Grim Grinning Ghosts

I'm off to Disneyland to escape the Colorado snow. I'll be sure to keep a lookout for hitchhiking ghosts!

What I've been...

What I've been reading:

Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple. Loved it! I couldn't put it down. It's fiction, kind of a mystery but funny--hard to describe. Check it out.

What I've been eating:

Apple Cider Cream Pie from Lottie + Doof. I needed a pie for our church pie contest last weekend and this was going to be my entry. Unfortunately, I didn't read the recipe through before I got started and  there was no way I could get it made and chilled in time for the party. (Instead, I made this Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Streusel Topping) I still wanted to try the apple cider pie so I made it up on Sunday and it was really very good. I had a slice today as my lunch with my lunch and I think it actually improved with time. I don't care for cooked apples so this was a nice way to get the autumnal apple-ish flavor without the chunks of squishy warm apple that you get in a traditional apple pie.

What I've been watching:

I finally had a chance to watch the last three episodes of Season 10. I don't want to give too much away in case there's anyone else who still has episodes languishing on their DVR, but I was so nervous for all of the final designers! I guessed three of the four who were in the finale but I admit to being surprised about who was chosen as the winner--not because that designer didn't deserve it, but because the judges seemed to be leaning towards somebody else. Maybe that was just a trick of the editing?

What I've been looking forward to:

The Mister finally comes home today! He's been away at training since early in the morning on October 6. He was scheduled to come home tomorrow, but got done early so he will fly in tonight. It's been a long couple of weeks for the kids and me without him and we're all SO ready to be reunited. He'll have just enough time to do laundry and repack his suitcase because on Friday we're headed to the Happiest Place on Earth for a long weekend of vacation with my parents and siblings. I've always wanted to visit a Disney park at Halloween and to get to do with with my whole family is the icing on the cake!

Return of The Bat Wreath

Did you know that if you are a Pinterest user and a blog owner, there is a way to find out what photos from your blog have been Pinned? You simply type in http://pinterest.com/source/themerrymagpievintage.com/  but replace the last part between slashes with your blog address. Now, this method is not totally perfect. For example, this photo is from my blog from years ago, but it doesn't link back to me because it wasn't Pinned from my blog directly.

Even if it's not a completely accurate picture of what's being Pinned from my blog, I can see that easily the most rePinned image from my blog is this paper bag Bat Wreath that I made back in 2010.

Kelli from K Customables shared my Bat Wreath today on her blog. Kelli and her friend Kara create darling party printables and party supplies that you can find here in their Etsy shop. Pop over to their blog and check it out! 

Weekend Junk Finds

Friends, thank you all for commiserating with me last week on my weather disaster. I was still feeling pretty blue when I wrote that post, I'll admit it. Tuesday night I held a 'Trunk Show' at my home with the remainder of my unsold handmade Halloween items. I was really worried that I was making a huge mistake and setting myself up for failure. However, I had many sweet friends come over to visit and shop, and by the end of the night I felt so much better! Just seeing my friends lifted my spirits immensely. Thank goodness for my wonderful friends! By the end of Wednesday I'd pulled myself together and out of my funk completely. I listed quite a few things in my Etsy shop and am trying to get a few more things up there in the next day or two.

I was sorely tempted to hit the estate sales last weekend, now that I'm not on such a strict crafting schedule--but the reality is that I'm buried under inventory that needs to be listed on Etsy, and have ZERO business adding to that mess! As much as I'm tempted by my new free-er schedule, I'm putting myself on a junking freeze for a while until I get some more items listed and hopefully sold. Hence, this may be the last Weekend Junk Finds post for a little while because I need to focus on getting things out the door!

Some vintage fabric scraps from an estate sale. Now, let's just remember for a moment that I DON'T SEW and therefore I have no business buying fabrics. But they're so pretty! And I think I got charged maybe $1 for all of these, plus a large piece of pretty red vintage velvet.

Have I ever mentioned that I collect these metal state ashtrays? I might have once before, but I think perhaps I need to do post with all of them together. I'm always on the lookout for cool vintage Colorado travel souvenirs anyway, so this was perfect! Underneath the ashtray is a pretty yellow and white chenille crib blanket.

