Beautiful New Arrivals

I started off the week in Scottsdale with a very busy normal schedule. I posted only six items but they are all such good ones! I started working on a new lot of vintage Native American jewelry pieces including a 1950s Zuni sunface naja station necklace and coordinating bolo, a wonderful 1960s squash blossom necklace which is all silver with three turquoise stones on the naja and is a great size, a fantastic #8 Mine turquoise pendant with detachable bail by the late artist Mario Madrid, a fabulous turquoise shadowbox pendant with the prettiest stampings and a gorgeous Southwest Style cuff bracelet with five turquoise stones. The Mario Madrid pendant is already spoken for but all of the other pieces are available!

I had one sale through Etsy this past week for this cuff bracelet by the late legendary Navajo artist Kirk Smith. It is currently on its way to England, a gift from father to daughter. I have two pending sales as well - the Mario Madrid pendant as I already mentioned and a Southwest Style ring, both through Facebook Marketplace. The customer was visiting Arizona but was staying closer to Melinda's area so her husband understandably was not keen on making the 45 minute trip each way for the ring. They went to Sedona for the weekend and thought they would go to Prescott so I brought the ring with me but it did not work out for them. She is going to pay for the ring on Monday and I am going to ship it to her, back to where she lives. I did have another person inquire about the ring Sunday morning but I explained the situation. I think the original sale will go through!

I took care of my hair appointment on Wednesday and physical therapy appointment on Thursday. I have been dealing with the heat just fine except it is definitely hot when loading the van is involved. I have been trying to stick to "cooler" times of day. When I got back in my car after my hair appointment, the temperature in the car was 124 degrees! Luckily it dropped quickly but I need to use my sun shade. This time around, it was time for the not so fun stuff to be loaded in the van. I loaded in the Lifetime non-folding tables I had reserved to keep in Scottsdale, a couple of rolling racks that need fixing up, a garbage can filled with yard and cleaning tools, Mother's office chair which we will use in the garage in Prescott, the rest of the displays from pop-up sales and the rest of Kuochun's clothing and my boutique clothing that came from Mount Prospect. I also finally took down the very dusty Tibetan jewelry collection and Mother's flower pins which had been sitting on display in the garage for a good two years. I was able to fit everything in the van, as well as the remainder of the for sale items. I also took the stepladder so I would not have to purchase one for Prescott. There is literally no storage space for that sort of item in the house. The utility closet in my room was torn out during construction to make room for my bed. I just need to grab a few more odds and ends including some display pieces and the rest of the beaded floral arrangements but they can fit in Kuochun's car. I will be leaving the van in Prescott for now.

The metal stakes for the estate sale street signs were left in the van when it was transported here so I am working on the most economical way to get them back to the office. There were a bunch of large unused shipping boxes in the van so I tried fitting the stakes in one of the boxes. Even with bending the tops to form an X-shape and placing them in the box on the diagonal, I was only able to fit about half the stakes in the box. The clothing from Mount Prospect came in a huge shipping box so I will need to figure out if sending the stakes in two boxes would be more economical than the one large box. The two smaller boxes may be the way to go. I took an empty shoebox and filled it with jewelry which needs to go back to the office for the caravan as well. It was just too hot in the garage to spend much time on it. I may have to bring everything into the house to work on it. We will be leaving Prescott next Monday because Kuochun has his last follow-up appointment post-cataract surgery on Tuesday.

The weather has been pretty warm in Prescott, in about the 90 degree range so it has been too hot to work in the garage there as well. I have my work cut out for me, the garage is so full. I will likely need to take most of the items out in order to reorganize and set up a display for the garage sale. I was trying to get a couple of bins of items that are priced and ready to go for the garage sale to the back of the garage and I knocked a pile of stuff over. The marble lazy Susan which I inherited from Scottsdale and saved for nearly 6 years fell and the corner broke off, and the cute wooden purple car I bought at one of our sales last fall smashed to pieces. I think I can superglue the lazy Susan but the car is probably done for. It was extra work to bring all the garage sale items up to Prescott but living in an HOA in Scottsdale makes it kind of challenging to have a sale and signs are not allowed. Interestingly enough, political signs and open house signs are allowed! I am still waiting for the final word on whether the HOA is going to ban garage sales altogether with their revamp of the rules and regulations. I hope not because I still have a bunch of gently worn clothing and of course jewelry to sell.

