Loot is Ready for Christmas

Tomorrow we are having a holiday open house at Loot.  Nancy and I have been working hard decorating the shop for Christmas.

If you are in the area, stop by for our open house Christmas Party!

Loot

3011 Main St.

Soquel, CA

11am-4pm

Nancy decorated the whole front room, including the mantle that she painted with Graphite Chalk Paint.

One of our friends gave us this beautiful counter for our back room.  We finally have a place to set the cash register.  We are starting to feel like a real shop!

This is Santa's Workshop, a.k.a. the back room of Loot.  This is where we work on all of our projects, furniture and crafts when Loot is not open.  Now that we are open every weekend through the holidays, it was time to do some serious cleaning.

We have accumulated quite a bit of merchandise and projects, so we had a lot of work to do to get organized before we could even decorate for Christmas!

Somehow we pulled it together (just don't look outside, around the corner, under the giant tarp).  

Nancy bought a bunch of plants, including white hydrangeas, paperwhites and mini trees for our outside garden area.

Happy Holidays!

Spooktacular October Sale at Loot Vintage Flea Market

At the last minute Nancy and I headed to the dollar store to make the shop look spooky for our October flea market.  

I love the white pumpkin that Nancy painted with a black crow.

I made a glittered, mini, boo banner for Nancy's fancy clown.

One of our customers rolled up in this beautiful, restored automobile.  It looks so good in front of our vintage shop and I had to get a picture of Nancy posing next to it.

This is what the back of the shop (our workshop) looked like a few days prior to the sale.  Nancy and I make a huge mess while we are working.  Nancy says that this is what happens with creative people.  I think that it is partly because we are both so busy and never have time to clean up.

We pulled the back room together just in time for the sale and made it look presentable.  Our customers never suspected the chaos that took place here before the sale.

Nancy hollowed out this giant pumpkin and filled it with a beautiful, fall flower arrangement.

We had new, talented vendors join us in the garden with all of their lovely vintage and repurposed items.

Nancy found this great wooden rosary and tall cloche at a pre-sale we attended at her friend's barn on Friday.

During our September sale, a man stopped by the shop and asked if we wanted to buy his trunk.  We love the weathered wood and the rusty hardware, so we took it.  It is now for sale at Loot and I think it will be the perfect coffee table.

I made some velvet pumpkins for the holidays and sold several of them during the sale.  I have one left in my etsy shop. I went across the street from my house to my friend's farm and she helped me dig through all of her butternut squash vines to find the left over stems.  I love them because they still have the delicate, little tendrils attached.

I also made some linen pumpkins with pretty ribbons and old copper wire.  The stem is from a dried sunflower stalk, also from Casalegno Family Farm.  This linen pumpkin is for sale in my etsy shop.

This post is linked to the parties in my sidebar.

September Flea Market at Loot

Here is what the front room looks like now at Loot.  I will do a post on the stenciled, parson's chair slipcovers next week.  

Nancy added some festive, autumn touches to our decor.

I picked up this antique writing desk at an estate sale recently.  Normally, I am a bit of a paint addict, but Nancy convinced me to leave this one as it is.  It is a unique piece and I love the way the legs crisscross.

We have lots of new items for the garden too!

Today was a little slow, but we still sold a lot and I we are hoping tomorrow's sale is even better.  If  you are in the area, stop by tomorrow between 9 and 4.  

Loot

3011 Main St.

Soquel, CA

New Pictures of Loot

We moved a few things around and a few things out since our sale last month.  This is what Loot looks like now.  Nancy sold her beautiful, rustic farm table last month, so she moved one of her antique buffets to the center.  She just refinished these two darling side tables with grayish-brown legs and ebony stained tops.  

I still have the cane chairs, unfortunately.  I have had a few people contact me on who are interested in buying them on etsy, but so far the freight is just too expensive.  Do any of you have any recommendations for shipping larger pieces like this?  I actually want to list a lot more of our inventory online, but I need to figure out this freight shipping first.

