Ready, Set....Sale IT!

We had a fantastic first day at the Farm Chicks Show! Tonight we thought we'd just share some pics from the show. Here's our group, the calm before the storm of customers! Everyone loved our aprons! We wanted to do something that would be memorable.

This one is a bit hard to see, but here is a pic of the line waiting to get in. Only take that and multiply it by three time! I couldn't fit them all in my camera lens!

Here are some of our customers waiting to check out. Our register was humming as fast as it could go for most of the day!

Here are some of our wonderful neighbors including our good friend Sue of Bella Shabby.

The guys at Barn House in Battle Ground WA. Cool Booth!

And Duchess of Vancouver WA! We'll be packing up tomorrow night at the end of the show, but we'll try to post more pics tomorrow night! Thanks for visiting our blog and sharing our Farm Chicks experience with us!
Eileen & Karen

Move In Day

Today was the big move in day! We pulled in the parking lot and knew we were in the right place! We had to wait right till 9:00 to move things into the building so we decided to get a jump on it and off load the truck as much as we could. We had everything labeled and organized…even the bags!

This is what our space looked like when we walked in…

and after we had our base pieces set! Our pre-staging and packing by sections paid off big time.

Take a look at our booth and let us know what you think!

Travel Day

We are sorry we missed a day of blogging. We were exhausted from only three hours of sleep the night before, and too many last minute things to do. So here is our catch up blog!

We always manage to have a great time on the road! With extra large Diet Coke in tow and girl time spent together! What’s not to love! Here are a few sites we saw along our trip from Portland Oregon to Spokane Washington!

Who knew there was another Stonehenge almost in our backyard!

We saw many Farm Chickers on the road!

What the heck...

We Are Off, But Don't Miss Pink Friday!

We are off! All these months of preparation and the Farm Chicks show is finally here! We are so excited and can't wait to share our adventure with you! We'll be on the road all day today, but will catch up tonight when we hit the hotel. Follow our Farm Chicks journey this weekend! But in the mean time, don't miss Pink Friday!

Please join us for shopping with a twist on Friday June 5, 2009 as we present "Something Old, Something New - A Perfect Time for a Summer Wedding!"
Something old, something new. something borrowed, something blue. The age old timeless phrase describes the perfect ingredients for a beautiful summer wedding.

I'm so blessed to work in the wedding industry too! I love helping my brides create their dream wedding day! We have a couple of oldies and a couple of new ideas too. Remember those on our mailing list get weekly bonus discounts or gifts, so we invite you to join our mailing list! We'll see you tomorrow!

Eileen

TUESDAY PACK UP AND LOAD THE TRUCK!!

It was a worn out group who met this morning at 9:00 to finish displaying the last few items and then start packing, mapping and tagging the finished totes. We slowly packed each section, including our display map photos in each tote and labeled each tote according to where it was to be placed in the display in Spokane.

Since we have a limited amount of time to re-create our display up at the fairgrounds in Spokane for the Farm Chicks show, we need to be very organized and able to pass our knowledge of the set up to our favorite "Roadies" who will be helping us unload the truck and accompanying vehicles in Spokane. There isn't time to be confused and slip into our "twirling" pattern that we usually do when tired and a bit anxious.

Slowly, section by section, we gained our working rhythm together and had almost everything packed up by lunchtime at 1:30. Totes were stacked and furniture brought to the front of the shop, ready to begin the painstaking pilgrimage to the truck. With dragging and weary bodies, we took a break and went to lunch. It was a very quiet meal.

Our empty truck! Doesn't it look like a deserted cave? The space seems to be endless until the packing begins.

Eileen's husband, Randy, is the supreme truck packer. He likens it to a large game of Tetris...Look for the shapes that fit together with the least amount of empty, wasted space. Our job was to bring the pieces out so Randy could pick and choose according to what he needed to fill the empty space. Flat items against the walls of the truck, stackable surfaces together and then the all important filler. The filler completes the puzzle and makes the packing efficient.

Look at our empty shop with the cleared floors!! Yes, it is all outside. Thank goodness it wasn't raining like it usually is this time of the year in Portland.

We wait outside for Randy and our head Roadie, Garron, to shout out what shape and weight they need to fit into the next hole. Like Eileen says, the person in the truck works really hard while the rest of us stand around and wait for instructions. It takes a lot of time and effort, but the result is very much worth it. Tight packing gives us more room to take more product and it cuts down on breakage.

Here it is, almost completely packed. There will also be 3 SUVs packed full driving up in our convoy too. Tomorrow we will have the day "off", but all of us will be running around like the proverbial headless chicken getting last minute details done, get our own homes and families prepared for our absences and prepare websites for possible internet incapability. You never know with the hotels. Sometimes being the superwomen that we all expect ourselves to be is a tall order. Having this wonderful group of friends with many of the same interests has been such an incredible blessing for me. Not a day passes that I don't receive help, support, advice and love from each of them. They have become my family, my sisters. Each of them mean the world to me, a gift straight from the hand of God. We may be exhausted now, but by Thursday we will be renewed and ready to go!

Thanks for following our trek! Keep tuning in and we'll continue to give you photos and written details of our adventure!

Be happy and go with God!

Karen & Eileen too!

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

THE WEEK THAT WILL BE.....

All of my most precious treasures are back in their own little nests, safely where they belong. Baby Hagen is in his home for the first time, away from the sounds and smells of the hospital, home with just his mommy and daddy and little dog Chi-Chi. Grandma is there from Wisconsin helping until the new mommy is back on her feet and new routines have been established. My turn comes in a couple weeks when the sleep deprivation becomes overwhelming.

My only grand daughter, Jaina, was enthralled with her new cousin, returning to Hagen over and over just to whisper "Hi, Baby". She was so gentle and so curious. Amazing to see the natural mothering instinct in an almost 2 year old. She is a sweetheart!

And my Jacen. You know him already. Since Hagen wasn't big enough to play yet, he didn't hold too much interest for an active 5 year old. Yes, nice to have another boy in the family, but "he's too tiny to do anything fun, Nana". Oh you just wait, Jacen! Such beautiful babies we have been blessed to have in our family. Being a Nana is about the very best job I have ever had... more like a gift actually.

Well, are you ready for the coming week ahead? Farm Chicks here we come!! Monday and Tuesday we will be finishing our mock set up and packing the truck. Wednesday we will all take the day to pull things together at home and pack our own necessities. Early Thursday morning we will rev up the truck and 3 cars for the caravan drive up to Spokane. It should take us between 8 to 9 hours depending on the number of stops and how fast the truck can go. Friday is the set up all day for the actual sale on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday night we tear everything down, hopefully not having much to pack up to take home. Monday, the long drive back to Portland, unpacking and back to life as we know it. We will take you along for the entire week via our blog. Tune in and join us for all of the festivities. I know we will need your support and encouragement as our aging bodies start giving out on us!!! We look forward to sharing all of our experiences with you!

Karen & Eileen