Breaking Even on this Manic Monday

A Family Affair

S.A.L.vage

Comprised of Sarah, Alice and Lea (in no particular order except that it spells S.A.L. in that order) but we are actually a family of 5!

Shoulda brought a book

Happy May Day!
What's May Day?

I'm in Nashville, TN today for a very special occasion. My best friend is having her baby today and I am at Baptist Hospital with her family in the waiting room.

So THIS May Day is very special! Hopefully it will also prove to be little miss baby's birthday!

I suppose there's a chance she could be born tomorrow - but we're crossing our fingers for mom and dad that they have less than 10 hours left before they get to meet her! And of course before I get to hold her!

Lea and Alice are back in Atlanta and I'm missing my girls big time but it's for great reason and the people I'm with are truly like family. <3

Re: S.A.L.vage, I got the shop in great shape before I left town. There are some new pieces, big and small.

Among the large pieces, there's now a 1950s wardrobe / dresser with two sliding doors hiding these small and very cool, roll-out drawers. They are cork lined! Below that, there are three big drawers for folded clothes. Very neat!

I also took a small, baby blue, vintage shopping cart. That's actually a piece I used for years in my home. I put linens, throw pillows, stuffed animals, etc. in it and that is really adorable too.

The month of April was a calm month at the shop overall - although I did well enough myself. Either way, in efforts to really move things, I've got everything priced to sell! A couple of pieces were reduced a bit and I'm ready to sell the big stuff and get some new energy in there!

If you still haven't been to Paris on Ponce, go! It's really a fun and inspiring place!

I'm attaching 1) "Impatient Face" and 2) 1950s wardrobe photos.

...May 1st, 2012. Let that be her birthday, please!

I wish I'd brought a book...

Quickie Update!

It's been beyond too long since my last post. The delay is silly but I have been busy!

The Grand Reopening at POP was lovely - I'd guess these were 300+ people there and that's what I call a success!

Sales are good. I'm contemplating taking some lingering larger pieces out for a while to rotate in new items. Still deciding about that.

I've been picking up some new smalls and got them all priced today to take to the shop tomorrow. Among them: vases, figurines, serving dishes, glass pipettes - *talk nerdy to me* - bookends, dishes and more. Here are a couple of cuties - one being that of a white Czechoslovakian horse in a Lego barn...thanks to the the others members of Team S.A.L. for that gem!

Go buy something!
xoxox
-S

I'm Obsessed

Mid-project self portrait.
Happiness is!

Really. I am kind of obsessed with the textile spools. This you will notice is the second post dedicated to them.solely.

I just wanted to post a quick 'before and after' image of the clean up that happened today.

Also - have to nod at the sheer joy of being able to spend my days doing things like this. Seriously. So exactly how I imagined this could work.

The chore of it:
Hardly. The sky was blue, temp near 80 (spring in Atlanta is by the way, my FAVORITE) and I was in spaghetti straps on the porch. Perfection. I was a hahahappy lady!

The beauty of it:
If I loved them before - I am beyond smitten now. The colors are even more beautiful. And where the repetition of shape attracted me to them in the first place, now that repetition is compounded (in a good way) in beautiful layers and layers and layers of paint that can now be appreciated. See the pink one below - after the clean up. Bottom center - it's like rings on a tree - so great! Big love. Obviously.

I 'shopped two quick before & afters to show the difference - just two I grabbed. Anyone love them as much as me?

Bueller...? Bueller...?

First batch is headed to POP tomorrow in time for the weekend. Go get 'em!

     

paint layers / close up

Why? Because They're AWESOME!

This weekend lent itself to scrappy, get-dirty-or-go-home picking and I had a B-L-A-S-T!

Favorite find: Industrial textile spools. Why? Because they're AWESOME!

This is where my intuition takes over and I see possibility in the unexpected. I am also incredibly attracted to repetition and when I saw a number of these beauties piled up I knew I had to make them mine...so they could be [yours].

I was with Lea, Alice and our great buddy Blair. I got facial question marks but insisted they were worth it. We crunched some numbers, I practiced my best bargaining and set out to make a deal.

