new projects...

i have so much work to do this week getting ready for the yardsale..grueling work and a whole lot of it...last night we stamped 1600 postcards....
.im enjoying thinking about those far off projects that dont require immediate action.....the new ideas that are percolating up and look all good...baby ideas that only have high hopes and good parts...
like.... giant collages
cement fun...rock mosaics ,
cement troughs
a whole new look around the amy butler colors, for my young homemakers
a new black section...
big dressforms decorated
captured fairies...
my collage ideas
a big steampunk robot
a dressform covered with jewels.
fabulous cloches covering little wonders

i love this business!!!!
my work list today,double check scheduling for sale... rearrange chickens, plan out the work for 4 people, start packing up the half price room and mark it right for the yardsale, saleprice the furniture about 200 pcs, , call in 2 more ads for the sale...pricing all the stuff that came in this week..... and deal with who knows what...jon is at 20 yardsales this morning... we have a great crew ....
I LOVE THIS BUSINESS....PART 2 today was great
...one wonderful young fun creative customer....who i want to see what she does with all her stuff and ideas....name of rhonda....she has a big booth in hearts desire up in elkhart...going there to see her booth is definitely on my to do list...its so inspiring to talk to someone loving the same stuff/junk i do..and she might even have a worse work schedule than me...lol.....our husbands sound a lot alike too....showing fake panic when we say we have an idea!!!
AND ANOTHER funny old man.... i feel i can write about him, since he doesnt even own a computer...and will never see.... he comes pretty often, and collects something very wonderful and expensive and wanted....big metal statues of women, the beautiful metal and ceramic ones from the early 1900s....dh does too, but this guy has a big enough wallet to pay for the good stuff...marble and bronze,,they are usually draped but definitely WOMEN...with lots of good parts apparent...., anyway we are friends and he comes in once in a while.... today he was so cute..hes a widower and lonely....he kind of giggled and said....my wife used to make me keep my statues hidden away but now they are all over the house.....
the other old guy i had yesterday was with his wife...who i really like...i gave her a great price on something and then the husband tried to beat me down more....he had a patch over his eye!!! he was nice too tho...
my 2 other favs always butter me up, they are in their 80s, and very big spenders if i get the right thing... hows my girl doing....before trying to get something out of me...i save victorian gold for one and the other is lusting for a bottle thats not for sale....
i seem to know a lot of old guys and one of the best things about them...is i seem kind of young to them!! that doesnt happen too much to me.
some places im the old bat whos got it made ....or if they dont know me, the little frumpy housewife...actually i have a housekeeper and dont even do grocery shopping or laundry....THANK HEAVENS..

heres our mailer....the postcard we are sending out to 3800 this year..... the stamps went up of course...we have about 800 on our email list....thats the easy part...i wold be afraid to give up the snail mail tho.....we print them here and will be stamping them tonight to be mailed out friday or sat....

i cant say enough about annual events....this one is about 30 yrs old.....every year.... and attendance has been as high as 1000....who knows this year....our garden party this year was almost on track....the big minus is the dealer buying...they havent been around much this year....

we comb the store and take out tons and tons....plus the auction leftovers all year which are in storage until next thursday...

i have to have extra help for the next 10 days....to do list for the week..... the yardsale tables stretch about 120 ft and are totally full and priced...we use color stickers to tell the clerks the price...

heres part of my list...

scheduling the 18 to 20 people for the big day....finishing up the advertising, sale pricing all the furniture, making room outside in the parking lot for lots of prim furniture, unloading the rough room,combing the store for all the merchandise that goes in all the different places..50 cents 24 4$ or half price.....its a true sale...and a way to get rid of all the leftovers, mistakes, damaged, tired of , overpriced, etc etc etc ...

this is so worth it...and im not complaining....have to say tho, in the old days the dealers would come on friday and buy up 7 or 8,000 of stuff.that was a great start to the big event.....thats not really happening anymore....the antiquers are about gone....and too many of the new store girls are closed or on budgets....hate that...

