For the record, my favorite buttons of the whole lot are in this part of the story--the roulette wheel, the clock, the space ship and the atomic symbol.
I was going to work the booth on Wednesday and Thursday last week, but I was kind of worn out after treatment on Wednesday, so I only went on Thursday. I did get some slightly better booth pics that I'll be sharing later this week.
Keith thought I was looking really tired Thursday night, which kind of confused me, since I hadn't really done anything extreme when I was working at the booth. However, on Friday, I was totally wiped out!
This week, I'm hoping to do some more around the house. I'm trying not to restock many smalls right now, until I sell some down, but I am taking over some small furniture and what I call "larger smalls" which is an oxymoronic term I use to describe anything that's not furniture but that won't fit into a box.
I took a van load of that kind of stuff last week from the storage unit. This week, I'm going to pull a load out of the house stash. I'm selling a lot of these mid-size items right now. Of course, as soon as I get this stuff over, I'll start selling only stuffed animals and coffee mugs. Which is okay, because I have a bunch of them in storage too.
Sales have stayed strong all month. I am now ahead of where I finished in both May and June. I've also been meeting my daily average goals all month, so I'm feeling good about things. I increased my expenses in renting the book booth, but it looks like I'm going to end up with a larger check out of it. I'll take it. In an upcoming post, I intend to run through my version of the numbers game as far as the booth goes.
The button story will wrap up this week. There are two more parts to come, plus one final look at some fun buttons. I've finally made it through the whole stash. It was quite cool and quite fun. Wednesday, I will start answering your questions, which should run off and on through the next couple of weeks. The month ends on Friday, which means there's a new Chiquito pic waiting in the wings to appear. He can't wait!
Let's wrap up with some more fortune cookie wisdom.
Is it just me, or does it seem like fortune cookies lack some kind of internal consistency?
So much to like in this one, from the too cute, retro-style (even back then) outfits the vocalists are wearing to the overly enthusiastic host to that guy in the pink pants in the audience.
My favorite line is the one about "clams on the half shell and roller skates." Sounds like fun to me.
Seriously, two ice cream cups is part of my ritual there, along with the heated blanket and a pillow. For some reason, I ended up not asking for the them yesterday. I never skip out on the ice cream.
The little red thing is the badge with my patient number on it. I'm supposed to wear it every time I go in, so they can ensure I get my treatments and not Hortense P Snodwaller's by mistake. Usually, I forget it. In fact, I think yesterday may be the first time I remembered it this year. I should have gotten an extra ice cream for that.
You can kind of see the IV tube snaking its way across to the Purple Power Port. (ENGAGE!)
Yesterday went about as smoothly as it's ever gone. In at eight, out by eleven. That's my motto! Hardly any wait time at all, except for my labs to get back, which is a necessary wait. If certain numbers are off, then I cannot have the treatment. Thankfully, that has never happened for me. I did hear one of the nurses trying to explain to another patient yesterday that her labs showed she was almost dehydrated, which is one of the things that can keep you from getting treated.
This is a very fast infusion. It only takes 30 minutes. Once the drug arrives, and they hook it up, it hardly takes any time at all. Quite a switch from my first treatment, which took 90 minutes, plus pre-meds.
By the way, I started that book I'm reading right after I got to the cancer center and finished it after I woke up from my nap. It's been a while since I read a book all the way through in a day.
Don't forget to leave a question for Ask Eddie Anything! I'd love to have a few questions from readers who have never commented before.
For me, the best songs are achingly beautiful, yet desperately sad. That's why I like so many Americana performers. There's an authenticity there that you simply don't find in many other genres of music.
This one is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Haunting, simple, but intensely real.
It's that hot. And humid. And icky. To top it off, we get these thundering downpours that last an hour or so several times a day, making everything even stickier and more humid afterwards. It's kind of like living in South Florida.
We went out for maybe two-three hours on Saturday, and I could not wait to get home. I'm kind of glad to have a moratorium right now. I certainly don't wanna be standing in some stranger's driveway, dripping in sweat.
I did go to a nerd herd sidewalk sale at the comic shop on Saturday, because those are not part of the moratorium and I need lots of comics for the booth these days. Instead of being 50 cents each, like they usually are at these sales, the comics were a quarter each, which is bargain city!
I was thinking that they would move the sale indoors, due to the heat. They have a side room that they have used in the past for sales, including three this year. However, everything was out on the sidewalk in the blazing heat. At one point, it was just me and one other guy there. He looks at me and says: "Either we like this stuff a lot or we're nuts." Or both. It was pretty miserable.
That song, by the way, is a John Prine classic, which has also been covered by my beloved Iris DeMent. I could not find a good video of either of them performing it, so I went with Josh Ritter, who is quite a fine singer-songwriter in his own right. (Still love my Americana music!)
Like I always say, you can't go wrong with a Prine song for a blog-opener. Well, maybe I don't always say that, but I do when the occasion calls for it. Like this one.
We've had so much rain that all our bushes and such are growing out of control. I keep thinking about working on that a little bit, but the heat keeps putting me off. If you drive past our house, turn your head. At least the neighbors haven't complained yet.
Tomorrow is a treatment day. Number six, I think. I'm scheduled early, early this time, so maybe I won't get caught by the delays we've had the past couple of times. Then I'll be home for my post-treatment nap.
I'm going to try to go the booth Wednesday and Thursday. It will need straightening and tweaking. I want to get some better pics too. I have not promoted the booths on Craigslist for a while, since i moved into this store, in fact. I need to get in gear again. I'll share pics with you all, of course.
My plan for the next few weeks is to keep the place tidy, but not to restock for a bit (except maybe for comics and replacing furniture that sells). I've got a bit too much in stock in the booth right now and need to sell it down to make room for new stuff.
