To Flock or Not To Flock?

That is the Question! One I asked myself several times as I whipped up a "Woodland Wonderland" wreath this afternoon.

I just wanted to kiss it with a little fake snow but unfortunately I forgot that flocking comes raging out of the can like Barbasol shaving cream on Red Bull; I think "Not To Flock" was definitely the answer. Luckily that stuff takes forever to dry and I managed to remove most of it with a feather duster. But now, I don't know... to me it just looks kind of "Flocked Up."

It's Always Darkest Just Before Dawn

Actually, I think it's even darker when you decide to turn your shop's 1950's kitchen into a 1970's kitchen... only you forget to take the 1950's stuff out before you bring the 1970's stuff in.  HOLY. SH*T.  It's almost 2:00; think I can fix this by 5PM?

To Auction, To Auction,

To buy a Fat Pig...

Came home with these drawers as well, Jiggety Jig!

When these came up for bid the Auctioneer looked at me & Claudia and exclaimed "These look very SALVAGE CHIC!"; which is his way of saying "These look like SH*T that only YOU TWO will like." Then he apologized that he didn't have the actual cabinet that the drawers belonged in and I was like are you kidding me?!? Then other people would be bidding on them!!  He opened the bid and my card went up in a flash then I held my breath while they were "Going Once, Going Twice... SOLD! To Claudia's Friend!!"  Whew, I was nervous there for a minute.  $15 each, Get 'Em while they last!

Earning My Stripes

Since I haven't exactly been Blogging much lately or, ummm, AT ALL... I'm sure everyone's wondering what the heck I've been up to all summer. With the advent of shows like American Pickers and Pawn Stars, we've had an onslaught of folks coming out of the woodwork with items of interest to sell. Now I should clarify that these are most often only items of interest to the person actually SELLING them. You guys know that I am not interested in the least bit in most things traditionally considered appropriate to sell to an Antique Shop but of course not everyone knows this; so as you can imagine there are a lot of pissed-off people who schlep in their grandmother's Limoges China or Tiffany Lampshade only to have Claudia or I accidentally blurt out "THAT'S HORRIBLE!" Sorry, we kiss a lot of frogs out in the parking lot so-to-speak and sometimes we just can't contain our Inner Antique Critiquer.

So anyway, back to items of interest, or NOT... Last week this group of young kids came in with a bottle they had dug up somewhere and asked if I could give them any information about it. I reflexively started doing my bottle spiel, "I don't know a lot about bottles but I do know a guy that does, let me give you his number, oh crap do I have him filed under B for Bottle or G for Guy?!?" then I thought wait a minute, these kids don't want to be calling some random guy let me look at the bottle first.


Oh. Well. I did know something about this bottle. And I wanted to joke that unless it came with 5 friends and they were really cold, I wasn't interested. But these kids were so cute they really thought they had a relic here so I put on my best Professional Shopkeeper hat and told them it was actually a fairly common bottle around these parts and probably worth more to them as a memory of where they found it than to someone who collects bottles; I went on to say since it had a UPC code on it it really couldn't be that old. This was met with somewhat blank stares so I clarified that it could possibly be from as early the 1980's.


That seemed to really impress them and they trotted off with their new prized possession, or so I thought. Later I found they had actually left it behind - and it actually looks well-merchandised here, doesn't it? I felt bad though, when I realized I should've told him that it was totally worth a nickel at the redemption center up the street.

With All Due Respect...

"And I don't mean to sound flippant..." said the guy as he leaned in real close at the counter; (OH BOY, this oughta be good!) "But how can you call something vintage that says Made in Japan?"

"Um... Well... With all due respect... and I don't mean to sound flippant..." I leaned right back at him; "But I'm pretty sure Japan has been around for quite a long time."

I'm not saying everything we sell is old, but the item he was pointing at WAS. And in fact, a HUGE amount of antiques and vintage collectibles were made in Japan. Now, if he were pointing at something with a sticker that said Made In China, I could see his point. I'll be the first to admit if I think an item is of recent manufacture; but if I like the look of it and think you would too, in the store it goes. Perhaps the Antiques & Uniques sign on the window needs a new footer, "New-tiques"?

