Breaking news (or what passes for it)

The Dade City Spring Antique Faire has been cancelled due to lack of response by dealers.

The message left on our voice mail said that they'd try again in the fall, and our check would be returned to us.

Hunh.

Ready for Dade City

Unbelievably, we have 2 weekends off between shows. The last of the season is the Spring Antique Faire in Dade City, setting up Friday April 8th, and ending Sunday afternoon, April 10th.

We're hoping it's a better experience than the last show in October, which was ill attended by dealers, and augmented by an art show whose participants came and went at their whim, which affected us all as a whole. Shudder.

So I've optimistically revamped almost all of the jewelry cases, and we plan to revise our pricing on items as we unwrap them as we set up for the show.

I'm looking forward to a break.

Another Season Starting Up

First show of the 2010-2011 season is around the corner with the Dade City Antique Faire scheduled for the end of this month. Looking back on our notes from previous years show that we've never been at this show without being partially rained out! - AND - it's consistently been a very good venue for us. Also, I have notes from other September Dade City shows that read "hot as h*ll!!!" and one year I was so uncomfortable that I had to retreat halfway through the day to the air conditioned iciness of our hotel room to gather my over heated self together.

Oh, boy - I can hardly wait!

I am trying out a revamped jewelry department to see how it impacts interest and sales. Usually I group items together by type, as other vendors do; earrings, necklaces, bracelets and bangles, and brooches. I decided to take a page from my jewelry mentor's book and try a different approach to merchandising, and so came up with several groupings according to color (one is white, purple, and deep blue). Another grouping is of higher quality, designer costume items that I've been able to add to the inventory. I have enough display props from our time in the antique store to be able to put coordinated items together in "stories." This is how my mentor displays her inventory in retail settings - she finds it can inspire her customers and she can mix inexpensive pieces in with higher end ones.

You do not see jewelry-only vendors at the outdoor shows display their items in this way. What you see are trays as I described above - by commodity. I am really hoping that this trial has some impact and draws the kind of attention that will make the effort I've put into the reorganization worth it.

Other than that, we'll be taking items to the show that we had otherwise tied up in the store inventory; it will be an overall new look, which is really what you want for venues that you sell at on a regular basis. Up until now we haven't had the opportunity to rotate our stock easily from show to show.

Dade City Spring Antique Faire Wrap-Up

Boy, do I love this show. Once again, this show conflicted with an event being held at Mount Dora, "The" destination for antiques in our area. As a result, even though dealers had prepaid for space at the Dade City show, they headed instead to the Mount Dora event. Although dealer attendance was way down (by *20* dealers, what a wallop to the promoter of the show!), Gayle advised us ahead of time that our booth space was being expanded as a result. Right now we have not one but two mini vans in our fleet, so we were able to take full advantage of the extra room. We brought ALL our tables, and larger items that we don't always have space in the vehicle to haul. Our booth was the best looking it has EVER been; and Bob thought it was the nicest looking one at the show. (Shucks.)

Saturday was a fantastic day - sunny, not too warm, a light breeze; perfect for all of the cabin-fever Floridians who have dealt with such a harsh winter. We were busy right out of the shoot, up until pulling the tarps and securing them over the tables at day's end. We had a great day's trade and it was nice to see some regular customers from previous years' shows.

We had a special treat in having a fellow dealer from Patty & Friends come and make the trip to see the show and visit with us. I walked the show with her and it was exciting to watch such a passionate dealer in action as she made her purchases, and for me to say hello to the other dealers at the Faire. I'm usually scurrying from place to place and don't often take the time to truly enjoy other peoples' booths.

Sunday was pretty much a bust as a large front with lots of rain blew in with dank, blustery weather. Some dealers started packing up as soon as they arrived in the morning, but we held off for a few hours until it became apparent that the weather was not going to improve. We still managed to 1) make several sales, including a piece of jewelry that I'd already packed away, but remembered exactly where I'd put it, and so was able to pull it out as neatly as a rabbit out of a hat; and 2) beat the rain by a good bit, so there was no panic at all in our packing up, and we weren't completely exhausted, beaten down by the sun and/or wind or rain.

So, even though the show seemed like it should have been a bit of a dog's dinner (so few vendors, really only one good day to sell instead of two), overall it was a success for us.

I did a little bit of shopping. I am trying to expand my areas of interest and expertise; so I have gathered a small collection of celluloid toiletry articles. Interesting that these are extremely flammable, and an extensive collection should be stored in a freezer - I never knew that before I did some research. I also found some nice red painted wooden handled kitchen implements, some with white stripes, that date to the 1950's. I believe their condition, with no paint loss, make them attractive to collectors of such articles. Oh, and some old-fashioned wooden clothespins. They sure look great, and I think I have a little basket they will be charming in.

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.

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.

Just checking in

Nothing's really doing, but I thought I should write *something* to keep my hand in. It's a long stretch until the next show - at the end of September in Dade City. We're confirmed as having the same spot in the parking lot, under some beautiful Live Oak trees with Spanish Moss draped from the branches, as we had when we were there this past spring. If the weather cooperates (we're just now expecting our first major storm of the season to bear down in the next couple of days), it will be lovely. Hot, most likely, but a good show.