This sweet tiny apron is made of fabric with an Alice in Wonderland print. There was a note pinned to the back from the owner saying she thought it was from1936 or 37. I found it at my local consignment store, and I'm kind of shocked that it ended up there! I collect Alice things so I had to have this one, but since I don't have a good way to display this wee apron, it may eventually end up on Etsy. The short strand of mercury glass beads was from the same estate sale as the fabric,

as was the large circus-themed glass in the center of the photo. I know circus-themed parties are very popular right now and I think this glass, filled with aqua Jelly Bellies with some cute pennant flags stuck in the top would be THE CUTEST centerpiece for a circus party! I know I should not bring home orphaned vintage glasses but darned if I don't keep doing it.

The two glasses on the left were in a bag together at the thrift. I'm pretty sure the black star glass is a Swanky Swig--I happen to have two of the red version. This one will be perfect for Halloween! The glass with the gray and black leaves is Libby. The two glasses on the right were also found together at a different thrift store. One has little animals and the other has pink roosters--I can't tell if they were originally red but faded over time? I don't know enough to know if they are true Swanky Swigs, but they're darn cute either way. Really not particularly useful, but too cute to just leave there on the thrift store shelf!

I'm linking up with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday!

My second vintage market: The Bad & Ugly

After my positive experience at the Sweet William Market, I was really excited for the Horseshoe Market the following weekend on October 6. I felt like I knew what I was doing, had a week to make any necessary adjustments and even to restock some of my best-selling items. I had sold plenty, but still had more than enough to have a full booth (something that I'd been really worried about all along since I couldn't predict it). And then it all fell apart when I started to watch the weather forecast.

As the week went by, the weather forecast got progressively worse. From 55 and sunny, to 47 and morning rain, to 39 and snow. As if that wasn't bad enough, Porter was sick and vomiting on three separate days, making me worry if he'd be well enough to leave all day long on Saturday. And to make things really fantastic, The Mister found out on Wednesday that he would have to go out of town at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday morning so he wouldn't be able to help at all.

My mom flew in Thursday night and we spent all of Friday doing last-minute crafting, pricing, and packing. We woke up to snow on Friday morning and I really hoped that meant that maybe the storm system was ahead of schedule and would be on its way out (and the temperatures on their way up) by Saturday morning. When we left the house before dawn at 6:00 a.m. it was cold and foggy. Once we got to the market site and started to set up, the fog lifted and it actually didn't seem to be as cold as I had expected. In Colorado, it's not uncommon for the weather to be iffy when you wake up, but then the sun comes out and the skies clear and I truly thought that's what would happen.

I was wrong. Oh, so very wrong. Instead of the weather improving, it actually got much worse as the day went on. The temperature dropped and it started to mist, causing us to have to pull in anything made of paper. Then, the misting intensified to a light rain.

And then the rain turned to snow. Not even nice, fluffy snowflakes--these were like pellets. Sometimes it was rain, sometimes sleet, sometimes snow. Always COLD. And damp. And generally miserable.

As you can imagine, the 5000-strong shopping crowd that was predicted failed to materialize. If we had 20% of that figure, I'd be shocked. I was surprised at the number of shoppers that did show up, considering the rotten conditions.

I think every single vendor was honestly thrilled when it was finally time to pack up and get the heck out of there. But then we had another lovely surprise: when it came time for my mom to leave to pick up my kids from my friend's house where they had been for the previous 9 hours, the car wouldn't start. We attempted to jump start it with two separate vehicles and even to push start, all with no luck. I had to leave it in a parking lot 30 miles away from home, and somehow figure out how to get it returned to me.

We got home, I unloaded just enough junk from the back of the car so that I could fit in the carseats, and picked up my poor children from my poor friend's house. Had a wonderful dinner at a freezing cold McDonald's, took the kids toy shopping as a reward for their long day, went home and fell into bed with microwaved rice heat bags to thaw our still-frozen feet and hands. The high temperature on Saturday was 36 degrees and I was out in it for nearly 12 hours. Average temp for that day is 69.

If I could sum up the whole day in one word, it would be Disappointing. It was really kind of devastating to have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours and dollars preparing for this day, pouring my heart and soul and creativity into it, dreaming of doing it for 18 months--all to have it completely obliterated by something I couldn't control.

