Apron Thrift Girl

Thrift Share uh.... Tuesday

I've been looking for bar stools for the house since we moved in last April. We have never had a proper bar counter before and of course I was particular in what kind of stools I wanted. I finally came across this set of vintage Fiberglass Chairs on Craigslist for $150.

I wasn't sure if the height would work and it was wonderful to know that I could place them in my Mod Sonoma space at Antique Society if they didn't work out. When I placed them next to the counter they were perfect. Keiran wanted to have his lunch there and Dave enjoyed his dinner on the new chairs since he eats later then us. It helped make the kitchen feel more like home.

I had a crazy busy weekend that started on Thursday at an estate sale and carried through all the way to Sunday at the Flea Markets. I'm completely adoring the opportunity to buy for a physical venue. It changes my buying game and as you know, I do like to shake things up to keep life exciting.

Yesterday these were my sales:

• Vintage Camera - Antique Society $18
• Bitossi Ashtray - eBay $30
• Laural Burch Mug - eBay $15
• Mastering Health Care (book) - Amazon $49
• Heavy Duty II (book) - Amazon $75

Total for the day: $ 187

This is really the type of financial goal that I am searching for. I wanted multiple venues that together would make up a healthy day of sales. It does fluctuate of course and yesterday was better than other days. Saturday though I sold a lamp at Antique Society for $150 which added a boost to my daily sales number.

This is a much longer conversation then a Thrift Share Monday Tuesday post. I'll continue this soon and delve into it deeper.

Did you go thrifting this weekend?

Thrift Share Monday celebrates the Art of Thrifting. As a community of readers and bloggers we are able to connect through the process of buying second hand, selling and sharing.

We Thrift  - We Share

Here are some guidelines if you would like to join Thrift Share:

• Your Thrift Share Monday blog post should include your thrifted finds from the weekend.
• Create a blog post with photos of your items.
• Link your Thrift Share Monday post back to Apron Thrift Girl.
• Link to your Thrift Share Monday post on Apron Thrift Girl using inlinkz below.
• If you participate with Thrift Share Monday regularly, please add a button to your side bar so that we can build our Thrift Share Community.

Don't forget to visit Her Library Adventures for Flea Market Finds.

my space

I've added lots of photos of my space at the Mod Sonoma Blog. Check them out if you have the chance. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thrift Share Monday - Checking In

Mod Glasses

After my trip to Seattle, it's been very hard to sit down and write about thrifting. The trip North was much harder then expected. It brought the grief of my mother's passing up to the surface again, I got to experience waves of depression mixed in with not being able to stay on my gluten free/processed food (mostly free) diet. I arrived home a complete mess. The only blessing is that I brought my father with me. 

We arrived home and immediately gave him a tour of our homestead even though it was dusk. He loved it and saw all the potential in our 1 1/2 acres. He is already planning to build me a small warehouse out of recycled wood. The following morning he got to work and began to help us work on projects that we haven't had a second to catch up on since we moved here in April.

It's been wonderful having him here. He and I are very close and we always banter with each in other in silly father/daughter ways that make both of us laugh. His visit is healing for both of us.

During the last week I've poured all my attention into my space at the Antique Society. I also received my first check which covers August 1 - 15th. I'm excited to share that I sold over $1,200 in Mid Century Modern & Mod wares in my 180 square feet of space. The dealers do say that your first few months are typically the best since buyers tend to get excited about New dealers. Regardless, I'm looking at my sales as motivation to make having a local presence a priority. My goal for the year is to continue selling at the Antique Society, list on eBay and sell books and media on Amazon. Between the three of those, I'm hoping to secure a good income.

I can't tell you how exciting it is to scout for inventory at the weekend with having an actual venue to place the items. It's changed the way I buy. Although I don't have a photo of it, I recently bought a fabulous rectangle cork board bulletin board (large vintage brown cork like they sometimes have on lamps). I painted the edges a lovely aqua blue and added some wooden mushroom push pins. I'll be taking it down to the Antique Society this week. Just the idea of being able to work on a project and place it for sale locally is a wonderful distraction for me. Of course this opens the floodgate to "projects" and the front of my garage has about 6 of these already in just a few weeks of time. (oops)

The last update to share is that Keiran is going to be in a Waldorf Charter School this year. It was a huge decision to make for our family. He has been at his current school from 1st through 3rd grade. Financially though this gives us a much needed break. The children's tuition was my responsibility and I didn't feel ready to support both of them at a private Waldorf School. My eBay business isn't even properly running yet and I'm just getting going at the Antique Society. Keiran is nervous and excited. He has struggled to find a close friend at the school and this gives him at least the opportunity to connect with someone new. I've met with the teacher a couple times and she is incredible. He loved her immediately and had a hard time hiding his beaming smile as she spoke to him. This of course warmed my heart.

