ARTful: using or characterized by art and skill

Salvage: to rescue or save especially from wreckage or ruin


[ARTful] Salvage was born from a love of creating, repurposing and salvaging. I simply abhor seeing perfectly "useful" items headed for the landfill or tucked away in a cardboard box, never seeing the light of day. I believe there is always beauty to be found, even under a layer of rust or a coating of dust. I see scratches, dents or imperfections as badges of honor to be worn proudly. I have a great love for the history, story and life of a piece. We lovingly dream up ways of restoring new life to these discarded and neglected fragments of life. I am glad you are here and hope you will come again often. Please make yourself at home; friends are always welcome. I'd be thrilled to hear from you and get to know you better.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Our first Farmer's Market


This is my repurposed and salvaged sign for our new business. I took an old cabinet door, turned it on it's side and cut letters from black vinyl with the Cricut. The backing is an old, time-worn quilt, vintage lace pieces and vintage ivory buttons. I can't tell you how thrilled I am with how it turned out. I especially like that isn't perfect and that the glass is cracked!! :) It hangs from our tent.

We were thrilled to participate in our first Farmer's Market yesterday. It is part of the "Georiga Made, Georgia Grown" program, featuring locally created and grown Georgia goodies. Here's a recap of our day:

So, this story began Friday night when I began the arduous task of packing up 30 various totems and bird feeders. This, my dears, is no small feat!! LOL I used boxes, plastic bags, bubble wrap, newspapers, old towels, blankets and tablecloths and my saving grace, a dozen 5 gallon plastic buckets. I only ended up holding 2 on the way there that were just too big for any container. (Image a 40 something woman, riding in a minivan doing a glass totem version of a double fisted Lady Liberty!!).
Then the guys began loading the van. (I, smartly, stayed inside and packed up more glass). We managed to pack in: one 10x10' pop-up shelter, 2 lawn chairs, 2 four foot tables, 2 quilts (tablecloths), 2 large signs, 7 wooden totem stands, 1 cooler, 1 cash box, my purse, 3-4 extra boxes and bags of wrapping materials and 30 some pieces of glass. Believe me, they were whining that it couldn't be done....but the persevered and won the battle!! :::smiles:::


We arrived at 7:30 am (spaces were first come, first served). Yippeee...we were first there and commandeered the spot we wanted. Show begins @ 9. It was simply a glorious day weather wise. There were about 15 vendors and quite a nice steady, but small crowd. It was a good turn out for the first month's Farmer's Market, coupled with Easter weekend. This has been a very poorly attended event in the past, but now they are allowing handmade goodies as well as produce and flowers. So, once the word gets out (newspaper and web) I think the May show will be really awesome. I was even interviewed by 2 papers and on camera!! Yikes!! I'd like to have died!! LOL

We rec'd nothing but positive feedback from almost everyone who stopped by. Most people were just in awe!! :::Smiles::: We sold 7-8 pieces, so I was pleased for the first show. We also made some new friends, met some neighbors and drummed up some business for our yard sale next weekend!! :) One lady is bringing me glass and another has a slew of old windows she is giving me!! Yippee Skippee!! We fill be going back next month and also doing our local town festival show. Here are a few pics of our booth and such! Enjoy!

Side View of our booth


Our newly repurposed sign and a totems close-up


Hubs thought we needed a sign to "explain" that the Totems are "Garden Art". Well, yes, that is probably true. So, since our business is about repurposing and all.....I used an old chalkboard I had acquired. The frame was just plain unfinished wood....ugh!! So, I used a jar of awesome lime green paint and jazzed it up a bit!! Then I cut out some letters from my DCWV "green" stack on the Cricut and glued them down with spray adhesive. I decided I needed to seal the letters down more permanently. I used 2 coats of matte Mod Podge. The white ivy border was already printed on the chalkboard. How cool is that?? :::Smiles:::



The front view of the booth. Next month we will be tweaking here and there, but overall we were happy.

4 comments:

  1. Best of luck with your new business adventure - I'm really happy for you and John and hope it goes really well. Everything looks fantastic and I love your new sign! Diann

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  2. Wow, looks like a booth I would definately stop at. And nothing got broke??? Best of luck in future sales.

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  3. You should be happy with it....LOOKS FABULOUS!!! So excited about the new Adventure you and John are on :O)

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