I do take some comfort in the fact that I did everything I possibly could to make the day a success. I'm proud of the things I made. I'm happy with my displays and the overall look of my booth. I'm pretty hard on myself so I don't often say that there was nothing more that I could have done--but in this case, I really feel like I did my very best. I worked hard and put it all out there. It sucks that my hard work and sacrifice didn't translate into success.

Now I get to figure out what to do with all of my stuff that didn't sell. I know that I could just pack it away for next year, but I really was hoping to decrease the number of plastic tubs in my storage room, not the other way around. I'm behind the power curve on Etsy because most Halloween stuff has been listed for a month now and time is ticking. I decided to have a little 'trunk show' at my home tonight and invited all of my local friends, neighbors and church congregation. I was hesitant to do it because I don't know if anyone will show up and frankly, I'm just not sure how much more failure I can take at the moment. But my desire to get rid of things won out and I'm doing it anyway. I made a big pile to take to the consignment shop, some went back into my basement, and some will get hurriedly-listed on Etsy later this week. The giant plaid chair will find its way to Craigslist sometime soon.

I'm sorry that this post is such a downer, but the day was depressing and I'm still completely bummed about it. I'm normally a very positive, optimistic person but I'm struggling with this one.

My first vintage market: The Good

My very first experience as a vendor at a craft/vintage market was at the Sweet William Market on Saturday, September 29. I'd only visited this market as a shopper once before so I wasn't totally sure what to expect and I was more than a bit nervous. I crafted, thrifted, and generally worked like a crazy person up until Friday night in order to have everything ready to go. My biggest fear all along was that I wouldn't have enough items to fill two booths, but as I started to pack everything up in box after box, some of those fears were allayed.

My dear friend is a funeral director and was able to borrow one of the minivans that her work uses to transport caskets, so it has no back seats and rollers installed in the floor. The rollers made it so easy to load up my heavy wooden door screen and there was plenty of room for all of my other boxes of inventory on top. I drove our Pathfinder, which also had the seats laid down and was completely full of tables and other display pieces. The Mister drove our little car with the two kiddos in back and we headed out.

Even though it was 7:15 a.m. there was terrible traffic on the Interstate and we were delayed a bit. I lucked out and got a great location on a wide sidewalk, so my booth was nice and flat and we could park our cars close by to unload. I underestimated the amount of time it would take me to get the booth structure set up and then all the inventory displayed, so I was still scrambling around when the 9:00 a.m. opening time arrived.

I had intended to get a helper for the day so I wouldn't have to run the booth alone (and could sneak out to go shop!) but I waited too long to ask for help, so it was just me the whole time. I worried that I would be overwhelmed but it turned out just fine. Actually, the time really flew! I had a fairly steady stream of customers and when there was nobody in my booth, I kept busy rearranging displays and bringing out additional inventory.

I'm always curious to know what items sell best when I read blogs about markets. The banners pictured above were very popular sellers, which made me happy because I had such a fun time making them! I sold a few of the party crow boxes and several of the tiny bottlebrush trees on spools.

The paper lollies at the far left of this photo were something I made last year but never got around to listing on Etsy. They were very good sellers, as were the pennant flags that are displayed in the vintage Coke bottles on the right side of the photo.

I sold more handmade items than vintage items, which was interesting. I really didn't know what to expect from the customers at this market because I just haven't been to it before.

The closing time of 2:00 p.m. seemed to come very quickly, and then it was a mad scramble to stuff everything back in the boxes, load up, and go home. I kept thinking that it didn't look to me like my booth was any emptier at 2:00 p.m. than it was a 9:00 a.m., yet I knew I had sold plenty of items! I think it was because I had enough inventory to keep filling the empty spots so the booth always looked full.

In all, I'm very happy with how it all turned out. The weather could not have been more lovely, my booth was in a great spot, I got so many lovely compliments on my handmade items and some of them even found new homes! I felt confident in how my booth looked and how my items were priced, I was at ease with using my Square, I met some really great fellow vendors, and the customers were very friendly. I really don't think I could have asked for a better first-time vending experience, and I'd love to be a vendor at Sweet William Market again next year!

