Junk Ranch Weekend IS HERE

It's time for the Junk Ranch!  Goodness gracious.  I took a very fully loaded SUV and a fully loaded truck out today and the car is loaded yet again for tomorrow.  I hope the shoppers come ready to buy Vintage Christmas, because I certainly have a TON!  

If you remember, the Spring JR had hellish temperatures - nearly 100 and humid and just miserable. It was actually pretty warm earlier this week - but it is going to be in the 40's the next two nights and a high of 70 all weekend.  I AM IN HEAVEN!  This weather should bring the people out by the droves.  Yay!

I'll be back next week with a full report, lots of pictures and hopefully some good stories.  I really appreciate all of you that give me encouragement to do this show.  The comments, the texts, the emails.  They all mean the world to me!  And don't forget - if you follow me on Instagram (HINT HINT) I always post lost of photos on the fly during the day.  @sharamonkeybox that's me!

The Week in Junk, The Booth and Crafty Stuff

I did it.  Closed my booth.  It was a relief to finally be done with it.  But, it was also sad.

I can't believe I added so much happiness to that ugly little dark space.

My friend with a both across the aisle from me posted her sad face in front of my empty spot. 

I brought everything home and sorted it out into two piles - Junk Ranch and Donate.  I think I ended up donating over half of it to Goodwill.  I was just over so much of it.  I kept the best things to take to the Junk Ranch and to put into a future booth.  

I still have a few things over at Lara's booth.  The store posted this fun story this week.  I had made magnets out of old funny yearbook photos from the 1950's.  I cut out names of students and added them to the magnets.  I purposely never put the right name on the right photo.  

But, this lady was digging through them and she was drawn to "Marie",  But then as she looked a little closer - it was her SISTER Shirley!  Photo was taken in the next small town over in 1959.  Isn't that amazing that she happened to be in the store, found the magnets, looked through them AND actually found her sister?  (This is also the third item of mine that has made the store page.  Not bad for items being sold on the down low.)

I was working in the other booth this week when a young college girl walked in, squealed and grabbed a pair of roller skates that Lara was selling.  She sat on the floor, put them on and rolled away.  

She was SO happy!  It was the only item on her wishlist that day and they fit perfectly.  It was truly a Cinderella moment for her.  

I've been thrifting a bit.

This is a Lego model of a Meyn Rapid Plus Breast Deboner made for Tyson Foods.  Now, I know this is about a weird of an item as you can find.  So, I am either an idiot or a genius for buying it.  I think I am a genius.  But, only ebay will tell for sure.  I am sure you will be shocked to hear that there aren't any others anywhere online.  

I thrifted this vintage musical snowman this week.

And this two foot tall Bethany Lowe bottle brush tree.  I also bought a red tinsel tree.  It's not vintage, but it looks vintage.  And, a red tree in Razorback country is a sure sell.

I've been making things.

A pedestal bowl made out of half of a globe.  I coated the inside with the most beautiful turquoise glitter.  It is completely unusable, but it is SO PRETTY.  I need to try to seal it, but that takes the shimmer and shine out of it and that is just NO FUN.

I gussied up an old globe.  It's a Pinterest project, which I usually avoid.  But this one was a good idea.  The seam was coming apart, so I added on the pennant Washi tape for a little happiness.

The Junk Ranch is in twelve days.  But I set up one day, so that's eleven.  Then there's load the car day, so that's ten days.  Then there's a motorcycle rally in town that we attend for two days, so that's eight days.  Then, of course, I need to go grocery shopping and errand running, so that's seven or maybe even six days.  Holy crap.  I'm out of time!  :)  I am actually pretty much ready to do it.  I have priced SO much Christmas, Halloween and other things that I am ready to be done.  Whatever will I do with all my time then??????

My Booth: Good-Bye

The store where I have my booth is turning five in November.  I was one of the original vendors when the store opened.  I remember the first month my check was well over $600 and I was very excited about that.  I fluffed it and took in new merchandise each week.  Since I deal mostly in smalls, I had a permanent set up of nice old shelves that I filled with all sorts of vintage goodies.  So, the set up was always the same, but the junk in it was always different.  I like old kitchen things and toys and cute adorable crap to sit on windowsills. And Christmas was my big time at the booth - lots and lots of vintage.  I sold a ton of blowmolds in there in the first several years.  

