MONDAY'S MOCK SET UP FOR FARM CHICKS

And we're off! The week began today, Monday, completing our mock set up for our booths at The Farm Chicks Show in Spokane. We are able to use an empty space in our good friend's retail building, so previously we taped off the exact dimensions of our booth space. We have all been gathering pieces at estate sales and making items to sell, packing those in separate plastic totes which we have been bringing to the empty shop for the past few weeks.

This is our strategy center where we have the computer set up to log inventory, keep track of prices, search for information on marks and identification of antique pieces, make our tags, eat our healthy snacks (right!!), make our endless lists of things to do and what we need to pack and make plans for the actual trip.

We emptied our totes onto a few tables and sorted according to color and theme. Since we had so much, we had to sort several totes, then distribute our sorted product to the appropriate areas, emptying enough table space to unload a few more totes. This scenario continued all day.

While 3 of us emptied and sorted, another 2 team members arranged the furniture pieces to build the skeleton of our booth. Furniture pieces large and small were arranged according to color and theme with some pieces mixed to give needed height or depth to the skeleton. We also had to consider what the consequences of the appearance of the display would be if a large piece of furniture sold. What can we replace the sold piece with, how can we move things around to keep the design and cohesiveness of the display? Lots to consider.

After the furniture is set, we began the long task of filling in the space with the product we have sorted. Of course we all have a different idea of what looks good, what goes together to please the eye. Things are moved from one area to another, from the display back to the sorting tables. After a few hours, the frustrating chaos begins to take shape and "the look" falls into place. Husbands are called to announce that we are working late. Who knows what 's for dinner? Anxiety slowly becomes fatigue, then exhaustion. We start getting silly and everything is funny.

Wow, everything is funny until we decide that there will not be enough room on the truck for all of the furniture and totes full of re-packed product. How will we get it all to Spokane? What happens if we don't sell anything? What happens if we sell everything?? What if we run out of our best product? What if, what if??? Oh boy, it's time to go home and get some sleep!

Above is our green and natural brown section. This was the last section to come together. When it started rolling, it fell together very quickly, but we had been messing with it for several hours off and on. It's when you give up that everything comes together nicely. Below is part of our pastel cottage area. I always like this section the best because it is soft and quiet, light and relaxing.

Tune in Wed. to see photos of what we get done today, Tuesday. Our plan is to get the individual pieces wrapped and boxed and get the truck and the other vehicles packed so we are ready to hit the road early Thursday morning.

Until tomorrow!

Karen