Wednesday weather worries.

I'm sorry for the long post and lack of pretty photos, but right now my heart is heavy.

Last week at this time, I was pretty crazy trying to get everything ready for my market on Saturday. I had to work hard, but I got it all done and I thought for sure that this week would be so much easier--I would just have to restock a few of the handmade items that sold and price a few more items that I didn't take with me last week. Most of the hard work would be done already so I could relax a bit.

However, I find myself in somewhat the opposite situation. I am trying to restock a few things (banners, 2 crow boxes, paper lollies) and make something new (with the 600 striped paper straws that FINALLY showed up from China today). There are new things that have me stressed and worried this week:

Porter was sick on Sunday and Monday. He seems better now but for a while on Monday night I was terrified that he might have strep throat. Porter and Maren are most likely going to have to spend all of Saturday at my friend's house, as my mom and I run the booth and The Mister goes out of town that morning. Obviously, I can't let my sick kid go to somebody's house, and I can't bring him with me to the market either. He seemed just fine yesterday so I'm praying that will hold out. I don't care if everybody comes down with the flu on Saturday evening, I just need them to hold out being healthy until 5 p.m.

The Mister still does not know his status for Saturday, whether he is going out of town for training or not. I don't want him to leave for 2.5 weeks and it would help me out greatly on Saturday if he gets to stay, but at the same time he needs to get started on this particular training so now's as good a time as any. Hopefully by later today he will know for sure one way or the other. I just need to know what to expect so I can plan accordingly.

And the biggest worry of all--the weather. I have been watching the weather forecast daily since last Monday, to check the weather for last week's market. Luckily it turned out to be a completely gorgeous autumn-in-Colorado day--blue skies, abundant warm sunshine. Perfect day for going to an outdoor market.

The forecast for this coming Sunday is dismal. Disastrous. Catastrophic for an outdoor market where I'm selling a bunch of things made of paper. As of last night, Saturday's forecast high was 47 degrees with a possible rain/snow mix in the morning. I am scheduled to load in at the market at 6:45 a.m. Last  night I was sick to my stomach and in tears at this new forecast. Quite simply, this is the worst-case scenario. If the weather is terrible, I will have to figure out some way to add walls to my tent, which will just make setting up all the more complicated. And if the weather is this bad, it probably won't matter if I have walls anyway because who in their right mind is going to go out and shop at an outdoor market in that kind of weather?

I have mentioned before, but doing this particular market has been a dream of mine since May 2011. I went to the market for the very first time, fell in love, and literally called my mom while I was driving home to tell her that I wanted to be a vendor there. Last year for various reasons, I couldn't get in. I waited patiently until August of this year when I could apply for the 2012 October market--I specifically wanted to do this one because I knew I wanted to make Halloween items.

The show is juried and I was on pins and needles for two weeks waiting to hear if I got in or not, and when I finally got the email that I made it, I might have even shed a few tears of joy. This is something I have wanted so bad for more than a year. I have worked my rear off for a month and a half (I'm talking 4+ hours of crafting per day, when I have little kids at home and training for a triathlon at the same time). You can probably understand why I feel completely devastated at the idea that my dream and goal is going to be destroyed by something I can't control: the weather.

Quite frankly, it has taken the wind out of my sails. I feel like there's no reason to even continue making things this week because I can't put it out if it's raining and snowing, and who's going to come buy it in that kind of weather? I feel like I might as well just quit now and I am so, so very disappointed. I realize that I could just list everything on Etsy but that is a ton of additional work and time and expense. They were expecting 5000 shoppers at this market. I simply cannot get exposure like that on Etsy.

Friends, I need your help. If you believe in the positive thinking and the power of prayer, would you offer one (or 10) for me? Pray that the weather in Denver will improve for Saturday. I'm not asking for it to be 85 and sunny (like it was in 2011). At this point, I'd be thrilled with 60. Or even 55 is sounding fantastic. Just as long as it isn't raining or snowing, and if we could get some sunshine, that would be an extra lovely bonus but I'm not pushing my luck.

I still want to post about my market last Saturday but that was a wonderful experience and I didn't want to taint that post with all of this doom and gloom.