I was able to see first-hand how the girls can now freely access the backyard. They both absolutely love it! They go right out to the grass and do their business pretty quickly and go right to the door to come inside when asked. At separate times, both of them rolled around on the grass on their backs and that is when you really know they are enjoying themselves! Now Kuochun is only walking them twice per day and the other times they can use the yard. The backyard faces west so we get strong afternoon sun. When the weather cools off I will make sure the girls get more exercise and throw the toys around for them. Not that they bring them back! Margot still wants to bring a toy outside every time she goes to the backyard and she leaves them out there. I am always sure to collect them at the end of each day so they do not get wet.

We tried a restaurant called Prescott Junction for the first time which is just a few blocks away. It is a family restaurant and they are open in the evenings and serve breakfast all day which are both plusses. The service was lovely and I thought the food was pretty good. I avoid seed oils among other things which is impossible at a place like this. Kuochun absolutely loved it and wants to go back again and try the salad bar. I never want to seem ungrateful but if I am going to have a cheat meal I want it to be amazing!

I was skeptical but went along with Kuochun and we signed up for Planet Fitness. I am supposed to specifically use the NuStep machine as a big part of my physical therapy homework and for the most part Planet Fitness has Matrix machines. We signed up online, Kuochun could have brought me along as a free guest but he insisted we both sign up. We went on Sunday but neither of us liked it. They play heavy metal music most of the time, it is crowded and quite dark. There were two machines similar to the NuStep and I tried one and even on the lowest level found it extremely difficult. Plus it kept shutting off after one minute. After five go-arounds, I looked it up on Google AI and it said the machine is broken. I then switched to the other one and although I was able to set up a program, it was difficult to keep a steady pace. Either I was going way too fast and then when I slowed down a bit it was too slow. I felt like I was sliding off the seat and my feet kept sliding too. A woman came over towards the end of my workout and tried to use the other machine. After I finished, she said the other machine has been broken for at least two months. They did not have a sign on it which said out of order.

Luckily I was able to fill Kuochun in on what I experienced before he tried it. I then went to the leg press machine and thought I was setting it to 40 pounds but it was 40 kilos! I am supposed to be at 35 pounds but it did not go that low. One thing I did like was that the machine had a built-in timer and a rep count, although I did notice that the rep count did not always advance. I then walked on the treadmill until Kuochun was ready but I did not do the one minute on and off walking on it without power. It was crowded so I felt funny doing it and also I figured I accomplished something comparable by doing the five very difficult rounds on the recumbent stepper to start. I am glad that I found an online coupon to waive the annual fees and we are only on the hook for a month so I am not sure if we will be back. We may end up working with the sporadic hours at the community college because they do have a NuStep machine.

Other than the workout, I spent the rest of the day Sunday catching up with signing estate sale contracts as best as I could without a scanner and putting up ads for upcoming sales. I will do the rest when we go back to Scottsdale. My printer only scans one page at a time, I have to lift the lid and place each paper in place like making a copy but at least it is doable. It was a great sense of accomplishment to clear out that New Contracts folder in our email!

We will go back to Scottsdale Monday and after our appointments next week (Kuochun's on Tuesday and mine on Thursday) we will return to Prescott. The environment is much more comfortable for the girls, even though Margot loves the heat. I think she could lay out in the backyard for an hour! Vivi goes out there to humor her but wants to come back in immediately. Smart girl! We will see if we both come back together or I take the van and go back myself for my next physical therapy appointment on the 18th. We both have dental appointments on August 31 so we will need to come back for that. I do not mind taking one more van trip back and forth because I still need to go through the clothing on the second floor which is a combination of Mother's and mine and I have the rest of the boutique clothing I purchased to resell stored in my room. I did not have time to do any organizing in the pop-up shop because I will only be here for two full days but next time for sure! There are definitely items in the garage which need to go in there which will help with the garage situation. It will be a happy day when all of this moving things around is complete! Finally, I think I have all pieces of each silverware set in the right place. I thought I would have time to organize the kitchen for how it will best suit us on a daily basis but the estate sale work has to come first. People put random items in the pantry during construction so I need to sort through that so we can use the pantry for food! I also need to clear out the "junk drawer" with which they did the same thing.

Goals for next week will be to continue to price jewelry for the caravan so I can fit it in whatever shipping box I use for the estate sale sign stakes. Also, to post some more of the beautiful Native American pieces I have received recently. Then, back to Prescott and hit the ground running.

Until next time!