Good JuJu – Page 4 – Karla's Cottage

A Practical Magic inspired corner of my booth

antiques/junking, Good JuJu, Halloween treats

By Karla Nathan / August 30, 2024

It’s a relief when I get my booth set up in advance of First Fridays.

I try to do it right after the previous sale instead of waiting til right before the next one. The only downfall is the dustiness of the old building. Especially on the jewelry, so I wait to bring out the sparklies till closer to the event.

The Halloween theme has been a hoot (and not just from the owls), I’ve enjoyed every creepy corner. I’ve made an effort an effort to have lots of spooky season goods, but also have a bit of a Romantic Gothic Ghosts thing happening. Or more of a Practical Magic look? That is what I call this part of it.

My owl and crow watercolors are set out on a mantel that hangs over wallpaper with a dark and moody, haunted house feel.

I filled the shelf with necessary items that a witch would require to make potions.

While pictures of their familiars peeked out from behind the bottles.

Of course, there is a selection of handcrafted brooms available too. No two are alike, because what witch would want to show up at an event and see another crone riding the exact same broomstick? The embarrassment!

While I was at Good Juju laying out my jewelry to finish up, I took some videos around the shop, and will be posting them to Instagram and as reels on FB. Many are behind the scenes, sneak peeks of booths in process of setting up. If you want to see more around the warehouse, please take a look. I’m Karlanathan on IG.

Autumn looks for my booth at Good Juju

Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / August 2, 2024

Knowing that I’d be bringing in lots of fall colors, and plenty of brown, I wanted to make sure my space still had a romantic feel to it despite the more traditional, antiquey look I was going to have on display. So I over loaded on the wispy florals.

I’d been saving up old bowls all year for my stepping into fall theme in August.

Each of these pieces could’ve been incorporated here and there in any month and mingled easily with my typical look.

But when brought in all at once, and set out on natural wood furniture, it does make for a whole new style for me.

See what I mean?

Plus I have my western/farm/equestrian corner too.

For September, I am working on a selection of embellished jean jackets and flannel shirts. I thought I’d bring one in early, this is dipped in bleach, then over dyed, and has vintage lace added to it.

There is also a bunch of fall toned mushrooms.

And of course, lots and lots of sparklies.

Vintage in one area, new or handmade on the other side of the aisle. I used to commingle them, but realized, it’s often two different shoppers. So I divided up the shelves, that way there was more space for customers to take their time looking at the jewelry without feeling crowded.

Well, wish me luck, it’s a different look for me this season.

Fall Fairies and other creations

fairies, Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / July 30, 2024

It may be 90 degrees outside, but in the studio, autumn has arrived. I’ve whipped up witches, crafted batches of brooms, stockpiled witchy hats, and have made a few fall fairies.

This girl’s scouting days were behind her, so I repurposed the uniform into a woodland outfit.

Complete with posy toes.

And this delicate(?) little sprite might not be as pretty as her sibling, but she deserved a lovely, whimsical gown just as much.

They have joined the rest of the flock at Juju for the next First Friday weekend (this week!).

I bring in fairies each month. They aren’t an item that sells out, but I do have some shoppers who enjoy them, so typically 1-4 sell each time.

That is basically my formula there. Bring in a little bit of this, a little bit of that, make a few different pieces, then choose a theme for the month and decorate with old stuff to complete that chosen idea. I fill in around the vintage pieces with hand made items and a display or two of jewelry.

My little paintings are one of the many additions that mingle with the antiques. Here, I have sorta broken my “keep to the monthly theme” rule. This narrow wall is filled with springtime decor in the center of a booth filled with autumn.

Maybe my rule is more of a guideline.

Some other creations for this month are tiny wooden books covered in old paper. Plus a few more crowns that I made extra blingy.

This formula works out okay for me. I like making a variety of things, but don’t want to rely on just one craft. If I had a booth full of say, just crowns, my sales would most likely be pretty dismal. This way I can sell a few of each set of crafty items, and that adds up to supplement my overall sales.

Next post, I’ll show you the rest of my booth. The non created pieces.

Thank you for the good, Good Juju weekend

Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / July 8, 2024

Holidays and summertime both can be iffy in retail. So I wanted to shout out a big thanks to all the shoppers who visited us in the Old West Bottoms of KC to shop in Good Juju over the 4th of July weekend.

Great weather, great people, great weekend!

