This was how the space looked when the Market opened. The area under the canopy and the open space on the right are mine.
This year, I had to rent a small U-Haul truck to transport merchandise to the show ... picked up the truck on Thursday afternoon, and I borrowed the young man from next door to help me load the largest and heaviest pieces. The rest of Thursday was spent consolidating smaller items and continuing to load things into the truck. I was feeling good about my progress and I was confident that Friday (set up day) would go smoothly.
The first thing to sell was this black coffee table. The rattan daybed in the background got a lot of attention, and it sold on Saturday afternoon. None of the pillows did, though.
On Friday morning, I saw that I had missed a call and then received a text message from the person who was supposed to share the space and work the booth with me on Saturday. She was unable to get things together and she was having to cancel, and she apologized profusely for the late notice.
Customers loved the bags and my husband's paintings, but none of them sold.
I tried hard not to panic. My carefully laid plan had fallen completely apart, and I had to do what I could to put together a new plan. Called my husband, who had already made arrangements to take an earlier flight home from his business trip in Phoenix ... new flight arrived at 3pm, instead of the original 9:30pm ... he would come straight to Lucketts from the airport to help me unload and set up. I also would need him to help me run the booth during the show. For this to happen, I had to arrange for someone to come to the house to let our dogs out in the afternoon ... my mom volunteered. New plan in place, all I had to do was get to it.
This hutch didn't sell either. Again, lots of comments and compliments, but no takers.
Friday afternoon set up at Lucketts was hectic, but fairly well organized. The area had received an enormous amount of rain overnight, with floods and roads closed in the area. Many of the vendors at the market were unable to drive their vehicles to their booth space to unload. Mine was in a spot that was higher and dryer, thank goodness. Pretty much as soon as I had parked the truck and set up the canopy over the space, my husband arrived and the rest of the unloading and set up went perfectly.
How could someone resist this vanity desk with its original Bakelite handles? It came home with me.
Saturday morning, we arrived early to tweak the arrangement of merchandise and price the last few items before the show opened. The sale day itself was very busy, with beautiful weather, steady traffic of customers, and brisk sales. Both of us were so tired at the end of the day, but pleased with how it went. The only hitch in the day was that Winnie doesn't know my mom too well yet, and she hid in her crate and quivered and wouldn't come out. Mom did the right thing by reaching in and dragging Winnie out when it was time for her to potty. (remember that Winnie only has one tooth, so Mom wouldn't have been hurt if Winnie had tried to bite her ... which she didn't.) Ruby, on the other hand, LOVES her grandmother and she bounced and barked and was very happy to see her.
This was the booth on Sunday afternoon. The Queen Anne ottoman, bucket of balusters and the little mirrors sold later, but nothing else.
Sunday sales were a bit quieter, mainly because we sold so much on Saturday and the booth was fairly empty. Furniture was the toughest item to sell for everyone at the Market, and that's what we mostly had left on Sunday. It was my nicest pieces, too, which were very well priced. They just weren't what anyone was looking for. Oh, well.
No takers for either of the compass rose tables. Sales of the vintage flannel shirts went well, though ... and so did sales of my husband's books about how draw super heroes.
The Market closed at 5:00, and we were packed and loaded and pulling out of the lot at 6:30. Breaking down the show was a bit hectic, as some vendors ignored the instructions on where to park and we didn't have access to our aisle to bring the truck next to the booth. Fortunately, our space is near the parking field and we parked the truck as close as we could hand-carried our stuff over to it.
Expenses were higher for me this year, having had to rent a truck this time, but I still did okay with sales and made enough extra money so I felt okay about it. Almost. I have decided that I will not do this show again. It's too far away from home, too much work that takes my attention away from my garden in the middle of rose season, and it's just not worth the stress and effort.
This is what the truck looked like after we packed up the booth on Sunday. Large pieces are still here, but many of the smaller and more unique things went to new homes.
Did I buy anything while I was there? With so many vendors with such great things for sale, I saw a lot of stuff that I wanted to bring home with me. There was only one thing, though, that I loved enough to buy ... a pair of vintage 16-pane picture windows that will be a perfect addition to the north wall of my Shack.
I am absolutely thrilled to have these, and I can't wait to repair the missing putty and give them a fresh coat of paint.
Now it's time to turn my attention back to my real love, my garden. The early roses are starting to bloom, and the weeds are growing like, um, weeds. I don't even mind, because now I have nothing standing in the way of continuing my work toward reclaiming my garden from the past years' neglect. If you need me, you'll find me outside ... digging in dirt where I'm happiest.
(All of the items that survived the Market are available for sale. If you're interested, let me know.)
