months ago. The same type of merchandise was selling, so we made no missteps in what we brought with us; but the volume was just way, way down. C'est la vie, as they say.

One of the marketing tools that helped us slightly was to set up a table with value priced items on it - in our case, it was everything for $5.00. It was a popular choice for the bargain hunters - who, though not out in any kind of numbers, made up the majority of our shoppers. So we're doing the right thing, you know? And also, just asking our customers just what their price range is is often very helpful. We're a lot more familiar with what's out on the tables than the casual eye can pick out. That helped us sell a teapot.

Finally, I wanted to share some photos of how we had out booth set up, showing the $5.00 table, our shade canopy (and matching chairs!), and the very lovely setting under the Live Oak trees in Dade City.

I do think that this will be a difficult season for us all, but we're in this for the long haul - Bob and I both believe that it's important that we continue to put ourselves out at these shows. You can't do business if you don't put yourself out there to attract it, after all.

Dade City this weekend

We're spending the weekend in Dade City for the fall Antique Faire, being held on September 27 and 28. When we did this great show in the spring, we commuted back and forth each day - but gas prices are substantially higher now. Bob had some hotel points to use, so we were able to check in to a local Hilton property gratis. The long range weather forecast has been calm, so my fingers - and toes - are crossed that we'll have no news to report there. The mornings have been starting to become a bit cooler. We're almost approaching what approximates autumn for these parts.

I'm happy because we've been assured of having the same spot at this upcoming event, and we know that we'll be able to spread our stuff out pretty comfortably. I'm looking forward to being able to debut the jewelry made by Susan Olivio, of Trinity, Florida. She's a gifted crafter who has made a range of earrings, rings, and some necklaces and bracelets in vintage-inspired designs. I am delighted to be able to offer her wares through our booth at these local shows.

Adding more items to the store again

I think I needed an extended break. For whatever the reason, I feel my batteries are recharged finally and now I'm starting to add items again to the store on eCrater. This time I've decided to concentrate on glass - we have a wide variety of decorative and functional beauties.

One of the more whimsical lovelies is a cranberry glass basket. It's medium sized, about 7 inches tall, with a gorgeous shine and a deep ruffled edge. It's one of the inventory items that we acquired when we originally purchased the business. It gets a lot of admiring looks when we bring it to shows, but hasn't yet been scooped up. The right home is still waiting for it :-) I don't mind, really, as it's a joy for us to hang on to until such time as the correct buyer is matched up with it.

Isn't it a beaut, though?

I wrote another Squidoo lens

It's been a long time since I paid any attention to Squidoo - and I'm still not sure what the heck it is. But I decided to write a lens about Bunnykins tableware, since I think there's a scarce amount of information compiled in one place about the history of this type of china. When you google it, all you ever get are eBay listings (grumble, grumble) - and that's not about to change unless I make my own contribution. So, there it is.