Sophisticated Style & JJ Ranch

Im back

We did not make it to Great Park in December we are however planning to get back on track in 2012. I fell while loading my truck and fractured my pelvic in two places, which put me in tough spot. I am healed and looking forward to a great 2012. Melissa pulled out of Nan’s Place and I sold quite a few pieces during the holidays. May 2012 bless you with love and success. JJ

Event News

Long time since I have posted, so sorry.

We have been busy going to different venues to sell our home décor items.  We were at the Big Bear , CA Cowboy Gathering; Ramona Fall Festival; sidewalk  tent sale  in front of Nan’s Place and Orange County Great Park Festival.

 We will be at the Orange County Great Park Festival this Sunday November 6^th.  Use the  or http://www.ocgp.org/2011/10/the-groves-antique-market/ or  www.ocgp.org link to get exact directions the park is located where the I-5, I-405 & 133 freeways meet in Irvine, CA. Thousands of visitors and vendors gather here at Orange County’s popular antiques, fine art and collectibles market which is now located at the Great Park Festival Site.  On the first Sunday of every month, the Groves Antiques Market will be located right next to the weekly Great Park Famers Market mark your calendar.

Melissa sold almost all of her items at last month’s Groves Antique Market and has since bought more décor items to sell.  JJ Ranch has new great Barn-wood collection creations, which will be available for sale on Sunday the 6^th.  Most of the new items are not posted to the photo albums.  The pictures below display my booth at the Fall Festival.

 

 

Merchandising Magic

We had a successful show at Urban Barn.  We will be there next month 08/19 & 08/20.  Melissa sold a lot of her stuff.  I sold enough to make it worth my time.  We made new connections and invited to more shows.  It also gave us a chance to introduce Nan’s Place to shoppers and sellers.

Melissa did her merchandising magic at Nan’s Place yesterday.  We moved our and other vendor items from the back to the front area of the store.  Our crafts are showing through the front window.  The Christmas decorations moved to the back area.  It really opened up the store and looks great.  Customers have a better view as they walk in or by the store. 

Here is picture shot at the end of rearranging day.  Will take some more pictures next time I am up there. 

 
 

Visit us at:  http://ramona.patch.com/listings/nans-place-on-main  Nan’s Place 638 Main St, Ramona , CA 92065 | 760-787-5700

 http://urbanbarn155.blogspot.com/  155 W. Crest, Escondido, CA 92025

Events

Upcoming events:  

Urban Barn - Street Faire Flea Market is this weekend!

Friday through Saturday 10am-5pm        

155 W. CREST
ESCONDIDO, CA 92025

Nan's Place is having a Christmas in July sale.  10% off items in store during the sale from July 14th - July 31. Nan's Place also has 30 artisans that share and sell their crafts here.  It is not all about Christmas Decorations.  Like no other place come see and fall in love with handmade Jewelry, purses, soaps, clothes, crosses, wall art, country girl designs & décor and of course wonderful Christmas Decorations.

Please join us at Nan's Place
638 Main St , Ramona , CA 92065 | 760-787-5700
. http://ramona.patch.com/listings/nans-place-on-main

 

Update from JJ Ranch & Sophisticated Style

 
We have been busy!  We have final design on our business cards and fliers.

My latest collection has gone BLING.  I enriched the horse head collection with rhinestones and WOW beautiful. View pictures in JJ Ranches photo album.

We are now on Twitter.  Our Twitter username is @JJRanch_SStyle.  Watch out world, just kidding. Enjoy life!

Regards,

JoLynn & Melissa

Our new venture - Nan's Place

 
Our latest venture, we found a quaint store in the rural town of Ramona CA, which sells space to Artist & Crafters.  It is similar to other places that share and sell the talents of many people; Nan’s Place caters to 30 +- vendors / crafters that range from diverse Jewelry makers to beautiful knitted goods to paintings to sensational crosses and scents.  One area of the store is dedicated to handcrafted items only.  The whole thing must be hand crafted no pre-manufactured goods are allowed. The front section is Christmas all year long, surprisingly the Christmas items sell year around. The back corner section is cowgirl type stuff, which is where our corner is.  Melissa spent hours setting up our corner to perfection.  She made some other changes also. 

Click on Nan's Place for JJ Ranch Sophisticated Style Photo Album to view the store.  I updated the photo album and changed some sentences, so sorry for the repost.

We plan to participate along with the other vendors in craft fairs.  The Ladies at Nan’s Place do several shows a year.  Heck, they sold at two fairs since we moved in last week.  We were not quite ready and had other plans or we would have set up next to them.  A great group, hope we can market our items make some money and make new friends.

Best Regards,

JoLynn

 

Sophisticated Style Home Staging

HI There,

Well we completed the staging of my home, my realtor had professional photo's done.  However, they link directly to our MLS and sorry but I am not going to share that with the world.

Please view the new up close pictures have been added to Melissa's portfolio.

Regards,

JoLynn

 
 

 

Long time since I Blogged

It amazes me how fast time races and how life changes in a second.  One day you are entrenched in building an on-line business the next day your better half and support system takes a job in another city.  All of the sudden forced into running our rental business and personal matters.   

