Three States, Seven Antique Malls

This spring, we made our annual road trip to Florida to visit our son and his girlfriend.  They're in southwest Florida and it seems like it takes forever to get there, so we take breaks out of the driving time to stop at antique malls along the way...what could be better?

I took lots of pictures of the malls, the booths and their items, but most of my pictures have disappeared into cyberspace (perhaps they've been hijacked by antiquing aliens...I have no idea where they went)!  I've borrowed a few of the following from the internet to make up for it.

The first stop, on the first day, was in Kentucky.  We visited with my 93 year old aunt in Cincinnati (my hometown), had lunch at Skyline Chili and then headed across the Ohio River to Florence Antique Mall.  We'd been there before and I always look forward to it, but I'd never seen it so junk-y!  This time, it seemed like there were lots more of the newer flea market items -- newer Hot Wheels, newer Beanie Babies and lots of stuff from the 2000s, clearly made in China.  I bought a couple of items for my Etsy shop, but really wasn't impressed, and I don't think we'll bother to arrange a day around that mall again.

Next stop, on the second day, was Big Peach in Byron Georgia.  There again, it was much more junk and many more 'craft' booths than I remembered from past years.  I don't know if I'm becoming more of a discriminating shopper or the sellers have changed....maybe a bit of both.  There are also several dealers at Big Peach who sell reproductions and don't identify them.  I don't have a problem with repros at all, as long as they're clearly marked and priced accordingly.   One of the booths had shelves full of new jadite, priced as vintage.  Big Peach was really disappointing and we felt like it was another day's stop wasted.

I liked this clothespin bag, but couldn't be sure it was vintage and it was priced pretty high, too.  I think I'll copy it, though, using vintage feedsack...it just so cute!

A fun way to use old pillowcases

On the third day, we stopped at a new mall, Ocala Antiques and Estates.  It was not only 'new to us', but seemed like a newly opened mall, as well.  The staff were really friendly and nice and there was a good variety of items, plus LOTS more 'man-tiques' than we usually see at a mall.  It's not huge (about 15,000 sq feet), but worth a short stop if you have time.  I don't know if we'll go there again, just because it's fairly small and there were more primitives and true 100-year-old antiques than we're interested in.

lots of man-tiques and stuffed animals in this big booth

I found some really nice kitschy, made-in-Japan figurines at Ocala -- we were glad we'd stopped.

As we went farther south in Florida, we saw a couple of billboards for Traditions Antiques in Wildwood.  Apparently there's a second, really big mall there -- Wildwood Antiques -- but we ran out of time and didn't drive the additional mile to get there.

Traditions was a very pleasant surprise, after the disappointments of Florence & Big Peach!  It's advertised as about 30,000 square feet and it's really big -- several rooms (the main room has a balcony full of booths) and aisle ways that go on and on.  There was an interesting variety of items and booths, from fine china and furniture to mid-century kitsch.  The owner was really friendly (and funny, too) and the staff nice, as well.  We added it to the 'go back again' list and thanked them for having TWO billboards -- one to get our attention and the second one to get the details of where to exit.

We stopped at Webb's Antiques in Lake City, Florida on our way back home.  It's really big, but it seems an inconsistent mix of some nice booths and a lot of the downright junk-y.  One thing I noticed this time is that Webb's is the place to buy in bulk, if you're looking for a lot of one type of item, as so many of the booths looked almost like wholesalers.  Check some of them out:

Need a bottle (or two or three hundred)?

I only found two things that I couldn't leave behind -- both tiered tidbit trays (and both really dirty and needing a good scrubbing!)  Of course, they were in a booth that had at least 20 other tidbit trays, too...Webb's dealers must buy in bulk!

Our last stop was Gateway Antiques in Ringgold, Georgia and I felt like we saved one of the best for last.  We'll definitely always try to stop there in the future!  It was clean and bright with lots of variety in the booths, which were also really well 'staged' (no junk just piled on the floor).

My photos from Gateway are among the missing, so these pics are from their website.  There's an interesting booth there that's not on their site...it's actually a large room and doubles as a military museum.  There are military artifacts from the Civil War through World War II (or maybe Vietnam, though I didn't see any) and some of them are really rare (with prices to match).  It was fascinating just to walk around and look at them.

I liked this mobile hanging over the center staging of gardening stuff, right inside the door

A cool way to use vintage yardsticks

Right by Gateway Antiques is Antiques by the Fountain (named that because there's a fountain inside).  It was much smaller than Gateway and almost all newer homegoods, displayed really well.  It would be a great place to shop to decorate your home if you didn't want vintage, but not as much for the collector.