ITS A JUNGLE OUT THERE

my childhood heroes; nancy drew , sheena queen of the jungle and later ayn rand have really helped my form my business outlook .....
too bad they cant fix the pesky economic climate..... ....
i wonder what they would do this year ...
WORD ON THE STREET.... i have heard of some back to work talk around our area....some good g.m. talk ...some new things going on..... i sure hope so...
. we are working hard to not lay anyone off.... we dont want to....it takes at least 4 people to run the store whenever we are open..2 to carry, one on the floor and one at the counter.....and i dont want to change that..
.being A VIRGO im good at worrying...will the customers really go back to their old spending habits? or will they be more conservative?... in lots of ways tighter budgets work for our store......
yardsale..WE ARE WORKING ON SO MANY PARTS OF IT....
.postcards....half printed
..ad...finalized
....STORAGE AREA PILING UP...last week we priced about 30 MORE boxes of stuff for the sale....... and yesterday i bought a whole truck load of cheap stuff at auction.... .....
going to auction makes you realize how bad looking and cheap old giftstore merchandise is...im thinking here of resin angels and fairies...
the yardsale does have about 40 ft row of 50 cent items so i went kind of wild!!!!
????? i could have a ball going back to my roots, going to auctions all the time and getting tons of antiques..BUT WOULD IT WORK FOR THE STORE ????.. would the new girls buy or even care? they dont really seem TO value or know real antiques...i need to get to know these new customers better...

DELEGATING

dh says i cant delegate...but i dont think thats right..... he doesnt delegate much at all in his part...ive seen him struggle of hours to find a 50 cent mistake on the books... and he would never let anyone esle do any of his bookwork...
im so glad to have delegated lots of things i used to do alone...
*counter work im sure glad to get out of this one....you can get trapped....and it has to be just right...and she can shield me from some of the phone calls...
*most of the carrying, i can still do it of course....but i try and let someone else do it....still if im there a lot of time its easier for me just to grab...

*half the buying, and carpenter ordering..jon does half and i do half.... he thinks i should be out buying more because i know the smalls better.....
*half the fluffing i would love to hire a great merchandizer....we do the best we can... im in awe of a great displayer.... of course its art and they cant tell you how they do it!!!
*ordering, for the gift department i mark what i want in the catalog and how many with a sticker and carol does the rest!!! yay i dont get why i should care if my workers know what we pay..... not many secrets around here...
cleaning......i dont think we ever cleaned in the old days...i sure didnt...
i would like to delegate more....but not so much that i dont even need to be in the store.....

i go for the idea that the best manure for the garden is the farmers footprints

...... i would like to delegate more like the emyth says...and make more time for running the business not just doing the work..... but its pretty hard....i need to know whats going on at all times........ lots of my customers tell me i work too hard...but i dont see it that way...4 or 5 things going on at once and getting interrupted all day long seems normal ...

i have so much stress and pressure and frustration...its a boiler room for me most of the time... .there are so many details and people to deal with..and space and projects.......sometimes i just go in the back and paint ON a piece of furniture....now WE have about the best crew weve ever had so that helps a whole lot... the stress doesnt spoil it for me thats for sure...
ive tried hiring a potential manager about 3 times....and it never has worked out yet.... ...

THINGS I WISH I COULD DELEGATE....and have it turn out like i want...

1. advertizing
2. a whole section, like the foo foo or the country, ordering and displaying...
3. putting the antiques away correctly...

THINGS I WOULD NEVER WANT TO DELEGATE

1. BUYING
2. display, not completely anyway
3. designing
4. painting
5. being on the floor with the customers, roaming around on the floor..

thinking about stress....im on a stress discussion online....mostly about women with stores and stress......and i m getting to feel like the oddball, for being too ok or positive....... i know i face tons of stress too ........BUT and its a big one....our store is DOING WHAT ITS SUPPOSED TO DO, it supports us and lets me do my own thing...that outweighs a lot of the hard parts of running a store....... .....

if i was facing closing or not being able to pay the bills , or owing friends or family that would be a whole different thing...

.my point is stress is probably more about the math or financial health of the store . and not the hassles and workload.....im a happy camper and work like a dog....i want to keep on working like a dog... if our math goes lots further downhill i dont know what i would do..

as always, i cant help but blame the advice women seem to soak up, from the popular press and their friends and from people wanting to sell them things... live your dream, you can make it, go girl..when really we are in the same boat as the men in business and better look hard at the realities we have to face if we want to survive........