About a year ago, (or maybe more who knows time flies and all that stuff) they built a new highway around the tiny town where I have my booth.  I held on to my convictions that it wouldn't hurt business downtown.  But it has.  There is a main street with nothing but flea markets and antique stores.  Most people come to town to shop at Daisies and Olives then they work their way down the street going in and out of each shop, crossing at the light and then work their way back up the other side of the street.  My store is the very last store on that side of the street.  So, if people are spending money along the way, they are getting poor before they come to my store.  And, then, insult to injury - if you come in the store and take the aisles up and down - my booth is the next to the last booth on the ENTIRE STREET.  Needless to say, sales have gone down month by month.  Here's a blog post with pictures of the street.  It's a fun town with lots of good junk.

Now, I will admit that I haven't always paid enough attention to it especially now that I am a Junk Ranch Vendor.  I am always shopping with the JR in mind, pricing for the JR, making things for the JR and so on and so forth.  After the JR, I take the remaining merchandise to the booth to fill it up. Then, I set my sights on the next JR again.  

My booth rent is $52 a month and the JR is $100 twice a year.  I can sell twenty times at the JR compared to one month at the booth.  And, the money is ALL MINE.  No commission.  So, of course that is where my thoughts are always turned.  Find stuff for the Junk Ranch. Price stuff for the Junk Ranch.  Make things for the Junk Ranch.  But, then the Junk Ranch is over and I still have a ton of inventory, so it needs to go somewhere.  I tried putting all my handmade things in my booth, but they just do not sell. Lara has been nice enough to let me try some of my things in her booth at Daisies and Olives, and they seem to be selling there.  So, the goal is to get a booth over there now.  Oddly enough, I had a booth there years ago.  I remember The Bean was in his infant seat sitting on the floor when I worked the booth - so that was an eternity ago.  The store has grown in both size and popularity since then and it is one of the premiere flea markets in the area.  I think my things are a good fit and with the holidays coming - I really want to be established in there so I can make heaps of cash.  Ha.  

So, tomorrow I will close my little booth.  I'm sad that I am leaving,  Sad that it's just not the right place for me anymore.  But, you gotta do, what you gotta do.  So, I gotta do it!  

Good bye Booth #33.   

I'll miss you!

The Week in Junk: Labor Day Yard Sales

Labor Day is notoriously bad for yard sales.  But there is a big craft fair/square dancing event up the street and lots of yard sales spring up along the highway on the way and throughout the small town.  I went Thursday, Friday and Sunday plus hit one local sale up the street on Saturday.  I was focused on vintage Christmas for the Junk Ranch, the booth and FOR ME.  Because I am greedy like that.  :D

I did well finding vintage Christmas.  The funny thing is that I am ALWAYS looking for vintage Christmas.  It's just that I actually found a lot this weekend.  Fall sales usually bring more my way. so maybe this is a good sign.

A very vintage book, melted popcorn Santa, beaded garland, repro glass garland, a nice assortment of old indented ornaments (they were in a shoe box and the lady said, "What's in that box?"  When I told her she shooed it away and said, "Oh, you can just have those old things." That happens a lot.), a few nativity figures, some Lefton carolers and something new to me  - star shaped light reflectors.  I found that champagne bucket at a terrible advertised HUGE ESTATE SALE (they had nadda) and I am using it to hold rolls of vintage wrapping paper.

There you can see the reflectors on the right.  I think they are great as reflectors, but I want to use some in my wreaths and in some of my prize ribbons that I make.  Doesn't that whole pile just make you giddy?  Or is it just me?  

On my way home on Friday, I passed one last sign and did a turn around to find it.  The sign pointed down a gravel road, then it turned onto a dirt road and then I spotted the sale at an old trailer house.  I only mention this because that is where I found this Laurids Lonborg Denmark ice bucket.  Not exactly where I would have expected to find a nice Mid-Century piece.  I also got some nice rocks glasses, some very old books and a pile of other things that I didn't photograph.  

More Mid-Century items - Teak salt and pepper shakers.  

