Monday, September 26, 2016

My Vintage Market Days Experience-Part One

Wow!  What a week...there was so much anticipation and excitement leading up to the big Vintage Market Days event.  When set-up day finally arrived, vendors flew in like a tornado...and created a wonderland of vintage and antiques treasures.  On opening day, the shoppers crowded into The Grounds of Mobile in huge droves and shopped.  After three days, just as quickly as it all came together, it was over, and all of us in our sweaty glory tore it all apart and went home... already planning the next one.  I now know how it must have felt for the carnies and circus performers who traveled around from city to city in days gone by. (I would have been the Gypsy Fortune Teller!) It was a good kind of tired.

So, I've already given you a hint at what my little shop looked like.  Did you catch it?  If you know me or have followed me much at all, you know I'm fascinated with all things "gypsy" and that's just naturally the theme that I pull together...It started with my banners that would show my logo and business name, but with markets that are away from home, it becomes "The Traveling Show."  The large banner that was on the back wall right in the center featured a gypsy lady setting up housekeeping under a tree.  She was putting out her washtubs and a bird in a cage.  I design my signs to go with what I'm selling, and in this case it was a pair of ninety-year-old chairs with their original berry colored fabric.  To pull it all together and tell a story, I bordered the banner with that same berry color.  To complete the vignette, I added the bird cage on a stand, wash bucket, basket, and a broom, among some other things...greenery was then draped over the top to give the appearance of the tree under which the vardo was parked. 



To continue the gypsy theme, the front table centerpiece was another banner with a dancing gypsy girl, playing a tambourine.  I had a tambourine that I had purchased years ago on Beale Street in Memphis, and it had developed a hole and was pretty tattered.  I remembered a song about a hole in a tambourine, so I used a line from that on the banner with the girl to tell that story.  Although the table of merchandise did get picked apart and purchased, the star of the day was the actual banner.  I couldn't believe that people wanted the banner!  So, I sold it, along with the tambourine....then I took orders for more.  Funny thing though is that everyone wanted me to find them a tambourine with a hole in it to go with their banners!  You just never know what's going to sell at these events.  Oh, the large one on the back wall sold, too!  And that buyer is wanting me to make more....so, maybe that'll be my "thing"...those banners.  I think I'll make more (three, or four....or five!) for the next event.






As I said, the table of "gypsy goodies" was picked over the first day, so I had to pull together another vignette early Saturday morning so that it would be fresh and pretty for the second day shoppers. This next pic is what the same table looked like the next morning.  It's still filled with things that gypsies would have had in the vardo, but these items could have just as well been found in any farmhouse.



The other side of my little store had more treasures set up in a little vignette on a buggy seat...


Directly behind this vignette was the youth bed which got lots of attention, but no buyer.  It's a great piece with lots of details and folds up to travel or store away when not in use.  I filled it with hay (because it was the first day of fall!) and then added an assortment of pumpkins and treasures...



At the foot of the little bed, I had a turquoise blue chest with original chippy paint. On top of that, I added two tiny chairs-a white chippy one and a stained wood rocker.  Oh, and I had to put some candy down at kid level!

Of course, there was more-ironstone, t-shirts, and some other pretty gypsy style things...






Well, that's a look inside my Down in the Delta-The Traveling Show space at the very first Vintage Market Days of Mobile.  I'm happy to report that I had GREAT shoppers who took home many of my finds to enjoy in their own homes.  I did still have lots of fun things to pack up for the next event, so if you like anything pictured here, just ask me...I might still have it.

That's part one of the two-part VMD recap.  Tomorrow I'll share with you the bigger picture, more about the entire experience.  Hope you'll check back for that.

Thanks for dropping by!

Friday, September 2, 2016

A Welcoming Entrance

I'm happy to report that the pretty entrance to the venue, Pimperl Place, is being built!  It looks like a small project, but in reality, it takes a lot of coordination between contractors and time to actually make it happen.  Just to refresh your memory...here's a picture of what I wanted the gate to look like.  I used a picture of a gate that I found online to get the basic shape and then I overlaid that picture with my Down in the Delta logo, minus the words.  This is very similar to what we will actually have.


The first contractor would be the concrete man, followed by the stone mason.  In our case, I luckily found one man who does both, which is unusual!  That saved us a little time and headache, plus he turned out to be really good at both.  If you live in Baldwin or Mobile County and need concrete or stone work, Kenneth Gaines is the man to call.

What slowed the project start was the rain.  We've had so much rain over the last couple of months, that it threw Kenney behind on his jobs that were scheduled before ours.  The rain finally let up a week or so ago and he got caught up, so he was ready to work our job.


Up above, you can see how we took the palette of stone apart so that we could lay it out to easily see the shapes of each piece.  My husband put them out on a long goose-neck trailer. Kenny and his son are hard at work in the next picture.


This picture was taken from the driver's seat of my car as I came into the driveway. You can see the existing old gate in front of my car, and the two newly finished columns set back from that.  We are going to reposition the road a bit, which is why it looks off center with the columns.  Also,  you are probably wondering why the new gate is so far back from the old one.  We own the property all the way up to the existing gate, but the power company has an easement that extends twenty-five feet back, so we just decided to move the location of the entrance back to that line so that they don't have to come and get us every time they want to come down the easement to trim trees.  

This weekend, hubby and I will be ditch-digging and running the electrical service needed to operate the gate, lights, etc.  Then the gate contractor is supposed to come out on Tuesday to get "field measurements" so that the gate is built to fit perfectly.  While that's going on, the tree removal experts will show up to take out some trees that are on the new fence line. Hubby normally cuts down our trees, but these are so close to the power lines out on the highway that we decided it would be better to hire someone who has a bucket truck to do it. Once the trees are down, the fence contractor can then come in and put up the fence that will run parallel to the highway.  

It seems like we've been waiting months to get this project started, so you can only imagine how happy I am to see it finally coming together.  

Follow me on Instagram for instant updates as they happen!