Category: Junking

Day two is over and done. We’ve joked about the lackluster grand opening. Customers have been steady enough, but I’ve had time to finish putting the inventory in the point of sale system and have had enough sales to start to get the hang of using it. I’m glad not to have had lots and lots of customers all at once. Couldn’t have handled that. Tomorrow, if the weather cooperates, should be the busy day.

The highlight of the day was getting to meet Rhoda at Southern Hospitality and Judy at Gracious Southern Living! How fun! They were great and it was wonderful meeting them. Naturally, I didn’t have my camera there, but they did. Horrors! They got pictures of three of us. My hair didn’t cooperate this morning, I didn’t have on cute-clothes and there I am, in all my short, chubby glory standing next to tall, thin Rhoda. I didn’t see the picture, but I’m pretty sure I looked stoopid. Even when I wasn’t 40 pounds overweight, I didn’t take good pictures. In a group picture, I’m usually the one with a goofy look on my face.

That’s about all I have to report today. I’m sleepy and boring right now. It’s time to call it a day.

G’night all,

Wanda

Finally! I can relax a bit. Over a hundred flyers were mailed, around 200 were placed in an antique mall, a shop and at an auction, about 80 were distributed where Ricky works, there was an ad in the newspaper and in the local classifieds paper. People trickled in all day. We were never swamped – thank goodness – and Erin got to go home and lie in the pool. I got to continue working on inventory and made some sales. I think it was a decent Thursday for the type business it is. I’m not complaining.

Lena and my friend, Melanie, helped with finishing up cleaning and fluffing last night and they each brought food. There’s no way I can thank them enough. They are great friends.

Lena came to the house and cut flowers out of our yard and arranged them to put all over the shop. I cannot arrange flowers. Period. I’m terrible at that. It’s definitely not one of my talents. I’m glad it’s one of hers.

Here are some pictures:

Flowers as you enter the door.

The front window. It’s so hard to take a picture looking out into the light. You can click to enlarge the picture. I think.

Erin made this from instructions on Stampington’s site. (The price tag is for the basket, not the banner,)

Bugs in the chocolate?

The garden room. My favorite room and the one that takes the best pictures.

The food and register table.

Kids type stuff shelves.

I might get a couple more pictures tomorrow, but the middle room, the room in the above picture, has horrible lighting even though I use daylight bulbs. Everything has a yellowish cast. The pictures don’t turn out very pretty. The front room hasn’t changed since the last pictures so long ago, but I might go ahead and take some pictures there.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings. I believe Saturday will be the busiest day. It should be, but whether or not that is what happens in reality remains to be seen.

It was an interesting weekend. I did make time for an antique dealer’s estate sale on Friday and an auction Saturday. Found some pretty interesting things. But first……….

Erin was here and went with Lena and me to the estate sale on Friday. We went in Lena’s Yukon. The sale, which was over an hour’s drive from here, was appropriately billed as a “man’s sale”. Lots of primitive type things, boxes full of our favorite kind of junk and all was nasty, nasty, grody, grungy, nasty, dirty, icky, did I say NASTY? But how fun!! I spotted an enamel top table I needed to replace a card table in the kitchen area at the shop, but asked Lena’s permission first. Was there enough room to put it in the Yukon? Sure! Go ahead!

We all three loaded up on smalls then Lena spotted a wonderful, primitive desk she wanted for herself. Uh, oh. How can we get all our junk, my table and that desk in the Yukon? Two young boys were there eager to help. Actually, I think they were eager to get to hang around Erin for a little while. They were scratching their heads on how to get everything in the vehicle. Doing the Star Trek Scotty thing. Captain, it can’t be done! It’s impossible! Then when he pulls it off, he looks like a hero. They worked and worked, but the only way it was happening was if all the seats were let down, leaving two seats for the three of us. Naturally, I didn’t have the camera with me. It was a sight to behold. Erin and I shared the passenger seat. Thank goodness she’s little. My behind, even sitting at an angle with half of it on the door took up most of the seat. The chubby boy thought it was pretty hot, though. Of course, I’d accidentally flashed a little boobage earlier which might have made things a little more appealing. No, it wasn’t that bad. I’d just leaned over a bit too far trying to make room for boxes. If they didn’t get a good view, they weren’t looking.

