Good JuJu – Page 8 – Karla's Cottage

Inspiration, ancestors, and leprechauns

antiques/junking, Good JuJu, mushrooms, wallpaper

By Karla Nathan / February 23, 2023

Easter isn’t until April, but I have been spending a good chunk of February getting ready for bunny-ing up my booth for the next First Friday at Good Juju.

And since we are also in the vicinity of St Paddy’s, I’ve added a section of green and good luck snuggled between the bunnies and eggs.

This wall is covered in spring daisies on a soft green background. It is vintage wall paper, and my plan is to change it up seasonally. I’ll roll up the used piece from the previous month and have it for sell when I do the change over.

I offer packets of ironed, cut wallpaper for crafting in my online Boutique but I’ve never sold the stuff this way. It will be good for bigger projects, and ends up being about 6-7’.

Although, when I stapled this piece up, it was chosen for the pretty green tones, then it dawned on me that around here, daisies were more of a summer flower, not early spring. Dur.

I kinda doubt anyone else will think it through that far. Ha, can you picture someone critiquing my use of Daisies in March?

“Why, I’ve never seen such a disrespectful display of unseasonal flowers in my life! No way am I shopping in that uninformed booth!”

Another nitpick? I’m not totally satisfied with the hairstyle on my shamrock doll. She has a 1960’s Barbie bubble cut from the front. From behind, it’s a nice updo. This girl should dump her hairdresser (me). I might bring scissors and snip in some bangs before she meets our guests.

While one whole corner is set to celebrate the luck of the Irish on their special day, most of my decor consists of green stuff and green Easter eggs. I have a couple vintage clover brooches, the doll, and two mushrooms made from the same tattered, old material as the doll dress.

This one has a tiny leprechaun grabbing some shade underneath.

There are also silver pendants with an Irish theme. I have Celtic knots, green stones, moons, and dragons. Kinda Irishy. I not a beer drinker, so have never considered drinking green beer, and really am not at all into the typical St Patrick’s Day type of celebrating. But I like to remember that I am part Irish and pretend it is my holiday too, like many of us do.

(Also part English and German according to 23 and Me DNA testing. Sounds like there could’ve been some disagreements and a bit of bombing between my ancestors, huh?)

There will be more Easter to show you from the other side.

And then the last wall is all neutrals, inspired by Yellowstone- which I think starts up again soon. I do enjoy that show, but I seriously LOVE the two prequels. OMG, the romance! The scenery! How Gorgeous. Well, I’ll show that wall later, I have a feeling no one will interpret as Yellowstone, but hey, inspiration isn’t exact because then it’s called copying, right?

A learning curve or a squiggle?

antiques/junking, Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / February 19, 2023

For a place that is only open two days a month, I sure spend a lot of time working on Good Juju stuff. It is all things I like to do, make pretties, buy junk, fix up old things, repurpose, and then decorate with it all.
But- I really, really, really put too much time into it.

Like setting up this display at home as a practice look before even getting the crap to the venue.

Some of the problem is that I’ve not even been doing this a year yet and my booth space changed four times during those few months. I don’t exactly have a firm feel of what I need to fill up my spaces. Every time I take a load in, I think I’m done, then I realize I could fit another carload into the area, so I bring in more.

When I began, I had zero inventory. It was right as we were emerging from Covid seclusions, and I, like many other people, did major closet clearing during lock down. I gave truckloads of things from my storage areas, garages, cabinets and just things I was tired of looking at, all to Goodwill.

And I had a pretty serious concussion that affected me more than I realized at the time. Looking back, those couple of months after my dog’s head slammed into my head, are all fuzzy and seem like I was peering through a dark tunnel.

Also, I am still trying to figure out what will sell. When I craft, I usually go all out and make a ton of that item in many variations. And sometimes, I’ll only sell a couple. Or I will sell most of them, make more for the next sale, and everyone who wanted one already got it earlier. Or I’ll sell out of something online by showing photos ahead of time, and not have any for my booth.

I guess my issue is that I love everything about the creative side, but struggle with the marketing end of it all. It’s a learning curve and I might think in a squiggles shape with curves all over the place instead of a gentle arc.

Then there are the things that I make or display that are just because I want to, not because people will be buying them After hanging big snowflakes from the rafters above the entry to our booth for winter, I decided I want to do a different theme each season.

This month, it is birdcages. But once I got these minis up there, I didn’t think they make enough of a statement. I had plans to hang big cages and white frames too, but needing to use a ladder the size of a skyscraper (that weighs as much as a building too) had me adjusting my plans.

Still, I do enjoy my obsessions, I mean themes. Like all of the handmade nests I spent an entire day on.

And as far as marketing goes, I might never figure out what is the best way to go. I am hoping that as I build inventory up, and get used to just how much I can squeeze into my booth, I can become more efficient in my set ups.

