Just a quick recap of the Carriage House sale for anyone interested.

The weather forecast for last Thursday was sunny and 75°, at least right up until Tuesday.  Then they added in a slight chance of rain.  Then on Wednesday they said we’d have morning showers on Thursday.  By when I woke up on Thursday they were predicting rain from 5 pm to 8 pm and I started to wonder what I did in a previous life that I was being punished for now.

OK, maybe that’s a bit dramatic.

But it was almost comical that rain was predicted for precisely the time frame of our sale (we were open from 5 pm to 8 pm on our first day).

It was a beautiful afternoon as we were setting everything up.

But we kept most of our merch inside rather than expanding out into the driveway like we usually do.

Sure enough, right around 4:30 we could see the dark clouds massing to the north of us.  The wind picked up and I started to wonder if we were going to have to hold our tents down.

But in the end, I must have actually done something right in a previous life because we only got a few drops of rain here and there.  The bulk of the storm traveled just barely west of us.  In fact, my friend Annie who drove over from that direction said she passed through a massive downpour on her way over.  Thank goodness that missed us!

All of that being said, we had a smaller crowd on Thursday evening than we had last year.  It’s hard to know why.  Did I not do enough advertising in advance?  Did the forecasted rain keep people away?  Were people out of town all week for the Memorial Day holiday?  Is vintage decor no longer as popular as it once was?

The weather on Friday morning, however, was nearly perfect, and we had a fairly steady flow of customers.  Most of them were people who’d seen my signs at the corner and stopped in on a whim.

The award for furthest traveled goes to Julie who came all the way from Duluth.  Thanks for that Julie!  I hope it was worth the drive 🙂

If you’re wondering what sold and what didn’t, I can tell you that my rusty stuff was some of the first stuff out the door.

I knew there had to be fellow rust lovers out there!

I plan to spend a good part of the summer coming up with more rusty creations for our next sale.

I had some sets of vintage kids books that sold really well.

I had them bundled by color and they all sold except for the yellow ones.  I get it, I’m not a huge fan of yellow myself.

I was surprised to find that my decorated boxes sold well.

I didn’t have high hopes for those since they haven’t done particularly well in the past (although they do well really well at the shop).

That being said, the stuff that didn’t sell included anything galvanized.  Watering cans, olive baskets, totes, scoops …

One notable exception was minnow buckets.  I had three of them, and two sold.

Honestly, I never seem to have a good feel for what will sell well and what won’t.  It changes from year to year.  Stuff that didn’t sell last year was some of the first stuff to go this year, and vice versa.

As I was cleaning up after the sale I made four piles; stuff to save for the next sale, stuff to donate, stuff that can go to the shop and stuff that’s slated for a do-over.

Speaking of the next sale, I’m considering adding a fall sale this year.  That will depend somewhat on my schedule since Mr. Q and I have a trip to Canada planned for September.  But maybe?  We’ll see.

Until then, a huge thank you to everyone who turned up.  It was great to see so many familiar faces!  I hope you’ll come back again next time!