Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Flea market

Well, it all ended up being a rush and a hassle in the end. Perhaps a better mood overall might have helped me react a bit better to several irritations but at least it's all over and done with now. On the morning, although it wasn't due to start until 10, there were people coming around at eight o'clock already. So instead of a nice neat stall, with nicely folded clothes in lovely piles, I ended up with something looking more like this
I'll add more photos to the what's on the way out page - really couldn't get any good ones as I was trying to take photos and set up and fend off the eager early customers all at the same time but it's important for me to have a visual reminder so that I don't start panicking about not having certain things anymore.
Oh well. I did sell some clothes, and the women who bought them were all happy to see larger sizes for a change, since you don't necessarily always get that at a flea market. And, since I priced to sell (50c for one, €2 for five), people weren't too hesitant. I also got rid of a few other bits and pieces and some of the stuff a friend had given to me. She was going to get rid of some stuff anyway so told me I could have it to sell instead. I didn't manage to sell the hand-made lace edged white linen bed clothes that her great-aunt made in about 1860 - that was one of two things that she wanted to have money for (€50, in case anyone is interested in some antique Swiss bed linen). No-one was interested in the singing bowl either, even though she was prepared to let it go for €30 (about half what she paid for it). Apart from those two things almost everything else that wasn't sold at the end of the day didn't come home with me again though. We detoured to the charity clothes collection bank and then to a local Give Box to leave the rest of the stuff.

It's getting shorter (each ring represents €20)

It was a cold and rainy day and I managed to get myself a cold over the weekend (not helped after Saturday's market by spending Sunday afternoon at an open day on the farm I get my vegetable delivery from) but all in all, I did come out with some money. Not a huge amount, but enough to tear a couple of rings off my paper chain.

All up, it came out to €28.10 profit. I paid €25 for the table and €20 for a deposit. Got the deposit back and made enough to cover the cost of the table and €28.10 was on top of that. So, €60 gone to savings and the rest into my purse, since I needed money anyway. I raided my 50c tin (which isn't actually sealed) for change for a float so that money also went back into the tin. I am thinking of cashing all of that in to add to my savings, though. It was intended to be the start of a moving fund but making sure I have enough money to cover a month off work is more important now, I think.

So, I've had two days at home to try and shake off this cold because I decided trying to drag myself into work and letting it drag on for weeks would be counter-productive. I haven't been able to do much so I still need to get all of the clothes I'm keeping back into the wardrobe but I have managed to get the stuff I had put to one side into the washing machine with some dye, which means I have refreshed a few things back to being wearable for another little while.
The light is not cooperating but I might do more photos at the weekend. For now, here's what I dyed yesterday - all of these things were dyed either black or dark brown. I love the way colours interact with each other.
The tiniest of babysteps but it's something at least.

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