Shopkeeping, and Other Things...

"Shopkeeping"

I like the sound of that word. It may be a bit of a stretch for what I do when I rearrange and merchandise my little space at the antique shop, but I'll keep calling it that anyway. :o) This past Sunday (one of my 2 days per month that I have to work in the shop) was very slow, so I had time to do a bit of revamping and re-fluffing...and I managed to snap a few photos to share. I had a few new pieces to integrate, but mostly I wanted to swap the merchandise on two of the walls just to keep it looking fresh and hopefully bring some new focus on some pieces I've had there for a while.

(click any image to see it much larger)

**Edited to add: I am never able to get my photos clickable to see them larger no matter what I do...I even tested it this time and posted the post with just a couple of photos on it and was able to click them and see them larger...but when I posted the entire post, none of them are clickable!! Arghhh!!!!! I upload them through Blogger and this time I did medium format (which I would never have done if I knew they wouldn't be clickable)...anyway, if you have any advice, I'd love to hear it...I've also tried uploading the photos to my illustration web domain and just used the URLs through blogger...and I've had mixed results at best. Please help!!!**

Here's what the "blue" section looked like previously...it was OK, but I knew it was time for a change...

So, what I did was, I pulled all the stuff from the "pink and turquoise" section, and moved it to where the blue stuff had been...

These wall sconces were a really quick, easy redo - a coat of paint and teacups and saucers glued on as candle holders...


Here's what they looked like before...

As I said before, I swapped the pink and blue sections...here's how the pink section looked before I moved it- again, not too bad - just needed a little change of scenery...


Here's what the "new" blue section now looks like (btw - we sold the 2 corner units this weekend...they buyers are picking them up in a week or so, so we'll be revamping all of this again very soon)...


I grabbed the morning glory vine from the top of the china cabinet and used it to bring a little interest to the frame...as well as reinforce the blue theme...



Hopefully this arrangement will bring some fresh focus to both the frame and the round plaster relief plaque...

And I have had more fun doing different things with these little wall pockets...this time they are holding blue china saucers...

and here's a little redo of the shelf....

Now that the lamp is on this wall, I could actually plug it in which I hope will help sell it. (we aren't allowed to use power strips or extension cords in the shop, so the lamp has been off since I've had it in the shop....until now)

Oh, and the metal shelf it's on - I grabbed that out of my Mom's back yard...nice and rusty and shabby...


I finally put my notecard sets in the shop just to try them out...we'll see how they do... I dressed the boxes up just a tad with ric rac and ribbon....oh, please disregard my hokey little sign there...I didn't have time to make one properly on the computer so it's kinda homely...

Finally, I got this tall old shoe rack at a thrift shop for $5 on Saturday - it works perfectly as a display piece for my vintage linens....now more of them can be seen at once instead of being folded up as they had been previously...
July was a better month at the shop over all and I am encouraged by better sales in mine and in other's sections (I wasn't in the red this month on rent vs. sales)...so, we'll see how August goes...? Hopefully this little touch of shopkeeping will help...

BTW, I can't wait to show you what I've been gathering and preparing for Fall...should be fun!

Oh, and yes, some of these items here and others you've never seen yet will be available very soon on our upcoming little online boutique adventure - can't wait!!!

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Other Things...

We only thought that this little problem was getting better....this photo was from March when sweet hubby had orthopaedic surgery after severely injuring his finger at an Easter family gathering...

This is it today in the bright red cast...last Thursday, poor sweet hubby had to once again have surgery because the finger had dislocated again. This time the surgeon put pins in the finger to get it and keep it straight...it will be in a cast for about 6 weeks. Ugh. My sweetie is tough though and he says this doesn't hurt nearly as much as the first go-round...(I about fainted when I saw the pins in it today when we went to have the cast put on....yikes! Johnny thought it looked great because it was so much straighter than before!) But hopefully this will heal properly and sweetie will be able get at least limited use out of his finger again...as an electrician, his hands are pretty important to say the least, so we're praying for a full and quick recovery!

"Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer."
(Romans 12:12 )

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There's LOTs more going on that I'll share over the next day or two (an award, new illustration projects and more), but I'm heading off to bed for now. Thanks so much for coming by...it's always a joy to have you here!!