Cuff Bracelet Stampede

by Brigid McAlpin April 13, 2025

I am back after nearly a month! It has been such a busy time with the estate sale season starting to heat up and continuing to settle Mother's estate. I scheduled the estate sale at Mother's apartment for March 20-23 because the lease ended on March 30. Rachel flew into town the Monday evening before the estate sale, arriving at about 8:00 PM. None of us had eaten dinner so Rachel looked up restaurants which were open and she found Evo in Old Town Scottsdale. It was extremely dark and quite loud but the food was good. I enjoyed my rigatoni with crumbled fennel sausage which is one of my very favorite dishes. Kuochun went with a classic spaghetti and meatballs and Rachel chose a burrata salad with shrimp. It was so dark it was hard to read the menu and we definitely could not read the prices. Unfortunately due to the darkness Kuochun forgot to get his credit card back but he realized what happened, gave them a call and picked it up the next morning. During the week, we all also tried another restaurant in Old Town, Original ChopShop. It is a health food restaurant with protein bowls among other things. They were closing soon but we were each able to create our own bowls with our choice of ingredients. It was a really good quick meal. Kuochun never wants to go to Old Town, he thinks it is filled with tourists walking around like zombies but he had to admit both restaurants were good.

In the weeks leading up to the estate sale, I spent as much time at the apartment as I could on the preparation. Melinda came down a couple of Saturdays which helped keep me on track. Rachel ended up getting a U-Haul U-Box and took lots of items for her new home. We removed what we could from the apartment to free up space except for the larger items, which she just covered up with sheets. I also removed some items which I felt were out of range for the estate sale and would sell better online. I cleaned and priced all of Mother's non-Native sterling silver jewelry as well. I combined this with the sterling silver and costume jewelry which did not sell at her moving sale in Arlington Heights last June. I had been spending weeks on it but as hard as I tried, I was not able to get everything priced before the sale started. I just continued to price items throughout the weekend. Many of the people who attended live in the building and we were able to sell several of the larger pieces to them. I did not put Mother's mattress up for sale but a man who had just moved in (and on the same floor) did not have anything so I sold it to him along with the sofa. The catch was Kuochun and I had to move them to his apartment for him. I tried to talk him into getting the coffee table and small area rug as well because it made for a nice simple setup but he did not go for it. We ended up selling the coffee table on the last day but no luck on the rug. We also sold the scooter to another woman in the building for what we paid, she had been looking for one for a long time. I was surprised that the wheelchair which was Dad's and at least 7-8 years old sold for more than Mother's walker which we had just purchased last year. The only piece of equipment I have left is the power chair. It is a real bummer that I cannot try to sell it on Facebook Marketplace. I have it on eBay and there was someone interested but he is located in New York and said shipping was too high. Too bad I did not think to put it in the U-Box and send it to Rachel's new home for him to pick up.

After the second day, I decided to bring my final clearance 75% off sterling silver jewelry to the sale and sold a number of pieces. We also met a nice lady named Rosie who came here from Hawaii, and ever since several friends and family members also have moved in, all on the third floor. She joked that they would like to rename the third floor the Hawaiian Village. It turns out that she is a dog sitter and I can tell she is a very kind person who would have the patience to deal with our girls. I told her once they get to know you, they will be crazy about you! When we come back in the fall I am going to set up a meet and greet. I did not make sense to me to set it up now when we are leaving in about a month and a half. All in all, I was happy with the sale results considering it was in a tiny third floor apartment in a 55+ building. It was a tremendous amount of work but worth doing, not so much for the money but to pay respect to Mother's final and favorite items. The money will go towards her final bills.

After the estate sale, I spent a lot of time at the apartment polishing jewelry. At home, I just have a small space for it but wanted to take advantage of the time and space we had at the apartment to get as much polishing as possible done. I set up my small TV and caught up on back episodes of The Kardashians while I polished a good couple hundred rings and lots of vintage Native American pieces. I normally do not polish the Native jewelry but in this case I had to because it was all covered with tobacco smoke. I kept the natural patina while removing the nicotine. It was so yucky! I may need to bring the squash blossom necklaces over to the jeweler to have them cleaned. They are really beautiful pieces and I just cannot get the tobacco off of them evenly.

