Exciting things happening at Dragonflies Antiques

It's been a huge, busy and successful week.  These are what we live for.

Within a 24 hour span I got a great shot in the arm which I can only guess is because the universe aligned and things fell in place.

1. A women contacted me about making a Horror Flick here in Wolfeboro.  Well I just happened to have the most beautiful Victorian wedding dress with lots of lace which will be just perfect for a horrific bride locked in a celler.  Better yet was a young girl happened along who looked beautiful in the dress so we had all sorts of fun dressing her up and playing with her hair and taking pictures.  A perfect size 5 doesn't come along too often.  Sold dress for $100 and then I found the veil which will be another $100 and that's just rent. I get the items back - yeeha!

2. LL Bean came in and they were doing a photo shoot here in Wolfeboro for their spring catalog.  They wanted to rent some boat cushions for color.  Yeha!  Another rental $60 per day.

3. Then the third call was the best potential.  A casting company for a major television network contacted me regarding a new pilot program they are working on that needs an appraiser.  It's called Estate Disputes and the premise is that they bring in an appriaser and mediators and help a family settle whatever disputes might exist.  Has an interesting base so I thought it might actually be something worth doing.  More later if it blossoms.

4. Someone came in who had looked at a postal sorter we have from Penn Terminal which was marked $2,500.  You can see it to the right of the photos. They had offered me $2,000 which I declined even though I paid $800 for the piece about 15 years ago.  The problem for me was that it holds all sorts of ephemera and I can't figure out how to replace it.  Anyways, they came back to me with another offer which was great because I thought I had lost the sale but their house is moving along and 4 weeks has passed and now they wanted it more.  We have a sale for $2,250 and we're both happy.  I get to pay the mortgage another month.  Yeha!

5. I bought a sign which had stood near the border of Wolfeboro and Mirror Lake and the Libby Museum for years.  I bought it from the signmaker who was replacing the sign and I placed it as high up in the barn as my son could reach.  Well of course, a young man came in and bought it.  The young man turned out to be Blake Marriott who is taking the sign to his Tuftonboro estate.  Yeha!  Another good sale.

6. The Town of Wolfeboro is celebrating 250 years this year and they had an encampment from the French and Indian War of 1750 ish.  The encampment was disappointing but the press it garned attracted all sorts of people across the street from me who happened to be history lovers.  Unfortunately, the vendors were selling new necklaces from China or some other cheap labor force. I had a great day in sales from it and today is raining which is a golden opportunity to open in the Lakes Region because tourists can't be on the lake, the golf course or the tennis courts.  Better get open!

It's been one busy summer! So much going on here at Dragonflies Antiques

Wow - I can't believe the summer has slipped by me.  I got sidetracked when exhibiting at the Mid-Week in Manchester Antiques Show which is part of the great week known as Antiques Week in New Hampshire. 

I haven't exhibited at this show for about 15 years, taking a hiatus to start my own show and then got off doing other things like raising the kids and buying and selling some property, but this year was a sad not for many.  The economy is just beating the life out of the secondary market.  There were a few HIGH END dealers who did ok because they can sell one or two pieces and make a years living but not me.  I had about 10 sales - only one of which was over $1,000. 

I was going to do an in-depth study of the costs of doing a show and then show the profit or lack there-of and I may still but to get on with my summer posting I need to move beyond that week.

So here are a few pictures of Mid-Week and I'll fill in the details at some other point when I discuss exhibiting at shows - the good the bad and the ugly.  Why do them?

Huggins Hospital Street Fair

It has certainly been a busy week for me here at Dragonflies Antiques.  My daily blog is turning into a weekly blog but that's ok.  Daily my life can be boring or a whirlwind. You never know in my life.

The first full weekend of August each year the Huggins Hospital holds a Street Fair which is put on by hundreds of volunteers selling all sorts of donated goods, plants, bakery, toys, sports, white elephants, electrical, high style boutique clothes for each sex as well as regular casual clothes.  It attracts thousands of people right across the street from me pushing my numbers from 50-75 people per day to 300+ in a day.  Sales were good over the weekend.  I get the most fascinating people through my door, like the History Professor from PA who told me Wolfeboro is not 250 years old like we're celebrating but rather 251 or 240 depending on if you use the year 1759 or 1770.  A couple from France who just knocked on my door and asked for an apartment - we both got lucky on that score. It's amazing what $100 will do. Opens the door right up. :)

But the most fun was meeting Brian Miller and the Grand Prarie Band from Scotland. Their band of 5 players had been flown to the US for an all expense paid trip to play at a private party.  They had no idea who was having the party but Brian and I had a great time talking about the Beatles and an old postcard we had once which I sold for $800.  It was signed by 3 of the Beatles and someone standing in for Ringo while he had his tonsils out.  Brian knew right away it was from 1965 Australian tour and the guy standing in was Jimmy Nicols. 

Well Brian came back the next day with a few more band members and invited me to Garwoods Resturant to hear him play.  He told me the party was the annual bash at Bob Baher's Mansion.  The guest list include 400 people and no Dragonflies but the secret musician this year was Willie Nelson who played for about 1 1/2 hours. How nice!  Bob Baher is the ex-owner of Loudon Intnl. Speedway.  I did get the opportunity to listen to them and Rob Wilson who is a famous race car driver and instructor in England.  They played at our local pub and did a bang up job.  It was lots of fun and reminded me once again why I love living in Wolfeboro. 