. we experienced having a business go under, about 30 yrs ago and it was devastating.....all i can say is if you are facing that....get it over with quick..... if its really unsolvable..... and our situation was... the whole thing had changed and we were stuck with totally the wrong price.... and our customers moved on to the other store .... this was a record store when a discounter came to town with new record prices... we had to close....it was very sad and embarrassing and taught me a lot....mainly that its all about the customers...lol... but it gave us a good hardnosed, careful background for our green oak antiques venture... http://www.greenoakantiques.com/

the woman thing

the woman problem...im reading a lot on line about how hard a store is on your life...that doesnt sound like a concern most businessMEN would be talking about... ...... . ..most women do have to work....why should we, shopkeepers be so different than them? i would hope we could work at our stores and still have regular lives before and after..... lots of women work 8 hrs , at hard jobs and then take care of kids and the house.....
my husbands mom worked in a factory for years....she had a life there and friends there and a life at home....i wouldnt think it was a worse life because she worked ..she probably had pressures there too.....most women have to work these days....its not a choice....i couldnt stand working for anyone ..this life seems much better.....

scary slow today at the store..

..we ordered more christmas and a big hearthside order......their plates and all our word things sure sell.....

FOR THE YARDSALE we got our postcard designed today and an ad...dh does the work,, i ok it.....its so hard for me...i cant do the computer work and dh isnt that picky if all the right words are there he thinks its ok.... or if my first idea isnt working its all my fault.... ....its not exactly a meeting of the minds....he is so good on the computer...we had an apple 2...

but the ad looks good and we will be able to email it to the papers where it will run..... i figure on an event its ok to spend about 10% in preparation and advertising..... that would be about 3 OR 4000$ for us....with the stamps and card taking up at least $2000 and the food about $700 and the extra help a whole lot..THE COSTS ADD UP FAST......im going into this like it will be just like normal...GREAT.... BUT this is a totally scary year for us.....no skimping tho, except on the postcard...we chose a regular size instead of jumbo....saving 700$$ ...but it looks great...

DONT GET ME WRONG ON WOMEN....THEY ARE THE MAIN THING HERE...THE MAIN BUYERS FOR SURE....AND I WANT TO BE A HAPPY WOMAN WITH ALL THE STUFF THAT TAKES.... i just dont expect my business life to be that different than a successful mans.

i think women are different than men etc etc.... but business is business....

.I do KNOW GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN AND THATS WHAT I TRY AND PROVIDE..and that a huge portion of our business depends on women..... AND I WANT TO HAVE FUN TOO....mainly it has to please me..and fit what i can handle...

unfortunately i have to compromise all the time with dh and son jon....none of us get our way all the time....and all three of us are the first born....which really makes it crazy sometimes.... luckily we all have kind of separate parts...

word on the street..... from my bella chica, my daughter...who has a store http://www.bellachicinteriors.com/ she says shes hearing some good things about the economy from some friends working in the bank industry and also some happy real estate people.... so maybe we are turning around a little....... the other thing she told me was that her good customers, who are used to buying whatever they wanted, but are supposed to be on budgets now, have discovered tjmaxxx etc, and think they are getting the same stuff that the big companies are trying to sell us...so she is dropping home decor..and lotsof other smalls...

lots of my customers tell me i work too hard....i really like to ....if i get more help i just think up more work....to me the store has endless possibilities and endless fun ideas waiting to get their chance...

slow and trash to treasure

one of our trash to treasure counters...
or cash wrap or kitchen islands...
it was so slow today!!! ..so we fluffed and made stuff.....we always have lots of work to do...
thank heavens for trash to treasure ..we have theparts cheap....for our creative customers and on slow days like today we make good saleable inventory out of old windows, shutters and old tin.....shelves signs etc etc....there are so many good junky ideas out there,,,,and the public seems really into it too..... so even tho we werent busy today we were making money......
at our store we have to have 2 people to carry all the time...plus a counter person and a floor person....and sometimes a couple more....
orphan ideas
mosaic on big stuff...like a dressform or furniture....but i dont know about glue...
big branches in side the store
trunk show....i like this idea...but dont know who or what would work
indie art show...ive heard of some great ones....like at the blissful...but can i realy throw another event on the schedule....and wouldnt be sure the local girls would be buying enough and what artists i could find......
girls day out....such a good idea but how to market it!!! we are that for lots of women.... how to find more in other towns is so illusive
custom tables and counters....could i really face the hassle?....i hope we dont have to go this way...
selling website....are we nuts?....i bought a site already, from avalon rose, and might try it....but i would like to know one store who is accomplishing anything on it, by my standards meaning a few 100 a month.......it seems pretty unlikely....especially with paid help...im sure not going to be doing it... i can barely turn the computer on...

executive decisions....