This funny guy is a set of salt and pepper shakers - his head comes off to be the salt shaker.  But what is he?  He has a dog head and penguin feet and weird little bird wing arms.  Yet, he's still adorable.  

I usually like colorful bright things -but I bought a lot of black stuff!  The old megaphone was bought at a sale with about 25 vendors and at least a dozen of them had to comment on the megaphone and ask it I was going to use it on my husband.  It was funny the first time, but after the fifth or sixth time, I was OVER IT.  Giant bent glass tray, an old tin and the stack of old books from the trailer sale.  Zippy the rubber faced monkey came from the free ornament sale.

Saturday I vowed to stay home and work on pricing for the Junk Ranch, but curiosity got to me and I peeked at Craigslist.  A sale started at 1:00 and it was around the corner from me!  Zoom I went!  I got these fun lamps for 75¢ each, a wooden sign that says "Ye Olde Egg Shoppe" which I have NO idea what that was from - but I think some chicken raising junker will swoop it up - and a double size milk crate.  For less than $4.00 and less than ten minutes I had my junk fix!

Sunday we went to the craft fair and then hit a few more sales.  There;s a guy that clears out his shed a few times a year and sells it dirt cheap.  I found this McCoy planter, a piece of thrown pottery and an armful of old office junk for $1.50 total.  As I was walking away I asked if he had any Christmas stuff still in the shed since he doesn't always pull it all out.  He looked at me for a second, then stood up and went in the house.  He came out with a huge box and set it at my feet.  I wasn't really expecting much, but then I found old ornaments and indents and Shiny Brites and some dollar store junk and plastic ornaments an a mixture of old and new, good and bad.  He quoted $5.00 for the entire box, so SOLD!  

I ended up with a good amount of great old stuff.  That figural glass garland was worth the whole $5.00 to me.  I priced most of it for the Junk Ranch.  But, greedy ole me had to keep the cream of the crop!  

I hope you had a good weekend and found a little junk too.

Tuesday is The Bean's Birthday.  He is 21.  Can you BELIEVE THAT?  He was just a lil' feller not too long ago.  SNIFF.

Phone Dump - Birthday Recap and Booth News

Hey, hey, hey - it's time to clean out the phone.  So that means......PHONE DUMP!

I dropped the menfolk off at the movies to see some ungodly superhero movie and I went thrifting all afternoon.  On my last stop of the day I found my very first Cathrineholm  enamel pot.  It's not my style, but I can appreciate the beauty of it.  I can also appreciate the fact that people like to collect these - so I threw that bad boy on ebay PRONTO.  It sold for $65.00 in less than 48 hours.  I paid $4.95.  

I'm having really horrible sales at my booth.  I am going to give my notice next week and clear out. It makes me sick.  I have been there for five years, but the sales are just lower and lower each month.  I need to make money - that's why I have a booth - so I have to do what is best for me.  Lately I make rent and get a very small check of less than $100 - way less some months.  It will be hard for me to tell them, but I must do it.  

Since I wasn't 100% positive that it wasn't just lackluster sales overall and not just me or my booth or my store, Lara (sweet Lara) offered to let me put some things in her booth at the main store in town. Which, happens to be directly across the street from my store.  There's this whole competitive vibe up and down the street and if you leave one shop and go to another shop, you are shunned by the first shop.  It's crazy.  So since I was putting things in the competition AND I still had things in my shop, we had to do it all on the sly.  The day we stocked it, I snuck in the side door and kept a low profile.   (Do you know that spell check says 'snuck' isn't a word???  I have used that my whole life.  WTH!)

Lara specializes in her cute and clever prints and lovely painted furniture.  I brought in a few tote bags of items and a couple larger items like that little wicker rocker to add to her already ADORABLE booth.  I tried to pick things that had the same look, color palette and theme that she already had in her booth. 

I added in my feedsack pendants, flash card pinwheels, framed flash cards and some back to school themed items and other vintage things.  After less than one week I had sold well over $100, which made me realize for certain that it's not me or my things that are the problem - it's the shop.  So, I must move on.  I'm going to sign up for a booth in Lara's store and hopefully have it set up before the holidays.  