Don't be fooled by the door with the OPEN sign...follow the arrow around to the side door

So we've crossed two or three malls off of our list, added a couple of new ones and got some great stuff along the way...all part of a fun road trip!

All Good Things Must Come to an End...

I debated about the title for this blog post...

Some options were "I'm outta here", "Elvis has left the building" and "Free at Last" because, after 5+ years, I'm leaving the antique mall next week.  It's been a good five years and I've learned a lot...about merchandising, staging, selling and about myself!  I've learned that it's not a good thing to try to sell things you don't love, that if an item isn't selling you should move it to the opposite side of the booth (and it usually sells within days), that I can't ever get hankies to sell in my booth and that I don't like selling in a mall as much as online. 

I'm looking forward to focusing on the Etsy shop, a new website and this blog (instead of a post every week or two -- or more -- there will, hopefully, be several posts a week).  

Next Thursday and Friday are the pack-up and move-out days.  Then I'm going to have the 'mother of all yard sales' to sell anything that won't go into the Etsy shop and all the furniture stockpile from the barn (and there's a lot there!).  We're getting a new flock of baby chicks and have to make room for them to have a pen in the barn in a few weeks.  

I'll let you know how it goes and (hopefully) will have pictures of my progress (and the chicks, of course).  Thanks for going along for the ride!

Things Don't Always Work Out...

A year ago, I was busy fixing up a second booth at the antique mall, right next to my original booth.

The second booth on move in day.  Check out the ugly walls!

Week one, moved in -- trying to live with the green walls.  Bad idea

Two booths seemed like a great idea at the time!  I wanted to have more room for furniture and larger pieces, have one booth be more mid-century than the other, and (hopefully) clean out the barn and reduce inventory in the basement.

Week three, right after I painted the walls...with everything still in it, of course (why do it the easy way if you can make it more difficult?)

Things don't always turn out the way you expect them to, do they?
*The furniture moved very slowly -- even though the economy is better, most people seem hesitant to spend the bigger $$ and are more likely to buy smalls.  *No matter how popular mid-century is everywhere else, it's a slow mover in our little pocket of Michigan.  What sells well in Ann Arbor or Royal Oak just sits at the mall (I see this in the other mid-century booths, as well, so I know it's not just my stuff).  The only exception is kitchenware and Pyrex, in particular.  *The barn got a lot more empty, but the basement didn't.

Last weekend, I moved out and went back down to one...

One of the five car loads of junk merchandise leaving the mall...

It was much easier to move everything out than in...
I took out things from both booths that had been there a while, which are now destined for the resale shop or thrift donation (it's always funny to see my own items at Salvation Army!)  As much as could fit in the remaining booth was moved in.  Everything else was sorted into the right box for resale, future mall sale or donation.  5 car loads later, it's all back in the garage, barn and basement, so I'm right back where I started.  Except that I'm MUCH wiser!

Move out day.  (I think I left it looking better than when I got it)

It's hard not to feel a little bit defeated, though I'm choosing to take the 'Thomas Edison' point of view...now I know what doesn't work, so I can concentrate on what does!

Everything that could fit in #165 is in there -- it's bursting at the seams!  I don't think I've ever had so much stuff on the walls.

Here's a funny thing, though...Just to show that I'm completely addicted to vintage, as I'm leaving the mall with car load #5, I see something I just have to have -- this very cool styrofoam sleigh!  My car was so full that it had to ride in the front seat, but it still came home with me.  I can't quite decide what to do with it.

I might fill this sleigh with wrapped boxes and put it on the front porch or to one side of the fireplace near the tree.  

I owe a HUGE thank you to Mr. KV, who took a day off of work on Friday and gave up his Saturday to help me move stuff, hauled tables, chests of drawers and bins around, kept me focused and on-task, and took several carloads back to the house.  Pretty nice for guy who wanted stuff to go away rather than come back.  That's true love!

Painting and Pricing and Worn Out!

I'm running out of time to get things prepped for the new booth (if the previous dealer vacates on time, I'll move in the day after tomorrow).  I've spent the past several weeks sorting and pricing items and painting furniture from the barn.  Mr. KV is really excited, hoping that the 'hoarder's heaven' in the barn will retreat and we'll be able to see the walls again.  I'm not so sure, but I don't want to burst that bubble of hope, so I don't tell him.  I know that more will arrive to take its place (I have NO idea how it gets there...)!

The barn, before...

The girls don't care what I do, as long as I don't start storing stuff in their coop

My side of the garage is full of tables, shelves and chests of drawers in various stages of being painted.  I've been making my own chalk paint, which I don't think is quite as nice as the commercial brands, but it's so much less expensive!  I shop the 'oops' bin at Home Depot every time I go and usually find some interesting colors in their small sample sizes, which are just the right amount for a batch of chalk paint.