**i have a huge order made, lots of it isnt christmas.....we are hoping for the normal 7 or 800 buyers to come for our yardsale in august.....should i have that order on the floor? yes...so it will sell faster, so they can see what we have for them for fall
no....they only have so much to spend and its better to sell old than new...

****where to advertize the sale radio what papers
***what to get new for the foofoo ...the amy butler idea is growing on me...some color!!! we have pink and the country colors....but the monotone isnt making it and im excited to try something new and fresh..
****should we go deeper into custom? so many ask for custom furniture,,but i know what a hassle it could be....and that time and hassle isnt figured in our low prices..... yes, we need every sale and the customers want it..

****should i reorder fairly good sellers or must get something completely new instead? thinking here mainly of my hearthside plates ...yes, because we get new people in all the time....no because the regulars need to see lots new all the time...???
***what are the staples in each of our categories? country, foo foo, modern indiana young homeowners..
*** what to bring home from the mall booths for the yardsale? all the duds.... half of the iron....its so wrong to have things at the malls that we are sold out of here....

what do you think?? what would you do?? how do you make these decisions??

this is definitely my busiest month... we were so busy today.... sold a lot...scary tho , lots of familiar faces arent here....im feeling bad about the economy....

our etsy....got lots more watches and keys to put on....its going pretty well.... http://www.gypsymarket.blogspot.com/

my social error of the day,...one of them... a customer came in and i said i got some flow blue for him....thinking he was coming behind her....she had to tell me they were split....

my smartest move of the year....hiring a really good seller...

sold today....a peace sign on a window,,,,a love shutter, a big chicago cabinet, lots of brackets and hooks, lots of windows, some flowers, frames, a big pile of jewelry,, lots of the cheap little stuff from the yardsales lately...

bought today a nice trunk, wire baskets, old watch dials, little chairs, china cabinet....lots more

our entrance is a wow,,with 3 or 4 big chicago cabinets over 1000$ and our good oak and our harvest tables and a counter usually...,new people are always suprised.... ,,,but we have tons of little stuff in lots of price ranges in other parts of the store.... which is real good too.... its a big job to keep the main entrance cleaned up....we all tend to plop on empty surfaces....and we are buying everyday...

work done today.. boxed up about 20 boxes for the yardsale, and hauled away to the building, priced everything from saturday, cleaned up the aisles, put out all the painted stuff, totes and shutter shelves, filled in the holes from what sold friday and saturday...

a big difference between us and boutiques...... we are aiming at a big target group.... trendy fun upscale homeowners....i think of a boutique is aiming at one style....we can change with the times....but still aim at the same group.... if your whole store is pink and the trend moves to amy butler colors or gothic french where are you? ..our store is big enough to have a broader aim....and one thing they like here is a very seperate part where one look can go extreme and wonderful....so if they hate foo foo they dont even go in there...we have a foo foo boutique and a key west boutique and a country boutique...and a garden boutique... etc etc

off to work!!

indy boutique talk...if you are hiring a 60 yr old to do something important for you...dont call her a shopgirl.....it would probably sound minimizing and condescending to a lot of us....... altho i know its not meant that way...like calling a black guy boy...

Fall .. we decided to put it out and some sold today....i guess the thoery is when the kids go back to school they think about fall....and our poor kids go back august ..... 6.....

the woman problem...im reading a lot on line about how hard a store is on your life...that doesnt sound like a concern most businessmen would have...... . ..most women do have to work....why should we, shopkeepers be so different than them? i would hope we could work at our stores and still have regular lives before and after..... lots of women work 8 hrs then take care of kids and the house.....

my husbands mom worked in a factory for years....she had a life there and friends there and a life at home....i wouldnt think it was a worse life because she worked ..she probably had pressures there too.....most women have to work these days....its not a choice....i couldnt stand working for anyone..this life seems much better....

i was lucky...had a a model...

