The Booth: Santa is in the HOUSE

I took all my vintage Christmas stuff to the big booth last week and today I took more to the small booth.  The big booth is VERY FULL.  I started at the upper outside of the booth and worked my way down each shelf and onto the next area and pulled a ton of stuff that had been there a long time and things that I was just sick of seeing.  I pulled about seven big totes FULL of merchandise.  Then I brought in a bunch of new old stuff and then I put the Christmas goodies out.  I had a lot.  And I am on the hunt for even more - you know me!  

Here are the results.  As usual, I have a huge bright florescent light in my booth which makes it the best well lit booth in the whole store, but makes it impossible to photograph.  I'll take the light over not being easily photographed.  

That tall white shelf hold all the ephemera - flash cards of all sorts, old dictionary page bundles, sheet music bundles, kid card packs, Button cards, mini flash cards, big flash cards, BINGO card packs, Scrabble word packs, Book Cover clipboards and much, much more.  Beside that is this great old cubby I found years ago (for 50¢!) that holds a lot of little things including cups and small figurines and such.  Below that is an old wooden crate full of vintage toys.  

My ornament wreaths hang on the outside of the shelf.  I want something different to go there instead of that while particle board shelf, but I just haven't found it yet.  But, I will.  Someday!  Below the wreaths is a light up fake fireplace insert with the sparkler inside.  

 Opposite side holds the blowmolds this time of year and some vintage stockings.  This is the only area I have for something "big" and even these are not really "big".

I meant to pull those frames!  Whoops!  The old coke crate holds spice tins and salt and pepper shakers.  Bundt pan wreaths and vintage puzzle magnets are on the edge of the black shelf.  

This is mostly all kitchen related stuff - Pyrex, aluminum tumblers, glasses, utensils, cookbooks, breadboxes, linens, aprons, scales, cookie cutters and on an on.  Just about anything I can find vintage and kitcheny goes there.  

The big shelf in the back usually holds all vintage things and more ephemera.  Now, except for the bottom shelf  it is all Christmas.  The bottom shelf holds vintage games and puzzles.  The four blue baskets are my Ben Franklin baskets full of grab bags of vintage ornaments.  I wish they were out so shoppers can see them better.  At the Junk Ranch I had them all in an old Bassinet and people could rummage through them.  Hopefully people will dig in these baskets too.  I made a bunch of holiday themed flash card packs this year.  I liked the look of them, so I made signs for all my "departments" that look like vintage flashcards.  I like it and think it makes it all look cohesive instead of handwritten signs.  

Saturday during our Anniversary sale I had the pleasure of meeting Melissa from Andromeda Vintage.  She lives in CO and had been in Branson, so she took a junking loop through my neck of the woods and managed to find Lara's booth and mine way out in our little flea market town!  It was so fun to meet someone from faraway that I felt like I already knew.  She is braver than me to drive from Branson to here and back to Colorado alone with only a GPS to guide her.  

Today I took even more vintage Christmas to our small booth.  Lara had put in a bunch of great handmade signs and scrap wood trees.  She is SO talented!  Her stuff is just so VERY clever.  The thing about the two of us is that we are terrible business people.  By that I mean we are great to each other and do not worry about ourselves. Lara will take in her things, rework the booth and shove all her stuff to the back and highlight mine.  Then, a few days later, I go in and rework it and try to make her stuff shine and hide my stuff.  It actually works because our area looks different about twice a week to keep it interesting.  I think we have a good mix this time - her large prints and signs and my smalls.  Plus I took a big folk art Santa, a tree and some other bigger-ish things.  

That Santa is all handmade from his knit sweater and leather moccasins to his willow chair.  But he was mounted on this huge board and he had three teddy bears, a books, handmade toys at his feet and a tree in the back. It was SO busy and just a hot mess.  I took it all apart and reworked just the Santa in the chair.  I gave him a pine cone to hold and put another small pine cone on his hat.  He is simple and really nice now.  I am glad I gave him another chance at life.  If he doesn't sell, that is okay with me.  (But, I hope he does).  His moccasins are awesome! 

The hallway in our area is about two feet wide so again, good photos are nearly impossible.  We do have a good mix of holiday, handmade and gift-y things.  

I bet that HO HO HO ya'll is already gone.  It's GREAT!  

So, now that is all done it is time to GET BUSY here at the house and get ready for Christmas.  I didn't put out any Halloween, Fall or Thanksgiving this year, so I am behind on my clearing out and making room to get ready.  Since I didn't decorate for those things, I am ready for glitter and mercury glass and shiny brites and Annalee's and Santas and my grocery store village and all that good Christmas stuff.  

BRING IT!