Weekend Junk Finds: a parliament of owls

Hello, friends! Saturday was my BIG DAY. Actually, it was the second of three BIG DAYS that I'm having in a period of about four weeks. The first was my triathlon, the second was my craft/vintage market on Saturday and #3 is the craft/vintage market coming up this Saturday. After that, I'm going to sleep! I'm exhausted.

I have some photos of Saturday's market to share tomorrow, but today I have some junk finds to show.

I love the pretty pale yellow and gray quilted pillow. It goes perfectly with the pillows from last week's post! I'm not sure if it was originally a quilt piece made into a pillow, or if it was quilted specifically to be made into a pillow. The milk glass tumbler sold at the market on Saturday, and the aqua Butterprint Pyrex is going in storage for a while. I'm thinking of doing a craft/vintage market next May with a pink/aqua/pastel theme, and I have a few pieces of pink & aqua Pyrex stashed for it already. I think this sweet pillow and the ones from last week will go too.

 

I've been buying up owls like crazy for my booths! The little owl figure on the left is marked Japan, and he went to market with me last weekend but didn't sell. His wee brass buddy DID sell, and the big green planter is going with me this next Saturday. The funky granny square afghan is going to market as well.

I bought the big orange beaded brooch because I thought I could do something Halloweeny with it. Haven't figured out what quite yet, but I'm thinking! And did you spot two more owls?

A winking owl and one with big orange jelly belly-type eyes! They're both going to market with me on Saturday. Did you know that one of the names for a group of owls is a parliament?

The green McCoy planter has a big chip out of the inside lip making it just a bit too imperfect to try to sell, so it gets to live with me, which doesn't break my heart one bit! The local Goodwill already started putting out Christmas (earliest sighting ever for that store) and I found a good warmup in three Shiny Brites. The tweezers have ends with a little round indentation--perfect for picking up beads. I found them in a big bag with the shell pieces. Honestly, that was one bag of random stuff that I'm really not sure why I bought. I think I got caught up in the thrifting moment.

Rolls and rolls of vintage seam binding! Years ago, back when I first started thrifting and reselling, I came across several bags of seam binding rolls. They were a bit pricey (I thought) at around $6 per bag so I only bought one bag of about 6 rolls, and then I ended up reselling them all in one big lot. Ever since then I've regretted a) not buying every bag and b) selling the few rolls I had. When I found all of these rolls spread across five bags, I was determined to not make that mistake again! They were a better price this time, which made my decision easier. I'll probably take the fuller rolls to market on Saturday.

And one last find, two huge antique Vignaud Limoges platters. It's hard to tell scale but the one in the back is very large! They're very pretty and shabby style with gold scrolly edges and rim. In researching I found that they were sold in Wanamaker's department store, which was in NYC and Philadelphia. I took these to market but didn't have a good place to put them (they're huge and heavy) until later in the day. I don't think enough people saw them so I'll have to find a better location this coming Saturday. They're big and heavy and would be a pain to ship, so I'd really like to sell them in person.

Did you go junking this weekend? I'm linking up with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday!

It's Vintage Market Eve

Hello friends! If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you know that two of my loves are crafting and hunting for vintage treasures. This weekend and next weekend I get to indulge those two loves and combine them with a third love (Halloween): I'll be a vendor at two upcoming outdoor markets!

The first market is tomorrow, September 29th from 9-2 pm. It's held in the Stapleton area south of I-70 off Quebec. The market is in an open space called Founders' Green that is at 29th Ave & Syracuse. There will be food trucks, live music, and lots of cute booths of vendors (like me!) selling handmade, vintage, and antique items.

The second market is next weekend, Saturday October 6 from 9-4 pm. It's called the Horseshoe Market and it's located at 46th and Tennyson in Denver, which is just south of I-70 and west of I-25. Here's a cute little map:

The Horseshoe Market also has food trucks, live music, and around 100 vendor booths full of handmade, vintage and antique goodies.

