Good JuJu

Previously, I mentioned that my booth is mostly still set in summertime.

I’d kept a corner of beachy goods, and another wall of floral-garden partyish things (oops, no photos).

There is a hutch full of ironstone and white goods.  Which could be displayed any time of year.

And jewelry galore.

So much jewelry.

I made some new crowns.

Plus brought in the purse charms that I’d made in Indiana while visiting family.

And I like to always have a mushroom area, they still sell for me.  I brought in a few witchy boots filled with arrangements too.   These are more autumn than Halloween, next month I’ll do the more spooky ones.

There is a chance that I’ve missed the mark on what customers are looking for by not having my All Hallow’s Eve gear out, or not hitting the Autumn notes as hard as I should.  But I did have a great time setting it all up and have fingers crossed that my shoppers will like it too.

In retail, you need to be ahead of the seasons.  And I do know that.

But I don’t always follow the rule.

It’s a hot day in August and I should be doing full on fall in my space, but I happen to be a person who loves summer.

Instead of longing for fall, I’m holding on tightly to the remnants of my favorite time of year.

But I’m not unrealistic.  I did bring in some autumn elements and warmer tones too.

And topped it off with a few owls.  I’m transitioning a bit into Fall, even though I do not like that season.

For September, I’ll be skipping it over and heading full on into Halloween.  Which I adore.  I’ll do two months of gothic goods, then go full force for Christmas for two months.

 And after that?  January will be valentines.  I go for the fun parts that make the cool months of the year tolerable for me and concentrate souls on holidays.

Meet Mandy, a new guest in my space.

She adds some class to the joint, doesn’t she?

I’m so glad she came to visit.

One side of my space is mostly neutrals.

The back wall is some seaside stuff.

Around the corner is some cuties.

This will be my first weekend back to work full time since my surgery, and I’m really looking forward to it.

My arm is still not released for working during the Good Juju sales yet, but I’m slowly getting less exhausted and feeling better.  So I took the guncles there with me for a couple of hours where they could shop and I could help out as much as I was able.

But a small twist was thrown into our plans when Beth texted to let me know I’d sold a dresser.   We found a replacement for it in my garage stockpile, cleaned it up, and hauled it in.   The guys were fantastic to have around as helpers, I really needed their assistance with this.

The piece I brought in was an exact fit for the space that was left bare, so it quickly slid into the spot, and I did a quick reshuffle of goods.  A table had sold while we were on our way there, and another sold while I was working.  It was a busy furniture day for me, and I usually just sell smalls.

These purchases were very, very unexpected.

After the booth was fooled up I got to spend some happy time visiting my buds at juju, and talking with, helping customers.

It was a great day!  And if you want to go see all the fun people there, it’s open today too.

Before it was time for my shoulder surgery, I was a busy bee getting my world situated so I function in with only one arm.

High on my list of priorities was to have my booth at Good Juju ready for the march sale.

Knowing I’d be missing the use of my dominate hand, I figured I needed to get enough inventory set up for redos too.  I tagged and boxed huge piles of goods ready to bring in and set up for April and May’s events too.

Another thing I wanted to accomplish in my space was setting up the power strips to be easy to reach, then making a diagram of where they were located so they’d be easy to find.  Other dealers need to be able to turn them off and on for me while I’m away.

Since I move furniture around between sales, I redo lighting each time, and convenience isn’t usually factored in when I finally get to the point of plugging stuff in.  I find myself twisting, reaching, and stretching to pop the switches and it’s been a work out to wrangle my arm behind something and feel around blindly trying to light up the area.

Since I’ll be depending upon the kindness of friends to make sure my booth is tidy and the bulbs are illuminating my wares, I knew I had to simplify how to reach the power strips.  After carefully placing them in spots with easy access and hanging some from hooks, I photographed and mapped out where they were, then printed copies for other dealers to find them.

As I write this, I haven’t gone under the knife yet.  (I’m also pre-posting here, because I’m afraid I won’t have anything to say during recovery).

I have no idea how all will go, and how much I will feel like, or be able to do after.  So part of my prep was to cram as much as I possibly could into the room in case I wasn’t able to do much for a while.

Cramming is my specialty anyway, but I really went for it this time.

She is filled to the brim!
And is decorated in a springtime/Easter theme that will hold through the April sale if needed.

From this angle, you can’t see the bunny ears on this guy.  But he is ready for Easter.

And I think I am too.

I’ve been in a tizzy trying to cover all the bases and be prepared for one armed life for a while.  Lids of toiletries are loosened, new pjs that button down the front are purchased.  My house is clean, as are my car and studio.

I’m as ready as I can be, I guess.  And feeling blessed that my friends are covering for me, so that I can take all this time off to recuperate.

After last minute touch ups at Good Juju I wanted to take a few photos to post.

As I snapped a few, I started to see a pattern.

I seem to have a lot of little ladies.

With a similar look.

All have a sweet, pensive face.

Girls of all ages.

And mediums.

I seem to have populated my booth with girliness.

Lots of lovelies have filled the space.

Darlings and dollies

 Beauties and babes

I didn’t even realize just how many I keep on display.

Now that I see the pattern, I’m loving that vibe I’d been cultivating without even knowing.

When this post pops up, I’ll be in Hawaii!
Before flying off, I pre-wrote a few posts because when I get home, I’ll have to hit the ground running.

I made sure I was ready for First Friday weekend before I left

Then, when I get back, I’ll be prepping months ahead.  My shoulder surgery is scheduled mid February and if I want to keep my booth filled, I have to tag and box inventory to have it ready for others to set up while I still have use of my right hand and arm.

At first, I was simply going to quit Good Juju be a use I knew I could not carry boxes, write tags or move things around.  But so many people offered to help, that I decided to be extremely prepared with inventory ahead of time and keep the space open with the aid of all my sweet helpers.

Which so far, hasn’t worked out like I’d hoped it would.  Having two viruses at the end of the year took away major chunks of my time intended for packing.

I already have unintelligible handwriting, so imagine how much worse it will be if I have to make price tags with my left hand?

It does not help that I’m easily distracted by fun ideas, either.

Time that should’ve been spent on the boring, detestable job of tagging and packing up was stolen from me.   Well, I was the one who stole and wasted that time.  I did creative projects instead.

I sewed more quilt critters, made jewelry hearts, and other things I love instead of being that worker ant getting ready for tough times ahead. I went full on grass hopper and did anything I wanted to.

Now I won’t have any bugs saved up to eat for winter.

Wait, that analogy went too far.

What I won’t have are my neatly boxed, priced, and labeled piles of inventory ready for friends to display for me in March, April, and possibly May.

So, I am vowing to myself that I will work my butt off to get this accomplished.

After I return from frolicking on the beach, that is.

Life is more than just hard work, right?