Big thank yous,

First Friday Weekend at Good Juju in the Old West Bottoms gets an Old West Theme in my Booth

antiques/junking, Good JuJu, paintings

By Karla Nathan / July 5, 2024

A few weeks back, I found a boxful of these floats. After keeping a bowlful for myself, I tagged the rest to take into our July First Friday Weekend. That is today!

If you are done with leftover potato salad and your fireworks have all been set off, you should celebrate the remaining part of your holiday weekend by coming in to see us at Juju.

My red, white, and blue is packed away, but I can still wish you a happy 4th.

Well, I need to get to work, I’ll leave you with photos of the space.

In Beth’s Booth at Good Juju

antiques/junking, Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / July 2, 2024

Beth was feeling under the weather when we were setting up our booths, so I suggested that I finish the bit she had left to do.

It wasn’t a big job, she was mostly done.

All of her furniture was in place, I just got to play with her bags of goodies that needed setting out.

She had some interesting pieces, I like this KC memorabilia.

As much as I enjoy arranging my own wares, it’s even more fun when someone lets me play with theirs. Especially when the bags are filled with such nice things.

An appreciated gift

antiques/junking, Good JuJu, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / June 29, 2024

I went to the nice shop where I had my fancy violin appraised to see if they sold unrepairable instruments to use in craft projects. They said no, but they’d give me some when they got them! In the meantime, they had a few bits and pieces.

With some hooks added to the back of the half violin they gifted me, I could use it as a necklace display.

The necks add some class to the shelf too.

Here is the overall display, without the lights turned on. When lit, this baby glows. I’m so glad I bought it.

Other things I bought that I’ve been especially happy with? Silver and stone rings from the Gem Show. So much so, that I was going to pick up a generous amount of them at the June wholesale event. But durn, it was cancelled. Well, I looked up my invoices and got ahold of the guys I bought from then ordered a few over the phone. I also tried wholesale lots direct from India, it will take a while for those to arrive.

Maybe in time for First Friday weekend in August?

Our mall allows a mix of goods. Vintage, handmade, market. I don’t really deal in market items, but I do like to have brand new jewelry to sell. But only good stuff, real silver, genuine stones, not a bunch of cheap costume stuff. But still affordable.

I also appreciate being able to offer my handmade pieces. For those, I have similar rules for myself, only “good stuff” in the materials, silver, stones, and vintage bits.

Previously, I displayed them on separate levels of the same unit as I had my old jewelry sat up. But now that I have TWO!! delightful, LED shelving units, I can have vintage on one side of the entry, hand crafted/newer items on the other.

It makes sense because each attracts a different shopper. This way, the browsers have space to linger over what they want to see.

Both the left and right get the vintagey treatment, though. I don’t want a sleek, modern, jewelry store look at all. I try to fill the shelves with display items that are unique or old.

Seems like I am continually looking for a more enticing way to show off my goods. But that is what makes having a booth fun, I get to play with all the stuff. If I was simply plopping it down til it sold, then replacing it with more inventory, this wouldn’t be an enjoyable activity for me.

Finding one little treasure is enough to inspire a whole redo built around it, and that sure does bring me joy.

June at Juju

antiques/junking, Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / June 7, 2024

Remember the pre-lit shelving I got from Amazon for jewelry? I loved it sooooo much, I bought a second one. I have placed one on each side of the entrance to my space. This one is used for vintage jewelry, the first one now has my hand crafted or sterling pieces in it.

This is the first one, still covered in the fabric I use between sales to prevent dust.

Both came with open backs and black metal. I’ve painted them and added panels covered in vintage paper to the backside to prevent the inventory from slipping off. The panels are made of the styrofoam packing that came in the box!

Recycle and reuse, right?

To keep them in place, I first tried wire, but the styrofoam simply split apart. Now they are securely velcroed to the frame.

The height of the shelves gives me enough space to use a variety of display pieces.

But the best part is the jewelry store quality, well spaced lighting! It makes everything I set out look better.

As always, I have a selection of my handmade mushrooms. I was lucky to find this set of vintage mushroom stuff to compliment them.

There are more schroomies mixed in with the garden display.

I do love a pretty garden display. (Oops, I have gone all Game of Thrones blooperish, there is a water bottle in this photo)

More lucky finds? I got TWO of the stained glass windows, hoping to use them in my own home, but they didn’t work out where I’d hoped. They sure class up my booth, though.

