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.