Garden Fun

Are you having as much fun in your garden as I am? Today's Make Mine Pink Friday is about "Along the Garden Path".

Hum, what do I have that fits the bill? Oh, I know, vintage jewelry!

Lots and lots of flower pins!

Then there's the vintage rhinestone sunglasses and floral straw purse!

You can find them all through my website! C-ya there!

http://www.antique-boutique.com/

Burton Antique Show....going, going, gone!

Buy it now, or regret it later is the motto for anyone who shops at an antique show. I can't tell you how many times people will "think" about something and walk away and the next person coming in your tent snatches it up. Then the first looker comes back to buy that desired item, just to be told "sorry, it's sold". So, my first advice to anyone hunting for treasures, don't want until later...if you see something you like, buy it now, later may be too late.

On with the show! We usually do the Burton Antique show since it is close to home and I can really fill up our tent. We took three loads of goodies down and came back with 1-1/2 and that includes my tables and tent. We did good.

A few years ago we were tagged "The Chic Shak". We always have items women love but we also cater to the men. My first photo is a picture of a chalkboard that my daughter and I made a few days before the show. We had best intentions of selling it until she suggested we write "Welcome to The Chic Shak" on it. That was it, it's mine lol. We had so many comments on it, so many people wanted to buy it but, I just couldn't part with it.

We used an old dresser mirror frame that I have saved for a long time (because I liked it...hint hint) and I primed it, painted it and sprayed a protective coating on it. My daughter made the chalkboard after I cut the wood for it. Isn't is awesome! All that carved wood, who could give it up?

Back to the show. I hopefully have enough photos from inside the tent. We sold all but one footstool my daughter recovered and painted. We still have the PINK one! I am so happy! I didn't want to sell it but we put it out anyway, One lady wanted to buy it and offered some silly price for it...said she'd have to pay to have it covered, she didn't like the pink strip fabric...LOLOLOLOLOLO, oh sorry. No thanks, we'll keep it.

I was a tad disappointed that the larger pieces of furniture I took didn't sell but...you know me, I have a plan to unload it.

Okay, back to the show again...some of the first things we sold again were the items that my daughter planted flowers in. She did good! I'm thinking all we need to take is recovered footstools and flowers in odd ball planters this fall!

For the most part the weather cooperated. It was hot, humid, sticky, cloudy, a few spot of showers (normal for Burton Ohio). We survived!

If anyone ever tells you that doing a show is easy, they've never done a show. It's a lot of work! Hunting down items to resale, cleaning, painting, recovering, pricing, packing, setting up, making your display attractive, dealing with the weather in an outside show, and yes, sometimes dealing with the public. There's always "one" in every crowd.

We had people that came in and asked to take photos of our layout. No problem, it happens every year. I take that as a compliment.

We had so many people ask us where our shop was so they could visit it...ouch, that's the part that is hard to deal with. I loved our shop but am not ready to commit to one again. I just tell them..."hopefully, see you next show".

Thanks to my sister-in-law who came down to help us, she's a pretty special gal who my brother is lucky to have! That pretty much sums up this show....next adventure...who knows...only the blog will tell!

Reflecting back a year Part 1.....Part 2 Below

It's funny the difference a year can make in your life. I was going back through saved pictures on my old computer and memories started flooding back. Some good, some not so good, but all reminders of my life a year ago in some way.

A year ago this week my daughter and I were preparing for an antique show in Burton Ohio. I remember emailing a friend in Florida some pictures of our tent and a silly short story to go with it, "How Two Girls Put Up a Tent" (with no help).

I'm not talking a small tent, I'm talking a BIG "Event Tent" which is 20ft. By 22ft. Yep, my daughter and I can put it up by ourselves! I've learned never depend on anyone but yourself to get a job done. Why, because no one cares like you do.

First picture is our nicely packed tent in our SUV. I have pastel painted galvanized concrete pails to hold it down, works wonders. We first put the tent top frame together, after a couple of times we decided to mark the poles, so much faster!

My daughter and I put the top of the tent frame together and then we put the on top on the frame. My daughter secures the top to the frame, she is much more flexible than me, half the size of me and half my age! She gets the ground work lol!

We lay the legs out and I lift the tent top and she gets two legs standing on both sides of me. I know, your thinking...sure, two girls by themselves? You betcha!

Then I go to the other side of the tent and pick up the top while fast paced half sized daughter adds two more legs posts...then it's all downhill from there. We get the other posts in place and then we attach each side wall.

I love our tent as it has arched windows and I can drop the inside curtain for privacy. We have the only tent with double peaked tops. Whoa lala, under an hour the tent is up, we pat each other on the back and go home for the night.

So, this is the week we "raise the tent". We'll set it up Friday morning and start filling it with treasures. The antique show is on Saturday. Come on down if your in town! I'll be in spot B-36. Bingo! Believe me, after the all day crowds, by 5pm we're ready to pack what doesn't sell and head home.

Check out the pictures of our "tent raising". These photos were taken at the Geauga County Fairgrounds last year.

Part 2; What goes in that tent?

Part 2, What goes in that tent? The Chic Shack

We have a ball at the Burton Antique Show in Burton Ohio! We prepare for the show starting the day after last year. My daughter and I are always hunting for treasures to re-do. Painting tables, planting flowers in odd items, displaying jewelry on dummies, no offense lol. We...okay...my daughter has to have things just right. When they say presentation is key to business, it's a fact!

Our booth as been tagged "The Chic Shack" by our customers. We are very lucky to have followers who can't wait to see what we have to offer. Makes for a very good show!

The photos here are from last year. I'll be sure to take photos of this year's display after it is set up and post a blog about it later.

All the furniture you see has been redone by my daughter. She paints it, she distreses it and she recovers items. I watch. The furniture sells really fast. I LOVED the pink chair she covered and it was the first piece that flew out of the booth. But, I have pictures, oh those memories!

Last year she painted several items bright colors. Pink, green, yellow, blue...oh, the sold, sold, sold. Also, she had several items shabby white and it sold sold sold. This year, you'll have to check back to see what we've been up to!

We also try to have some men things in the tent, you know, keep them busy while the wife shops. So far, it has worked. This year we have a HUGE sailfish for some man to hang in his "man-cave" and a few other goodies packed up.

Enjoy the photos as much as we enjoy doing the show!

Attic hunt for bird cages pays off!

It's that time of year again! My daughter and I do an Antique show in Burton Ohio. I save stuff that appeals to the customer base I have there.

One thing that we found that sells well is bird cages planted with flowers! Well, my daughter and I went on a hunt in the attic this week for bird cages I have saved.

Oh my goodness, so many bird cages to choose from! We picked out a few that we thought would look great with flowers flowing from them and hauled them down three floors.

Darling daughter is so dedicated to her work, she headed straight outside with them to clean and prepare for planting. Oh wait, here she comes, she's headed for the computer, hum, what's with that?

She calls me over to take a looksey at a website that had a bird cage just like ours that sold...WHAT! I mean WHAT? I mean HOW MUCH? And we were going to plant flowers in it?

So, stuffed in my attic of treasures I had this rare signed PNF Czechoslovakia Victorian 6 Side Bird Cage! Goodness gracious, I must have bought it because it was shabby and chic looking. Thank goodness she had the insight to check the mark.

Am I going to keep it, nope! Find it for sale on Make Mine Pink!

It was a good day!