So there are many changes in store for our family. I will say that I think I'm glad to leave the summer behind us. It hasn't been my worst summer but emotionally it's probably been the hardest one ever. I've spent many hours on my bed with tears in my eyes. I'm emotionally spent.

I now look forward to school starting, fall arriving, building friendships with my local Antique Dealers (another post on this subject soon), stocking my eBay store for the holidays and trying to organize my complete and utter mess of a house (which really is filled with inventory to the brim). I also have plans to write more ReSelling posts here at ATG.

Did you go thrifting this weekend?

Thrift Share Monday celebrates the Art of Thrifting. As a community of readers and bloggers we are able to connect through the process of buying second hand, selling and sharing.

We Thrift  - We Share

Here are some guidelines if you would like to join Thrift Share:

• Your Thrift Share Monday blog post should include your thrifted finds from the weekend.
• Create a blog post with photos of your items.
• Link your Thrift Share Monday post back to Apron Thrift Girl.
• Link to your Thrift Share Monday post on Apron Thrift Girl using inlinkz below.
• If you participate with Thrift Share Monday regularly, please add a button to your side bar so that we can build our Thrift Share Community.

Don't forget to visit Her Library Adventures for Flea Market Finds.

ReSelling - Moving Day

This was a photo taken at the Antique Society a few weeks ago.  Yesterday this space was emptied by the previous tenant and I began painting the back wall in preparation for my next ReSelling experience. Today I officially begin to rent this space, I'll finish painting it (aqua of course) and begin moving in my Mid Century Modern lamps, artwork, decor, furniture and more.

Mod Sonoma moves beyond just a blog for me to share my passion about MCM, but a place to sell what I truly love. I can't wait to thrift on the weekend and arrive on Monday morning and place something in my Mod Sonoma space.

Although the cost is higher than any other ReSelling fee that I have, the option to sell things quickly without having to take photos, edit photos, list an item and package an item will give me a lot more freedom. As we all know, time is money.

I've mentioned often here at ATG that balance is the key to a successful ReSelling business. Although I always have tried to find that balance I have never truly accomplished it. I felt that I was just taking control of inventory, organizing and listing in February right before we moved and life became crazy and my ample storage disappeared. As many of you know, having too much inventory is often an issue for us. We love to buy.

Typically we buy more than we can process in a week. I buy on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with only four days really to prepare and list all of the inventory. This means that all the extra inventory goes in the garage for a later date.

One of my weaknesses in thrifting is my love of dishes. I don't want to think about how many sets I have in my garage right now. Yet the difficulty (for me) in shipping dishes means they sit in a box until I feel that I am ready to pack and ship them.

To help solve this problem, Mod Sonoma is going to have an entire display of vintage Heath Pottery. Tomorrow I will also display one of my favorite finds ever, 20 pieces of Starburst Franciscan Dinnerware. Okay.....this is probably the hardest thing to part with. Ever. I adore these but profit outweighs adoration at times like these.

I realize that my buying audience will change. It won't exactly be a global market like eBay and Etsy offers. Yet we do get so many shoppers from the San Francisco Bay Area as well as those visiting Sonoma County from all over the country.

I also now have the option to place things in my space until I am ready to list them on-line. It's kind of like they will be stored but in a venue where I can sell them if the right customer comes along. This is preferable to inventory in boxes in my garage.

I've been spending the last couple of weeks pricing inventory. I love sitting down at the dining room table, listening to Pandora on my iphone and creating price tags with my number stamps. I have found this small task to be so relaxing.

While I love being on-line, being at a computer usually gives me a headache. I never feel quite healthy behind a screen so now having an excuse to price inventory away from my Mac is heaven for me.

The next two days are extremely busy as I have to have everything ready in my space before the children and I drive north to Seattle for my mother's memorial. We leave Friday morning.

I'm considering hosting a sort of open house at my space in late August or early September. If you are a local reader and might be interested in attending, would you please let me know in the comments. There will be small gifts, edible treats and lots of talk about thrifting and ReSelling.

I'll definitely be sharing my experience being in an Antique Store with all of you, both the ups and downs of being a part of a bricks and mortar store. I'm hoping for many more ups of course. I feel that this is the year that my business is really going to take off in ways that I never imagined.

If you are local and interested in inventory that will be headed to my space, you can like Mod Sonoma on Facebook. I will be using both the Mod Sonoma blog and facebook to announce added inventory as well as post articles about Mid Century Modern and Mod Design.

Do you sell in an Antique store? Do you have any advice or stories to share?