Here is the back room now.  I love the way the lamp light illuminates the galvanized metal walls.  It looks very industrial chic.

I sold my country gray and old white dresser last month and see that big empty space on the wall?  I sold the country gray armoire on Saturday!

Remember this little duck egg blue beauty?  I sold her on Sunday!  I think I am really going to miss her having her around.

I had to take a picture of Nancy's tiny porcelain doll with the ripped arm.  Isn't she just too adorable?  

We added a few new items to the back room too.

I found the cool, antique folding ruler at a little country store, while we were camping in Pennsylvania. I also brought back several blue mason jars with metal lids that I found at estate sales in Pittsburgh.

This month's sale went amazingly well for both of us.  We both sold a great mix of large and small items and now we need to focus on restoring and restocking for next month.  

Time For Another Sale at Loot

We are getting ready for our monthly flea market at Loot this Saturday and Sunday.  We have lots of unique merchandise and new vendors setting up in the back.  

Doesn't this stuff look amazing?  That is because it is from Atelier De Campagne!  For those of you out there that have not heard of Atelier De Campagne yet, you must check out their blog.  They do container sales in Corralitos, CA, shipped all the way from Europe and full of amazing antiques.  They dropped off some gorgeous patio furniture and accessories at Loot for our sale.  So, if you are anywhere near the Santa Cruz area, you won't want to miss this!

We will be open from 8-4 this Saturday and Sunday.

Loot

3011 Main Street 

Soquel, CA 95073

I hope to see some of you there!

Loot's Grand Opening

We had a fun-filled weekend at our grand opening of Loot!  Nancy and I had been putting in long hours trying to finish projects and getting the shop ready for opening.  We could not believe it was finally time!  Here we are in front of Loot before the opening party on Friday.  Nancy had these cute, matching, black & white ticking stripe aprons.  They came in handy for holding our calculators, receipt books and cash.

We had a wonderful time at the party and had a great turnout.

We had food, music and fun!

My awesome neighbors came and brought these sunflowers that they grew themselves.  Aren't the colors amazing!?

Now, I want to give you a tour of our little flea market boutique.  As you can see, it is a small quonset hut and has so much character.  We had tons of people stop in for our opening weekend just to check out the inside of the hut!

Here is Teddy, Nancy's standard poodle to welcome us at the door.

We set up the front room as our showroom and it became our "dining room".  We put the farm table, buffets, chairs and chandelier in and then accessorized.

The back room was our work/storage space until a few days before our opening.  This is what it looked like before.

We turned it into this in a couple of days!  I hung two drop cloths over the framed wall and Mr. Rubbish draped lights across the ceiling.  Then, we moved in the furniture and lamps and that became our "bedroom" area.  

We still had the far end of the hut to deal with, but Nancy worked her magic again!  This is what the back of the shop looked like before.

...and after!

This area became our "kitchen".  Nancy is even selling her old fashioned oven at Loot.  Isn't her vintage oven cool?

The landlord stopped by and brought us baskets full of freshly cut lavender from her garden.  I love lavender and it filled the shop with its captivating scent.  We bundled them with twine and put them out for sale.  Who can resist fresh bundles of lavender?

Let's step out to the garden!

We were fortunate to have a very talented gardener, Jackie, come all the way from her nursery in Gilroy and sell her plants in the back of the shop.  She helped us set up our garden area and her "pop-up garden", as she calls it, made the space absolutely gorgeous!

Nancy's daughter, Janiece, was so much help getting everything set up for our sale.  We had a lot of fun and on Saturday Janiece barbecued hot dogs and sausages for us and our customers.  Isn't she the most glamorous barbecuer you have ever seen?

On Sunday, we had two talented sisters, Colleen and Jackie, set up booths in the back.  They brought stunning vintage items and jewelry and set up delightful vignettes.

I am now resting for a couple of days before I get back to work and start getting ready for next month!