This is my favorite method for drying them - it's from the blog Funky Junk Interiors.
Once you have lots of dried hydrangea flowers, here are a few ideas for how to use them -
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Free Booth Decor - Dried Hydrangea Ideas
If you (or a good friend) has hydrangea bushes, you need to start thinking about clipping flowers to dry. You'll be able to use them here and there in your booth to make the things you hope to sell look even prettier. Dry some extra to use at home!
Once you have lots of dried hydrangea flowers, here are a few ideas for how to use them -
Once you have lots of dried hydrangea flowers, here are a few ideas for how to use them -
Saturday, July 5, 2014
Jewlery Displays
Here are some interesting jewelry displays I came across recently -
Finally, this is not a display idea, but rather a trick for transporting jewelry displays. I actually found this in an article with moving tips. If you do shows, setting up needs to be fast and easy. You could get a display ready and wrap it with Press-n-Seal to keep everything in place til you are ready to set up.
Finally, this is not a display idea, but rather a trick for transporting jewelry displays. I actually found this in an article with moving tips. If you do shows, setting up needs to be fast and easy. You could get a display ready and wrap it with Press-n-Seal to keep everything in place til you are ready to set up.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Crazy is in the Air!
Crazy is in the air! I thought maybe it was just in the air around the antique world in Georgia, but apparently, it's in the air all over. The vintage business is hot and trendy. Everybody and their brother thinks they need to open a shop, even if there are already 10 shops in the area, which is inconsiderate and just plain stupid. It's also asking for trouble. With every new shop that opens, the competition gets a little harder, which is stressful. The over-saturated market is bad enough, but what's worse is the witchy behavior. I've come across some people lately who are racking up some major bad karma points with their ugly behavior.
I've met loads of "fun-crazy" types since I've been in the business. But 2014 seems to be the year of lunatic, watch-your-back, "OMG,-I-cannot-believe-they-did-that" kind of crazy.
I've seen a few crazy situations locally and have had quite a few Vintage Show Off fans message me privately for advice with truly insane situations. It's so sad. We should all be having fun, right?
We all need to choose carefully who we associate with. We should all try to do what we love and surround ourselves with people who are supportive.
If you are in a bad situation, but desperately need the money, be very active in looking for a better situation, even if it's not selling vintage wares. If you desperately need the money, you probably should be doing something a little more reliable. There's not a lot of money in running a booth. You know that, right?
If having a booth is more about having a hobby you love and/or earning a little extra pocket money, then get the heck away from lunatics and go to a mall that's happy and "normal", even if it has less traffic. Once you get to the happy mall, do what you can to make it more successful. Pitch in a little! Help them market. Help promote them on Facebook, even if it's just by leaving comments and sharing posts. Help decorate now and then. Be a friend to your fellow vendors. If your help is valuable and goes beyond pitching in a little, maybe the nice owner will appreciate it enough to compensate you with reduced rent.
Mean behavior shouldn't be tolerated. I don't think we should just stand by and keep quiet. Isn't that enabling the bad behavior? If you stay where things are bad and/or keep quiet when you see wrong being done, then you are pretty much saying you are OK with it.
If it's the store owner or manager who is bad news, keep in mind that as they go down, your booth will go down, too. They may go down swiftly (like in a lawsuit) or they may just see a steady decline, which they will conveniently blame on everything but themselves.
Thankfully, all the owners and most of the vendors I work with directly are good, decent people who try to do the right thing. If they weren't, I promise, I'd be gone so fast, you'd think my super-hero power was speed.
One more thing just to clarify. We can't demand perfection. Pretty much every person on earth has their faults. (If you think a person has no faults, you probably just don't know them well enough.) Even a person who tries really hard to be good will have a lapse in judgement from time to time. Don't expect your mall owner or fellow vendors to always do what you think is the perfect thing. The behavior I'm referring to in this post is mean-spirited. Stay far away from that!
 |
| My apologies to Veronica Lake, who played a very nice witch in her 1942 movie, "I Married a Witch" |
I've met loads of "fun-crazy" types since I've been in the business. But 2014 seems to be the year of lunatic, watch-your-back, "OMG,-I-cannot-believe-they-did-that" kind of crazy.
