Tuesday, March 24, 2009

the shabby castle section...




im not sure what to call our white section...its shabby, french , european rustic, country cottage.... but its filling up...this month we got the frnch dancing girls....they are big mats....
and lotsof gold crowns,and statuary and another huge white mirror,.,,this one is 5 ft wide.....
also painted a chunky fancy vanity in my version of french grey... kind of grey and tan and white...........................
..
we watch so many english and french movies this style is looking better and better...
also i sell to an antique show dealer who sells to the big decorators who come to his shows, like lakewood in atlanta and one in texas.. and he looks for antiques in this style and industrial also ....so i hear about it a lot....
plus, online, im seeing wonderful stores and tours of all this style.... like here http://euroantiquemarket.blogspot.com/ thanks linda..
plus i have a wild wonderful customer and antique buddy who makes and sells the dancing french girl bamboo mats above....she loves french antiques and sometimes my big fantasy pieces and takes her customers to paris!!!! http://www.peacockparkdesign.blogspot.com/
of course im here in corn country....but at least it will be eye candy for my customers...until the right person comes along...



THE TROUBLE WITH MARCH... march is always hard for us...in january we go to chicago and buy for the season.. ...and it is coming in and has come in....also we have bought our huge supply of garden iron...which is always a great seller for us.....the trouble is that none of this sells much until april and may.........so we are caught with big bills and slow sales...a normal situation for march..... its kind of a snafu kind of deal....
..im not whining, .. but this year we also have the us economy and the weather, we had many very impossible weather days last winter, a sub zero stretch in january , and the economy has touched about everyone i know ...
then there is the whole bank crisis, which seems to be changing our credit cards and the interest rates we are being offered..some have gone up unexpectedly ..at first w e just dropped them but now dh is looking at it differently...
,.....he says that dropping them might be bad because your credit rating is affected by what percent of your available credit you are using....so if you drop a crappy card [one who raised the rate a bunch] that can hurt your credit score...since you would be depleting your pool of available credit.....so now we are keeping cards we dont really want..
we do need credit in march..i hate to use it.....but thats a normal part of our year......
.
im ready for some sun ..
THE DAILY GRUMP....im a virgo and picky so griping comes easy to me..i try not to be like alice roosevelt...who said if you have something bad to say , come sit by me...
...heres todays gripe ...i carry about 3 patterns of placemats ,runners, napkins, with a company....and just ordered about 300$ in the 3 patterns...they are pretty springy colors, mostly pink for my foo foo room...well my big spring order came today and no placemats for one of the patterns and no runners for another..and no aprons either......so i have 24 napkins and no placemats, etc......my customers sure cant buy a big set of any of the patterns.....and who knows when i will get the rest... its so frustrating.... i dont need this in the fall.... i need it now...it happened last year too.... the initials are g.f. ...i like their style quality and price...


3 comments:

Just a bed of roses said...

wow, look at that merchandise! I tell you I would be a weekly customer! Talk about class. gotta run...would love to shop more!!!

ann at greenoak said...

too bad for us that you are out west!!! ann

Simply Lavender said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE your merchandise!
I drool everytime I get on to your blog!! I am with Brenda.....I'd be a weekly customer if I lived closer! (my pocketbook would be in some serious trouble...)yikes! Brenda....maybe we could hitch a ride and go together someday!? :)
Thanks Ann for a sharing your store, thoughts and ideas.
Green Oaks is always a great read!
Enjoy your day!
Dix (Lavender House Gift Shoppe/just a little south of Just a Bed of Roses)