Booth Update

I have had my antique booth for 3 full months now and I have been enjoying it very much. Make no mistake, it is hard work to maintain, but it's a labor of love. Here's a look at what the booth looked like on August 1st, three months ago:

Pretty bare, huh? 

The space felt HUGE and I had fears that I wasn't going to have enough stuff to fill up all the shelves! 

Despite such a bare booth, I did really well that first week, which was very encouraging and I kept going through my boxes, re-discovering stuff I bought years ago, and hitting every yard sale I could find to get more stuff! This was great!!  I finally had a legitimate excuse to go yard sale-ing!!

Here's what my booth looked like on November 5th:

 What a difference!!

I find it really hard to cram things in there, so I keep it kind of open, space-wise. I don't have stuff piled on top of stuff because when I think of my own shopping preferences, I never really enjoy having to move stuff around to get to something all the way in the back of the shelf.  I'm clumsy, so I'm always worried I'll knock something over and then I'll have to pay for something I broke. As a klutzy person, I prefer to keep it light, but with enough stuff in there to keep you interested. 

I'm doing pretty good-- I don't know what is average monthly sales that other booths make, but I'm satisfied with what I am making.  I have exceeded my expectations and I'm not stopping anytime soon! We have been diligently going to every yard sale and thrift shop and trying to buy extra to last us through the winter until next yard sale season. I feel like I have enough inventory to last me through the winter. 

In fact, I feel like I've been doing so well, I opened up another booth at another antique mall!

Here's the second booth:

 A smaller space in a larger, busier mall. So far, I'm not making what I make at the other place. I moved in October 1st, and have only made a quarter of what I made at the other booth for October. Hmm.. I need to figure out what sells here! I just added over 50 items on Monday; then we had Election Tuesday with zero sales at both places; Wednesdays, this mall is closed... There's a Holiday open house at the mall this weekend, hopefully I'll have good sales and figure out what sells and bring in more of that.

I have a few holidays pieces at both booths, but this weekend, I plan to work on a few more items and bring those in next week.  I'm not going to go all out green, red, and gold, but I will have some nice decor items to scatter among the shelves. I want to sell not just decoration pieces, but gift items as well. A lot of things I sell would make nice little hostess gifts or if you know someone that loves vintage kitchen items, you could find something here to give. I sell what I love, so that if it doesn't sell, I'm happy to take it back home with me! 

There's my booth update!

Anyone looking for anything, maybe I have it! 

516 Antiques

The booth is lots of fun, I gotta tell you! 

First, I get to hit the yard sales and look for things I deem worthy for the booth.

That alone is one of my favorite things to do.

Second, I get to have my own "shop".

Okay, not exactly the same thing as opening my own store, but this has its' perks.

I don't need to be there except to restock and rearrange; I don't need to worry about all the overhead costs; I'm free to yard sale or flea market or whatever else I need to do; I only need to pay a small rental fee for the space and that's it. 

Pretty good for someone like me, already busy with kids, the garden, school lessons...

In case anyone is curious about the booth, here's a couple of photos:

The whole booth!

Every time I go in, I take photos and post them on the 516 Antiques Facebook page (go LIKE the page! There are a ton more photos there!).

Then I stare at all the photos, studying what I could do differently, taking notes for the next time I go in.

I'm really happy with the booth and the way it looks. 

I think it's colorful and cheerful and I hope it draws people in to see what else the booth offers.

I like color.  I enjoy those pops of happiness against the white background.

I brought in a new shelf on my last visit and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  I like the rainbow of colors, and apparently, so did customers, because the yellow shelf is just about cleared! I can't wait to go back in this week and maybe change out what's left of the yellows with blues. I'll be going through my inventory and pulling blue items.

Our first full month- August, has done beyond what I hoped for! I hope September proves to do just as good! We are going to try and keep the booth going for as long as we can, selling the stuff we have stock-piled in the basement all these years, hoping someday to open a store of our own. I hope it's enough, to last through the winter when yard sales are no more, and I'll have only thrift stores to rely on for more inventory. Keep your fingers crossed for us! :o)

And in case anyone is wondering, 516 is our wedding date! May 16th!  We thought it was a good name, the day he and me became WE!

*I did as one of my readers suggested and switched to a different browser and sure enough, I can upload pictures.  Strange. Thanks for the tip, Cheyenne!

::30 Days:: 8

What I saw when I woke up this morning: Peter's black eye. The skin glue did it's job, and at bath time, it came off and I could see I didn't need to add any more. As of bedtime, the colors of the bruise deepened to a pale dark blue/purple.

Today was a long, long, long day.

I went back to the booth and added more stuff, looks better, don't it?

I was pleased to see a few items sold! Yay!!

After finding homes in the booth for everything, I went all the way to the big town in the opposite direction and ran errands with my Mom. It was a grand effort, but it was just too much to do all in one day.  By the time we got home past 5 pm, I was exhausted. Won't be doing that again!

I'm glad I had the sense to pick up frozen pizza and then Andrew cooked 'em on the grill. Fast, easy, and delicious! Bonus points for not heating up the house with a hot oven!

I've been busy setting up a facebook page for our new booth, while eating leftover chinese from my lunch out today. Find my booth on Facebook: 516 Antiques.  Like it, too! :o)