Category: Junkin’ and Thriftin’

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Junkin' and Thriftin'

Canton Junkin’ Trip

Visiting First Monday Trade Days in Canton, Texas is usually not an option for me during the summer months.  Any time the temperatures rise above 90, you can count me out for outside activities.  I don’t like to sweat, and the heat takes all the fun out of whatever I’m supposed to be doing.  I’m fair-skinned and faint-hearted!

One of my favorite junk spots at the flea market.

But the first weekend of August this year was different.  A rare cold front blessed us with rain and temperatures in the 80’s, so we went to Canton!  Nothing’s funner in the summer than some good junkin.’ (Pardon the grammar.)
I took some pictures of some of my favorite spots in the world’s largest flea market so you can see what I mean.

Great selection of tailgates!  They make such cute benches and headboards, according to Pinterest.
My partner in crime and marriage.  Canton is our favorite hangout.
Just a view of the many vendors on one of the many street corners.
This vintage Shasta trailer certainly caught my eye!  Quite a few vendors bring along their campers.
I really liked this homemade lighted marquee arrow.
Another vintage camper brought by a vendor.
Plenty of minions for you and for me!  Cute little cookers? 
My favorite junk spot.  Rows and rows of tables piled with junk!
The vendor always comes down on his prices, too!
Antlers galore!
Industrial pieces everywhere.
And when you get tired, you can purchase your own seat!

I hope you enjoyed my little tour.  It likely won’t be cool enough to return until October or November.  I’m so lucky that I only live about 20 miles from Canton!

I’d love to meet you there!
It’s the best junkin’ spot ever!

XOXO
  
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Junkin' and Thriftin'

Three Crazy Thrifters

Our local Goodwill store is our go-to place for thrifting and junking these days. 

 Sometimes we crash their store–my mother, my two sisters, my niece, my daughter, and me.  This trip it was just baby sister, daughter, and me.

But I’m afraid they may have mixed feelings about us being there.

Left to right:  My silly daughter Natalie, my beautiful sister Brenda, and me!
World’s smallest cheese grater.  Who could resist?  Everybody but me, apparently.
The Three Thrifters
Such craziness.
I wonder if John knows his platter is here at the Goodwill?


We do support them financially in addition to helping them clear out inventory.
And we even contribute to their stash of goodies at times, especially after garage sales.

But we are so loud and goofy they probably cringe when they see us coming.  

I can’t imagine why.  Can you?

Happy Junkin’!

XOXO
Categories
home decor Junkin' and Thriftin'

Booth sprucin’ and ponderin’. . .

One of the things you have to do when you have a booth space in an antiques mall is spruce it up occasionally, or as Vintage Rescue Squad puts it, “foof your boof.”

I just love that.  I wish I had thought of it myself!  Surely she won’t mind if I borrow it?


Anyway, these last few months haven’t been exactly lucrative for my sister and me in our little booth at Uniques & Antiques in Mineola.  Actually, 2014 hasn’t been as good for me as a vendor as 2013 was.


With sales low month after month, I wonder if the problem is what I choose to put in my booth, how I choose to display it, or if my prices are fair.  I start asking myself:

1.  Is our booth eye-catching and attractive?
2.  Is our booth welcoming?
3.  Is our booth full of stuff people want?
4.  Are our prices reasonable?
5.  Do we introduce new merchandise often enough?  
6.  Are we located in a good spot in the mall?
7.  Are we in the right mall?
8.  Are we in the right business?
9.  Is it time to try something else?

Then I start talking with other vendors.  I read their blogs and Facebook posts.  I realize that we are all in the same boat.

This business is fickle.
No one can predict what our customers will buy from one season to the next.

Last summer it was sage green shabby furniture and chalkboard painted silver trays.

This summer it is black distressed furniture
and rustic signs. 

Things that flew out of the booth last year
have been sitting for weeks.

No matter.

I stay because:

1. It allows me to do something with all those thrift store and garage sale finds.
2.  It gives me a place to trade out my home decor as I find new old things to decorate with.
3.  It gives me a thrill when something sells.
4.  It gives me a creative outlet for design and crafting.
5.  It’s sister-bonding and FUN!

So. . .this week I did some booth sprucing.
Somebody might just come in and find exactly what they have been looking for. . .

or find the very thing they didn’t know they needed.

It’s Mary Lillian Vintage if you want to stop by.  Look for the turquoise sign at Uniques & Antiques in Mineola.

Make my day.

XOXO

Categories
Junkin' and Thriftin' Life Memoirs

Not my day. . .

Have you ever had a day when nothing went right, when you felt like you should have just stayed in bed?  I imagine we all have.
Today was that kind of day for me.
 
It started last night when I knelt down on the end of my porch to turn off the water faucet for the soaker hose in my front flower bed.
I watch out for snakes and spiders but I didn’t prepare myself for falling.  When I tried to stand up I fell backwards, hitting my hip and leg hard on the porch.  Ouch!
#gettingoldaintforsissies
 
Today was going okay until I decided to change my plans and visit my antiques booth today instead of tomorrow.  I drove past the Pink Pistol in Lindale and was dreaming of the treasures inside when a police car emerged from its hiding place and followed me with its lights flashing.
 
 
No siren, though.  I’m thankful for the little things.  But the officer said he clocked me at 62 in a 40 mph zone!  Really?  I never speed!  Or at least I try not to.  But this time I was daydreaming and not paying attention.
Even mentioning the name of a former student who is an officer in the Lindale police force didn’t help.  He issued me a citation.
He did lower my top speed to 55, though.
Again, I’m thankful for the little things.
But where will that $130 come from?
 
Not my booth.  When I got to my booth, feeling sick at my stomach and ashamed of myself, I found only a couple of things gone, and something that I thought had sold was back in my booth.  I even asked the mall owner how much I have made so far this month, and it is only $16.  I may not make my rent this month.
 
 
 
What a day.  Yes, it could have been much worse.  I could have been injured last night when I fell.  I could have been in an accident or the officer could have written the true speed on the citation.
I still have to tell the hubs about my ticket.
Ugh, the day just gets better.
Now where were those cookies? 
#comfortfood
 
“Nobody loves me; everybody hates me,
I’m gonna go out to my garden and eat some worms!”  (song my Grandma used to sing)
 
Hope you have a better day!
 

XOXO

Categories
Junkin' and Thriftin' Life

You never know what you might see. . .

. . .at your local Walmart!

Check this out!



It’s a 1950’s Chevrolet pickup truck so cool I had to take pictures.

If you look carefully, you may notice that the paint was intentionally done to look like rusty, aged, old paint.  Hubby says that Richard Rawlings of the Discovery Channel show “Fast ‘n’ Loud” calls it “patina.”  Rawlings is also on a Dodge commercial now, and he runs Gas Monkey Garage and Gas Monkey Bar & Grill in Dallas.  We know the word “patina” from the world of junk, don’t we?



Do you see the beer keg in the back and the old wood planked truck bed?



Pretty cool, and not so common, even here in the sticks of East Texas.

Enjoy!

XOXO