An Etsy Week

by Brigid McAlpin April 26, 2026

I would summarize this week by saying I am plugging along and making progress! Kuochun will be back in a week and I had set goals to hit prior to his return. I have been mixing up the work - a combination of estate sales, jewelry polishing and pricing and home organization. Basically the entire time Kuochun has been away the weather has been delightful! Even the couple of 94 degree days we had were fine. Early mornings and evenings (when the longest dog walks take place) have been pleasant. This past weekend was especially cool in the mornings but I thought "I'm from Chicago, I don't need a jacket!"

I took advantage of the cooler weather and spent some time organizing the garage. I found that there is still quite a bit of stuff that needs to go to Prescott but I am putting it all in one area so it is ready to go. Most of it will be for the garage sale. I cleared up a huge amount of space, I am almost but not quite ready to park any cars in there. I lined items that are staying up along the perimeter and I still have a couple of piles of items to go through. It is mostly clothing on hangers which came from Mount Prospect. I will continue to gather up the new without tags and new with tags clothing to send to the garage sale in Prescott and keep the previously worn clothing here in Scottsdale. I may end up sending all of the clothing there eventually. On top of the clothing which is already in Prescott, the two bedroom closets upstairs in Scottsdale are filled with clothing from Mother and me. The jewelry is way more valuable than the clothing so it has to be my focus first. I did post some boutique shoes a few months ago but have not had any luck selling them so far. Unfortunately shoes do not go for a lot, even if they are new and current styles.

I cleared off almost all of the jewelry clutter from my desk and side table. I am keeping a few select sterling silver pieces to sell in Prescott but the vast majority is going to Mount Prospect for the jewelry caravan. So far I have a large flat rate box about 1/3 full. There are lots of rings and a good mix of budget-friendly and higher-end pieces. I found about ten tennis bracelets which are always popular. Three of them are the same but they are the cool fully adjustable style. The stones are small so they look real! My desk is not cleared off thought because I moved in some more jewelry from the kitchen island to price. I think some of it is costume jewelry and if that is the case processing it will go much faster because I do not have to polish it.

I moved the tile top table and two chairs which will go to the Arizona room in Prescott once its ready and put it in the living room for now. I was able to put my Mount Prospect office desk where the table was and the area feels more spacious. Before Kuochun left, I asked if I could borrow his cable box thinking I would price jewelry and watch TV at the same time. I have not made it to the living room yet because I need the computer to print the jewelry dumbbells for necklaces and rings. I will try it next week though - the Cubs are playing the Diamondbacks at Wrigley Field next weekend and since we are in the Diamondbacks' home market those games will record for me. When Kuochun gets back we are going to sign up for a baseball streaming service (we will see which one makes the most sense.) I said it will be worth it since I am a Cubs fan and Kuochun is a White Sox fan. He occasionally likes to watch other games of note too. I have been missing baseball and would like to get back to my roots! These past several years I have really been enjoying watching Marquette basketball games and a lot of them air because they are in the Big East conference. The only drawback is I cannot work at the same time, I have to actually watch it because there is constant action. I can work on certain things and have a Cubs game on at the same time.

The main house in Prescott is about 95% complete - I was putting off paying for a few things so I could save up some more money but I paid for them this week. One was the countertops for above the washer / dryer and cabinets in the pop-up shop and the other was the bedding and area rugs. Right now I put down area rugs that I am looking to sell and I would like to take photos of them before they are rolled up and moved to the garage for the sale. I will list them on Facebook Marketplace as well. The grasscloth wallpaper accent wall has been put up in Kuochun's room so now we need to move his bed back in place (and will need to take it apart and put it together again once his new area rug arrives.) The soap dispenser and cap for the bathroom sink have been installed so the sink is now usable. The regular shower head has been installed so we will now have something normal to use on a daily basis, as opposed to the handheld which was shooting water across the length of the shower. However the glass shower door came in and the glass had the wrong finish on it so it needs to be reordered. We still have a curtain up so if we take a trip up there the shower is usable.

The carpet is in place in the pop-up shop and once the countertop is installed, Victor the contractor is going to install my extra cement tile from the breezeway in Mount Prospect on the wall. He said there is enough to do three rows (they are 8" x 8") which is taller than a normal backsplash but I said that is OK, it is not a kitchen. I had to order a trim kit for the microwave oven so it does not flop around in the space which I was not thrilled about - I do not know why I even need a microwave in there - but I want things to be done right. We do not have a microwave in the kitchen but I brought the Brava oven and the small toaster oven up there. If Kuochun really needed to microwave something he could go to the pop-up shop but he would have to take the food outside to get there.