Even still, that wasn’t the weird happening of the day. Lena dropped us off at my house and we met her at the shop so I could unload my stuff. We were ahead of her by several minutes. When we pulled up, an elderly man was standing there looking at us and smiling. I got out, said hello and he said, “Well, I haven’t seen you in years!” “How are you?” He’s holding his arms out for a hug and I walked right into it. Gave him a hug, looked at him and told him I didn’t recognize him. He asked me where I went to church. “First Baptist, but I used to go to Oak Grove and Oldfield.” He said, “Odena?” “That’s where I know you from.” Me: “Oldfield, not Odena.” Him: “Yeah, I went there, too.” “I still sing in the choir.” I’m racking my brain and coming up blank, so I asked him his name. He told me and I was still drawing a blank. Then he dropped the bomb. He said, “I’m walking to Jack’s in this heat.” (Jack’s is an Alabama fast food place and a couple of blocks from the shop.) Then he looked at Erin and asked her if she’d drive him there. She looked at me like “Help!” And like, “Why did you talk to him?!” I just told him we were expecting someone to help us unload some furniture and I needed her help. He walked on. Poor Erin. She’s thinking he might have been looking for someone to chop up. I think he’s just got some dementia going on. He was dressed nicely and smelled like he takes regular baths, so he’s not too far gone, yet. Breaks my heart. He’s probably somebody’s grandpa.

So now here are some of the things bought:

I was excited about finding these.

That scalloped plate is, I was told, a dentist’s tray, but shhhhh. We’re going to pretend it’s a milk glass cake or sandwich plate. I loved the look of the yellow stool.

More things I was excited to get.

And my favorite, aluminum letters.

The grand opening. It’s next week!! June 12, 13 and 14. Ack! I’m still pricing things, making jewelry cards and digging out more jewelry. There’s a whole wall that looks yuck, and Ricky hasn’t brought his little boy things down, yet. He also needs to hang my sign, wire some speakers, put in a phone jack and lots of odds and ends. I don’t even have a phone, yet. That’s one reason I haven’t blogged lately. I’m down there all day and haven’t had time at night. Too, nothing much interesting has been happening, or if it did there was no time to talk about it.

Let’s see. We bought a bass boat sort of on the spur of the moment. Someone Ricky knew was selling it at a good price and he wanted it. We’ve had it at least a month, but haven’t had a chance to put it in the water.

Erin’s having a dental implant and I’ve had to be on hand with the credit card. Whole days I should have been working in the shop. But I don’t mind. It’s for my baby.

Lena went to NYC – lucky duck – and I was on animal duty two times last weekend. Twelve cats and four(?) dogs. But that all went well. One geriatric cat slipped by me and escaped laundry room confinement, but he was pretty easy to catch.

Oh! I did go to an interesting sale last Thursday. It was hair day, so I was going toward Birmingham anyway and this sale was 10 miles or so away from the salon as the crow flies, but a long time traveling when you have to travel highways, stop at red lights and battle traffic.

The sale advertised a huge doll collection (they did not exaggerate), depression glass and lots of other things — all “priced to sell”. Ha! We all know what that means. “Priced to sell” is very subjective. I ended up with little nick-nacky stuff. Figurines and such. A couple of small pictures, a small McCoy pitcher. Just stuff. But I did pick up a Westmoreland milk glass set. It was a basket bowl with a lid that had eggs molded in with a yellow chick on top as the knob. There were 4 chick egg cups with it, 6 pieces in all. Marked $12.00. I thought I might could get $40 or $50 for it and thought I’d take the $12 chance. I took everything to the check out table and when they got to that set, the lady working the adding machine was a little surprised. She thought it was more than that, but the lady wrapping said, “No, the tag says 6 pieces, $12.00”. I wrote the check and the wrapping lady continued to wrap. Slowly.

Just as she got through and I was about to leave, another lady came back and said the price for the chicks set was wrong. It was supposed to be $125.00!! ! Gasp! In shock, I said “Ooo! I want my $12 back”. Then I chuckled and said I was hoping I could sell it for $40. They didn’t find that funny. “Oh, no. It’s worth a lot more than that.” I got the first check back, wrote another minus the $12 and was on my way. As I was walking to the car, the shock wore off. “Heyyyy, wait a minute!” If I’d done that in the shop or on the web site, it would have been tough luck for me. I wouldn’t dream of saying pay the price it should have been priced at or give it back. I thought about going back and telling them that and calling it to their attention how nice I was about it and just anybody wouldn’t have taken it so lightly. But by that time I had 10 minutes to make a 20 to 30 minute drive, so I didn’t.

Once home I did a little research. $70 seems to be the going price for the set. I wonder if they ever sold it?

That’s about it for me. Just work.

Catch ‘ya later.

Wanda