Ruffles & Rust Set Up Day...

Set Up Day!

Today my alarm went off early (too early) and we got ready to jump in the car and get on the road to the show.

We had packed up Lola, our hillbilly trailer, Lance's car and my MIL's car full of scarves, pillows, aprons, earrings and display and booth stuff the night before. Then we covered the hillbilly trailer with a huge ugly gray and brown tarp and strapped it down with black bungee cords and yellow rope.

Because we are classy like that.

Poor Lola. It's like being dressed up for a cocktail party and pulling a large turd behind you on a cart:


That's my rockstar hubby in the drivers seat. Waiting patiently for his lady, his Mama and his Mama in law as they hit up Starbucks for their coffee fix.

Drove through the rain and arrived at the fairgrounds, located the building, and started piling stuff in.

First of all, check out my booth space pre-move in! Looks pretty sad and cold except for a pile of dropcloths which I use for my booth walls:



After hauling the booth bones and setting those up:


Then fast forward four hours. We have unpacked all the product and are in the "prettying" stage of setting up. Everything is in the booth, we are just figuring out how to best display stuff to make it interesting to look at, enticing for shoppers and easily shoppable. Here is my "try on" station!


Lots and lots of ruffly aprons and tons of scarves, headbands and earrings. Kinda blurry, but you get the general idea:


Then we had to break to repark our hillbilly trailer. Proud to say I backed it in without hitting anything. Score a big gold star for me! Photographic evidence:


And what I didn't take a photo of was me stuffing my face at 11:04 pm...as I forgot to eat dinner for the second night in a row.

My poor body is so very confused. Looking forward to regaining normalcy once the show is done! Which means I should really start exercising again. {sigh} Can we just fastforward past those annoyingly painful, out of breath and jiggly first 5-10 days of restarting your exercise regimen? Thatdbegreatthanks.

EX.HAUST.ED. I need to sleeeeeeeep. Thankful that I can sleep in tomorrow morning and rest up before the Apron Party portion of the show tomorrow evening.

Off to bed I go...

Amanda

Last Day…

So, I'm eating Macaroni and Cheese out of a mug with a serving spoon.

Our dishes are so backed up it's all I had left.

Remember that episode of Friends where Ross dates the messy girl? While they are making out on the couch he sees a potato chip bag rustling and pounds it with a tennis racket….turning out to be rat? Yeah, that episode.

That's my house. Minus the rat. ( Hopefully. )

And switch out the potato chip bag for a pita chip bag. LOVE those things. Great to use instead of croutons.

And I'm not dating a Paleontologist named Ross.

BUT.

The moral of this story is that despite living in a cluttered trash heap I am READY. FOR. THE. SHOW. Phew!

(Ya know, the show being the thing I've been talking and talking and talking about the past month.)

Even with a last-minute trip to JoAnns to grab one more cut of fabric….and seeing five others that I couldn't pass up and just HAD to get them sewn up into scarves for the show. Two days before I have to leave. Yep, including those.

It really should be crafters law: Thou shalt NOT go into any fabric or craft store the week of your show.

Too much temptation. Too many ideas, too little time!

I am so excited about my booth, it turned out just how I wanted it to. A mish mash of vintage furniture and shutters, lots of interesting nooks and crannies, a chandelier, hooks and containers….. and of course, Quinny. (My pin striped Mannequin). Quite an eclectic mix. And yet throwing it all together just seemed to WORK. Think vintage glam meets rustic country. Lace, burlap, silverware hooks, weathered wood, blue Ball jars, crystals, chicken wire, sparkle, canvas, ticking, silver etc etc etc. SO much fun.

Hope to see some of your smiling faces there!

Amanda - VintageDutchGirl

Exclusive to Ruffles & Rust...

New products exclusive to the show!

Lots of sassy n sophisticated flower pins and headbands:


Boxes and boxes of infinity scarves, with new fabrics:


Pretties for your ears:


Remember this lace accented fleece infinity scarf?


Well. Let me tell ya, you'll have a barrel full of different color options:

(this is just a sampling...many more packed away in those boxes pictured above!)

Off to create more, drink coffee, price, organize my booth (which is currently set up in my living room) and eat hot fudge.

Outta the jar.

With a spoon.

Heated up first, of course. I'm not a barbarian.

Amanda

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