Second Act

(I don't quite feel ready for this!) *gulp*

It looks like March is going to be our busy month this winter/spring season. Just three shows, but that's the first three weekends of the month. I daresay by the time we get to the third and last one, we won't know which end is up.

This is a hobby, and we do it for the fun of it.

This is a hobby, and we do it for the fun of it.

This is a hobby, and we do it for the fun of it.

OK, OK, I'll stop with the whining. Saturday, March 5th: Dunedin's Spring Antique Fair and Classic Car Show. We had a great show the last time out, and the location is very good - the main street of the town is closed down for the day, and it intersects with the Pinellas Trail so there is a lot of foot traffic. They messed around with this show a while ago, moving it to another venue, then moved it back where everyone - shop owners, the shopping public, and vendors - were happiest. Fingers crossed!

Sunday, March 13th: Antique Alley, Belleair Bluffs. A well attended (by vendors and public) show that we'd tried for YEARS to get on to the regular sign-up list for, we think we finally did it as this is the second time in a row we've been able to get in. Yes, being able to get into shows can be an issue - if the promoter isn't familiar with you as a vendor and the type of merchandise you offer, it can be a challenge to get in and then become a regular attendee. Again, this has a lovely setting, with a maze of vendors spaces set up amongst a small shopping center. Um, slight grrr as there isn't a suitable link for the event.

Saturday, March 19th: Antiques in the Park, Gulfport. This event, which varies its location between South Pasadena and Gulfport depending on availability, finds itself back in its hometown of Gulfport. Love this show!

As for how well prepared I am for these upcoming shows? I think I can.

Intermission

Where's the damn popcorn?

brb

Yes, it's gone a little bit quiet here!

Time out for the holidays. Time out for wintery (as wintery as it gets around here, at least) weather; time out for some regrouping, even. Anyone who knows me well would be gobsmacked if they discovered I'd made anything resembling resolutions for the new year. Let's just call it some business planning and be done with it, eh?

The plan for 2011 is to get more of our inventory put on to the website, as the local shows are fewer and farther between. We even decided to forgo the January Sunshine City show in St. Petersburg altogether as we assessed the cost and benefits. Its proximity to home just couldn't trump the low sales this show realizes for us. Another major factor impacting our decision is the increased travel that Bob's day job entails. Working at such a pace Monday through Friday doesn't leave much time for preparation, loading and unloading - and definitely leaves Bob without the restorative down time on the weekends that is more necessary than ever for him.

I can't say that I'm saddened by this decision. The fact is that for myself, I have struggled with the shows this past year, finding them difficult as issues with my mental health just wouldn't Go Away as any of us who know, wished they would. I'm sure that things will change again, and we remain ready to adjust when the time is right for that. But economically, and personally, this shift is the way for Time Travelers to go for now.

I'm excited at the prospect of opening the doors wide on the eCrater store. I'll also be creating more jewelry and exploring more creative expression in that area.

Show this weekend December 11th

omg

How often do I actually write a post BEFORE we do the actual show?

It's.... it's.... the second Antiques In The Park show to be held at the Garden Club of St Pete. It's pretty cold right now. Woke up to temperature in the 40's. I hope this cold front has moved on by the weekend or it could push the kibosh on the show. Either I will give up or (if she's thinking straight) the promoter.

Florida isn't really built for cold weather. You don't want to get out of your car and wander around at a show when there is a brisk breeze near the water. Brrr! As brrr! as it feels up north, relatively. During the last show, even though the sun was shining and trying its hardest, I never did warm up, and I felt miserable because of it. If my fingers aren't working because there's no blood circulating to them, I'm very, very unhappy. Hard to make change, properly wrap an item and &$^@% !!! just you try to find the open end of a plastic bag.

So I'm sending sunshiny, warm thoughts our way for this weekend, long made short.

I guess this officially makes me a Floridian, eh?

No, wait. It gets better. I have a link to the weather report for the local area showing Saturday temps being up to the 70's, with a warming trend.

A little bird told me....

....about a little promotion that American Express is doing this Saturday, November 27th. Read all about it and follow the link to register your card here: American Express "Small Business Saturday".

What a great idea to promote small businesses all over, and support a worthy charity.

Perception is a funny thing

Yesterday we did a one-day show in Bellair Bluffs at Antique Alley. We've done it before, but not with any regularity; it's been difficult to get on the list of regular vendors for this popular show. It was a glorious Florida day. Cool and clear in the morning for set up, and no wind or humidity for the day. There was a steady stream of customers for most of the day, although, true to form, most of the commerce had been completed by early afternoon. (This is the only pattern that I have been able to detect amongst the different outdoor shows that we do during the season.)