One of the odd things that I often is experience is a slight sales drop after I do a lot of work on the booth. It's not a big one this time, but there is a difference between what was happening when the place was trashed and what's going on now, counter-intuitive as it sounds. Sometimes, I cannot figure this business out.
Finally, a new idea. Blog pal Roger dealt with last week's incredibly boring ramble by asking an excellent question. That gave me an idea: Why not see if anyone else has any questions they would like to ask?
Soooooo....introducing:
THE FIRST EVER ASK EDDIE ANYTHING!
If you've ever had a question(s) that you wanted to ask me, leave it in the comments, or drop me en email, or contact me on Facebook. I'll take those questions and answer them here in the blog in upcoming posts. Deadline for questions is this Friday! Get pondering and get asking! I'll answer Roger's question in a few days.
I'm still playing around with my big bag of vintage buttons. So many fun designs. The metal ones are my favorites. I just picked this bunch out at random and did not realize until I uploaded the pic into the blog that so many of them were variations on the same design.
What's interesting to me are these little medallion like things I keep finding. That doesn't seem like a very effective design for a button, but I'm not a sewing person, so what do I know? I'm thinking these might be more useful as embellishments? Many of them share the same designs as some of the buttons.
My favorites are Queen Elizabeth (second row, far right) and Napoleon (top row, second from left). I also like all the crests and heraldry.
It's finally done! Or, rather, as done as it's going to get for the moment.
This is my final space:
Such as it is. Sigh!
I'm not totally happy with it. There's way too much stuff here, and much of it is in the wrong place. Some of it is not even that great.
Why do I have a booth of crap? Well, it's not all crap, but there's more in this space than I like. I realize that one person's crap is another person's gem, so I'm hoping some of this stuff will sell through.
I'll explain more about the crap next week, when I have a chance to take you all on a photo tour of all three spaces.
Oh yeah.
Please ignore that pile of junk in the floor in the middle of the photo. You definition of "done" may be a little different than mine.
Or maybe I just wanted to get everything out of carts, and being in a pile on the floor counts for that.
Dang, but that would have made an excellent "Retro Y'all!"
I'm still not done with the booths redo.
There's one area that seems to actually be resisting my plans! It just will not come together. I think I was starting to bend it to my evil whims tonight, but ran out of time. Tomorrow for sure! (I hope. I pray.)
In the meantime, here's pics of my spaces at the end of the aisle with their new look.
I say: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
And together, we all go: "Yadda. Yadda. Yadda."
Just a short ramble this time, as I've not been feeling well. Nothing serious, mind you. I've just had a sore throat for a few days, so I've been laying low and staying in To try and keep it from turning into something worse. It feels like it's starting to fade away, so I'm planning on heading back to the booths today.
Also, there's just not that much to ramble about. And it's been pouring rain at unexpected intervals for several days now.
I'm still not done with the booths, by the way. I got about 80% done Friday afternoon, but I could tell I was starting to spin my wheels a bit. That always leads to going nowhere fast. I have actually caught myself doing nothing but moving the same thing back and forth from one spot to another, five or six times. That's usually a sign to me that it's time to hang it up.
I have all the shelves where I want them. I just need to finish getting all the stuff where I want it, which is where people can find and buy it, so that I can bring more stuff in, so that I can end this moratorium and go out and get more stuff. I think I can get it done in one more day. I think.
If I do get it done, I'll finish up the picture taking and have those for tomorrow.
Sales have remained strong throughout this whole crazy process, much to my surprise. I practically sailed to my new rent amount! I am really excited to see what else this month has to offer.
Since I'm at a loss for content right now, let me point you to a great piece about the Peanuts character Rerun by Mike Sterling, king of the comics bloggers. Seriously, this dude is the best there is at capturing all the wonderment and weirdness of the world of comics. Also, he's been a HUGE influence on my own blogging. Also, this piece shows (at least to me) that there is not a huge amount a difference between junk blogging and comics blogging. (More on that idea some time.)
The moratorium has made me boring. Sorry about that.
Snow globes, even tiny ones, where some or most of the liquid has dissolved or evaporated or leaked really depress me. Breaking Mickey free seemed like the right thing to do.
I was going to do one of those junker "how to" posts on the process, but I figured everyone should already know how to gently tap something with a hammer. If not, drop me an email and I'll make a YouTube video.
I bought a gallon (!) freezer bag FULL of vintage buttons a while back at a thrift. As I've come across button-worthy jars, I've been sorting them out. I'm down to the metal ones now, which are actually over half the lot. I plan on doing a post on some of the neat designs soon.
Today, I wanted to share just one button. The only one of its kind in the whole bag. I think you'l lsee why I wanted to share it.
I love miniatures and other tiny items. I call them "smaller smalls" or "little littles."
These pics were taken BC (before cleaning). Sometimes, I gotta move when the inspiration strikes. Also, not so great lighting and exposure. Just proving to y'all what a lousy blogger I am.
Found a bunch of stuff recently that looked like it was cleaned out of a shadow box. It had all been parceled out into baggies for 25 cents a bag. The whole lot coast about a dollar all together.
My favorites are the two tiny white kitties and the "Gent's" chamber pot. Who thinks of these things? I'm going to try and rescue that half-drowned Mickey Mouse from that snow globe.
Is the snow globe half empty or half full?
This strange thing is an overly swaddled baby. Interestingly enough, it's the largest figure of the lot.
Ma! I can't breathe!
Sweet Guardian Angel keeps everyone safe, including the chamber pot.
I think this lady has been somewhat perturbed by something the glass duck just said. She's turning to the dog for comfort.
This lady, on the other hand, is overjoyed at finding a strawberry as large as she is. The strange little child beside her is hoping she'll share.
Finally, some sweet little frogs and their squirrel friend want to wish you a happy day!