It's been lots of fun this week having so many quirky people come in.  The costumes on some of these kids now-a-days amazes me.  I feel like my mother - you'd never think of me as an ex-hippy but these kids really can blow my mind. They give the word creative a new meaning with their body art and style.

Unfortunately the Beer Wolfe which I put out on the corner of my property got beat up and got his nose broke.  Guess I'll have to build a concrete wall to eliminate the pest who keeps breaking my things! 

H

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.

 

 

Interesting day in the shop

Dragonflies Antiques reporting from the nest. Fly on over and join us for the latest antiques buzz . . .

Today was odd in the sense the people came in fits and spurts.  We probably had in around 50-60 people and I grossed a grand total of $78. . . plenty to feel blessed about because I went grocery shopping after work and even had enough money to stop and get my car washed.  The Suncook Valley girls softball team was giving car washes just outside town hall.  They were trying to raise money to make it to the Regionals in Pittsfield, MA.  What a cute bunch of teenage girls. They had raised just shy of $1,000.00 in just 3 1/2 hours.  You go girls!

Fiddlehead Farms has recently expanded from Dover to Alton and I love their market!!!!  Strawberries were $1.00 and fresh local peaches were just 50cents per lb.  Lots of both organic and gourmet foods, nice deli, bakery, etc. and a very nice selection of local produce.

Brian Stockman, local carver and woodsman dropped by for an hour or so.  Our family loves Brian and so we had a nice hour long visitor.  One of the families who came to visit bought 2 milk McClure's pint size bottles - each with it's original cap or pog on the top.  I charged her $5.00 each but then she wanted to buy a super ball.  Remember those from when you were a kid?  I keep them in a bowl just because they're pretty and colorful and a young local man needed some money so I bought them from him.  Good to support the locals.

Well this very attractive brought forward the largest and most colorful super ball and when I said it would be $5.00 she went back and told her son he had to pick out a smaller, less colorful super ball.  He came forward with a slightly less expensive one and made an offer of $2.00.  The damn kid was so cute I couldn't so no.

So I walk outside with them as they were leaving so that I could pick up my open sign at the end of the driveway.  There were a 1/2 dozen or so people just milling around looking at things.  Anyways, I notice a beautiful, bright, red convertible this young family was getting into had a MA license plate that said US19.  I asked the father of the group, what the plate was all about.  Low license plate numbers are VERY desirable especially in MA and DEL.  So he says it's my mother's.  Always wanting to meet all the townsfolk I asked who his mother was.  He answered a modest "Ann" and I of course said "Ann who?" and he replied Ann Romney.  In case you didn't know Mitt and Ann Romney have a substantial waterfront home here on Lake Winnipesaukee.  I'm so glad Mitt's grandson bought a super-ball from me.  It made my day today.

As I later relayed this story to my former husband Frank he said "Well it's good to know they are true fiscal conservatives!!!!"  Too funny!  :)

Dragonflies Antiques reporting from the nest. Fly on over and join us for the latest antiques buzz . . .

The sun caught my Dragonflies sign just perfectly tonite.

It was an exceptionally busy Monday for some reason. There were probably 80 or more visitors today vs. the 30 I normally have. I noticed a change from the parents with young kids to parents with teens and grandparents today.

Not many sales though - only one $35.00 souviner gun which I sold to a youngster who was thrilled to have it and was plotting ways to ship it home to California because he knew it would never make it on the plane. The mother seemed chagrined, but the kids enthusiasm won the day.

Thank God for rental units on a day like this. No leaks, rent coming in. It was a good day.

Inspiration At Last

Dragonflies Antiques reporting from the nest. Fly on over and join us for the latest antiques buzz . . .

It was a very busy day in the shop today which inspired me to get my act together and my butt back in gear.  I've been in a fog since Frank left May 1st and I've been trying to re-establish my independence, and reconfigure the business - I'm short - he is tall. I'm small - he's big.  We're still best friends and activce in the business together.  Look for us at Mid-Week in Manchester in NH and Brimfield MA show.

The Craft Fair was on the green across the street from me at Brewster Academy yesterday and today.  It brings in with it hundreds of tourists but unfortunately a slow day on the sales front.  At the 200 mark I had only sold one book for $35 to my neighbor across the street, however I pulled out the day at 5 minutes before closing and sold 2 carriage lanterns for $75 each. 

Hardly worth sitting here for the day but I'm grateful for every sale I have every day in this economic climate and I had lots of interesting visitors.  Friends, family, neighbors, fellow dealers, auctioneers, musicians, artists, tourists, repeat customers, family's - it was a beautiful day all in all in the shop - although it got hot again this afternoon.  Shoppers were dragging their hind ends today.

Yesterday wasn't quite so grim, I had 9 sales and got a house-call from it.  Hit a modest yard sale and picked up some old paint supplies. Oils in tubes don't go bad. They're always good to have around for touch-ups.  Crayons work well too.  A warm finger over a wax crayons melts away minor blemishes.  Do it in small doses for best results.

This evening was spent in an inspired state and got me back to thinking about marketing, my blog, selling on ebay, my website etc.  I've made recent changes to all of these networking opportunities and hope someone out there in cyber-world appreciates it.  If so please say so. 

Antiques Week in New Hampshire is fast approaching - August 10 is Nan Gurley's show and then August 11 & 12 is Mid Week in Manchester followed up by the New Hampshire Antique Dealers Association Show which opens on Thursday morning.  These are all wonderful shows to find the best Americana in the United States of America.