I bought as many as I could afford and they're coming soon to the booth at Paris on Ponce. A little clean up + some creative and suggestive displaying will suit them well.

Yet another find that I'll have a hard time letting go...

Yummy, yummy gnarly repetition:

The shoe? That's for perspective: ~9 inches tall

Repetition = happiness.

What Tha...?

UGH! What tha...?

Well - I had a successful day but I just spent the last hour losing ebay auctions!

'Here's what' about me...If I'm sending a text / email / FB message, etc. and an error occurs, I usually stop and rethink whether or not I should really send said text / email / FB message, etc. I think of it as a second chance to make 100% sure I want to pull the trigger. Now - I don't send a a lot of dramatic emails or anything - so there's often no reason NOT to go ahead and "send it"...I'm just saying, that's how my brain works.

Making Rent

Everyone giving me advice about this venture kept saying "the first couple months you'll probably just 'make rent'..." That means, I'm only expected to make enough dough to cover the cost of the booth in the beginning.

Well - I'm happy to report I have already 'made rent' this month. In fact, I'd made rent by this past Saturday. SO - now on to bigger and better things...like 'making our home rent' and 'paying our bills'...

It Has Begun!

Brand new booth space going into the weekend!

I am so pleased to announce the booth at Paris on Ponce is open! I spent the majority of yesterday moving in my big stuff and organizing things in the space. 

Today was for moving in my smalls (of which I need a lot more) and pricing. I was a little torn about whether I had too many large pieces crammed in - but for now I'm leaving it all. The major goal was to get things to a good place for the weekend because we are driving to Nashville to visit my best friend and her husband this weekend.

I feel pretty good about the state of things - and I feel REAL good about being able to start fresh on Monday and tweak things. Vintage ashtrays are displayed on the second wall. I have another 15 or so to hang early next week. And I guess the wood slices are happening soon. But not right away. I'm exhausted. So happy it's over because that means it has begun!

Productivity While Standing Still

Well - it has been a week since I have posted a blog and by my standards that is unacceptable.

I'm sew sawry y'all!

The main reason for the delay is that I'm on hold regarding my booth move in. That's disappointing but understandable. The folks at Paris on Ponce are changing a LOT of things right now - I'm but a fraction of the change coming that way - so they're busy and still working on finalizing the new spaces. All that said - it's making me feel like I'm doing nothing...

But I am keeping busy. Maybe you have interest in what my life is like beyond the vintage...so here goes...

All in order, all in a day's uh - to-do list + thoughts and observations + useless fodder:

1. I Woke Up!
2. Crewcut Catalog
3. Thought on Procrastination
4. Bedding Blunder
5. Baah Humbug!
6. Camis for My Cub
7. Quiltorial
8. Succulent Propagation
9. Lea's Divine Dinner
10. Wow, Steven Tyler went there
11. Blogging Counts!

I am My Audience

I keep saying 'I am my audience'. Jury is still out as to whether or not that's a viable business strategy - but it's what I know and it's what feels right - so it's what I'm doing.

I'm shopping for and selling to people that like what I like, people that are drawn to the same lines, colors, and textures as I am. Also - people who are searching for a vision that they can't come to on their own. To that point, I care a lot about how I'm marketing this venture - the pieces I'm choosing to sell, my signage and booth decor, the way I talk about what I'm doing (here, on Pinterest and on FB)...even my price tags are a detail I'm super nerdy about.

I've designed a tag that I'd be drawn to...and I hope it serves my audience well. I want to scream the prices because - let's face it - that's the bottom line. I also want to provide details about the pieces - certainly if there's a known maker or designer - I want to educate my shoppers about that. I am conjuring up descriptions that are informative and fun. Such as - "Super collectible but more importantly - SEXY!"

As with everything I write - the descriptions are conversational - and hopefully not obnoxious. I chose to write them on my typewriter because 1) I never love my handwriting and 2) it's so charming and vintage all by itself.

Here's a peek. Enjoy!

Progress Part 2

Alright - so today is yesterday's tomorrow - and the day I said I'd attempt the log slicing again. It happened!

