Back To Scottsdale

Although I am covering two weeks, this will be short and sweet as it is nearly 3:00 AM! It has been such a whirlwind. On Tuesday the 28th, I decided to act on something that had been on my mind for a while and reach out to a Whatnot seller whom I really admire. I knew of her from Facebook groups and she started out on Whatnot last November. I have been watching her shows since the beginning and really enjoy watching her. She is adorable, engaging and has the best new Native American jewelry I have ever seen in one place. She works with fantastic artists who make pieces just for her. I have purchased several pieces from her as I upgrade my personal collection. I noticed that her followers were asking for vintage more and more and when she would offer the occasional vintage piece during a show, her followers were loving it. She lives in the Phoenix area so I messaged her, told her a little bit about myself (she already kind of knew me as her customer) and proposed that she come over and take a look at my inventory. She was very open to the idea and has visited me twice, and plans to come a third time next Monday. So far, she has presented some of my items during one Whatnot show (she already had an amazing Western drop of jewelry from one of her artists scheduled) and mostly featured my items the following week. Sales have been amazing and although I have a long way to go, the experience has helped me feel a bit lighter. We found that my "new old stock" which are Tucson Gem Show pieces I have not been able to do anything with for the past 7-8 years due to taking care of parents has been very popular, and a lot of vintage pieces have sold as well. It has been a win-win situation and I hope we will be able to work together for a long time to come. There will still be plenty of jewelry for me to post online as she has a specific niche and the jewelry caravan offerings will not change. Kuochun never tells me what to do but he had been suggesting that I take a year off from the Tucson Gem Show to focus on the pieces I already have. I really enjoy going to Tucson, even though it is really hard work it is the closet thing we get to a vacation so I do not want to miss it. If I can sell a lot it will be a compelling reason to go! That, and to visit the only Sweet Tomatoes location in the country is a good reason too.

I had my last physical therapy appointment for a while on Thursday but did not start off the time away needed for my insurance to regroup on the best foot. I had back to back jewelry meetings Friday and it is too hot to meet people in the garage right now so I have been having them in the house. We put the dog fence up in the hallway upstairs so the girls stay put and they have been very good. However when I went upstairs to let Kuochun know the first meeting was complete and I had a second meeting scheduled, I tripped over the dog fence with my left foot and then tripped on my metal photography stand with my right foot which was off to the side on the other side of the fence and fell smack on my left knee. I was grateful that I did not hit my head on the wall. It felt like slow motion and I landed so hard. I was not even sure if I was going to be able to get up. Kuochun is so kind, he came and sat down next to me. It took a while but the bumps and bruises have subsided.

We drove up to Prescott and nearly right away we were having plumbing problems. The toilet was acting weird and alternating between overflowing and bubbling while the shower was running. We went out and bought a plunger but it did not do the trick. After about a day and a half, the toilet shut down altogether. We were able to have a plumber come out Monday and he worked for a couple of hours and pulled out a lot of tree roots but unfortunately his rodding machine was not powerful enough to break through. He said a wheel fell off his larger machine and he was not sure if he would be able to get it through the front door and into the small bathroom anyway. He was not going to charge us but we insisted on giving him $200 for his time. Then we found that he put the toilet on top of the brand new shower door and I think he damaged it. This is the only bathroom in the home so we had no choice but to leave abruptly and go back to Scottsdale.

I had a hard time finding a plumber who was willing to help us out but Tina gave me a couple of suggestions and one of them is going to come through. Oddly enough, the cleanout for the sewer line is on the roof! I am going to have to have it relocated to the ground because the new plumber told me their machine is 150 pounds and it is not possible to carry it up to the roof to clear out the line. That part of the job is going to be $2,800 which is not great news but better than the $9,000 I paid in Mount Prospect. Tina brought up a good point which was that the main source of the tree roots, a nearby elm tree was removed as part of my landscaping project because it was invasive. It is obvious that previous owners did no maintenance in that arena. And even worse, the first plumber found tampons in there! The home was an Airbnb before I purchased it. As of now, the cleanout job will be tackled August 17 and the toilet job will have to be scheduled after that. At least we do not have to be present for the cleanout job. I am back to physical therapy the next day and have a medi pedi appointment the day after. I sure hope we will be able to live in Prescott after that!

Somehow in the middle of all the chaos I was able to post 13 items over the two-week period. I made more headway with posting the 2026 Federico collection. I have five items to go - two pairs of earrings, a pendant and two rings. The pictures are completed for the earrings and pendant so I feel confident that I will be able to complete the task next week.

I was happy to sell three of the recently posted items - two of the men's rings and a pair of Federico earrings. I sold pieces directly through my website, eBay, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace non-local with shipping, Mercari and Poshmark. So exciting! Unfortunately I do not have access to my photos to post anything here because in our haste to leave Prescott and get down the mountain before it got dark, I forgot to remove my thumb drive with a lot of my files on it from the computer. I remembered and then ultimately forgot. It has been a little challenging but I have been able to cobble information together and keep up with the estate sale paperwork which is most important. Tina was kind enough to put my Metabolic Meals in the refrigerator for me and bring the dog food inside last Thursday. We had to place another order for the dog food. Kuochun had purchased a bag from the pet store to get by (I think it was Science Diet, he purchased it because it had a mini Schnauzer on the bag) and Vivi did just fine with it but Margot could not keep it down. It really shows how important it is to give them high-quality dog food. Monday is my day to decide whether or not to order Metabolic Meals for the following week and I placed the order for delivery to Prescott not knowing that we would not be there. I hate asking Tina to bring the food in again so maybe we will run up there for the day and I can get my thumb drive and bring some meals home and put some in the freezer. The dog food was delivered Wednesday and we are grateful that it was not stolen. The front porch is totally open and we are close to a busy street so it would have been so easy for a porch pirate to grab it.

Since I was not in Prescott very long, I was not able to do much but I did do some organizing in the kitchen and started to clear out the pantry cabinet so we can place dry goods in there. I was not able to work on the pop-up shop at all. So far I do not think this setback will interfere with my scheduled garage sale dates of October 1-4 but we will see. But we have been very busy with estate sales - it seems that every week for the past 5-6 weeks we have been booking last-minute sales which is great but it is goofing up my schedule. I have particular estate sale tasks to do every day and when I have to pile on additional tasks, it makes it more challenging to keep up.

That is all for now, there were ups and downs these past two weeks but the ups were awesome and I am looking forward to the holiday selling season!