Our SERENDIPITY Story

Serendipity is one of my favorite words.  It means "happy fortune", or "finding something wonderful unexpectedly" or, according to the dictionary "the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way." I love moments of serendipity.  The word has taken on new significance as our family is seeking to honor Mama's memory in a productive and meaningful way.

Mama loved a bargain.  She loved finding something unusual, really cool, or something that perfectly matched something else.  She loved the thrill of the hunt, and she loved any serendipitous find.  Before her health made it impossible, she could be found many Saturday mornings scouring the newspaper and the countryside for yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, etc.  On the odd occasion when she traveled away from home, her eagle eyes were keen to spot thrift stores or similar establishments.

Consequently, Daddy's house is full of her serendipitous finds.  Their sunroom was bursting at the beams with China, glassware, paintings, doo-dads, clocks, mugs, rugs, and anything else you can think of.  She often gifted us with her treasures, although we still keep coming upon things that strike our fancy and hauling them to our respective homes.  Mama's plan was to sell the items on Ebay for extra money, or perhaps rent a booth at a local antique mall or to sell pieces to replacements.com, etc.  Her intentions were good.  She spent lots of hours at the computer determining pattern names, values, etc.  But before she could fully realize her dream, her health was too tenuous to put in the effort.

In order to help reclaim the sunroom,, my sister, my husband and I have been boxing things and putting the boxes on shelving on their carport for "dealing with later".  We still had a ways to go, and Shane (my husband) decided maybe it was time we made her dream a reality.  So we started looking at some local antique malls with thoughts and dreams of maybe sometime soon.  

But then, Shane sent Nancy a message At Fancy Nancy's Place in Little River, SC.  It's about an hour's drive from us (but very close to the beach.).  She serendipitously had a spot opening up and put us right in.  Well, it was good and unexpected, but boy, has it been a lot of work in a short amount of time! We were really hoping to get it up and running before we start back to school (this Monday :-O) So we have spent every spare moment (and some not-so-spare), going through the sunroom and boxes, and picking up additional things at thrift stores, and planning and cleaning and laundering and prepping and. . . . so much more.  The bottom line is this:  We are operational!  Our family spent a long day together yesterday setting up the booth, pricing and inventorying.  When the shop closed at 5:00, we went out for dinner to celebrate a job well done and a new venture.  Then we went to play miniature golf.  We were tired, but happy, with lots of new memories made and the future shining before us with lots of hope and lots of old memories of Mama and her shopping excursions cheering us on!

Thus, SERENDIPITY was born this week!

The name and the tagline were brought out in living color yesterday as we set up the booth.  Shane had worked super hard to build walls to make the most of our tiny space at Nancy's.  We were starting to stock stuff in the booth. Shane was on the ladder getting ready to hang up a shelf we had picked up at Goodwill for displaying some things in the booth.  A man came by while the shelf was in Shane's hands, getting ready to go on the wall.  "Is that for sale?"  Yes "How much?" $25.00. "I'll take it. No need to hang it.  It's the perfect thing I was looking for." So, we made our first sale before we even got the booth set up!  Talk about serendipity!  The booth is set up and operational.  It is not as full as we want it, so we're heading back over tomorrow to add more fun things so more people can have serendipity stories.

We have a couple of hashtags we're using.  We love hearing people's serendipity stories, so you can share them on our FB, Twitter, or here as a comment using the hashtag #serendipitystory .  Or, you can share a photo of your #perfectthing using that hashtag as well.  It's the thing about thrifting/picking/antiquing.  Oftentimes you find the perfect thing you didn't even know you were looking for!  If you're local or vacationing anywhere near Little River, SC, do please stop in and see if your #perfectthing is waiting for you to find.  If you'd like to follow us on social media, here are the links:
https://www.facebook.com/serendipitystory15
https://twitter.com/Serendi52269821

If you have friends or family nearby, we'd love for you to share the info so they can find their #perfectthing and share their #serendipitystory.  We are booth 15 at Fancy Nancy's Place 1729 Hwy 17 in Little River, SC -- just inside the SC line.  Come shopping with any of the great vendors there!  So much fun stuff!  Come find a childhood book, a piece to replace a broken plate, saucer, cup, etc., some vintage Tupperware, antique furniture, outdoor items, knick-knacks, doo-dads, and lots more.  If booth 15 doesn't have your #perfectthing, someone else at Fancy Nancy's might!  Serendipity is waiting for you there!