Things I Never Thought I'd Hear at Work

"This is going in Giovanni Ribisi's Kitchen." Wait a minute... WHAT?!? I gotta start paying closer attention to people.
Turns out the kind woman who purchased a retro kitchen cabinet over the phone the other day works for Thunder Buddies, the Production Company that is currently in town filming the new Mark Wahlberg movie "Ted." Now, normally I would probably not be running out to see a movie about a grown man whose best friend is his childhood teddy bear... but for a chance to see one of my Salvage Chic babies on the Big Screen? I'm SO GOING. I can't wait to point at that cabinet and scream "I knew it when..."

What a Hoot!

Or NOT.
Not only does it BOBBLE but the head also SPINS AROUND...
File this under "Things That Have Scared The Sh*t Out Of Me In My Own Shop".

URGENT Update for the Yard Salers!!

The Saturday portion of the Yard Sale advertised in the previous post has been CANCELLED due to lack of merchandise. Many Thanks to all the Salvage Chic fans who visited today and helped make the sale a Smashing Success!

Now, back to the regularly scheduled Blog. (Although, it's more IRREGULARLY scheduled, isn't it? Sigh... sometimes life just gets in the way.)

Attention Yard Salers!

One of my Prize Pickers is having a yard sale this weekend, this is a Must Check Out Event!! Just a short ride up Route 27 from Salvage Chic.

Multi-family sale with something for everyone! Lots of furniture, antiques, vintage, household goods, decorative items, kids stuff (including outdoor toys), double stroller, Schwinn bike trailer, even a truck cover for a Toyota Tacoma. Come check it out Friday and Saturday (4/22 &23) on Country Way in Kingston (right off of rt 27 near Silver Lake High School) from 8-2.

Boogie Down

Or more often heard around our house lately: "Boogie... DOWN!" Yes, our new pup Augie already has a nickname. It came to be after the first week or two when he got comfortable enough to start testing the waters and it became clear that our former little gentleman has a Terrorist alter ego. One that likes to corner cats, eat potholders, and shred anything to do with fabric. I have read that it's important with a young pup not to scold them too harshly unless you actually catch them doing something wrong in the act. Pointing at a sock he chewed an hour ago and yelling "BAD DOG!" is just going to confuse him so at some point when I stumbled upon some Augie Aftermath I found myself muttering "You're such a little Boogie." Later I caught him right in the midst of something and accidentally blurted out "Boogie Bin Laden!! You are a Terrorist!!" Kenny overheard me and it totally stuck, the poor pup is forevermore known as Boogie. Now, before you go all Kardashian on me "Oh. Mah. Gahd! I can't believe you call your dog BOOGIE, you should be ashamed of yourself! There are plenty of people in third world countries who would love to own a dog and would never call him Boogie Bin Laden!" (Trust me, I do get these emails) Just take a chill pill and embrace him in all his Boogie-ness; we do.
He's so busy being a Terrorist I only seem to be able to get a photo of him sleeping these days; here he is after a long day out in the yard with his BFF Duff and a reminder: Tired Dogs are GOOD Dogs.

Haggling 201

Well, the Haggling 101 post was such a big hit I thought I'd share some advanced pointers for those of you on the accelerated path. Or one more pointer, anyway:

HAGGLE DON'T: Try to De-Value the item in hopes of getting it ridiculously cheap. "I'd need to spray paint it to cover up all of this rust." Ummm, rust is actually a selling point for some people, particularly in the area of garden items; So No, I can't sell it to you for half price. "It needs an awful lot of work." I can appreciate that you might want to restore it to pristine original condition, but I can guarantee there are plenty of people that would snap up this Hoosier cabinet at this price and slap it into their kitchen as is, loving every single character flaw so again, I can't give you $100 off of this $199 item.