I've seen a few crazy situations locally and have had quite a few Vintage Show Off fans message me privately for advice with truly insane situations. It's so sad. We should all be having fun, right?
We all need to choose carefully who we associate with. We should all try to do what we love and surround ourselves with people who are supportive.
If you are in a bad situation, but desperately need the money, be very active in looking for a better situation, even if it's not selling vintage wares. If you desperately need the money, you probably should be doing something a little more reliable. There's not a lot of money in running a booth. You know that, right?
If having a booth is more about having a hobby you love and/or earning a little extra pocket money, then get the heck away from lunatics and go to a mall that's happy and "normal", even if it has less traffic. Once you get to the happy mall, do what you can to make it more successful. Pitch in a little! Help them market. Help promote them on Facebook, even if it's just by leaving comments and sharing posts. Help decorate now and then. Be a friend to your fellow vendors. If your help is valuable and goes beyond pitching in a little, maybe the nice owner will appreciate it enough to compensate you with reduced rent.
Mean behavior shouldn't be tolerated. I don't think we should just stand by and keep quiet. Isn't that enabling the bad behavior? If you stay where things are bad and/or keep quiet when you see wrong being done, then you are pretty much saying you are OK with it.
If it's the store owner or manager who is bad news, keep in mind that as they go down, your booth will go down, too. They may go down swiftly (like in a lawsuit) or they may just see a steady decline, which they will conveniently blame on everything but themselves.
Thankfully, all the owners and most of the vendors I work with directly are good, decent people who try to do the right thing. If they weren't, I promise, I'd be gone so fast, you'd think my super-hero power was speed.
One more thing just to clarify. We can't demand perfection. Pretty much every person on earth has their faults. (If you think a person has no faults, you probably just don't know them well enough.) Even a person who tries really hard to be good will have a lapse in judgement from time to time. Don't expect your mall owner or fellow vendors to always do what you think is the perfect thing. The behavior I'm referring to in this post is mean-spirited. Stay far away from that!
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Dishonest Customers
Hopefully, the majority of your customers will be lovely. Unfortunately, if you have a booth long enough, you will probably come in contact with some who are morally challenged. There's no sense in getting angry or letting them spoil your day. I always trust that karma would take care of them. You reap what you sow. Etc Etc.
Just as there are things you can do to make your home a less attractive target for a burglar, there are things you can do to make your booth a less attractive target for dishonest customers. Honestly, my suggestions aren't great ones. They are just deterrents. And I would be willing to bet that there are more helpful ideas on this topic. Comments and suggestions are welcome!!!!
Price Changing
It's super easy for someone to come along with their own pen and mark through your price and write in a lower one. One solution - never slash your prices on the original tag. Have a special tag that you ALWAYS use for sales rather than just crossing through a price on the original tag and writing in a new one. Let everyone who works the register know that. Solution is actually not a good word choice. Someone can still mark through it and unless you are working the register, it can still be rung up with the new "thieving customer" price. Lets just say this idea is a decent deterrent.
Tag Destroyers
When I had a booth, I would get calls at least once a month for a price on an item with a missing tag. I knew I was great at putting on tags in such a way that they weren't going to fall off. They were being pulled off deliberately. At first, I would just go to my spreadsheet and look up the price. But then, I got irritated. I'd look on the spreadsheet and then quote a new price that was a little HIGHER than what was on the tag. If they really wanted the item, they might go back to the booth and miraculously FIND the missing tag. Or, they'd pass, leaving the item to be purchased by someone more honest (after I'd made a new tag). Making new tags is irritating. Side note - whenever I rearranged my booth, I'd almost always find a tag on the floor behind and or under things. The hole where the string had been was generally torn.