Part of the deal with the apartment was that it needed to be professionally cleaned and the carpeting professionally cleaned as well upon move out. I elected to have the building's recommended cleaners do the job so I could have as much extra time in the apartment as possible. There were too many larger items left for Kuochun and I to handle so I had to hire Dolly movers to get the remaining items home to my garage. It was $655 to move everything less than a half mile. I asked if I could turn in the keys on Monday morning since the office closes early on Sundays. I told Kuochun that we have got to go out for brunch on Monday to celebrate the completion of the apartment. Since we live in a resort area it is easy to find brunch somewhere 7 days a week. Kuochun suggested that we go to Zuzu at the iconic Valley Ho Hotel which is only five minutes away. We missed the brunch by five minutes but ended up ordering happy hour food instead. Kuochun ordered a cauliflower dish and I ordered the burrata with pistachio pesto, tomato and crispy prosciutto and a big piece of grilled focaccia. We also shared the short rib empanadas and the buttermilk fried calamari. Everything was so delicious, we should have taken photos but we were hungry!

The other major tasks were to get Mother's taxes (and my taxes) done before the deadline. I was not sure if the folks at the senior center were going to be willing to do Mother's again this year since she passed. Before I knew for sure, I had just been seated for the tax appointment and a man came barreling in, yelling and screaming that he was tired of waiting. He went on and on about it and I was so stressed out I almost turned to him and asked him to stop. The staff acknowledged that they made a mistake and somehow they missed his turn. He stormed out and told them to forget about it. I thought, this is April 4 and they were going to do your taxes for no charge. You have blown it now! Luckily all was well with completing Mother's taxes after I explained the situation. It helped that she was in Arizona all of 2024 so an Arizona state return could be filed for her. The bad news was I had to pay nearly $1,700 in federal and state taxes because the investment group did not withhold taxes when we had to make a withdrawal to pay the assisted living fees. It took a whole day but I was grateful that I did not have to complete Mother's tax forms on my own. Next year I will need to do the same thing for the four days she was with us in 2025.

My taxes went smoothly this year, I was not able to start them until this past Saturday but by the end of the day Sunday they were 98% completed. I should have no problem completing them Monday morning. I will get a tiny refund for state but I do owe for federal.

I received the final bill for the apartment and they charged extra for "stretching the carpet" in addition to the apartment and carpet cleaning. I think this will be the last larger bill that I will need to pay for Mother. It has really been a challenge paying three sets of bills so far this year.

I had to put online postings on hold while the estate sale process was going on but I did resume with six vintage Native American cuff bracelets. I led with an incredible 3-dimensional buffalo head cuff by San Felipe Pueblo artist Jacob Troncosa, who created the masterpiece in this week's main photo. This is easily the largest cuff bracelet I have ever seen in person. It must have taken a very long time to create because it is just so detailed.

This cuff bracelet by Tawney Willie-Cruz is also a standout. It is not only decorated on the outside, but on the inside as well. I have more pieces by the talented Willie family coming up in the next few weeks. The first Native American pieces Mother ever bought while we were together were by Ronnie Willie, who is Tawney's uncle. They are sentimental to me so I am not sure I can bring myself to sell them.

This 1960s cuff bracelet featuring a pair of claws is super cool as well. It is a solid piece of silver with striking details.

In spite of taking time off from postings, I was still able to sell a dozen items this past month on eBay, Etsy, Poshmark, Mercari and Whatnot. About half the sales were on pieces I have had for a year or two so I was very happy that they found new homes. There were all jewelry except for an Easel heart T-shirt. There is only one of these T-shirts left now! A highlight were these gorgeous chandelier earrings by Federico with natural Sleeping Beauty turquoise accents. I am not in the market to purchase any boutique clothing right now because we will be transitioning back to Mount Prospect soon but I have been receiving warning messages from the vendors that with the tariffs prices will go up as much as 104%! If this happens, this will unfortunately put the wholesale cost out of reach and I imagine it will be the same for other boutique owners.