Lea and I worked on our front porch with the mitre saw for about four hours. The sad news is we still don't have enough effing slices!!! Grr.

We've decided we'll hang a large print on the wall directly so that we don't have to cover that area with rounds. Seems a little like a hasty short cut but I'm really not sure we have enough wood otherwise.

Today I cut around 300 slices and I have a plan to get the rest cut in the morning before Lea, my mom and I move all of my merchandise into the booth tomorrow.

*sigh* All that is real overwhelming and probably means I should go to bed...rhut now.

Real quick - here are some photos from our day:

Bag o' slices! 

Progress at Paris on Ponce!

Lea and I went to the shop yesterday (gahd, was that just yesterday?!?) and began decorating my two "walls". I love the way Skip (an owner) at Paris on Ponce has decided to delineate the vendor spaces in the area where I'll be. It's open and I think it will feel fluid for shoppers.

So - spaces are marked off by these great partition walls that they built. As a vendor, it's my job to decorate them - to give them personality - to set MYSELF and MY BOOTH apart.

I had a hundred ideas of what I might do from fiber art (i.e. - a friend suggested finger knitting a dozen + skeins of yarn to cover the whole wall) to a hand painted mural to to to...the list went on and I was having a hard time editing myself.

Operation: Poor Chair

I found this chair - er - partial chair a while back and wanted to save it (her)...to give her new life.

This was one that Lea shook her head at originally - i.e. "honey it only has two legs and no seat."

It was in someone's garbage but it had perfectly in-tact double caning around the sides and back...I just had to save it!

Fab Finds

Here's a little peek at some of the goodies I am bringing to Paris on Ponce next week.

1. Mid Century Corner Unit - bookcase / shelving / cabinets - lovely!
2. Mid Century coffee table - beautiful lines
3. Four Mid Century Teak Chairs (peeking out on the left) black vinyl seats.

Reindeer Cookie Jar(?)

Today Alice and I woke up and went to an estate sale in a nearby neighborhood. Most of the furniture was a bit traditional for my taste - about 30 years too old for my liking. Ha.

I did find one thing I had to have...

'Mrs. Crafty' if You're...

I've mentioned that I make things. Really - Lea and I both make things. It's a family affair, y'all!

In the past week we've worked on a couple of things worth sharing.

We're making bud vases out of some fallen Poplar near our home. Lea perfected this product when she made them as wedding favors for our nuptials last summer. Hang them on the wall or group on a table. Inside is a small bud vase - they're adorable. Simple and sweet. I'll post another picture when I get them hung at Paris on Ponce.

Better Luck Next Time

Last weekend I participated in Highland Row Antique's monthly market. They open early and stay late on the first Saturday of every month with a boat-load of new stuff each time. I was a guest-vendor of sorts since I don't have a booth with them. It was a learning experience. I hung out all day and didn't sell anything big.

*Poof*

How does one go about breaking into the business of selling vintage furniture and wares in a city with a well established antique market and audience?

It felt like a secret society but I knew this was what I wanted to do with myself so I created a "booth" in my home and took some pictures with Lea. Lea is a photographer...and that doesn't hurt. Ever.

 I know this business of "vintage" well as a consumer but when I began talking to people I realized I would have to sell someone on what my aesthetic would be as a vendor - hence the at-home booth, the photos and the subsequent PDF I toted around town on the iPad.

Paris on Ponce liked it, we talked about the vision of their business and how I could fit into it - and *poof* - I signed a renter's agreement and now I'm on the brink of this new adventure!

I am also confident there was a lot of "at the right place at the right time" - stars-sort-of-aligning energy hovering about the sky above my head as I began down this path.

Beginning

Well - to kick things off, welcome to the blog. I've never been behind the wheel of a blog devoted solely to whatever it is I want to share...so I'm as much welcoming myself as I am my (one day) audience.

I'm a vintage reseller and artist in Atlanta, GA and I need a way to share both my "inventory" and my craft. So I'm using this platform to share goodies of all kinds.

Things you should know: