No Tea on Tuesday

Today has been kind of a wearying day.........no time for tea or posting about it!!

Found out yesterday that the building where I have an antiques booth was hit by a tornado on Saturday! I read Monday's paper, saw the word tornado in the headlines, but did not look at the picture, and turned the page.
My mom came home yesterday, and said she had driven by the shop and it looked like it had been hit by a tornado!!
I got in my car and ran over, and sure enough, half the roof was missing and insulation, tin roofing, wood and glass were strewn everywhere. Alot of the tin roof ended up across the two lane road into the farmer's field, at least 500 yards or more away! Fortunately, the horses living in that field, had not been there on Saturday!!!
By some miracle, no one was hurt - it happened on Saturday - at 10 minutes to 5 - just before closing. The owner was hurrying customers out of the back - because they close promptly at 5pm. All who had been in the back were near the register, when the winds hit. One of the cashiers almost got sucked out the front door as she tried to close it.Everyone hunkered down behind the counter, and it was over before they knew it. The back area where the customers had just been standing was totally destroyed!!! The roof lifted off, the chimney crashed in, the beams and a/c duct work collapsed, and the windows imploded. AND, the area's Doppler Radar station INSISTS there was no tornadic activity in that area on Saturday!!!!
The good news is - no one was hurt!!!! The other good news is that the little room where my mom and I have our booths, was totally spared! The bad news is some vendors lost all their inventory and display cases.
We spent today, along with other dealers, removing all our stuff. The building needs to be totally empty while they renovate. Hopefully, they will be open for business again in September.
It is sad, because almost all of the dealers I have met, are the sweetest people, mostly retired, doing this for fun (certainly not for big money), others are trying to eke a meager income to supplement their " habit" or daily living.

I hope to go back, but am still mulling it over. This is the 2nd time this building has been hit by heavy winds in 2 years. I was not aware of the first time. As much as I love having a "real" shop, I may keep selling on eBay for a while and see how that goes.

Another sour note today, was hearing about some of the dance bags and totes I made for a dance studio. One sold right away - yay!!!- but a friend checked, and two of the most expensive ones are missing and unaccounted for. I was going to give it a month or so, to see how they sold, but now I am not sure.

Oh, well, things could definitely be worse!! When one door shuts, another opens- I just have to find that darn door!!! LOL

"Down Sizing" in the New Economy

Downsizing is occurring everywhere- people are being very careful where and how they spend their discretionary income - if, in fact, they even HAVE any discretionary income!!!

I know I have stayed home more, made less trips to the supermarket, used more coupons, combined errands to town with the hubby to save gas, and am trying to become more self sufficient. Growing our own food, bartering for other stuff, cooking from scratch, have become more commonplace in today's world.

Ten job slots in our county sheriff's dept were eliminated due to state, county and federal budget cuts. Unfortunately, one of those positions was my DH! Thank goodness he has a pension, but it will be tight for a while without that income.
We are becoming more creative in trying to make the best use of our income!!!

With people spending less, online shops like eBay and Etsy are finding business is very slow. Thrift stores are finding a rise in sales, altho donations may be down a tad. Antiques shoppes, unless they are in a very upscale neighborhood, have seen sales drop.

I have had to downsize in my little antiques booth. Sales have come to an almost screeching halt, and I reluctantly decided to rent a booth for half the price. I was not ready to totally throw in the towel yet! Afraid that I would not be able to fit all my inventory in a smaller space, I was pleasantly surprised to find that was not the case!!

With DH's assistance, we managed to get all the stock dusted, moved and set up in under 3 hours!We still have to go back and put up some small shelves and hang pictures on the wall- but done for now! I can continue rescue and refurbish fabulous finds and pass them on to others!!! Or, at least have a cheaper place to display them until people are able to spend again !!!So, if you see something you just HAVE to have, I do mail!!! You can click on each picture for a closer look.

The new location is at the other end of the shop in a back room,not in the main aisle like before- but the booth is well lit, in a finished area, that needs no extra TLC from me. The previous booth was raw wood, with an old window whose frame and torn roller shade had seen better days!!!

I'll give it another month or two, and see how business fares in this new location. Fingers crossed!!! We can only go up from here!!