The day after we set up the booth - this photo appeared on the FB page for the store.  That's a banner that I made on Lara's chalkboard.  Of course, the owners think Lara made it.  But when I go to sign up for a booth I can show them that I actually made things they are already featuring.  (I love that silly banner made our of recycled book covers.)

About five weeks ago this cat showed up in the driveway and never left.  He stayed under the cars most of the time.  Over the years we have had five cats and each one of them has just show up at our doorstep.  So, I knew this one was meant to be ours too.  Two weeks ago I picked him up and brought him inside and he was ours for sure.  He is very sweet and docile.  He sleeps under the bed most of the day which I think is the inside version of sleeping under the car.  He comes out for head rubs and dinner then goes and sleeps on top of the bed.  He is a very good boy all day long.

But.  But, then night time comes and he turns into the DEVIL.  He runs up and down the halls.  He careens up on the cabinet in front of the window, shoving his head through the mini-blinds, systematically snapping the slats off one by one.  He stands on his back feet and claws at the window while he yowls " Heeeeeellllllllllllooooooooooooo?" then jumps down and races down the hallway and repeats the entire production all.night.long.  As soon as the sun comes up, he is calm and sweet again.  Once you see that photo above, it is obvious that he is a VAMPIRE and that is why he is up all damn night.  I think he is getting a little better with each passing night.  Or it could be that I have started wearing a sleep mask, earplugs and taking a ZZquil before bed.  One or the other.  His sweetness outweighs his horrific behavior by just a hair.  Just.a.hair.  We shall see how he is behaving when I put the Christmas tree up.  He may be sleeping under the car again.  (I kid.  Kind of).

I forgot to take a photo of my cake this year.  THE HORRORS!  So, here is a half cake photo.  It was pink and had buttercream roses.  What else could I want?

My Mom brought me to tears when I opened a package with this ring inside.  This is one of her most prized possessions.  When she was 13, her Daddy took her tot he Pawn Shop and let her pick out anything she wanted.  He was not surprised when she headed straight to the jewelry area and picked out this ring.  The owner told her that it was handmade in France and that there is an uncut diamond, a garnet and a cut diamond.  She wore it from that day and all of my life.  Since her accident, she can't wear rings anymore, so she wanted me to have it.  I begged her to keep it, but she said NO, I want you to have it now.  I am the keeper of the family jewels, so to speak.  I wear my Great Grandmother's Diamond (set on my Grandfather's band) every day.  I have a little box full of family rings from every member on my Mom's side.  It was an awfully thoughtful gift to say the least.  

Speaking of thoughtful gifts - Lara made a special print just for ME!  

She used this old photo of me as her inspiration.  

Would you just LOOK AT THAT?  First of all - GINGHAM background - then a VW bug with flowers and my name on the plate!  "We didn't realize we were making memories, we just thought we were having fun."  Isn't that the nicest quote?  I hope that's what I did with The Bean - having fun and making memories.  Thank you, Lara.  I LOVE it!

While we are the subject of thoughtful gifts and sweet friends......look at what came in the mail from Heidi (her blog Vacuuming in High Heels and Pearls was one of the first that I ever read. And, when she started commenting on MY blog - I thought I had been kissed by royalty!  Now I consider her one of my dearest friends. Her blog is gone now, but she really needs to start a new one!)  Anyway, she made me this wonderful Magpie Necklace chock full of things that she said made her think of me.  She NAILED it.  Look at that wee cookie cutter! And, BONUS, it's a cat!  There's a tiny bottle of sprinkles!  A toadstool! A BINGO card! Pink things!  Cherries!  A ducky! A Shiny Brite Cap! And on and on and on.  I couldn't have picked out better things for myself.  Thank you Heidi.  I LOVE IT!

So there we have it - another phone dump, but really more of a what's been happening around here sort of post.  Hope you are all well!  

Birthday Decorations

It's birthday month over here.  Not that I celebrate my birthday for a month - but mine was yesterday and The Bean's is September 6th, so I leave my birthday decorations out for about a month.  I love the pops of happy and all the PINK.  I am sure my almost 21 year old LOVES pink birthday stuff - but really most vintage birthday decorations ARE pink.  (Lucky me!)

Those white shelves of mine - what would I do without them?