Waiting to be painted (not the white cabinets -- they're great just as they are)

I'm getting Christmas stuff ready for the new booth.  This choir boy is one of my favorites, along with the home-made porch candles.  

The white bench needs a top and I just have to choose which vintage fabric or barkcloth I can give up.  I hate to ever cut them and give them away -- I'm such a fabric junkie!

making progress

These two turquoise pieces will be mod podged with some map pages.  I'm not finished with them yet, so the 'after' pictures are still to come.  I'm really having fun doing things with maps and globes!

The two-tone drawers on this little chest REALLY bother me, but the green is great!  Why would anyone leave just two drawers and the knobs unpainted?  They must have been getting in touch with their artistic side....  I looked into getting a complementary green for the opposite drawers, but it ended up costing too much to make it worthwhile for resale.  Instead, I found a perfect shade in a sample size to match the green and am going to paint just the two odd drawers (but not the knobs).  I might paint the knobs antique white, but I'll probably end up leaving them alone.

Mr. KV and I will be moving things into the new booth Saturday morning (Lord willing and the other dealer moves out...)  One thing we're taking in is a mid-century metal office desk that we've had all of our married life (37 years...).  Neither one of us can remember where we got it, but we know it was when we were newlyweds and one of our offices remodeled, so we got it for free.  It's so cool -- seafoam green with a formica top and all the style of the 60s.  It's in near-mint condition, even though we've moved it to 5 states.

I'll post pictures of the booth next week when the dust settles.  There might even be a barn picture where you can see the walls, but don't count on it!

Make It Work

I took a leap of faith this month...I commited to rent a second booth at the antique mall.  I'm really a nervous-nellie about it and am worried about making the higher rent every month.  I hope that having twice as much stuff there will generate at least twice as much income.  After all, I can't sell it when it's in my basement (or barn...or garage...or car), can I?

The new booth is right next to my current one and I'd originally wanted them to knock down the wall between, which turned out to not be possible.  They were going to cut a 7 foot wide opening in the wall for me, but I decided against that.  My thinking is that, while it might make it interesting to link the two, it really presented some logistical & arrangement problems and lost me a lot of wall space.

My goal is to get rid of a lot of the furniture I have in the barn and haven't had room for in my current booth.  I also want to have more themes and vignettes in the new one, starting with more clothing & fashion items and lots and lots of Christmas.

That all sounds great, doesn't it?  There's a saying that 'if you want to make God laugh, make plans' -- so true, and I was reminded of it again this week...
I was supposed to move in on October 1, but a management mix-up left the current dealer in place until October 31, so now I don't get in until November 1.  I'd been getting so much stuff ready to take in and it;s all set up in piles everywhere in the basement.  Now we have to walk around it (and work around it) for another month.  What a mess, and what a disappointment!

I went to the mall on Sunday and only took in the few things that I could locate and was sure were for the old booth.  I feel like it's starting to look stale and I don't want shoppers to feel like they've seen it all before, but now I can't freshen it by moving some of it 'next door' as I'd intended.  I'm a big fan of Project Runway and I could just feel Tim Gunn standing next to me with his arms crossed, looking at my tired booth and saying 'It just looks like something we've all seen before.  This is a make-it-work moment for you, so get busy'!

I rearranged everything in the middle of the booth. As I did that, one employee walked by and told me how cute the kids' table and chairs were and 'did you just bring them in?'  Funny, because they'd been in my booth for 3 months!  Rearranging is always a good idea.

Anyway, here's what my 'make it work' booth looked like when I left...

This is the little table that had been there 3 months, but no one had seen...hopefully they will now.  The souvenir trays in the little suitcase were another thing that just didn't have a place to land.  They're totally out of sync with the kids stuff, but it just had to be that way.

I could only bring in a few Christmas items, but these candles had to leave the garage -- Mr. KV was tired of tripping over them!

 The Delphos Bending Co. horse bouncer was the last straw & the final 'make it work' moment!  I was all finished and had nowhere to put him.  I got some cardboard and taped it to the rails so he could sit on top of the cabinet.  Maybe after being tucked under almost every table in the booth someone will see him up high.

I'll take pictures and post when the new booth is empty.  For now, the basement is just going to have to look like 'Hoarders' Heaven'!

Thrift Shoppers Anonymous?

A friend pointed out to me yesterday that I hadn't posted in a while.  When I looked at the date of my last post, I could hardly believe it!  June 14 -- more than 2 weeks ago! 

I've been so busy, but have really missed writing here (and catching up on all of your  posts).   I took a week off of work because our vacation year ends on June 30 and I still had 6 days left (they'd be gone if I didn't take them).   The most wonderful part was that I stayed home and tackled several projects I'd been putting off. 