And I’ll keeping on completely immersing myself into my projects, because it’s just my nature. Sure, I could get nests wholesale and pop eggs from the hobby store into them. But I loved spending a day making a few dozen hand crafted nests and repainting those purchased eggs just the right color of blue, so they’d all look pretty together.

Overflowing

Good JuJu, Hearts

By Karla Nathan / February 3, 2023

Mountains of Valentines!

Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / January 31, 2023

My favorite days of the month are just about here!

First Fridays sales at Good Juju are always such fun.

Laughing with friends, exploring the goodies the other dealers bring in, watching happy shoppers find just the right treasure.

And trying to prevent an avalanche when guests come into my space. I might go a bit over board on my layers of goods…

When someone asked me recently what I call my style, instead of replying “Romantic Cottage” as I usually do, I said “Frilly Avalanche”.

There is a lot going on. (The back is Beth’s and she was still in progress with her area. She tends to fit just as much in her space, but in a much tidier way, no danger of being buried alive in hers.)

I’m always surprised at how much I squeeze in. Maybe it’s because I’m still sorta new at this, I am not good at knowing how much to bring in.

Each month, I rearrange it all, taking home items from the last sale that no longer fit, changing up the furniture layout. I don’t sell much furniture at all, because you can barely see it under the piles of inventory.

Which is funny because in my previous incarnation as an antique dealer, I specialized in hand painted furniture. Now, I try to concentrate more on mountains of small and hand made pieces.

I still paint most of the tables and cabinets, but also go with natural tones of wood too.

I have discovered that what works best for me is to have a couple of larger tables, and a ton of smaller ones balanced on top, stacked underneath, and lined up. More than I should, because they look more like wall units of shelving than individual pieces for sale.

Every once in a while one sells and

gosh!

You should see me scramble to unload it, and find somewhere else to stack my crap! It’s crazy.

Part of my problem is that I looooooove to make things.

And I am prolific about it. If I create one doll, I’ll just go ahead and make ten.

One little gnome might be lonely, so of course, I need a dozen.

And I probably shouldn’t even talk about my mushroom addiction. I’ve probably whipped up a couple hundred by now.

I feel very blessed to have such a lively, fun environment to market my excesses in!

Holiday Decor is My Fave!

antiques/junking, Good JuJu, Hand painted, Hearts, holiday decor, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / January 28, 2023

Lately, I have been leaving jewelry making supplies out on one studio table. That way, when I feel the whim, I can quickly make a piece without dragging out boxes. The room is a wreck anyway from using a chunk of it as storage, so I have kind of given up on keeping my poor studio tidy.

My most recent creations have been Valentine themed. Either with hearts, or just an air of dress up and romance.

The last few months at Good Juju have been absolutely delightful for me. I simply adore decorating for Christmas, Valentine’s, and Halloween. I tend to be into flowery and over the top, romantic, even gaudy stuff that isn’t exactly what the crowd there loves on a regular basis. The venue leans toward rustic or primitive and my corner screams “fussy” to a lot of the shoppers.

I do throw in lots of neutrals and even natural woods and browns, but they end up buried under my foofiness. And holidays were a good reason to have the exception.

I guess I still have Easter to look forward to…. But after that, it will be a long stretch til fall when I have an excuse to make things my way. Till then, I’ll try to reign myself in a little and focus more on neutrals.

Paper bag snowflakes

Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / January 9, 2023

For a cheap winter display at my booth, I made some snowflakes. I seriously had doubts that it would look cheesy, or like a kindergarten class project.

But I liked the effect even though I could not quite do what I wanted unless I moved things already set up, and since the building has very little heat turned on between sales, I wasn’t going to linger any longer than I had to.

I’d like them on both sides of the stained glass window, but just could not reach. While I had the heavy duty, sky high ladder out, I hung fishing line in as many spots as I could stretch out to reach. Now, I can reuse those dangling lines to hang other seasonal decorations throughout the year.

The snowflakes are made from two colors and three sizes of paper bags. I’d give you steps, but there are so many out there already that are easy to follow, it would just be redundant.

Another thing I wish I’d done differently is to make all of the cut outs heart shaped. I thought of that part way through, and really like it. Plus, I saved the cut out hearts, glued them together on more fishing line and made streamers to hang with the snowflakes.

Hearts

antiques/junking, Good JuJu, Hearts, jewelry, paintings, Valentine's Day

By Karla Nathan / January 6, 2023

I'll be having lots of hearts and wings in my booth at Good JuJu. This canvas has plaster texture in a heart shape with the roses painted inside. I have a few more, not sure if I got pictures. All are unique.

And remember the jewelry trees I did for Xmas?

I loved doing that so much, I could not stop!

