Living a Pop Up Existence

Calypso snoozing in the sunshine at home,
enjoying the leisurely life, blissfully unaware
that Shop Duties await her.

You know, it’s quite easy to get used to a leisurely life. 

 

I know when we’re on buying trips we travel far and wide, and have to get up much earlier than is natural.  But that’s only for a month or so, once or twice a year. 

 

And Sunday mornings at the Markets have become an exercise in operating on auto-pilot, bleary-eyed and yawning nonstop until the sun comes up.

 

Enamelware and nice glass
in the Pop Up shop.

But as a general rule, for every other day of the week, our life has become quite leisurely.  Down-right cruisey.

 

So I know, let’s open a Pop Up shop! 

 

Forget cruisey - I have spent the last week and a half in OMG-mode, trying to get as much stock as I can unpacked, cleaned, waxed, polished, priced and tagged.  I still don’t have near enough ready, but sufficient that we made a good showing on opening day.

 

And anyway, who wants too much of a leisurely life? 

 

We’ll be bringing in new things pretty well every day, but seeing how we’re only going to be open for a month I want to get as much as possible in within the first week or so.

 

More enamelware and nice ceramics.

It’s been exciting getting things out and remembering where we bought them.  On Saturday afternoon we started to bring in the first of the stock boxes and large wooden items – Jamie Oliver boards, a dough trough, printers tray, etc.  And already, piled up against the wall of the shop, they were stopping people in the street. 

 

We opened on 1 July, and so far so good.  If we can’t sell at wholesale prices in a retail outlet, we might as well give up now.  I had a large, fabulous Arts & Crafts era English oak table that I put $70 on.  Yes, that is an utter, utter bargain.  I told everyone that if I couldn’t sell it within opening week, I would eat it.  So yay that I sold it on Day 2 - there's only so much fibre a girl needs.

 

Even more enamelware, glass
and ceramics.  There are some
lovely pieces, if I say so myself,
that I won't bring to the Markets.


 

Now I can bring out a few other pieces of furniture that have been sitting in my shed for a long time, which I can’t take to the Markets and I don’t want to make the effort to take to auction.  So the shop shall be Furniture Bargain City for the next month, in addition to the newly arrived stock.

 

I’m really looking forward to styling the window, changing it every week as the whim takes me.  That's something I've missed.  I’ve started with a maritime theme this week, with the Italian end-of-day glass fish, anchors, ship’s wheels and pulleys and the like.  Next, I think I might do a window of French Kitchenware. 

 

If you’re in or near Eumundi on a Monday, feel free to come and play Stylist with me – it’s fun!



Calypso remembering that she quite enjoyed being the much admired Shop Cat. 
From tomorrow for the next few days it will be Caleb in the chair, and I am anticipating some pussycat tantrums as he gets used to being attached to me nonstop and having to do as I say.