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Hello, remember me?

What is wrong with me?! It seems like I can never find time to blog any more. I do have a promise that today’s the day I get a phone jack at the shop, though I’m not holding my breath. It’s been promised for at least two months now.

The kids came for a visit, my son and daughter-in-law. They got here Saturday and left this morning. It was a very nice visit. We thoroughly enjoyed having them and Reggie the Dog. Buster the Cat is glad to see his doggie cousins (Ross the other granddog were here two days) gone, but we’ll miss them all.

Things are going well at the shop. Several major furniture pieces have been sold and I haven’t been able to replace them, yet. With the kids coming home Saturday, we couldn’t go to the auction Saturday night, so Lena and I went Thursday and left bids. I only won one thing, a little, drop leaf, sewing table/desk. Naturally, it was the thing I least wanted and the piece that will not hold lots of stuff. I believe if I had been at the auction I might have managed to get something more useful. I’ll show a picture of the little desk when I pick it up at the next auction.

I uploaded pictures of some things bought in June. Much more has come in since then, but those pictures aren’t on this computer.

Edit: All the pictures for this post have disappeared! They seem to be forever lost.

 


The 2 little chalk dogs have already been adopted.
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Can’t resist these baskets.
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This chair has a story. A friend, but competitor was 15 seconds ahead of me walking into a sale. As I was walking up the steps I heard her saying, “I’ll take that and that and that……” I was in urgent, is she getting everything, I’ve got to buy something mode. I’m not very comfortable buying furniture. I always mess up somehow and really don’t know what the prices should be. I stood over this chair, wiggling it, seeing that it wasn’t very sturdy and asked the price. He told me, then I said it wasn’t sturdy, there seemed to be a dowel missing or something, would he take less. He did “since I’d have to work on it”. It wasn’t until I got it in the shop later that morning that I saw the back leg had been totally broken off and repaired with metal brackets:

You can have this beauty for your foyer – just for looks – for $50.00. Not exactly the profit I was hoping for.
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Large Italian glass vase. How do I know it’s Italian? I saw the red Made in Italy sticker before it was washed down the drain. Sigh.
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This lamp has a story, too. Lena and I had gone to some sales in Birmingham. This one was in a small basement and didn’t have much. You also couldn’t tell what was for sale and what wasn’t. I spotted this lamp on a washing machine and tried to get the seller’s attention. He and another man were having a lively conversation, so I stood by the table, hoping he’d realize I needed help. I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. After being ignored for a couple of minutes, I threw up my hands and loudly said, “Oh, forget it. Let’s go.” Well that got his attention! He apologized, but by that time, I just didn’t care about the lamp any more. Lena was determined then I wasn’t leaving without the lamp. She asked him how much and he didn’t know! “The kids” were running the sale. But he ended up making me a very good deal and I left with the lamp. Of course, now I realize I’ll have to take it apart and try to clean the brass or replace some of it if it won’t clean. Some deal.
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She’s found another home already, too.

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Oh! It’s almost time to open up and my hair’s still wet and I’ve got to fix my lunch and stop by the grocery store! I think these pictures will be too big for the space in the blog. I’ll have to fix that when I have more time.
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OK, OK……

Yeah, yeah, yeah……. I get it. It’s been over a week and I left the typo in last week’s title. Sigh. That’s fixed. Lena wins the prize for mentioning it. I did it on purpose to see who’d call my attention to it. Ha! Yeah, right. But I did realize it was there a couple of days ago, but was too lazy to change it.

I just can’t seem to get motivated to blog. Got out of practice and can’t get back in the groove. I do have pictures of last week’s sales, but didn’t get them uploaded. It’s like once I get home from the shop, I don’t want to do anything like that. But internet is coming soon to the shop! That’ll give me something to do during the chunks of time no one’s in there shopping.

And speaking of the shop, I’ve got to buy some furniture this weekend! Four major pieces have sold. Pieces that hold a whole lotta stuff. Word is getting out naturally, slowly and surely. Just the way it should.

We’ll see what the sales hold this weekend. Lena and I are going out in the morning.

That’s about all I’ve got. Nothing much has been happening around here.

Getting back to watching Reno 911. Best show on TV. LOL

Wanda

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A near miss

Whew! I had a near disaster yesterday! No, nothing to do with the picture above. I just thought I’d throw that in because I haven’t used any pictures lately. This horror story has to do with the computer, printer and my point of sale software. I’m using a DOS program by Dale Harris. It’s free and does a great job. I worked days on end putting in the over 1500 items with their stock number, brief description and price. Lena came a few mornings and called them out to me. Erin helped a day or two, but mostly I went around, wrote them on a piece of paper then typed them in. One……at……a……..time.

I hadn’t hooked up the printer, not having the correct cable. Wal-Mart, our only local source for that kind of thing, didn’t have the exact cable I needed, but had one that would work. How was I to know it wouldn’t work with the software? Oh, it said so in the software set up, but I don’t understand technical stuff like that. I got it hooked up, tried to print and the program froze. I could not get back in. Scared me to death. I didn’t know what to do. I worked with it all afternoon and finally resigned myself to starting over from the beginning. Groan. But this story does have a happy ending.

When I got home I looked on the software’s site and saw there was a new version, so I downloaded it, took off back to the shop, uploaded it and was somehow able to get into the program. Oh, man! I can’t tell you how relieved I was! I was even able to configure the printer so I can print receipts now. Yeah!

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I’m liking having a shop. It’s never been so fun to sell things. Before the only reason I sold anything was so I could buy more. That’s still the driving force, but there’s something about people coming into your blood, sweat and tears shop, loving it and the things in it and taking something home. I never liked selling at the flea market. You’d think the feeling would be similar, but it’s not. This is special. Now I need to figure out what my hours and days will be. The one weekend a month has gone bye-bye. I’ll still do that, but want to open weekdays, too. I still won’t give up my other weekends. Can’t give them up or I’d never have any new merchandise. At the same time I don’t want to be there all day every single day of the week. I’m over thinking this, though. I just need to let it evolve on it’s own. I’ll know what to do when it’s time to do it.

I won’t be open tomorrow or Tuesday the 8th. Friend and daughter obligations. Tomorrow’s thing begins early and I’m getting sleepy, so I’d better hit the sack. Oh, I did see that there are some sales tomorrow I can attend. I’m excited about that since Saturday will be pretty limited. More about that later.

Wanda

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Just chillin’

Oh, how strange it feels to just relax. Do nothing. Niiiice.

Saturday was busy enough. Again, a steady trickle with quite a few sales. On the entry forms for the giveaway, there was a list to check where they heard about the shop. It seemed to be pretty equal between the newspaper, the local classifieds and word of mouth. The “targeted” mailing brought in the least. Hmmmmmm.

Congratulations to the winners of the three, $25 gift certificates: Jeanette White, Debbie Melofsky and Sharon Craft.

Now I’ve got to get a phone line in with internet and get busy adding all that merchandise to the web site. I’d prefer doing it all there instead of having to bring it home to finish. I also want to do my blogging from there. The routine will have to evolve. Anyway, it’s good to know this past weekend is behind me and life can begin to get back to sort of normal.