I got so much work done!  One day I reorganized my booth (with some very valuable advice from my friend Sandy -- the Booth Whisperer).  It needed an major overhaul, so I brought some things home, took some new stuff in and seriously rearranged.  I'd gotten tired of looking at the items that weren't selling and if I'm sick of them, I'm sure the shoppers are, too.  The mall was getting ready to have their 10 year anniversary sale and I gave 20% off just to move some things out.  Sandy encouraged me to bring in a metal cabinet and put it in the middle (I never would have thought of that), as well as a really cool industrial cart I had at home.   Here's what the booth looked like when we were finished:

  I spent a day and a half ironing -- do you believe it?  I ironed 20-25 dish towels, 4 sets of cloth napkins, at least 20 aprons and about 15 tablecloths.   Then I took a little suitcase I'd bought for display and the industrial cart and filled them with dish towels and tablecloths. 

I love this little Knickerbocker bear from the 50s and the way he looks with the dishtowels

  I really need to get a hanging rack to display the aprons.  A friend who lives in Minnesota is going to cut out the base for me (as soon as I draw up the plans and send them to him).  He's a great woodworker and does such careful, beautiful work that I'm sure my hanging rack will be the Sistine Chapel of display-ware!

I haven't been shopping much at all, as working on my 'storage' space (that's a fancy term for piles of stuff) has allowed me to see all the great things I'd bought but forgotten about.  So, other than a few trips to the local thrift and some stops at garage sales, which were almost not worth the gas, I've been keeping my money in my wallet.

At the sales last week I picked up this nice enamel farm table and Santa with one reindeer:

I think Santa needs some work -- like all good Christmas things, he's 'some assembly required'

It's hard to slow down on shopping!   I've finally realized that being a thrift shopper is like being a compulsive gambler:  you're always sure that the next great bargain is at the next sale!  I think there needs to be a Thrift Shoppers Anonymous, because finding great stuff is addictive.   Now I've got to close...my estatesales.net and auctionzip emails just hit my inbox...  

Mid-Michigan's Largest Indoor Flea Market?

I had a free day on Saturday, so I decided to drive about an hour northwest to a sale in a K of C (Knights of Columbus) hall.  The sale was billed as 'Mid-Michigan's Largest Indoor Flea Market'.  It wasn't a total frog, but it certainly wasn't a prince, either!  If it's the largest indoor flea market, mid-Michigan is setting the bar pretty low and stepping right over it!

They said there were 100 dealers -- I think there were more like 50 -- and 2/3 of them were selling new things like cheap college logo throw-blankets, $1 Made in China flashlights, and Beanie Babies (which I just lump together under the heading 'tube socks').  There were LOTS of 'tube socks'!  Of the 1/3 vintage dealers, most were WAY overpriced!  I got a few things, though -- especially from one dealer who has a booth at Williamston Antiques, I think. 

I like the A.H. Perfect Coffee can -- I've never heard of that company (midwest-based), but it's still pretty.  I think the bank in the front might turn out to be the buy of the day!  I found a similar one online that an antique dealer wants $130 for, claiming it's from the mid to late 1800s.  I think that's a ridiculous price (and they OBVIOUSLY hadn't found anyone to buy it for that much), but who knows?  My favorite thing is the white poppies California Pottery teapot.

A lot of old spice tins, 2 ink bottles a waxed cardboard cottage cheese container, an old Pabst-ette Cheese container and a Royal Winton plate.  I really like the plate, with its tartan bow in the corner. The pattern is called Ye Olde Innes -- how very Scottish!

Some very pretty yellow & white dishware -- no maker's mark

  After the flea market, I went to a private estate sale that was right up the road.  I was almost afraid to go into the house, because the only sign was a hand-written one with marker on a piece of poster board right between 2 driveways.  I was worried that I'd go to the wrong house, but in the end the thrill of the hunt overpowered my possible embarrassment.  It was the right house, but the wrong stuff!   It sounded like most of the good buys had gone out the door early (though I got there about 2 hours after it opened) and almost everything left was also overpriced.   I think too many people watch Antiques Roadshow!  I got a metal canister set that needs LOTS of work, though, a few things from the 25¢ bin and 2 old suitcases that are both a little flawed (super cheap). 

They look nicer than they are...

After the flea market and estate sale, I took the long way back to the antique mall and fluffed my booth and still got home by about 3:00.  All in all, I'd driven about 120 miles round trip and I'd say I'd almost kissed a frog and never found a prince -- BUT the sun was out and it was a pretty drive over the back roads.  Not a bad way to spend a Saturday at all!