Running a Business Archives | Page 34 of 49

Running a Business

Photography

growing as a photographer

I know photography is an area of blogging that be overwhelming. You may drool over gorgeous, magazine quality photographs on other blogs and feel like you can never do that, so there’s no point in trying. That’s how I felt when I first started my business, then my blog. I just raised the white photography flag and took pictures on automatic. This was the result of that mentality…   Nice. Yes. Those are pictures I took and sent along to my designer to use for my website. She politely encouraged me to work on my photography skills. I had taken a photography class a few years ago, so there was really no excuse. I understood the way a camera worked, but I had focused most of my early photography efforts on cats and kids and things outside in pretty natural light. I hadn’t tried to stage and photograph my home. These

July 28, 2012 No Comments

buying & selling antiques

in the lobby

Well, I’m all cozy and snug in my new retail space in the lobby at Lucketts! There’s still a lot that I want to do, but I was able to get some pieces in the space and figure out my game plan. Some girls got my space settled while I was out of town and they put these two huge, beautiful bookcases on either side of the hardware counter. They looked absolutely perfect there, so I changed my game plan and bought them to keep in the space. (I’ll probably paint them eventually.) The plan is to fill the shelves and bins with my paint, companion products, books, t-shirts, bottles of glitter and some antique goodies. I’ll put a feature piece (probably a dresser) up on the hardware counter and on the wall where the Lucketts Green dresser is. I decided to bring my legs in so

July 9, 2012 No Comments

buying & selling antiques

moving…again

My journey at Lucketts started in December of 2010. I met Karen that fall and she asked if I would like to sell furniture out of her space. Ummm…YES! It’s only been my most favorite antique store for the last 10+ years. So, I moved some pieces into her space. In April of 2011, a pavilion opened up and they asked me if I wanted it. A space of my own! Definitely, yes! In July, just a few months later, I moved into my huge room on the third floor. I finally started to get settled and painted the room. I then realized the space was too big for me to keep up with. I was working on my book and I had to put the retail side on hold. So, I moved back down into the room with Karen, except then I had a dedicated alcove

June 14, 2012 No Comments

buying & selling antiques

table legs & glitter

I went out shopping on Thursday, mainly in the hopes of finding an island and chandelier to use in my space at Lucketts, but I found three great (really cheap) dressers, a cute child’s antique wheel barrow, some old boards (for signs) and a bunch of table legs. Why in the world would I want table legs? I saw them and at first thought, “Those are so cool, but what would I do with them?” I wasn’t sure, so I left them and kept looking. I couldn’t help revisiting the table legs before I left and a thought hit me. “I could use them to show my paint colors at Lucketts!” Bingo! There were only 11 and I have 12 colors, so I’m on the lookout for one more. I’m leaving white (“Ironstone”) out for now, since most people aren’t concerned about what white is going to look like. I’ve been

June 9, 2012 No Comments

Before and Afters

didn’t make the cut

I had to do a lot for my book. A lot. It was so much more work than I anticipated. Weeks of writing, hundreds of pictures, hours of photo editing, weeks of rewriting, dozens of projects and days of staging. After all of the work, some of what I did didn’t make the cut. That’s a good thing. When I’m writing for my blog, I don’t have to carefully edit myself, because I can write another post tomorrow with new content. With the book, we had to edit everything down to the best I wanted to share and the most important words I wanted to say. So, a lot of great, but not perfect-for-the-book stuff hit the cutting room floor, so I’m going to scoop some of it up and share it on my blog. Exhibit A: A dated china cabinet, but one with really cool lines and lots of potential. I

June 7, 2012 No Comments

Antiques

Big Purchases

I shared when I posted FFF this week that I made a couple of big purchases on Thursday, so I thought I would show them off. Here’s one… See that big hardware counter with all of the metal bins? Yeah, that. Woohoo! I bought it from my friend, Karen. She’s told me so many times that she would never sell that piece, so when she mentioned to me that it was for sale, I jumped on it. “Put a hold tag on it, so I can measure it when we go down there tomorrow!” I became very paranoid that someone else was going to buy it. I had to make sure it would work for where I needed it and it will. Perfectly. My husband is going to build a shelf to go on top of it to make it even more substantial. It’s going to be painted black with a

June 3, 2012 No Comments

buying & selling antiques

overwhelmed

I’ve tried to write a post about Lucketts and I keep staring at a blank page or I write something and then delete it. It was a very overwhelming weekend and I don’t even know how to write about it. I feel like I need to stop the clock and write about 30 posts to really capture it all. As I was setting up my booth, a woman came over and hugged me and told me a bit of her story. I was in get-the-booth-set-up-before-the-crowd-descends mode and I wasn’t prepared for it. I started getting all teary and choked up. I had a few other moments like that. When I add it all together…the teary moments, the fact that my family was there to support me fully and execute my (sometimes frantic) requests, how quickly my stuff sold, how many people bought my t-shirts and loved the tags Jami made, the thoughtful

May 23, 2012 No Comments

Antiques

Shopping at Lucketts

I’m still recovering from Lucketts. (Well, I guess I need to give myself a break. It just ended yesterday and I still need to de-Lucketts my house! Events have a way of taking over.) My parents are leaving tomorrow to go back to Florida to tie up loose ends and get ready to move up here, north of the Mason-Dixon line for the first time in their adult lives. We went to see the house their having built today and it’s coming right along. So, I worked on cleaning out my e-mail inbox, which was way out of control. I shuffled around and picked up some of the mess that was the result of dumping the contents of my van in the living room. Mini made fun of my squeaky, raspy voice pretty regularly. My mom and I finally had our bowl of cream of crab soup. I was in a

May 22, 2012 No Comments

I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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