Another “I wish it worked my cottage” piece is this sweet granny chair covered in white cotton.

The headboard leaning against the wall actually is from my house. At first, when it was maple toned, it was in Ryan’s room. When we got him a new bed, this was painted for the guestroom, then Sugarwings used it for a while once the two grandfairies wanted separate rooms. There is a new color theme in that space now, I figured that the headboard was better off being sold than stuffed into the shed and left to rot away.

It’s pretty well hidden though, I hope it even gets noticed. Next month, maybe I should hang it on the wall.

Although it would fill most of that entire wall.

Every inch of my space is pretty filled up, but I do enjoy the switcheroo and change ups when it’s time to mix it up again.

Right now, my redo skills are lacking due to a rotator cuff tear. I have had these spring flowers up for the season and want to change them out to some white ones for summer, but overhead jobs are not exactly easy right now.

This chair up on my top shelf won’t be moving anytime soon. Which also means that the cabinet its leg rests on needs to stay right where it is for a while. At least until I get a few more PT sessions under my belt. I’m doing everything I can to avoid surgery even if it means I cannot do major rearranging at Juju for a bit.

Sam and Lily

Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / May 15, 2024

Enlight1735

My friend, Sam, sells tee shirts at Good Juju and many other places around KC. But there is much more to the story.

He is an accomplished artist and the shirts are from his original work.

He screen prints them on a gigantic, octopus-like contraption, where each tentacle holds a different color of ink.

Here is one in progress.

Recently, he asked Beth and I if we’d like some vintagey goods he was clearing out to make space for an even bigger screen printer he was getting.

Of course, I’m all in for free junk! A lot of my friends are kind enough to ask me about their future thrift store dropoffs.

And I was curious about Sam’s studio, I didn’t know how the printing process worked, so was fascinated when he offered a demo.

But here is more to that story too. Sam and his wife, Lily, who makes delectable candles and sprays, both also sold antiques and junk in their booths. As time went by and they expanded their crafts, both of them were doing so well with their creations, they no longer needed to supplement their sales with resale items.

Picking up some of their tidbits and leftovers not only made me happy to get free goods, it was great to see my friends succeeding, and no longer needing that stuff.

You can get Sam’s work on Etsy, here:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/WestBottomsUndergrnd

And Lily’s candles are are here:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/Lilyrosecandleshop

Or better yet, come see us at Good Juju

We will be there the first Friday and Saturday of every month. Lily’s candles smell delightful and Sam has a wide variety of art on display.

My third anniversary at Good Juju

antiques/junking, Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / May 1, 2024

Buying this LED lit shelving unit was the best purchase I’ve ever made for my booth at Good Juju. It is such an eye catcher and shows off the jewelry beautifully.

Another change I’m happy with is the transformation of this pole. I’ve tried working around this behemoth that sucks space out of the front of my area and it has been problematic in trying to fit furniture by. I only have an 8” clearance in front of the post, which wasn’t deep enough to do much with.

It’s a solid, metal pole, one of a series that runs down the hall as supports. I’ve cursed it many times. Then, I decided to make it work for me. I added vintage wallpaper with a bit of duct tape (which is temperature sensitive and probably will only do okay in the spring) and backed that up with magnets. Flat ones to hold the paper down and magnet hooks to display necklaces on.

The two jewelry shelves have been separated, one at each side of my entryway.

I’ve brought back this beat up chair with a mini redo to turn it into an easel for my book page paintings.

There are a few more scattered around the booth. I hope people agree with me that they will be good to give at Mother’s Day.

This corner is different for me, I don’t typically use dark wood. But this is a pretty old hutch top, and the hand carved marks in the wood show. It’s too nice to paint.

I can’t believe I said that. I paint everything.

Speaking of things that aren’t exactly my look, this cookie jar isn’t what I normally carry. But I like mushrooms and elves. And I love cookies! So why not?

Smack dab in the center is a shelf filled with mushies, crowns, and white pottery.

Each shelf is a bit different but all are themed the same.

You can never have too much white pottery, right?

Good juju is open the first Friday and Saturday of each month. Come by and see me, it’s May 3-4, and is also my birthday weekend as well as my third anniversary at the venue.

I have spent my last two birthdays there, both years with a headache from a serious concussion. They have not been the best of holidays for me, I’d felt pretty bad each time.

This year, I’m healthy, no headache to ruin the weekend for me, and I’m ready to celebrate. I hope to see you there!