I don't mean to sound flippant in my responses to these people, but really, it's so frustrating. With almost 5 years under our belt here at Salvage Chic, we know our price points. We don't have a huge mark-up but we make our money on volume, high turnover keeps our customers coming back. Unfortunately the secondhand market is associated with haggling, but we're not at a yard sale here. Imagine if someone came into your workplace and said "Hey, how about you take a 20% cut in pay today?" And then handed you a credit card so it was actually closer to 25%. YAY.

Things I would never be cheeky enough to try: At my hairdresser's "Hey, I love this cut & color, but not at the $85 price point you're trying to charge me. I'll give you $60." Or the mechanic: "Awesome oil change, thanks, but it's not really worth $35 to me, I'll give you $20." And my ever favorite, at CVS: "I'll give you $1.50 CASH for this Chapstick, $2.99 is pretty insane since it's not even cherry flavor."

Little Orphan Augie

Is an orphan no more! Kenny and I trekked up to NH last Friday to pick up the newest member of our family, a coonhound/rat terrier mix rescued from Tennessee. Here we are meeting him in the pouring rain:

I should've had my head examined ordering a puppy sight unseen off of Petfinder, but we really lucked out. What a little love; we settled him into the car for the long ride home from NH and after a few confused looks at us, he promptly passed out.

Augie had been hosted in a Foster Home for a month or so before he was transported up here at the age of 5-1/2 months. I was really worried I was missing out on his formative training days but am delighted to report he showed up a true little Southern gentleman with house manners and a basic knowledge of potty training. Our resident coonhound Duff, who's only 3 but acts like he's about 80, was pretty nervous about the prospect of his 'Mini-Me' at first.

Day 1 Duff wanted nothing to do with sitting near him; Day 3 he allowed Augie to share a piece of furniture with him; Day 4 he voluntarily jumped on a piece of furniture Augie was already enjoying and Day 5 after a busy playdate with my friend and her daughter, these 2 BFFs passed out together.

Sorry for the tiny photos, I shot some of them with my phone. But, you get the idea. Looking forward to sharing many fun Augie stories with you all in the future. And - just to clear the record for those of you who read the 'Tick-Tock' blog and thought my husband REALLY wanted a baby... I was talking about a pup the whole time. We are both delighted with the addition to the family!!

Haggling 101

Trust me, the LAST thing I want to do is encourage people to haggle. With Salvage Chic being more of a boutique atmosphere than a yard sale, we have a lot of overhead and we're not one of those places that marks UP to mark DOWN. Nevertheless, people automatically associate the Junktique Business with Haggling, so it might be time for a few friendly pointers.

Haggle DON'T: Bring up every single small item that possibly piques your interest and ask "What's your Best Price on THIS?" and then mull it over with a disgusted look on your face before putting the item back and bringing up another one. That's just annoying.

Haggle DON'T: Insult me with a ridiculously low offer followed by the word CASH. Sure, I wanted to get $200 for it, but I'll take 75 CASH so I can stick it in my mattress with all my other unreported income... NOT.

Haggle DON'T: Assume your CASH payment means you're not going to be charged Sales Tax. I try this now and then at CVS and they always look at me like I'm an idiot so I feel pretty confident in looking at you that way too.

Haggle DO: "I'm kind of interested in this (insert significant item like a large piece of furniture). Has it been here a while?" If the response is that IT JUST ARRIVED, that means THE PRICE IS FIRM. If it's more along the lines of I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW LONG THAT'S BEEN HERE, I'M SO SICK OF LOOKING AT IT! there might be a little wiggle room... a LITTLE.

To the TICK-TOCK, Ya Don't STOP

What WAS that ominous ticking? My Husband's Biological Clock. Apparently at 32, he is not getting any younger. He's been after me for months to add another member to our family. I told him when I was ready, Adoption would be the way to go, thinking that was a good stall tactic. (Do you know how much PAPERWORK is involved?) I even told him I had gotten the ball rolling on that front; that seemed to satisfy him for a while.