Finally, I can spend some time with my blog, email, and business.  Well the credit card that was associated with ALL the business account billings closed by the credit card company because of suspicious activity and nobody notified us.  The credit card company saw charges for gas, hotel rooms, and food along his way to a new job.  My Husband driving to a great opportunity that he feverishly searched and obtained;   Congratulations Honey I am proud of you!  Once the card usage refuse or revoke, did he research and find out what happened.  He was livid!  

So now accessing my email accounts had changed.  Good thing I am proficient with computers.  When I finally had time to read jjranch-sophisticatedstyle@hotmail.com address did I see messages from Type pad, Etsy, & Artfire I quickly realize the credit card associated with them was that card, OH NO!  It is ok and all remedied now. 

Melissa has been incredibly busy keeping her household and three young daughters’ activities in order and out of chaos.  I hope that things will settle down a bit and we can resume pushing forward with our business.

In the last month plus, I had to interview new tenants and resolve the mess the old tenants left behind.  Hire someone to paint the interior of rental house and fix all that was broken.  Resolve other issues like flooded floor, hire Handyman & gardener, replace the back window of my truck because I cannot back the 35ft  horsey toy box trailer correctly around in our driveway, been learning  how to back that beast of a horse trailer.  

You see, it finally stopped raining and snowing in San Diego long enough for the trails to dry out.  I had patrol in the Cuyamaca Park.  Another first, packing and carrying everything my-self into and out of that beast of a horsey toy.  It really is not a huge beast they make bigger LQ’s.  Inside can feel very small, it is like a camper in the front and 3 horse stalls & tack room in back.  I got it sideways jackknifed in the middle of the driveways and pop… My 85 lb dog leaps into the front seat from the back where she was happily laying on her pillow. 

If managing all that was not enough, we are putting our house on the market.  Melissa is in the process of staging of my house.  We have to finish the final projects & details.  Melissa has done a 1st run at staging the living room and dining rooms they look fabulous.  She still needs to do final staging.  I look forward to seeing it staged and ready for its photo shoot.  View Melissa’s House Staging Photo Album and see pictures below.  My camera takes terrible pictures someday we will get a new one.  

Three rooms were in need a coat of paint.  Broke a mirror on built in dresser standing on it while I painted the wall, another seven years of bad luck.  Glued down marble tiles it looks gorgeous wish I had replaced that ugly mirror sooner.  Finally found the perfect color the master bathroom.  New Tile floor in middle bath it remains the last room to paint.  

My home has been full of projects of happiness, great memories, blood, sweat, and tears.  An historic treasure restored and revitalized and it is finally almost perfect.  So of course, we have to sell it now.  We tried selling it before but our timing was off and the bubble was starting to burst.  If the house looked as beautiful back then as it does now we would have sold it then for big bucks.  I love how my house turned out.  Wish the housing market were better.  Thank God, we still have equity in our properties.  Years of being careful with our / my money paid off.  Hope the buyer will love our home as much as I do.

Well!  All my management, accounting, software skills developed over my career kick into gear.  I finished projects on all four properties.  Rental house is good to go.  Tenants are moving in. Thank you Andy for all your hard work getting the house ready.  Jeanie’s floor replaced and trenches dug & filled thank you Jorge for getting it done.  As I mentioned above the projects on main house are almost done. 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it, I know TMI.  Thank you for following us. 

 

New Collection - January

I am excited about JJ Ranch's latest creations. All the cast iron horse head hooks sold out last year, new products are now ready.  Hope to be selling at a couple of local Farmer Markets, Urban Barn and a new venue - Bohemian Market in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter. Sophisticated Style also has some new products. 

Please view our photo albums and email us if you have any questions or want to buy something.

 

 

Our 1st booth at Urban Barn

Pictures of our first booth together at Urban Barn have been posted.  We each sold several items at both Urban Barn and at the Westhills Craft Fair.  Check out our photo albums to see more. 

 

via jjranch-sophisticatedstyle.typepad.com

Notes for today

Happy New Year! May it be better than last year.

Update - A few more items sold and some were Christmas gifts. Don’t worry, I can recreate most of the barn wood items, or I can make something with your favorite stuff. If you see something you like please email me at jjranch-ophisticatedstyle@hotmail.com  or use the email link in the blog.  Also if you want to add your site link let me know, I will gladly add it.

I made almost all of the gifts I gave to friends and family. On the day before Christmas I was frantically working on creating my last 3 gifts.  . They took a lot more work than anticipated; I finished them last night and cannot wait to post pictures of them.  The wood is old tree containers and they look amazing after cleaning, sanding, router the sides and 2 layers of lacquer. They both turnout really beautiful the wood has rich characteristics. This decorative Cookbook Holder is hanging on my kitchen wall it makes a great decorative decor.  It is for sale. The music stand was a gift for my niece.  JJ Ranch would be happy to make another one, in your choice of colors. 

 

Still working on descriptions and prices for items in the Store Front and Photo Albums did add a few more items, some success.   I have been fighting with PayPal beta to get the store front set up.  It is slow and clucky.