Monday Rambles

Wow!  What a week!  Sometimes you just have to say it.

Before we get started, please wish blog friend Roger a speedy recovery from his surgery last week.  Roger is my oldest blog pal, and one of the things I really want to do one day is meet him face to face.  Get better soon, buddy.

I'm kind of trapped in the middle of the never-ending booth project from hell right now.  I intended to spend two days working on it last week and be done.  I ended up spending four--and still not finishing.  Every so often, my spaces take on a mind of their own, and I have to muster all my forces of awesomeness and bring them to heel.  We're in the middle of one such pitched battle right now.  I spent the weekend learning new attack phrases and acquiring new battle points and powering up, so I don't think the rebellious booths will know what hit them.

BOOTH ARRANGE SPARKLE CLEAN UP!

I'll need everything I can muster, because I had the most awesome sales weekend ever.  Saturday set a new record for me, much higher than I ever thought I would do on one day.  Almost three hundred dollars!!  I nearly passed out when I got the email.  Before I would believe it at all, I re-added the total myself.  I was sure it had to be a mistake or maybe the monthly total got printed in the wrong slot or something.  I never have days like that!

The wildest thing?  There's no furniture at all in that total.  The most expensive individual item that sold was $12.99.  I sold a ton of stuff.  Happily, it all seems to be coming pretty evenly from all three of my areas, which is what I really like to see.  It also seems to be coming from pretty evenly from various sections in those booths.  As much as I like to see a god run on, say, comic books, evenly spread sales mean sustainability.

I hope you all don't think I'm bragging or anything.  I'm just really excited and had to share.  One weekend into the month, I have rent made.  Seriously, this never happens to me.  I have to keep reminding myself to stay cautiously optimistic and not get carried away.  This is an unpredictable business.  I could not sell another thing all week, which would completely deflate all the momentum from the weekend.  I don't think it will happen, but I have to keep that thought in the back of my mind.

We had a cold rainy Saturday on Highway 60, but I still found some great stuff.  The quantity was down., but the quality wasn't.  I'm going to tease out the finds bit by bit this week, then finish it off at the end with a big flourish.  I am very behind on sharing my finds here, so I'm designating this as "Eddie-torial Comments Fun Finds Catch Up Week."  I'll share some recent finds and stories through out the week, with a little Highway 60 tease, then wrap it up with the rest of the 60 stuff.  Deal?

I will say this, I went out with a small list of specific things to find:

Comics
Vintage wooden ironing board
Blow molds
Vintage Christmas
Any Christmas at all
Long sleeved shirts for me

Most of my long sleeved shirts are shot, so it's time to revive the wardrobe.  Of course, I'm not going to go buy new!  The shirts turned out to be the only thing on the list that I found.  I am so low on Christmas, especially vintage stuff, that the fast on-rushing holiday season scares me.  I've already put out a dab of stuff, which I plan to add to bit by bit until it's all out.  I just hope that the "out" point doesn't come in the middle of October.

Here's a bit of what did come back with me.

I need more shelves and chairs like I need more holes in my head.  But that shelf was so sturdy and cute that it had to come back with me.  As it turns out, I sold a shelf last night, so this one will slide right in the empty space.  I also could not resist the wrought iron lattice work back on that folding chair. (See next pic.)  I had to ask my uncle what the thing with the handle was.  The prices were definitely right.  Everything in this pic cost less than ten bucks!  

My uncle had a yard sale over the weekend, and I always buy his leftovers the Sunday after.  The cute little plant stand on the end of the cart in this next pic was part of what I got from him.

I'm starting a silly little project for the month of October.  It seems like every time I go out for a walk here recently I come home with some kind of find.  Junk, it seems, is where you find it.  I am challenging myself to find some free, sellable junk every day in October.

The rules are simple:

1.  I have to look for something every day that I leave the house.

2. Legitimate finds only!  No stealing out of someone's front yard or porch.

3.  Stuff in the house also counts, as long as it wasn't something originally purchased to be resold.

I am hoping that last rule will encourage me to keep up with the downsizing that I've been doing.

Calvin and Hobbes were right, you know.

My life motto

I'll do a wrap up post with a list of finds at the end of the month.