when we started our business we were lucky.... mainly that we fit into the huge trend of the day....or probably we were so flexible we wormed our way into the biggest trend of the day.... the trend of antiques and the country living version of decorating...
funny but country living still shows my kind of customers and their kind of decorating...
BUT MY BIGGEST HELP WAS having a business model,SMITTYS ANTIQUES ,......a store who i could see was making it ....and big time!!! as in a real income... ...the owner was an old guy and very popular and sold tons......his store and clientele fit me like a glove........ i wanted to handle what he did and sell to the kinds of buyers he had..the big guys..... i could see that it was totally possible...i wanted to be smitty junior......so i copied tons of his policies..... they were unconventional,,,,and not like most of the stores back then....but thats what i did and it worked out great.... he was about 60 and i was 27...
this got us out there into our market on the right foot..meaning our offerings were interesting and reasonable with a big turnover not perfectly staged and overpriced .. pleasing the buyers right from the start.... and there were tons of buyers back then....
he would sell out to almost the bare walls a lot...i never quite managed that...
and 20 yrs later he and i were still in business..when he was in his 80s he was outbidding me at auctions or visa versa ..and most of the other stores were gone....

now hes gone, its 10 yrs later his policies still are a big part of our store philosophy...

if we had followed the conventional version of a store i dont think we would have made it...

my point is ..copy someone in business that you see working...... not just theory or a pretty magazine shoot........look around and find a store thats making it in a way that would satisfy you..... then try and figure out how they did it what they do that works etc etc...

every year country business magazine spotlights some wonderful store.and really gives lots of business details.......thats the kind of info i really like to read.....
here are some of smittys rules that guided us....
..sell low if you can....if he got something reasonable he would pass it on...but next time it might be real high because he paid more....and this was back when most places were pricing their stock by the price guides.he priced by what he paid....he would definitely pass on a bargain to his customers.......we have made tons and tons of money on this one idea....

..no credit or layaways...perfect for us nobody owes us money...nobody is dodging me because they owe me...

..sell as is where is...but no hand holding or guaranteeing...duh

...stay till the end of the auction.... i still feel guilty if i cant make it to the end...

...ignore your auction competition....so smart

...total honesty...show those flaws

..buy by price....if something is going cheap go for it...if its in your buyers category..... he had the knowledge and the money to buy the good expensive things....he sold to the top guys in our state, in many fields but he also made lots of money on the lowly things... he wasnt afraid of the hassle and work of hauling big piles of mediocre things...he had auctioneer buyers, the cheapest guys out there for us,, but they had lots of money...and could use big groups of things if the price was right..............he knew his customers very well and what they would buy....

...learn learn learn....he was so smart and skeptical and curious

....know your customers and their wants....when id walk into his store he would let me know he had something for me...he knew what i liked...i was his customer after we got more established...he was my customer at the start.when i was really new and cheap.....we eventually switched places in a lot of categories, ,,,.due to price and our spots on the totem pole or pecking order of the antique business....

...no gossiping about customers...and he would never brag about what he just sold.. and he would never tell what price he sold something for...now i tell stories on my customers...but i never use their names.... well ,except here with smitty...
..... he was a huge buyer and if someone had a big expensive collection to sell he would give a fair price, and always had the money ...but mostly he was an auction buyer...many times he would buy the biggest best piece at auction.... ....and he had buyers waiting for him every Saturdays night, when he got home from the sale.........he never ran out of money.... that part really impressed me... his turnover must have been amazing....

at auction, if i would buy something huge or say 40 shutters, sometimes i would be called smitty junior....which i took as a compliment...he took advantage of every money making opportunity, even if it was a big hassle...

thats what got us started....and i know its not even close to a gift store....then we were almost all wholesale selling and on the secondary market, with nothing new...........but it helps us now too... in our current version of green oak antiques...
...after we got going and got our own set of buyers i bought many many truckloads from him....he was a great supplier for us...i felt like he always tried to give me a good deal...

..i learned a lot from him... he never tried to be a teacher to me...maybe he realized what a mentor he really was to us but im not sure on that...

i wish i knew my new customers like i knew my customers when we were mostly in antiques....

**********************

*************************

NOW we are almost all retail and not many avid antique buyers...i guess we are a vintage indie gift lifestyle green store now..lol... with few models to loook at and learn from ......i would like to see some good models of retail gift stores working, i hate to think its a big trick and there arent any....i do appreciate style models , like the mags cover...but for survival thats not what im looking for...

so now wheres a good model for a working retail store... at least 5 yrs old? what kind of store is out there producing an income for the owner? im all over the place and i dont see very many..cant think of any left in our town....

.

heres where i have seen some money making stores...