Just about all of the dealers were grumbling about how traffic seemed to be "off" or down, and how sales were down along with that traffic. Bob and I jumped in with the rest of them, as our gleaming tables of goodies went seemingly untouched by a breeze, let alone any human hands other than our own. We packed up at the end of the day and trudged on home.

Where I finally whipped out the calculator and discovered that we'd just finished the best show we'd done at that location. Lower in sales volume but higher in sales total. So what on earth had we been complaining about? Making MORE money with FEWER sales? Wait a minute - isn't that the whole idea here?

Yup.

I think what had happened was that we - or more to the point, *I* - was listening too much to the wailing and moaning going on around us, instead of actually looking at my sales records. Yes, we are in a very poor economic state, and the outlook is grim. But Time Travelers is holding our own. If anything, we are getting a bit better at what we're doing in seeing our average sale climb when you'd expect to be seeing it go lower. We've cut back - believe it or not - on our purchases. We've revamped how we do some of the merchandising, and I'm thinking that it's paying off. Having the inventory well stored and accessible makes it easier to select items to take to a given show - a big stress reliever.

So there you go. We spent all day thinking we were doing stinko and it wasn't until we got home that we had to read the facts to set us straight. Now I know there is a lesson in there for me. Just who am I listening to?

Notes from the road - Santa Fe, New Mexico

(I was going to call this post "Psychiatric Notes from the Road" but didn't want to scare any of my vast readership away. Let me say that traveling whilst undergoing a major medication change - this point being the washout period where I am between treatments for my ongoing chronic depression - is challenging, interesting, and not the nightmare that one might presume it to be. This post is not going to dwell on those experience solely, but also cannot help but be colored by them. Onwards....)

Finding the same niche that Time Travelers occupies as dealers in Florida here in New Mexico has taken us a day or two. Flea markets are not the same - the indoor market we looked at was much like a collection of what we'd think of as yard sales, hauled under cover and with high retail price tags. We moved quickly on from there, disappointed. The outdoor flea market, advertised as having hours of 8AM on, didn't actually start that early. We arrived at 8:30, thinking we'd have missed the best deals of the day (as you would have back home), only to find 3 cars in the parking lot and no vendors set up yet. Puzzling to us out-of-towners, but we decided to return later in the day. I thought that maybe 8AM was when vendors were to wake up, and that New Mexico Time is a different thing than Florida time when it comes to Flea Markets. I was right!

Antique stores carry top quality, top dollar merchandise. Where, oh where, were we to find the marvelous items to carry back with us on our adventures? The answer came from a different place than I thought it would - consignment shops and thrift stores. Very good quality items at fair prices abound.

Meanwhile, my nerves were jangling with the stark vistas and beautiful colors of northern New Mexico. I didn't know that I wouldn't be able to competently drive in the strange environment with the non-identifiable accents of the GPS' vocal directions, but I quickly became upset, saying, "What?? What did she say??" at every indication to turn, stay on the same road; you name it. Without Bob behind the wheel, I would not have gone beyond the hotel parking lot on this trip. My patience with myself and the rest of my world has evaporated along with the level of antidepressants in my system.

Our return later in the day to the outdoor flea market rewarded us with many vendors, but not selling what we were expecting. We kind of thought it would be a mix of packaged tube socks from China, yard sale finds, and fresh produce. Instead, it was largely artisan-generated jewelry, bulk beads imported primarily from the Far East, clothing, rugs, and the ever-present beautifully crafted silver jewelry of the area and from Mexico. We were delighted to find a vendor selling fair trade items of all descriptions from many African countries.

I'm finding that I am more sensitive than usual to my laundry list of triggers. It helps to build in some "down time" in the middle of the day to rest, block out the sensory input (some time soaking in the bath tub has been wonderful), and drink more water whenever I can. A visit to the Georgia O'Keefe Museum left me oddly dull, until I saw photographs from which some of her work was derived; I was just about overcome with emotion. (wtf?) A visit to a photography gallery with some truly stunning works (Steiglitz, Ansel Adams, Yosef Karsh; you name the iconic photographer and this gallery had their work represented) had the same effect. Good thing if I close my eyes I can stop seeing the pictures and the tears stop! What an unexpected effect of being without medication. I prefer to be not so very sensitive as this, and look forward to the end of my countdown when I start up on another antidepressant. Oh, and this isn't something that I asked for or wanted; the timing frankly has been awful, but I have been, as Bob says, a "trooper." Gawd, how I hate that word.

I don't currently have the mental facility to post my photos but will catch up when we get back and I'm all drugged up!