All sorts of birthday and party fun.  I added in the Squeaker and an old doll head for fun.  My vintage candle boxes are one of my favorite collections.  I love it that people saved them from year to year.

Sweet vintage happy Birthday record and the squeaker I was supposed to sell.  We all saw that coming, didn't we? Treat cups and candle boxes.

I have a couple old Donkey Party game boxes that I added in this year.  

The area above the couch that everyone thinks is a mantle.  My favorite party decorations and framed book pages.  It's a lot of sweetness, but it makes me happy.  

Oh, silly me.  I forgot to mention how old I was this year.  

Damn straight.

:)

Bargains Galore on 64 - 2016

The Bean and I headed down over the mountain Thursday morning to go to Bargains Galore on 64. It's about fifty miles to get over and down the mountains to Alma, where the sales start - then they run for about 160 miles.  We only made it about 25 miles down the road before we came back to Alma to hit a bunch of sales there.  I like this sale because all the sales are set up right along the road - no detouring or side streets to find sales.  Just drive, pull over, see what they have, then load up and go on up the road until you find another sale then repeat, repeat, repeat.  It will be no surprise to you when I say.......IT WAS HOT.  Lord a mercy.  100 on the thermometer all damn day with a heat index of 115.  I looked like a drowned rat most of the day.  At one point I realized that I had salty sweat line on my shirt.  I have only ever seen those on construction workers and marathon runners.  Ick.  It is not a good look on me.  But, we had water and ice and an air conditioned car.  But, getting in and getting cool, then getting out again made it feel just all that worse.  We hit sales from 8:50 until 4:45 then we decided that was ENOUGH.  We hit Sonic up for a shake (not realizing it was half price cheeseburger day so the place was PACKED), then drove back up over the mountain.  

We ended up stopping at nearly every sale that we stopped at last year.  I guess if I lived along there, I would have a sale every year too.  I even remembered what I bought at each one last year, so that was our gauge whether we should stop again this year or not.  The Bean was on the hunt for knives, Nerf and Pokemon.  Knives for collecting, Nerf for collecting and reselling and Pokemon as in Pokemon Go.  (Dude, our data is running low from the Pokemon hunting.)

You didn't come here to hear me babble, so here is the LOOT.  And some random photos.

Big squeaker elephant.  A lady was walking up from one direction and I was walking up from the other direction and we both reached out for the him at the same time.  She laughed and said she only wanted to poke his stomach and that she didn't want to buy him.  So, she poked and I purchased.  :) She thought he was a hard bank so that's why she wanted to poke him. He will be Junk Ranch bound.

Oh how I wanted this HUGE pile of trophies.  But it was my very first stop of the day and they would have filled up my car.  They were at a church and they had religious themes - golden bibles, crosses, loving cups and all sorts of angels and I don't even know what else.  I love to dismantle trophies and sell the pieces.  People like to dig in them.  Now that I think about it - we drove past there on the way back.  I should have stopped and asked about them.  Darn.  

This little hutch is about three feet tall.  It's really heavy and made well.  I like the colors on it, but I think the paintings on the doors might date it a bit, but not sure.  I "might" do something about the doors, but most likely lazy me will sell it as is.  Someone said it would be a good cactus display.  It will go to the booth.

..

Random roadside shot.  I stop at some of the swap meet looking places so The Bean can shop.  He likes new knives and new Nerf.  LOSER.  :)  

There was a truck load of watermelons for sale and they had one cracked open on the table.  "Would you like a piece of watermelon?" they asked.   Me, all hot and sweaty and dying of thirst -"Oh, that would be delicious!  Thank you!"  The guy pulls out his knife and cuts off a 1" x 1/2" piece and hands it to me.  Uh, thanks?  

We drove by one house that we remembered from last year.  It was one of those sales that looked SO GOOD.  Lots of merchandise, tables upon tables of STUFF and a side yard full of old furniture and farmhouse stuff.  But, it was really high priced - not yard sale prices, but more like Vintage Market Day prices.  Anyway, I vowed not to waste time going there, but the lure of all that stuff sucked me in, so I pulled over to the shoulder and reversed all the way back up to the sale.  They had a lot of good stuff, but it was pretty pricey as I suspected.