There is one more major task to complete for Mother's estate and it is potentially a big one. Rachel and I were able to settle everything ourselves except for the car. We were never able to find the title but after a lot of effort, I applied for and finally received the duplicate. The next step is to have the will certified through the county court which is a requirement for the state of Illinois in order to be able to transfer the car to Rachel. I mentioned that Kuochun and I went to the courthouse and I was given a 50-page packet to go through. It looks like I need to do some online training, fill out the packet and bring it back to the court, where a hearing may be needed to officially name me as the personal representative (executor) of the estate. Starting this process will have to go on my agenda for next week because I did not have time to attend to it sooner.

It would not be me unless I pushed my schedule to the limit. I had connected with a local interior designer last year to potentially finish where the previous designer left off two years ago. I did not go forward at the time because there was just too much going on with Mother and I needed to save more money. The designer got in touch with me not long after Mother's passing and made me an offer I could not refuse. In spite of so much still going on, I decided to go forward with the project. I know it is what Mother would have wanted me to do. Ideally I would have been able to complete the rest of the home all at once but it is not in the budget. I am hoping to finish the first floor this year and tackle the second floor, back patio and laundry room next year. One thing I like about this company is their white glove service. They will be able to work on the home while we are not here and when we return the project will be complete. The last experience was a nightmare to live through, basically taking two years to redo a kitchen and a bathroom. The contractor kept taking on other jobs and pushing our job off because we were not always there, leaving us in a construction zone. The designer who promised she would babysit the contractor did not come through. I would have lived with things the way they were originally but the major plumbing problem occurred and the path from the laundry room through the first floor bedroom and bathroom completely destroyed these areas. Kuochun did not live through that project, it was Mother and I but Kuochun and I also lived through three years of fixing up Mount Prospect. I did not want to put him through that again and this is the best way to minimize disruption. So far, a design plan has been made and the next step will be for them to start sourcing. I asked that they do the work in the fall to give me as much time as possible to save money.

The new company does not do vintage so everything I currently have has got to go. I am OK with it because I would like to do something totally different here. The main goals will be to have everything look put together and work well for everyday life. Even though this home is larger square footage-wise than Mount Prospect, storage has been a challenge. Originally I sent extra furniture here from home just to fill up the space, and I did purchase some additional furniture along the way. As a result, I will be having a redecorating sale, selling Mother's remaining items and all of my furniture and decor. I have to have the entire garage completely cleaned out as well so the contractors have a place to store their supplies and I will even need to relocate my car. It is just as well that the entire home is not in the budget because it would have been a very tall order in a short amount of time to completely move out, including all of my jewelry, clothing and business supplies. I am hoping I can store everything I want to keep upstairs as opposed to offsite. It was suggested that I hire a professional organizer to help but I am not their typical client, I am in an adjacent business and do not need to pay $$$ to tell someone what I want to keep, sell and donate. I am not sure what will happen with the court proceedings, we may end up needing to stay longer if I must wait for a hearing date. I do not want to wait too long to have a sale though because the temperatures will keep rising. I am shooting for May 1-4. Kuochun was thinking that I should do a by-appointment sale to keep the crowds down. He will probably need to stay in his room with the girls so I will basically be on my own. I have a little time to think about it.

Tasks for next week will include pricing the jewelry which I polished and either sending it home for the caravan or offering it for sale here. My plan for my sale is to set up a jewelry caravan with my entire vintage Native American jewelry collection, and then add new and/or Southwest Style pieces if there is room. I have received offers to buy so many amazing Native American pieces these last couple of months I but had to put a stop to it late last week. It was difficult to say no but I seriously need to catch up with what I have first!

It is good to be back to writing again and I will see you next time!