All about Annie

Hi Everyone,

Well, we did it. We made it through 70 shows this year. Our highest show week was in the summer where we did 4 shows in one week. It has been grueling and oh so educational.

This weekend was tough as well. This venue, Hawthorne Hill Farm is a four day show. The good news is, it's a few days between setup and tear down. The bad news was we got the wrong size space and it was windy and cold in the barn. Did I mention rainy as well?

Basically, the space was less than a closet size but we made it work. It was drop dead gorgeous if I have to say so myself. But what really made it special was Annie was there. My pal Annie . . .

Annie is my friend from 3 Wren Street, this unbelievably cool collection of vintage and stuff that she and her family collect. Here are the great  pictures from their Junk Bonanza show recently.

Annie is the kind of person that lights up a room when she enters, full of laughter, always positive and always the biggest smile. She knows junk like no one else I know. She has that sixth sense about something cool. We laughed, talked, texted, shared our need for guacamole and chips, snarked about customers outfits and stuff we saw all weekend. She made four days seem like a brief hour. It was the best time at a market in a long time. I miss her all ready.

I came home with new shutters from her booth as well. Thanks Annie, great pick! ! !

She was so complimentary about how the booth looked this weekend. That really helped as I stressed out with the reduced size we had to fit into.

Here is our ladder display, can we say slighty crowded?

Our new Chantilly lace angel wings

And the most controversial item we have every placed in our booth hands down, our industrial light bulb Christmas ornament.



You would have thought it was beyond comprehension. The number one comment/question was,

what is it?

a light bulb

how does it light up?

it doesn't

why?

the jute on the top makes it hard to fit in the socket, which by the way requires 220 AMP service because it is a 400 watt lightbulb

oh

We have stitches in our sides from all of us laughing so hard, who knew this would happen. Out of all of them we sold, only one gentleman walked in, picked it up the correct way(not upside down) said, this is really cool, I'll take two. Everyone else had to have them explained, several, many times. It was wild.

It's late and a goodnite's sleep is in order. We had some great brainstorming this weekend and I will have new items coming up.

Off to rest and then back to creating,

Suz
the muze

Oui, oui

Hi Everyone,

Well, I have survived a weekend of French being spoken everywhere I turned. We had the privilege of showing at the Lycee Francais Annual Market in downtown Chicago and it was an interesting time to say the least. I still can not speak or understand that language but I did try. Over and over and over again. I got crepes and creme brulee correct and that was all that matter. Yes, both were fantastic.

This is an international school and everyone except me spoke French. So, I spent the weekend nodding and agreeing a lot! We were busy both days but Sunday was swamped from the get go. Met tons of new customers and laughed many times during the days so it was definitely a great show.

Several new items made their debut into our line and one was our vintage linens. We have been collecting table runners, napkins, scarves and tablecloths for several months now and finally got them all washed, pressed(thanks Candy) and prepared for their debut. It is something to watch people dig through neatly stacked items and finally find just the right one. The refolding part, not so much. Ah, but tis' the life of a vendor.

Several new paper items made it out as well like our new hand sewn Noel gift tag.

This burlap, lace, stamped muslin tag went over nicely and I am thinking of adding a couple more, perhaps in English this time.

Our folded trees also made it to this event in all their glory. It seems everyone did this type of a technique back in their younger days, alot of references to Reader's Digest were made. As we have said time after time, it is all about recycling, re-purposing and reusing. So our little trees qualify under recycling an old method, re-purposing an old book and reusing coffee!

Would someone please explain how these pictures turn themselves? ? ?  I have spent an hour trying to get both of these turned the correct way and NOTHING. Okay, I am done ranting, still frustrated but done. You have to admit that even tho it is sideways, it's a cute tree.

This coming weekend we are all traveling up to Wisconsin to do the now famous (hey, it made Craft Gossip, it doesn't get any better than that) Decorate! Market at Hawthorne Hill Farm in New Berlin Wisconsin. If you are within an hours drive of this place, it is well worth the effort. Bonnie Lynn gathers the best of cool artists and vendors in a magical, real barn setting, (dress warm) and you can shop for anything for the holidays. Lots of handmade items and of course, we have the gift wrapping situation under control. Check out our new Shabby Santa Sacks that will be there.

 Here's our next couple of shows,

 November  9 - 11  Decorate! ! ! at Hawthorne Hill Farm New Berlin WI

November  24 Indie Vintage & Art Market, Carmel IN      INDOORS! Yeah!


Back to creating,

Suz

the muze

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