Bob came home from his foraging last weekend with a big box of "silver" - was it silver or not? We spent a few days digging in and marveling at the beauties that we've adopted. Silver (plate and sterling) items are always in demand at our shows, so it's wonderful to have an inventory from which to choose. Also in the lot were some brass candlesticks, some German Silver wine goblets - which is not silver at all, but an alloy similar to what coins are made of, and which came clean easily with brass polish. Most of the items were really heavily tarnished, so I've been taking my time with each piece, really giving them a workover with the ol' silver paste and sponge. Somehow uncovering the beauty of an elegantly executed piece of silver gives me great satisfaction, and I don't mind the elbow grease required to discover them. (Though I did manage to do something to my shoulder in the process - it hasn't felt right since I spent the afternoon polishing a bunch of silver items several weeks ago!)

We went through most of the boxes brought home from the last show, and repacked them. We hadn't run out of wraps at all - there were unused ones in virtually each box we repacked, which means that they were in a hurry at the time, and that Bob's help was inexperienced. Um, and maybe didn't relish the thought of ever being asked to help us out again? Clearly Bob and I have evolved in our works patterns so that we've become fairly efficient in the packing process. It was easy enough to recover the "lost" wraps and economically repack the boxes, so everything had a home again.

We're a better team than we give ourselves credit for, undoubtedly.

Next in the pipeline is to put more glass on to the website - we picked out a box full of suitable items. I've got a huge box of jewelry from Steve Cope that needs to be priced up - that will take quite some time to do it correctly. So I think the stretch to the next show is going to feel pretty small.

The show season is trickling in

Like the snow melt at the start of spring, we've begin to see a show here and there get booked for the season which is almost upon us.

The first is a pre-season show, really, and such an exciting departure for us, because it's an indoor event. AIR CONDITIONING!!! NO WIND!!! NO SUN!!! (Can you tell I'm charged up about this one?) We'll be at the Fort Lauderdale Antique and Collector Faire on August 2nd and 3rd. We'll stay with Bob's folks and so will save on the hotel expense. We invested in some classy looking navy blue flame retardant tablecloths that reach to the floor for our tables, because we do plan to do more indoor shows in the future. The fees are higher than outdoor shows for a vendor, but the advantages - particularly at this time of year, with the weather so capricious, makes it a no-brainer for us.

We had considered doing a dry run of setting up the booth in advance of the show. On Sunday we cleared the garage of our vehicle and set up a table, put the new tablecloth on it (looks great!), and then kind of stood there... because it dawned on us that we didn't really need to do any more preparation than that. We've already determined that our merchandise is substantially better than most at the outdoor venues, and the last show we did we already weeded out what we would not be taking to an indoor show, by putting those items in a separate bin and marking it appropriately. So the work has already been done. I guess we were just a bit nervous, eh?

But I don't think we'll change what we take to the Ft Lauderdale show. Our teapots, the other porcelain, ceramic and glass items; books and jewelry; and pictures. As I've written here, Bob's done plenty of restocking for this upcoming season (ahem), so there's no worry that we won't have a good variety to bring. I do have confidence that the quality of our merchandise is up to the standards of any indoor show we've been to.

In September, we've got a show in Dade City booked, on the 27th and 28th. We did their spring event and really loved the setting and the show was a great one for us. I've requested the same booth space - since we prepay for the spot, rather than reserve it and pay on the day of the event, we'll probably be granted our favored spot. It was under several large trees in the municipal parking lot. We'll bring the shade canopy with us, though, since we won't be able to rely on the weather's cooperation on the day, and we've learned the trick to anchoring the canopy on pavement without being able to drive stakes into the ground. (That would be attaching gallon bottles of water to the canopy with bungee cords - that sucker will not budge. Sometimes you need to add a couple of cinder blocks to the base for extra measure.)

And a few weeks after that, we do another indoor show, this time close by in St. Petersburg. On October 10th through the 12th we'll be at the Sunshine City Antiques and Collectibles Show at the Coliseum. (A note about the link for this show - it hasn't been updated since the January 2008 show, grrr. Oh, and there's a typo on the title of the link too. I hate stuff like that! Why do they start promoting the shows when the websites aren't up to date? Drives me batty.) We've gone to this show as consumers every year since we've lived in the area, and started talking about having a booth there as soon as we bought the business. It will be interesting to see if it lives up to our expectations. The venue is rather wonderful - a Jazz Age dance hall that is still used for weekly Tea Dances, across from the Lawn Bowling Club. Can't get any more "old St. Pete" than that. It's always really well attended, with some wonderful vendors.

So the summer has barely started, and we already have the new season starting to get booked up. I think it's pretty wonderful - I guess I'm in the right business.

Here's a photo for today - another piece of Bunnykins. This is called a Hug-a-Mug. Such a cute name for a practical shape, made for little hands to easily bring a cuppa something safely to their mouths. This design is called Unravelling The Knitting, for obvious reasons! Everybody is pretty cheeky on this cup, even the design on the reverse side, showing a bunny with a piece of knitting wrapped around his head. You can see why I love these adorable pieces so much.