**a few stores featured in country business...

big full country destination stores

***a few with gifts PLUS something else...

interior design services

big fabric department offering custom work

custom furniture

classes and supplies

***a few perfectly focused on their one big segment of retail....

*** several meeting the family goal of a supplementary income...

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR MORE GOOD REPORTS OUT THERE from the people in the retail trenches.......i can see why the big gift mags dont cover this....it might be a dirty little secret...

now on a fun note........

one of our customers, peacock park has us on her blog!!! http://www.peacockparkdesign.blogspot.com/ shes so much fun .... i love her designs....she stops by about once a year...one year she invited me to go to paris with her and her lucky customers.... she likes it crusty and beautiful....she has a great eye and i love her style....she gave me some display advice on the foofoo room.... plus its so neat to know someone famose!!!

a good day

busy saturday...
this nice pile sold and on its way to ohio....to a great store over there and a cyber buddy...
... part of a great day....we were swamped most of the day..
lots of retail and a nice bit of wholesale....

road trip on thursday

we went to a hobby lobby....saw tons that i was getting ready to order...including word frames, signs and even those wonderful bottles with the big leaded stoppers...and almost all of it was half off....there they were at my wholesale or less.... i cant swallow that my customers would think my made in china is better than hobby lobbys made in china......

i dont see how to deal with this... they have current things, its not old rejects....what is the smart thing to do...? i think i will be rethinking some of my ordering ....

question of the day....do you know any strictly gift stores who are making it? wow ....the barriers are huge..

..im glad to have the things that make us different....but i need gifts for sure!!!

im buying like crazy this week for the 4th quarter....

word on the street....

from a fellow retailer yesterday...this woman is running a great store thats doing just fine..... i love hearing her view of the world.....
...shes dropping french....wierd , i am too....she says her customers just dont get it....and we have to listen to them...
.... moving things around is working
.....for christmas...shes holding back ON ACTUAL CHRISTMAS ITEMS a bit and plans to buy more gift things for the season...
...every season needs somenthing new...for the faithful customers who excpect us to have something exciting for them...

SHE WANTS HER STORE TO LOOK FULL....SHES HEARING FROM CUSTOMERS THAT lots of other stores are looking a bit low ....and boring with nothing new......i feel that way too....she also said she stays positive and neutral when the customers ask how shes doing.....no griping and no bragging....mainly just ...we are hanging in there...
we need to learn what the customers want....she sees her customers homes and thats helping her a whole lot....she must do some kind of decorating for them...but seeing their houses inside is helping her pick the right merchandise....... she is always trying to figure out what her customers want...instead of trying to convince the customers to want what she likes.....big waste of time we think...also a fine line...since they come to us for new ideas too...
.......we both agreed ..sex and jesus should have no part in our business decisions..... we laughed about this a bit..from reading quite a bit of it in on line places............and i do have a question for those who think jesus is in charge....why didnt he save all my nice customers who are hurting so bad or had to close their stores?? im keeping religion out of my business....

and as always my view is that :::::my customers and the bank and my suppliers could care less about my sex...the idea that women in business, have different economic laws doesnt make any sense to me....and imho...its a very hurtful idea and a menace to women starting out...are we babies who need special instructions? .... ... and a lot of this is by magazine writers ....not real business people... .

....women are my business for the most part.I LOVE women, i depend on them........ ..but the idea that a womans business decisions should be different than a guys just doesnt make sense....unless she is someones pet and is just playing around...then ....go girl....do your own thing... i would like to try that sometime....if dh wins the lottery...

in my world ... business is about the math....and the pleasure...and i think guys care about the pleasure of their workday too....but the bills and the math have to come first......

im too old time, womens lib to expect special favors because im a WOMAN.......im not into i am woman i am victum...to me women shouldnt expect special favors in business....they dont get t hem in reality, not in my world anyway, .... so why expect it... we have to face our money situation just like the guys do...

i love talking to other stores....and getting their take on the world....the one yesterday always inspires me... we are in the same state...indiana corn country..and we both try to appeal to the homeowners with money to spend in our areas.....she displays beautifully and really seems to like and enjoy her customers.... i hope her store continues to grow...sorry she doesnt have a blog or website, so i cant show you her beautiful store........

half time....

now its july and half the year is over ....time to look at whats working and WHATS NOT....

our GOOD THINGS SEEM TO BE...

