Wow, two blog post in two days, the world may now officially come to an end, LOL!
Back home again after two very good days in St Charles and we met a whole lot of new friends as well. Another wonderful outing! I am still saying silent thank you's as the weather is holding and it was beautiful here in Illinois, 48 degrees and sunshine instead of the typical horrific snow storms we always have had this week in past years.
After every show we finish, I always do a recap, what we sold, how I perceived people reacting to our merchandise and what conversations took place, so as to prepare for the next show. It has always been a standing rule in all my businesses that you really need to listen to what is and isn't being said in your store to get a feeling for what the customer is truly looking for. So, to that end, I try to talk to everyone that stumbles into our little world. Today, I heard the best line ever I think.
I approach a nicely dressed woman who was looking at our brown paper packages line and she asked if I made all the flowers and butterflies that were displayed on our primitive wooden ironing board. I told her yes they were mine and that I tried to introduce at least one new flower every show and a new butterfly every other show so as to keep my little garden fresh with nice package trims. Operative word here, try . . . .
She was very complementary and told me how much she liked all the different pieces. And then she said, very sincerely I might add, " You are truly talented, all these things are really so pretty but boy, it must be so very noisy in your brain, with all those ideas trying to get out."
I started laughing and she did too, and I told her she couldn't have been closer to the truth if I had written it out for her. It's true, some days, there is a real traffic jam up there trying to format all the ideas into reality and other days . . . there is NOTHING, nadda, zilch, buptkus, zero. It is so maddening at times. You never really know who is going to show up and whether or not is is really going to work. An honest to goodness crap shoot from the get go.
But then, there are times when it really does work, like today with our old rusted bed springs. We sell quite a few of them, mostly to people who have absolutely no idea what they are going to do with them but just love the idea of having one. True, that's what most of them say! It is so funny to hear that sometimes as I am packaging them up.
So to help everyone get a clue, I came up with this idea and boy, was it ever a hit today.
A simple bud vase made with a test tube with our rusted bed spring. A big thank you to our next door show neighbor, Jeanine ( I need a French cruller now ) from Chippy Shabby. She always has fresh flowers in her booth and she graciously shared a beautiful Shasta daisy with me for this. It was so simple but so spot on for one of those perfect touches. A design star was born. If you need one of these, drop me an email, we still have a couple left ( you are on your own for the Shasta Daisy part tho).
We will be up at Grayslake IL next weekend for the Antique Show so if you are in the neighborhood, stop by and say hello. I will be the chatty one there . . . .
Til then I need to create a few more new goodies for the booth,
Suz the muze
All My Musings
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