So, I turned my shape from a tree to a heart.

This one is a combo of the textured canvas with a button collage. And in front you can see some of my wings. They are made from a 1800s ledger and I swear, that book was one of my best ever purchases. I have sold rolled up pages from it, used it to line shelves, decopauged it onto table tops, backed collages with it, and now have made wings and hearts.

And there is still some left!

I almost didn't buy it because it was not cheap. But man, that handwriting! Wow, so pretty. I am glad I went against my cheapskate instincts and bought it anyway.

I also beat out my cheap side and decided to keep these wings that my son helped form instead of selling them.

Since my booth is chocked full of wings and hearts I doubt if one set will be missed. Heck, I’d be thrilled to have even half of the ones there sell out.

And I sure do love making them.

My January Set Up for Good Juju

family, Good JuJu, holiday decor, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / January 3, 2023

My booth this month is all about winter, and a bright spot in the cold months, Valentine's Day.

One wall is all hearts, roses, with pink mushrooms and wings. I'd hoped to put up cabbage rose wallpaper, but ran into a snag. Oh well, next month.

But honestly, you don't really see much of the wall anyway, huh?

Another areas are neutral and white.

Which is always a favorite of mine to do.

Well, the roses make me happy too, but I think that the neutral tones are more popular at this venue.

But I can't always just stick to neutrals, there are other cool items that I find that I know there is a market for. Luckily, my space can be chopped up into chunks where I can do different themes.

And my new, tiny, wing wall is a great place to highlight a grouping. Here are examples of the ruffled wings (also for sale) and kits to make your own.

Over the holiday, I did some kitchen table crafting. We had supplies out for decorating gingerbread houses, cookies, Sugarwings had polymer clay, Dewdrop had bracelet, and I made dozens of wings and hearts from wire and lace. The family was coming and going, but mostly staying put because of the bone chilling cold. I wasn't caring about clutter or mess, I just enjoyed the big group and spent time crafting away in the middle of them.

I had the best of both worlds. Time with family and time to make things!

I don't even know how many I churned out. After wings, I started on pink and red mushrooms. As a person who typically spends a lot of time alone in the studio, I sure was happy to have so much company while working. My son even joined in and bent wire for me. It has been sad to go from a bustling houseful of loved ones to me in my studio alone again. Sugarwings is still on winter break, so I am not totally alone, I've got my buddy.

Two bonus shopping dates for Good Juju

antiques/junking, Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / November 25, 2022

This season, we have TWO bonus shopping dates at Juju in the West Bottoms.

One is for Small Business Saturday (this weekend).

The next is a little party with drinks and prizes on the night before our regular First Friday and Saturday event in December.

I’m not sure if I’ll need to do a whole turn around of my booth between them, but I will be restocking.

Which is what I have done since the November sale.

Rich took a consulting job in Ohio and took the truck with him, so I had him bring in enough bigger pieces of furniture to last me a while before he left.

So, I did a little bit of rearranging, then added boxes and tubs of more items.

Included were lots and lots and lots of trees.

Bleached trees…

dyed trees…

trees in cups…

trees hidden inside bottles…

trees on bottles…

Trees with deer…

On candlesticks…

On boxes…

And even more. I have bags of trees too, so you can pop your own onto what ever display you’d like.

Oh, did I forget to mention the old school, jewelry trees on velvet?

A new career in junking for a surprise helper

antiques/junking, Good JuJu

By Karla Nathan / October 5, 2022

This week is First Fridays at the West Bottoms and Good Juju will be open for business.

I’m afraid I will be missing it!

But my stuff won’t. It is all set up for action, I took care of that before I flew off on my multi legged adventure.

First leg is North Carolina to see my grown up, baby boy.

Second is South Carolina to participate in Jenn Hayslip’s fabulous Bridgerton event.

And the third leg (because it’s spooky season and time for three legged monster type critters, and this is a monster of a trip) I’ll be jetting down to Siesta Key to be with my sissies for part of the annual Sister Trip. They have two weeks, which I just couldn’t do, but I managed to squeeze in a few days at the end of my journey.

When I get back to Kansas, it will be time to pack up my Halloween leftovers and start setting up the November show. Which I look forward to being a part of, it’s always such a fun time there.

Who is watching the store while I am away? Well, I’ll have my buds, Beth and Angie there for most of the time, but Beth has some obligations. While she is out, I have an all star replacement lined up.

Rich!

Yep, my husband is being extra supportive and covering my shift for me. He might be a bit overwhelmed and in over his head, but he is willing to go for it.

If you are around, please check on him for me.

He will be feeling like a fish out of water. But I have faith in his skills. If he could run dozens of golf courses in his past life, I’m sure he can sell some beat up, old junk and crappy crafts.

I will miss being there myself, but it will be in good hands.