Year-end analysis

While it is true that I've only been in my shop since September, I decided to do an analysis last night to see how my sales break down. Thanks to having everything on a spreadsheet already, it didn't take but a few minutes.

I divided my sales into smalls, furniture, and my vintage-inspired art. Smalls, which by far is the easiest to deal with in the booth only accounted for 15% of my total sales. I like smalls because they really do not entail much work out of me. Buy it, price it, place it.

Next in line is the furniture. This includes the furniture that I was fortunate enough to be able to purchase and place as well as those pieces that I have cleaned up, painted, and put my touch to. The furniture, which you would think would be my bread and butter, only accounted for 20% of total sales.

The largest catagory is my vintage-inspired art which is a whopping 65% of my sales. As an artist, this really charges the ego. Good for the ego, but it DOES keep me busy!

Half table is whole again

Note the big, black circle on this pretty half table. It is a deep burn mark. I wonder what caused it. I'm thinking that it might have been one of those infamous votive candles. It took a several applications of wood filler to fill that crater.
After a good sanding or two, or three, I applied a nice, clean coat of white paint and made sure that it crackled some. She looks so much better now. I lightly sanded certain areas in keeping with the history of this sweet table.

American Pickers ROCKS!

I have a new, favorite show. It's on the History channel and it's called American Pickers. It may be dangerous for me. I LOVE to junk and this show just feeds that desire. From honey holes to windshield time, get the inside scoop on picker lingo from Mike and Frank. They even have a DVD for sale.They know how to find all the "good junk" and I'm taking notes. Monday's just got fun!

I'm a JUNKMARKET Style member

After spending a good hour and a half checking out over 3,000 junking submissions, I decided that I should become a member of JUNKMARKET Style and start sharing some of the ideas that I have put together. It only seemed right to "give back" to other fellow junkers out there.
As it turns out, there are over 6,000 of us on this site ALONE. I submitted my shutter hall tree that I made last week.
So far, I've made one contribution to this site. Hmmm . . . .

Hurricane Ike Hall Tree

Back in September of 2008, hurricane Ike paid a visit to the upper Texas coast devastating everything in its path. Galveston was one of the areas which was particularly hard-hit. Ike had a pretty powerful storm surge. Not a good thing.

When I was on my buying trip to Round Top, I came across a glorious pile of architectural pieces. These pieces were all salvaged from Galveston by a Galveston resident after hurricane Ike paid its visit. All kinds of doors, pieces of gingerbread, windows - you name it. Enough to make you just absolutely drool. Drool, I did. I made myself quite a stack - a $200 stack.
Today, I finished the hall tree I've been working on. It is even wired up with a light! I had a super time designing it. In fact, I was so excited about it, I had trouble falling asleep!

In the pink

This is one of the items that Joy gave me back in October. I decided that this step stool was just begging to be painted pink. The color is called Fifties Pink and it is actually a mistint that I bought at half price. I don't know if it's anything like it was suppose to be, but it is a beautiful pink. It's so pink that it is almost flourescent!
Joy will be surprised to see how much it has changed! I'm going to take it to my shop in Corpus later this week. Just in time for Valentine's day.

and the winner is . . .

I enlisted the help of Baby Doll to draw the lucky winner. She had just woken up from her nap so she was still a bit cranky. It takes her awhile to be a polite member of society again. LOL
Congratulations, Caterina Giglio of La Dolce Vita. May each of you have a super, fantabulous 2010!!

Celebrating 300 with a giveaway!!

I am so honored that 300 of you are now following my blog through Networked Blogs!! To celebrate, I am hosting a giveaway.

I made a special art bottle to commemorate the occasion. Thanks to Photoshop, I was able to put my face on it and customize it a bit. It is an old picture of me. LOL It was taken during my 2nd Halloween. I use this picture on my blogs, online shops, etc. My Aunt Emma made the costume for me. She currently has a costume shop in Eufaula, Oklahoma.

Anyway, if you would like to be entered, please leave a comment and you will be entered once. If you would like to be entered twice, post this giveaway on your blog and then leave a 2nd comment with the words BLOG. I will randomly choose the lucky winner on Friday afternoon, Jan 1.

Merry Christmas!

Have yourself a very, merry Christmas!

The Junk Fairy blew me kisses

I didn't want to get out of bed yesterday. It was Saturday; my bed was so, so soft and warm. I stretched and stretched and finally made my feet hit the floor. I wasn't moving fast by any stretch of the imagination. My goal today was to get more of my Christmas shopping done and didn't feel like I wanted to rush into the madness.On the way to the mall, I stopped at an estate sale here in town. I didn't expect to find anything because it was already an hour into "half-price day". I made a bee line to the garage. Forget the furniture and household - my first order of business is usually the garage, shed, and outbuildings. I like the boxes of "treasures". You never know what you will find and I love the "thrill of the hunt". I don't even always take time to see what all is in the box. If it looks interesting at first glance, I pick it up and keep hunting. Let's just say that the Junk Fairy blew me kisses. I am a sucker for old door knobs, keys and the like. Can't seem to pass them up.
I also couldn't pass up a plastic bag full of plastic bags, full of Barbie accessories. They didn't have a price on them so I guess that is why they were still there. The assistant took the bag to the guy in charge and when she brought it back to me with the price, it was all I could do not to start grinning ear to ear in fear that he would change his mind.

Let's just say that I got all of this and more for less than the price of a large pizza and a drink. Yes, the Junk Fairy definitely blew me sweet kisses.