Ah, Fall Junk Ranch - pumpkins, mums, vintage Christmas, wool throws, camping gear - temperatures in the mid 90's... What, the what? It was another blazer last week. Thursday I was out on the field all day doing my set-up. By 4:00, I was feeling really bad. I had a bout of heat exhaustion a few weeks ago and I seem to be bothered by the heat even quicker since then. Everyone was complaining about the heat though. It was rough. And now, oddly enough - one week to the day later it is 50 degrees outside. It's a clear crisp sunny day and the shoppers would have been loading UP! They were shopping - I sold a lot. It was a good weekend. But, I think fall temps would have made it even better. But, this is Arkansas so who knows what the weather will bring.
I decided to make some vintage Christmas crafts and try them out at The Junk Ranch. It was a long hot summer, so I stayed in the A/C and made Christmas crafts.
I bought this PINK Tonka truck from an IG friend and stuffed it with all the PINK vintage it would hold. It was admired a lot on Instagram and lots of people liked it, but it didn't sell. I did have it kind of hidden to protect it from little hands and the sun, so that may be part of it.
This fun spice tin sold, plus several others I made but forgot to photograph.
I had a bunch of old Shiny Brites that were either broken or not in great condition, so I put them in a big glass jar with a Superball and smashed them into homemade glass glitter. I loved the look of these trees in the sun - they sparkled!!
I had the idea for these old spools of threads and I got a little carried away making them. But, a lot of them sold at $5 each, so that made me happy.
I found these little campers at Dollar General in the Spring, so I ordered a couple cases of them to decorate. I sold all but about eight out of 24, I think.
With the heat, I was nervous about selling vintage Christmas, because that was about 80% of what took to sell! But, everyone seemed to love it and buy a lot. WHEW!
I like to build nice high displays with lots of little vignettes in each area. People just stand there for the longest time, looking at it all. I love that.
I sold that cute snowman. He sat on my dryer for almost a year and now I sort of miss his smiling face.
Santa mugs. I bought that drying rack just for the Santa mug display. I thought it looked pretty cute.
My ode to Winter and coziness. I ended up moving it on Saturday and putting Halloween there. No one wanted to haul a wool throw around.
I had a Farmhouse/Harvest/Thanksgiving area. Ironstone, turkey platters, baking stuff.
I pile it up and pile it on.
It just seems more fun than a sparse booth.
Chickens always sell.
More Christmas. Everyone picked up those punch cups and asked how much. When I told them it was a set with the punch bowl, they would put them back. I was so scared one would break. Now, 99.9% of the people are SO nice and having FUN and love looking at things. But, I had one lady come through that was SO rude. First, she flicked my vintage ornament boxes one by one and said quite LOUDLY, "I like the pretty ones at Dillard's. Not these OLD things." Uh, then why are you at the JUNK RANCH and not at the MALL??? Then she picked up the punch cup and asked how much. I told her it was a set and she said, "It is NOT a set - it does NOT MATCH. I wouldn't want anything like that anyway!" and then she slammed the cup down on the table on top of my GLASS snowglobe necklaces. Nothing broke, but I seriously wanted to ask her to leave my booth. I wonder if that's allowed? Every year, I have one memory of a rude person and a million memories of great people. Great stories are to follow below.
Here are the snowglobe necklaces. I sold quite a few of them which made me so happy. Selling things you thought of and made is doubly exciting.
These photos are dark because there was much needed shade under the canopy.
Homemade flashcards. I really got carried away and made a ton of these for every holiday. I sold out of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, which is good.
More things I made - the xylophone is hard so see - it had a Santa and vintage goodies on it - it sold the first ten minutes.
Scrabble tiles have run their run, I think. They were so popular a few shows ago. I think I sold $5 worth this time. That's okay - they are a pain to keep organized. There were globes in every booth this year. I think I will add a Santa and sleigh on top of this one.
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My new Instagram friend, Tara came and bought this Mercedes with Santa and an elf in it. I love it when customers let me take their photos with their purchases. Evie bought a squeak duck too. I love kid customers.
Speaking of which - this little nugget had $60 to spend and decided on this dollhouse and some furniture for it. She spent about an hour sitting in the grass, carefully choosing which furniture she wanted for the dollhouse. Everyone enjoyed watching her shop and her smile was the BEST. After the sale was completely finished, I found out that I knew her Aunt and Uncle, but I had no idea who she was as I took this photo. She really made my day.
Every year, I look for a Christmas show to sell my wares. I tried one last year, which was run by a competitor of The Junk Ranch - I knew better, but I had SO much inventory and there wasn't a Junk Ranch Christmas option, so I did what I thought I needed to do. The show was badly run, too small and not enough "vintage" even though the work "vintage" was right in the title of the show. This year, I have lots of leftover inventory, more craft supplies to make more creations and ideas a'plenty, so what will I do????
I'll tell you what I will do - I will be selling at the 1st ever HOLLY JOLLY JUNK RANCH!!!! Whoop! It's Nov. 30-Dec. 1st, which can be dicey in Arkansas. You could literally need to wear anything from shorts to a parka. It will be held during the Civil War Re-enactment weekend, which is a bustling weekend full of people in uniform walking the streets of downtown and at the Battlefield Park. It should be great fun. I will be taking my personal Santa blowmold collection to display for a photo op area on the old farmhouse. There will be lights and decorations and we will be open in the day and night time, so I am on the hunt for ideas for lighting. I literally had three days off from one Junk Ranch, and I am jumping in for another. I don't think I will ever see my Halloween decorations this year. It seems odd to put pumpkins out when I am in full blown Christmas spirit!
I appreciate the emails and texts worried about me since it has been so long since I blogged. I have just been really busy with shopping, making and selling. I will never stop blogging - it just might be a time in between posts. I do love to write and I do love this blog and I do love those of you that still come around to see what I have written. <3 nbsp="" p="">