I also signed up for the landscaping redo which is necessary because otherwise flooding will be a problem in the pop-up shop come monsoon season. There is some chain link fencing which needs to be rearranged and the result is that instead of the girls being confined to the backyard they will have the ability to access the sides of the house as well and see any people who walk down the street. I said we will need to get those strips to weave through the chain link that Mother so successfully employed to have privacy from her neighbors in Arlington Heights. The house has no gutters so I will need to get those as well but hopefully it can wait until the fall.

The materials for the Arizona room came in about three weeks ago but the building has not started yet. The truth came out - they are working on another job. I normally find that highly annoying because it has happened more than once on previous projects but in this case a delay is helpful. Once the room is built they expect immediate payment of the balance. This gives me more time to get the money together. Overall this project has gone so smoothly but it is time-consuming so I will be happy when it is finished. I am especially excited to get the pop-up shop up and running so I have a place to do Whatnot shows. I have been putting off the Whatnot shows for the jewelry supplies and decided to put them off again to August. Maybe late summer will be a good time of year as people need some time in advance to make crafts to sell for the holidays. If things go well and I have everything prepared I can always push it up to July. Mother always used to say come July 4 summer is over, time to start thinking about Fall selling!

I posted six new items this past week - the Leander Tahe rose pendant and ring I mentioned, along with these pieces by Navajo artist Happy Piasso. She is famous for her star shot design jewelry including and this cuff bracelet and earrings are her most popular pieces. I picked up two of the cuff bracelets on our last trip to Tucson and the earrings were Mother's.

I also posted these statement earrings by Navajo artist Jacqueline Silver, which I found at the same time as the Happy Piasso cuffs. I also picked up another pair of these earrings in the same design but with alternating color stones. I thought I would try selling this pair first.

I sold six items this past week, all on Etsy except for one on Facebook. I originally posted all three of the jewelry items which sold on Etsy either two or three years ago. This pendant is making its way to Honolulu! I remember having a lot of difficulty at the time trying to photograph it, due to the nature of amber being semi-transparent. I even tried to photograph it outside without the light box. At the time we were in Mount Prospect so it was challenging to find a decent weather day. I ended up taking it back inside and was so proud to have come up with this idea - I normally use this hand model to display rings so people can see how they look on a finger. This allowed the light to come through the pendant and show off how pretty it is. I also sold a small rhodochrosite pendant to the same buyer.

The Tom Hawk heart pendant is already spoken for, through an Arizona buyer on Facebook Marketplace. I had a feeling it would go quickly. This order and the Etsy jewelry order came in at the same time and I was so happy I shipped them within the hour! I grabbed two small flat rate boxes but it turned out I only needed one. I went to put it away and then thought I would manifest another sale by leaving it out. Sure enough, I sold a turquoise necklace the next day! I find it so interesting that I post new items and it brings attention to the older items.

I sold this adorable Shawnee pottery vase as well but it is still at the office in Mount Prospect. I will not be able to have it go out until next Tuesday when Mike is back in the office. But it only needs to go to Sandwich IL which I consider to be local. It will be a day late by Etsy's standards so I am sure that will mean I lose my Star Seller status next month. But it was more important that the jewelry from the caravan make it back to the office over the weekend so Mike could fix it up.

Goals for next week are to finish organizing the garage which should not take more than two hours and then tackle the second floor guest room. I am going to go pro on this one and totally empty the room while Kuochun is still gone and I will not get in his way, then figure out where everything can go. This will also involve reorganizing the hall closet and cabinets. There are things to store such as our family memories, tax and home sale records, shipping supplies, towels and sheets. I will be able to think this through more clearly with a clean slate. It is supposed to warm up a bit next week but except for the garage, weather is not a concern for these tasks. It is warmer upstairs but there are ceiling fans in each room. I will decide what to do with the garage items around the perimeter this fall once the weather cools off again.

Once these tasks are complete I will work on posting one non-jewelry item per day in addition to the jewelry, even if it is just for Facebook Marketplace. I had great success with this late last year. For now, I have smaller items which I can pull from stacked up on my Mount Prospect office desk.

Until next time!