As we were leaving, I spotted a box of very old dolls in a box.  They were in disrepair, yet still cute considering how very old they are.  They Kewpie doll really was the one that struck me as needing a new loving home.  I decided to ask the price, just for chuckles.  Based on the rest of the items, I was thinking anywhere from $25-$45 each.  When the lady told me that the whole box was $10 - I bit because that sounded like a great deal.  That's only $3.33 each (plus a penny) and that's not a bad deal for such old dolls.  Eddie might disagree, but I like them.  I'll research and list or sell somewhere.  I'll probably foster Miss Kewpie for a bit though.  She needs some lovin'.

I thought the old red plaid suitcase would be good in the Christmas booth.  That's a cape there on the right - handmade by Edith.  A handmade cape just seemed too great to leave behind - especially for a quarter.  The other thing is (or should I say was...) a dried flower arrangement under a glass domed frame.  I had grand ideas of a framed horse ribbon wit embellishments inside it.  I wrapped it in a coat that I bought so it would be safe and - you guessed it  - I unfurled that coat and flung it into the table, shattering the glass.  How can something survive for forty years and then I can break it five minutes after I buy it?

I should have rotated this photo, sorry.  It is huge and old and gilded and sort of amazing and completely not my style.  But it was only $1.00 and I liked it.  I'll take it to the booth.

How's THIS for tacky yet fabulous?  Believe it or not, it isn't homemade but an actual store bought manufactured item!  I think it is completely fabulous.  It will go on ebay or to the Junk Ranch.

I found one really great sale late in the day.  It was across the street from the sale where I bought the dolls, but we were only doing sales on one side of the highway as we went.  I do wonder what I missed at that sale, but I am happy with what I did get.  They had a ton more that I wish I could have bought - old board games in mint condition for $5.00, a 3 ft. Aluminum Tree for $30.00 and much more.  I asked where they got so much and they said it was a storage unit they had purchased.  If I would have purchased that unit, I would have dropped dead at the first box I opened.  They had looked up a lot of items and you could tell.  There would be a piece of pottery and the tag would say, "Rumrill Pottery - $28.00"  then right beside it would be something just as wonderful and it would have a sticker on it for $1.00.  I bet you can guess which things I bought.  :D  

This sweet little Mr. Kitty biscuit jar was a good find.  To ebay he will go.  

Here is a trunk shot ala Eddie.  Most of what you see came from the one great sale.  A few things were found up and down the highway at different sales along the way.

The cutest baby planter ever, a trick pack of gum I remember from my childhood, restaurant creamer, owl S & P shakers, four very chippy Santa mugs, a plastic bank, recipe box, q couple flocked Santa's, two mini pieces of pottery, a tiny pink West German clock, glass flower frog (they asked me if I knew what it was and I replied yes.  A few seconds passed and they said, "Can you tell us what it is?"  They had tried to research it but didn't get far.), two ornament hanger boxes, pink pottery piece, Scottie Pottery, Lefton Pixie planter, old cookbook. Reddy Kilowatt Ashtray and a fruit cake drum.  That little hutch makes a great display for all my smalls.  

More pottery.  I tried NOT to buy pottery this trip, but it was painfully cheap so I HAD to rescue it. The purple heart tray bears researching, a couple religious booklets with the DEVIL on them, lots of old cookie cutters and a Humpty Dumpty spoon holder. 

One lone box of Shiny Brites, a Spinach bank (purchased in the spinach capitol of the world...), MORE POTTERY (*cough*) and a cherry Jello Mold.  

These were my favorite finds from that sale and really from the whole trip.  I paid a little more for them than I think I would usually, but when you are on a trip solely to BUY things - well, you BUY THINGS.  There are ten in all, each one cuter than the next.  Some are Rosbro, some are Knickerbocker.  There are four rattles, a couple lollipop holders and just some fun figures too.  I have never found these out in the wild, so it was a happy find to keep finding one another on the toy table. I will list them all on ebay tomorrow.  (Except that happy chick in red, he needs to stay with me ahile to make me chuckle.

We had a much needed day away from everything around here, celebrated my birthday a little early, found some cool junk, met some fun people, saw some pretty sights and ate ChickfilA TWICE in one day.  It was a good day.