Both markets are a great place to get your Christmas shopping started and a lovely way to spend a few hours on a beautiful autumn Colorado day! I do hope you'll come by and see me, as I've been crafting and shopping my little fingers to the bone to get ready. And if you can't make it--do me a favor and pray for no rain and big crowds! :)

Pinned it and Made it: Milk Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

In both my paper recipe book and my Pinterest boards, I have a plethora of cake recipes. I have one heck of a sweet tooth, but when it comes down to it, I think cake is really my favorite type of dessert so cake recipes always appeal to me. However, since I have the aforementioned killer sweet tooth, I can't make cake very often because I WILL EAT IT ALL. Seriously.

Therefore, I'm thrilled when an occasion pops up that actually gives me the excuse to pull out one of my many saved recipes and make a delicious cake. This occasion happened to be The Mister's birthday, so chocolate cake was the order of the day.

I've mentioned here before that although I love to cook and bake, I usually have to stick to boxed cake mixes because I live at high altitude and unless it's specifically written for such, normal cake recipes always yield disappointing results. In my recipe stash I found one for High Altitude Devil's Food Cake and had been patiently waiting for the chance to try it out. I made the cake and am sad to report that it did in fact fall a bit, which is what happens when I use normal cake recipes. It wasn't anything that couldn't be hidden by frosting however, so I decided to go ahead and use it.

Except--there was a slight disaster. Even though I buttered and floured the pans, both cakes stuck terribly and crumbled to pieces when I tried to get them out! I'm not sure if I left them to cool in the pans too long or what, but it was a catastrophe because we had friends coming over to help us celebrate in just a few hours! I ended up having to turn to Duncan Hines anyway for emergency assistance after all of that. I was able to salvage the scratch cake (which really tasted good, despite the lack of perfect rise) by making it into cake balls that we enjoyed later.

Even though the cake had some problems, there was nothing at all wrong with the frosting! I had Pinned this Milk Chocolate Buttercream Frosting recipe a few weeks ago and knew it was just the perfect complement to the cake! The frosting was easy to make and the only suggestion I'd make is to make a double batch. I made two 9-inch layers with my cake mix, then cut each of those in half to make four layers total. I initially made just one batch of frosting but it was only enough to spread between the layers, so I had to whip up another in order to frost the outside of the cake. I sprinkled on a few mini chocolate chips just to make it pretty. :)

The cake was delicious and the frosting was wonderfully light and creamy with a great chocolate taste. It was easy to work with and I will definitely be making it again! Too bad the next family birthday isn't until March. I'm going to have to adopt someone with a birthday in October because I just don't think I can wait that long!

Weekend Junk Finds

Junk is taking over my house! Not in a call-the-producer-from-Hoarders type of way, but in a two-vintage-markets-in-as-many-weeks sort of way. It's a good thing, really. That's what I keep telling my husband, anyway!

A few weeks ago I found a garage sale less than a mile from my house.

The first things I saw in the driveway were these old pillow cases, both nicely embroidered. The one on the left is appliqued with the sweetest print fabrics, and both have a row of pretty shell buttons that close the cases.

Once I ventured into the garage, I found these--a strand of mercury glass beads, a crocheted Christmas card basket (why do I buy these? I swear they never resell but for some reason I love them) and an old blue glass Ball jar. I also found the plaid tablecloth in the background--I love the combination of red, green, yellow and gray! It's a Simtex and the tag charmingly informs us it was "Made Right in America." There were several more tablecloths at this sale and all of them had a tiny note pinned to the corner with the dimensions of the cloth noted in spidery handwriting.

Moving further into the garage, I unearthed this yellow rose printed tea towel and the fantastic aqua gingham pillow with tiny black rickrack edging. It's stuffed with a great old down pillow.

The girl running the sale was younger than me, and she told me this sale was all her grandmother's things. The garage was pretty packed full, and when she said "you should have seen it last weekend, it was even more full!" all I could do was groan because of all the good stuff I must have missed! She said that they're still cleaning out her grandmother's home & storage units so I gave her my business card with an invitation to call me but I'll be watching that corner for garage sale signs for a while!

A few other recent finds--even though I've largely quit buying aprons, I couldn't leave this fruit-print cutie behind. The pint canning jar is a different brand than I usually find (Drey) and the pink Gooseberry Pyrex fridgie somehow survived the Goodwill Outlet without a single chip. 

And one last find, this one destined for one of my booths--a silverplate trophy bowl from 1967-68. Hope it sells!