Summer had finally arrived!

Some mean spirited person took their temper out on my
flower pot.  They were going to be gladiolas - oh well!

This has been a long, slow summer.  The heat has kept people and sales going very slow.  Tourists seemed to arrive late and the July heat kept people in the water and on the lake - NOT antiquing.  But one week ago, the weather changed, the tourists arrived, the sales arrived and life is looking good.

So I got mad and put my Coors Bear Wolf out on the corner of my courtyard instead! The funny thing is someone came along and put a gummy worm in his mouth.  Well that made me laugh!

I reconnected with a girlfriend from Framingham North High School on Facebook, like where-else now-a-days.  I meet Alice in high school art class.  We became fast friends but lost track over the past few years as we each moved.  More then any other person in my life Alice understands my crazy folk art world and I wad so glad to share with her.  We reminisced and caught up on our kids, our siblings, our parents, our husbands, our jobs, our girlfriends and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company as well as an ice-cream from Bailey's Bubble.   Alice arrived with her bright smile and genuine good nature and left me with more inspiration then I've experienced since my trip last winter.  A friend hears the song in your heart and sings it to you when you memory fails.  That's Alice.

Interior shot of Dragonflies Antiques

That was Thursday into Friday and then the weekend arrived with a bang and a ton of tourists. Thank Heavens for little favors as my Mom used to say.  I jumped from 50-75 people a day up to 150-200 a day.  I had a very frank conversation with my friend Don Pingree from Butler's Antiques on Route 4 in Northwood.  He confirmed the kinds of numbers that I do although he did say he no longer does these kinds of numbers in Northwood.  We talked about the dwindling business, aging dealers, the ebb and flow we've both seen over the past 25 years.  Don and his wife Colleen have a thriving eBay business with both Don's records and Colleen's general line of neat and sweet antiques and collectibles.

I stayed open late Saturday night and got a walk in who asked me to come for a house call, so I packed up Auntie Sue and we headed off in my 1980 Dodge Pick Up and left for Bedford, NH.  It's about 1 and 1/2 hours south of here.  Sunday is my day off but it's a great opportunity for me to spend time with my Aunt and she just loves going on house-calls with me. It was a pleasurable time all around, we even stopped at T-Bones for salad and a clam basket.

Look at all these plates! Fresh from a local barn - years and years of NH 9593.  Now that's a collection!

I was successful in buying a painting which the women thought was a print for $25.  I bought a cast iron sculpture of a whimsical dog for $10 and I've sold it already for $30. and the one treasure I was chasing was a wonderful cast iron table which I'll be bringing to the Mid-Week in Manchester Show next week when I exhibit on Wed & Thurs, August 11 and 12.  More on this later or visit the promoters link at http://www.barnstar.com/mnchstr.htm.  These shows offer a huge learning curve.

 

On the way home from the house call I stopped at a yard sale and it was the end of the day so they had free things.  I was lucky enough to score a box of 45 rpm records.  I was happy with that - they make great decorations.

But more interesting to me was the man who was having the yard sale was an iron worker and he reveled in my new cast iron table teaching me about the particular square bolt pattern as being from the Carnegie Foundry and dating to 1890-1910. 

 

I was thrilled to make score and happy to pass that information on to several dealers who have come by the shop this week.  It's all those little things, we as antiques dealers learn, which make us professionals.  We spend our entire lives constantly learning little tid-bits of history, art and about different cultures.  It's one of the more wonderful things about being in this business.

 

Sales have been very erratic this summer.  Some days I do $5.00 and some days like today I had nine sales totaling approx. $700.00.  Now $200 of that was a consignment item from someone who was eligible for my friends and family consignment rate of 25%.  So I only make 25% on that item, but there were others like old keys which I buy by the bucketful and sell for $5.00 to $10.00 each.  I guess Tiffany & Company put out a line of key jewelry so all of a sudden we're having a rush on them.  Two of the ones I sold today I got $25.00 a piece for while others were the $5.00 version.  Oh well - it's all in fun and the girl and mother who bought them today had a great bonding moment in my store.  There's little doubt they won't be back!

 

I got to hold a baby today too.  Her name was Gabby and she was about 1 and chubby as all get out.  Her Dad came in to buy a lantern from me for his porch at Brewster Academy.  Another highlight was to talk with a couple from the Netherlands about the differences in antiques shops here vs. there, the basic difference being they have antique furniture and little else in their shops. It's been a great long weekend. 

 

I'll try to post more often during the busy time so the blogs aren't so long.  Hope you liked to read it if you got this far.  Don't forget to leave some comments please, especially if they are nice ones.