New projects.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Posted in Uncategorized

I have been seeing the cutest button magnets on the internet. I have buttons. I have magnets. Why not make some of my own?

Since I had the ingredients I needed, I was particularly enthused about the fact that this was a project I could do without buying anything to finish it. But then I realized I couldn’t take the backs of the buttons off with anything I already owned, so I had to buy some nips to do that.

Once I had tired of the button magnets, I moved on to making magnets out of the bits and pieces of jewelry I have stockpiled.

To finish this project, I had to go out and buy a metal file. Most of what I was using were clip-on earrings in their former lives, so the backs had to be filed down once the clips were nipped off. I swear, with all of the craft supplies I have stockpiled, it is astonishing to me that I still have to BUY additional supplies when I start a new project.

I decided to put these in the booth and see if they sell, so that, of course, required packaging. Any chance I have to waste an hour or two at the computer playing with clip art and fonts, I TAKE.

While I was making cute little things to go into cute little packages, I decided to try an idea I had some time ago — I have so many cute vintage cards that I haven’t done anything with because I dread cutting/gluing/framing them and then saying goodbye to them. So I scanned a bunch in and scaled them down to fit into these cute little vintage Crane envelopes I’ve had for years to use as gift enclosures.

And this is how they’re displayed in the booth:

Ideally, I would find a little square of metal to package the magnets with, because they get all clumped up in their little bags when they all stick to each other. But otherwise, I’m pretty happy with how the packaging turned out. I worked much of the week on these, and I have no idea if they’ll sell. I’m guessing they won’t, because it’s such an easy idea, and I can’t imagine anyone spending money on them rather than making them themselves. But I figure this first 6-8 months of the booth can be experimentation — figuring out what sells and what doesn’t so I know what to spend my time and money on.

by Lara Jo

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Another Thursday Work Night.

Sunday, May 12, 2013 Posted in Booth

Last Thursday was a work night at Daisies and Olives and I closed the place down. I’m starting to feel pretty bad about this — I was the last person to leave last work night, too! Part of the problem is I can’t get there until later, as Justin has board meetings on the same Thursday that work night takes place. This past week I didn’t get there until 7 pm, when a lot of people were already finishing up. Still, Martha is beyond generous and doesn’t make me feel bad about closing the place down.

I pulled everything out of the booth this time and made sure that everything (except for one bookshelf) went in a different place to try and shake things up a bit. I had sold the big Red Riding Hood print (yay!) and one of my big display pieces had a “hold until Friday” sign on it (yay!) so that left a lot of room for changes. None of my wood signs had sold (boo!) so I tried to display them a little differently to see if that makes a difference.

That one towards the top is a new one.

I wish the blue paint was a bit darker. I think it’s a little hard to read.

There’s a lot of stuff in there that’s been there TOO LONG, as far as I’m concerned. I’m thinking next work night I will pull a bunch of stuff. That is, as long as I’ve found enough stuff to fill it back up…yesterday was a BUST as far as yard sale shopping was concerned, and I had really high hopes for it as so many sales have been rained out over the past two weeks. I got out really early and everything. I’m trying not to worry too much as I have stacks and stacks of boxes in our store room that haven’t been opened since the move and I’m sure there are some things in there I will want to put in the booth, but still…I long for the days when I had to rent a storage space to keep all the stuff for the booth! I didn’t realize how lucky I was.

I got this stool while I was in Little Rock weeks and weeks ago.

It was plain, varnished wood in its before incarnation, so I didn’t take a photo, but I used another decal and stenciled “Home Sweet Home” on it. I’m starting to get a little addicted to re-doing stools.

Hope those of you who are Moms are having a great day today!

 

by Lara Jo

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The spoils of a Saturday.

Thursday, May 9, 2013 Posted in Yard Sales

People. This raining on Saturday thing has got to stop. The last two Saturdays have been miserable, wet affairs; the Saturday before last I didn’t even try to go out but if I had skipped last week, that would have been THREE WHOLE WEEKS WITHOUT YARD SALES and we can’t have that, can we? So I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30 and hit a few indoor rummage sales before giving up and heading home. Not suprisingly, I did not find much.

Justin said one of his grandparents had a set of glasses just like this and Martha, my “boss” at the antique store where my booth is, said she had a set long ago. So hopefully these will inspire nostalgia in someone who will take them out of my booth.

Set of four yellow-flowered dishes and set of two orange-flowered dishes. The main attraction of these was that they came with the plate hangers attached. These would be adorable on a plate wall. Have I mentioned how obsessed I am with plate walls?

Two plaster angel shelves to be painted.

I love this lamp, and it was only $1, but when I took the globe off to replace the bulb I discovered that it’s broken and chip beneath the metal part there. Totally doesn’t show when the globe is in place, but I can’t sell it like that. So I’m going to keep it; it’s such a nice size, I’m sure I can find somewhere useful to tuck it away and use it.

I almost passed this up…it was $7, and since I’m cheap, that seemed like a lot. But in retrospect, it was a bargain. This is an old-school cutter, with a super-heavy blade, that has already come in handy numerous times this week.

This handsome devil is small — about a foot high. Do you call these blow molds? Or is there some special kind of these that’s called a blow mold? He’s got a little bulb that lights him up. Super cute, and going in my growing Christmas stash for Fall.

If it doesn’t rain on Saturday, there should be MILLIONS of sales given that so many people have had to postpone for two weeks now. FINGERS CROSSED.

by Lara Jo

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What’s your sign?

Monday, May 6, 2013 Posted in Before & After, Booth

This week I made pink and cream signs to take up to the booth. This one is my favorite.

This one is less successful. I really wanted one that said “fresh cupcakes” but there wasn’t room. The 2-foot boards really only have room on them for something very simple; I think this one has a little too much going on in it.

I really wanted some embellishments for these that are a little more romantic, cottage-y style, but man, those appliques are expensive. Then I found this awesome tutorial online about how to make your own plaster embellishments.

I followed her instructions to the T, even using the same mold she used, and it worked like a charm (well, I couldn’t get those fern leaves to come out of the mold in one piece, but once you glue them to the sign and paint them, you can’t tell they’re broken into pieces). I just wish I could find some additional, interesting molds to use.

Thank you, Polka Dot Closet, for your very clever idea and the tutorial!

by Lara Jo

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I’m cuckoo over my latest projects.

Saturday, May 4, 2013 Posted in Before & After, Booth

Remember how I told you I had plans for this?

I found two of these the weekend I was in Little Rock over a month ago. Astonishing. One was $5, one was $2. My initial plan was to take out the center panel and frame a quote about time there. But then I started thinking — there’s really no reason I can’t turn it into a working clock again. I mean, I can’t make it a cuckoo clock, but I can certainly buy some clock works and it will at least tell time.

OMG I love it SO SO SO SO SO MUCH.

I made the mistake of hanging it here to take a photo of it.

And now I must keep it. It was meant for the booth, and I could go through the charade of marking it up really high ($4250.00, maybe?) and then taking it home in a month, but why bother. I want to keep it. I will be selling this one, though.

And that’s really tough for me, because that one would look adorable in the babies’ room.

Can you believe I found both of those in the same weekend? And now I’ll probably never find another one. I already looked on eBay really quickly but once you add in shipping, it doesn’t make sense to buy from there. I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed that I come across some others in the future, because they were so fun to do.

by Lara Jo

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