Weeks would go by and just when I'd think the coast was clear, there it was again: TICK-TOCK like a suspicious package left on the subway. Just when he appeared he was happy enough surfing online looking at potential candidates for his Adoption Pipe Dream, he'd suddenly be all "WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE ADOPTION PROCESS?" Oh...I'd mutter a few words like 'Home Inspection' or 'I had to give them 3 more Personal References' and he would go away.

Meanwhile my Inbox was jammed with links he'd send me to photos of these really pitiful looking orphans. It was so depressing I made a rule to have my email view them as Spam and automatically delete them as they came in.

Finally this week, there it was again, TICK-TOCK TICK-TOCK and just when I was about to hit the Big Ol' Kenny Snooze Button, I realized... that was MY OWN CLOCK!

I finally caved. And managed to complete that 'Paperwork' pretty damn quick.

This little guy will be added to our family in just a few short weeks!! We're going to call him Auggie. I can't wait to meet him!!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Or, "F.F." as my Mom would say. For those of you playing at home, one of those F's is FREEZING... I'll let you fill in the blank.

So now, for a little Warmth from Within. I was lucky enough to be off from the shop today and spent the day as I most LOVE to do on days like this, puttering around the house in my PJs. I swore I was going to do nothing at all except watch a Law & Order Marathon; Kenny bet me 5 bucks I would be off the couch by the end of the 2nd episode but I held strong through 2 and a half before the urge to putter got the best of me. Then I went on a tear in the kitchen, taking everything off the counters and cleaning it within an inch of its life before I put it back. I know on those HGTV House Selling shows they advise you should clear a kitchen of everything but the essentials so Buyers don't think your kitchen lacks storage. But I think done right, clutter can be a selling point. Not that I'm selling my house... but wouldn't YOU want to live in a kitchen with a windowsill as 'cluttered' as this? It just puts a smile on my face; hope it warms you up too!

The Right Frame of Mind

I just haven't been in it lately, for Blogging, anyway. I know, I know, a lot of people have been disappointed to check in for the last 5 weeks only to be greeted yet again by the "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" post. A couple of nights I have sat down thinking "Let me just dash out a paragraph or two to calm the hungry masses," only to be stymied by what I can best describe as Blogger's Block. It really hit home when the calendar year turned and I saw that I had only blogged on average twice a month in 2010; what the #!&*! was going on?

To compound matters, people have started walking into the shop and before I can even get out a "Hi, How are you?" they're all "No New Blogs Lately, Huh." SIGH. So much for all the great changes in the shop; did you see how we made Christmas Happen, and then Un-Happen, once again in Epic Salvage Chic Proportions? Can I get a WOOT, WOOT for scrounging up the freshest, fiercest array of inventory possible and laying it all out on the website on a daily basis, so you can peruse it at leisure without leaving the comfort of your home or PJs? No, I get it... what you really want to know is what my dog has been up to.

As the Pressure to Blog continued to build with no good Subject Matter at hand, I said to Kenny: "Now I know how J.K. Rowling feels when people ask her when the next Harry Potter segment is coming out. Do you think she ever wants to reply 'when I Bloody Hogwort feel like it'? He laughed and said he understood how I must feel, but the look he gave me said "GET OVER YOURSELF!" I know, he's right... right?

So today at the shop rather than deal with the Blog Block I was in full Stop Procrastinating Mode, dragging all kinds of stuff out that's been languishing in the back room; when I came upon THIS lovely specimen brought in by one of my Prize Pickers.

Superbly Shabby Chic indeed, but it's an empty frame with no back, no glass, no hook to hang it. How the *!%#!? am I supposed to merchandise THIS? And how much would someone possibly want to pay for it?? Wait a minute... it kind of looks like it belongs in my sunroom. Another thing I've been meaning to Blog about, but it's just not QUITE done... I thought to myself, 'Too bad there's nowhere in there to hang it.' Or IS there?? Something started tickling the back of my brain so I brought it home tonight and, VOILA! Problem Solved. Now Kenny can't complain the TV looks dinky on the wall, and I have something to BLOG ABOUT!! I think I finally got my Mojo back. Now, if I could just figure out how to hide that stupid cord...