COUNTRY ROOM ...especially the word things and the family things and the garland and berry things...sometimes this seems so over but to be observant it is really selling.....weve sold about 8 of the big 40$ stars...I NEED TO GET GOING ON THIS AND GET SOME NEW THINGS FOR THEM...

THE KEY WEST ROOM....this has worked out great....and peps up the store...its good in summer not winter..

THE ROOTS PROJECT....THIS HAS BEEN GREAT AND PERKED UP THE STORE A LOT.......more old stuff, more auctions, jons going to yardsales again.... im getting out more and trying to get the GOOD STUFF..and the fun junky cheap stuff.....

several big ticket items...this has been a good thing....and apparantly ive chosen a couple of the big expensive things right....like our big 80$ fish and our parrot butler @250

ETSY....this is pretty neat and bringing in some cash

THE AMY BUTLER IDEA.... this is helping me see my new girls better...we probably had 4 big pregnant girls in yesterdsay....with their moms...they like our store..... i know what the moms like and i better be learning what these new homeowners want....

NOT SO GOOD.......

MY FRENCHY STUFF..the castle look, the monotone look, the crowns... . i love it but its not going very fast...is it over or not yet started around here? i have no idea...

my big folkart animals.... too weird and expensive i guess....i love them...they have gotten lots of smiles but thats about it...

FURNITURE... has been hard all year.....so im going for more smalls and a little less furniture... and being pickier and cheaper on it

so THE PLOT for the rest of the year is forming....get to know the new girls better, somehow, i think this means a new color direction,, a litlle l more color , but not the dark country colors,,,amy butler???? whatever that means... build on the black trend , black words , back and white signs , all seem good... and the country get more and more up to date country in here

...go for new inventory....thats what they like ...they already have bought what they want of year old stuff..... lots of that will be in the yardsale....

our numbers are still bad....retail is good and wholesale is in the pits..... i just hope when things turn around our old customers will remember us ....the ones still in business..... its so sad...

it should be interesting...we live in a very depressed state....thats obvious...

whats working this week......

a new color direction ..

..i always listen to a certain shopkeeper and cyber buddy, over in PICKERINGTON ohio....her store is called ,feather your nest, ...its a cool store and in about its 8th yr i think...so she has survived and knows a lot..... AND she gets good input from her college age girls ..... anyway, shes been talking about amy butler fabrics....i never heard of her, its not my thing..thats not my color range....

..but anyway i heard denise talk about those colors and the style and i love the look of her s tore............so I ORDERED SOME THINGS from creative coop in the mid range primary colors.... and put them in my foo foo room....and WALLA ....THEY SOLD....AND TO A COUPLE OF MY BEST CUSTOMERS..... SO maybe ive found something popular that i wasnt aware of.... .

ALSO our peace signs are selling...she has that too... on baby clothes!!!????...

..... THANKS DENISE....

i wish she had a blog so i could show you her store....

ALSO WORKING SO FAR....OUR ETSY PROJECT... I CANT TALK MYSELF INTO fullblown ONLINE SELLING..who is making it work? i just dont see it happening for very many.... waiting to hear on that....to me, working would have be something at least around 10$$$ an hour in profit...or more....

.. but our narrow etsy thing is going pretty well.....within our narrow rules, mainly vintage supplies for the artists and nothing under 20$.... we have 96 sales in just a few months.....im aiming for big piles of vintage at wholesale prices... http://www.gypsymarket.etsy.com/

ALSO WORKING....LOTS OF THE CUTE AND REASONABLE MISC...THAT HAS BEEN COMING IN FROM THE YARDSALES AND ME OUT BUYING.... THE FUN AND JUNKY....

as well as the good stuff....if priced right...

A NEW IDEA..........i might have a baby idea here who might have a chance!!!.... one of our workers has a vinyl machine...and a daughter who can and needs to work.... we have tons of young married girls thru here ..they probably go to lots of weddings..... WALLA....I THINK I HEAR A NEW POSSIBILITY TRYING TO POP UP... like a cyber buddy posted....there are births weddings etc in any economy.... we could make personalized wedding signs

my rule about new little baby ideas...dont squish it...try and be open, dont tell dh , he loves to stomp on them..before they even get filled out..... if i say i have a new idea he covers his ears... .

i need to think this thru and try and plan it out right.....

i need frames, samples, a clear easy way to present it, pick the choices, and aim at the amy butler girls....