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'!