Another possible help is to use the tags that are hard to pull off. Tags with reinforced holes require a bit more effort. It can still be done, but again, it's a slight deterrent.
Tag Switchers
I am always amazed at how many vendors don't write enough info on their tags. If you simply write your dealer number and a price without writing what the item is, you are begging for a switch. A customer could grab a $9.99 tag and take it to the register with a $24.99 item.
Be sure the description on the tag is good. One vendor friend had two windows for sale. One window was plain and small. Another was large and special. A customer grabbed the tag from the cheaper plain one and used it to buy the much more expensive one. Both tags said simply "Window".
There's no perfect way to prevent dishonest customers from pulling a fast one.Unfortunately, there are dishonest people out there and this is the kind of thing that you need to figure in when pricing. Big stores know to expect theft and breakage and they price everything a tiny bit higher to offset those losses. Unfortunately, a smart and determined scumbag will probably succeed somewhere in the store. If this is a big problem at your mall, then the mall needs to step up security. Having very visible security cameras is a good step in the right direction. Having enough people working the floors is another.
 |
| My apologies to Carol, the woman in the photo. This was taken a long time ago and I'm sure she has turned her life around. This should be a warning to us all. If you are arrested and your mug shot ends up on the internet, many years later it could show up in the most unlikely places. |
Just as there are things you can do to make your home a less attractive target for a burglar, there are things you can do to make your booth a less attractive target for dishonest customers. Honestly, my suggestions aren't great ones. They are just deterrents. And I would be willing to bet that there are more helpful ideas on this topic. Comments and suggestions are welcome!!!!
Price Changing
It's super easy for someone to come along with their own pen and mark through your price and write in a lower one. One solution - never slash your prices on the original tag. Have a special tag that you ALWAYS use for sales rather than just crossing through a price on the original tag and writing in a new one. Let everyone who works the register know that. Solution is actually not a good word choice. Someone can still mark through it and unless you are working the register, it can still be rung up with the new "thieving customer" price. Lets just say this idea is a decent deterrent.
Tag Destroyers
When I had a booth, I would get calls at least once a month for a price on an item with a missing tag. I knew I was great at putting on tags in such a way that they weren't going to fall off. They were being pulled off deliberately. At first, I would just go to my spreadsheet and look up the price. But then, I got irritated. I'd look on the spreadsheet and then quote a new price that was a little HIGHER than what was on the tag. If they really wanted the item, they might go back to the booth and miraculously FIND the missing tag. Or, they'd pass, leaving the item to be purchased by someone more honest (after I'd made a new tag). Making new tags is irritating. Side note - whenever I rearranged my booth, I'd almost always find a tag on the floor behind and or under things. The hole where the string had been was generally torn.
Another possible help is to use the tags that are hard to pull off. Tags with reinforced holes require a bit more effort. It can still be done, but again, it's a slight deterrent.
Tag Switchers
I am always amazed at how many vendors don't write enough info on their tags. If you simply write your dealer number and a price without writing what the item is, you are begging for a switch. A customer could grab a $9.99 tag and take it to the register with a $24.99 item.
Be sure the description on the tag is good. One vendor friend had two windows for sale. One window was plain and small. Another was large and special. A customer grabbed the tag from the cheaper plain one and used it to buy the much more expensive one. Both tags said simply "Window".
There's no perfect way to prevent dishonest customers from pulling a fast one.Unfortunately, there are dishonest people out there and this is the kind of thing that you need to figure in when pricing. Big stores know to expect theft and breakage and they price everything a tiny bit higher to offset those losses. Unfortunately, a smart and determined scumbag will probably succeed somewhere in the store. If this is a big problem at your mall, then the mall needs to step up security. Having very visible security cameras is a good step in the right direction. Having enough people working the floors is another.
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