A Double Dose Of Native American Jewelry

I am back after an absence from the blog last week. It has been such a busy time - it is the peak time of year for estate sales as many folks are selling homes and have closing date deadlines to contend with and the medical needs continue for Mother and Kuochun. Mother is preparing for knee replacement surgery on May 24, last week we attended a group class at the hospital for patients and their coaches with general instructions. It was a solid hour jam-packed with information and these were not even the detailed instructions! The hip and knee patients were placed in the class together. Mother had two additional appointments in Elk Grove Village and north Arlington Heights that same day. I managed to squeeze in my 6-month dental appointment the day before.

Then the next day Mother had a CT scan at Northwest Community Hospital and Kuochun had a lung scan at Lutheran General Hospital. Kuochun was taken to Northwest Community for his heart attack since it is the closest hospital to home and he was not in any position at the time to say our primary doctor is with Lutheran General. We visited our primary doctor to update her on Kuochun's situation and she recommended the lung scan. Originally Medicare was not going to pay for it but our doctor went to bat for Kuochun and was able to take care of it. However Kuochun is not so sure he wants to fully transition to Lutheran General. We are still going to get the second opinion from the urologist there but he was not overly impressed with the hospital, he felt it was so big and not as nice as Northwest Community.

Kuochun came across a recent article ranking area hospitals by letter grade and Lutheran General received a "C" while Northwest Community received an "A." I have not been to Lutheran General for a long time but my first steady office job while I was in college was at Lutheran General Health Plan - I worked at Parkside Center which is attached to the hospital and at Nesset Center which is on Ballard Rd. I worked full-time every summer, winter and spring break. It is where I learned Excel and I extensively use it to this day.

I digress a bit, I did offer for Kuochun to switch to Mother's doctor who is with Northwest Community and located in Mount Prospect near Randhurst but I think for now he is going to stick with our doctor. They are both great, I do not think he can go wrong. On Monday morning Kuochun is scheduled to have his catheter removed for the second time and fingers are crossed that his plumbing will successfully work on its own. If all goes well Kuochun will have a slight break from appointments but Mother has several more in preparation for surgery. Rachel is going to drive from New York with her two dogs - Tootsie who is 15 and Ozzy who is 1 and stay for two weeks. She is still working at home so the living room will be set up as her office as before.

We will take Vivi and I am going to attempt to use the time to purchase an online training course especially geared towards small dogs called Small Dogs Academy. The course is supposed to use positive reinforcement to help correct bad behavior such as barking at the wrong time and going crazy lunging and barking when they see other people and dogs on their walks. They definitely cannot stay in Scottsdale together with their current behavior. When Vivi barks, Margot barks and she does not even know what she is barking at! I have already had a neighbor call the police once when Vivi barked at a Facebook Marketplace bookshelf buyer and I want to make sure this does not happen again.

One thing that will be a great help when Vivi visits is the double dog walking leash from Joyride, which we ordered when we got Margot and Vivi new harnesses. They never get tangled due to the swivel hook and the dogs work together to go on a walk in tandem. When one wants to sniff something, the other has to either wait or join in on the sniffing. Margot especially loves to sniff! The handle on the Joyride dog leash is padded and very comfortable. We used to have to walk the dogs separately because they would get tangled up in separate leashes so this will cut the walking time in half. Kuochun thankfully has been taking Margot on her morning walk but I have been doing all the rest of the walking.

Now to switch to jewelry - in spite of the crazy time, I still must persevere and keep posting jewelry lots, at least on Sunday evenings to keep up with bills. I have been able to post lots these past two weeks. First came the above lot - all of the earrings, the pillow bead necklace, the sterling and leather belt, the cuff bracelet with dome shapes and the multi-color ring all sold, the remaining items are available.

Normally this experience is extremely pleasant, most customers pay quickly and are thrilled with their purchases. I could have sold the pillow beads necklace a dozen times. However I had the hardest time trying to sell this feather cuff bracelet which is extremely cool. Three different people flaked out on the purchase. I showed one of the people another cuff bracelet because I thought this one was sold, then I told her the original bracelet was available but she said she would like the other one and then did not pay! So I have two wonderful feather cuff bracelets and no owners yet. I tried to sell the beautiful orange/red spiny oyster shell earrings a few months ago but the person who claimed them did not pay. I decided to try them again and they sold.

Navajo pearls are normally extremely popular but a lot of cheaper quality machine-made pearls are sold in these groups. When I presented these handmade pearls at a price they deserve, they did not sell. These were part of my personal collection, I have many of these pearls by Marilyn Platero in numerous sizes and lengths and I wear them almost daily. However I was thinking these were too petite for me. But since they did not sell I will put them back in the personal collection and hopefully someday they will not be too petite anymore.

The following week I posted this lot, it was the first time I used my new cowhide mat that I ordered on Etsy. I just did not like the look of the little rugs and the fringe was distracting. I wanted something that looked like a continuous strip going across the screen. I just love the colors and pattern, the seller allowed me to choose the cowhide I liked best from several options. However I wish I would have asked her to make it longer than a placemat size to fit my light box, even if it cost more. I did not notice it until I shot the photo but the grouping did not end up being centered on the mat and the left side is showing the curve of the corner of the placemat. It would have been a lot of work to move everything over so I just left it as is.

The turquoise nugget necklaces are very popular - these two both sold immediately and I had an additional two that I sold privately to a customer before they hit the groups. The Bisbee turquoise earrings did not sell the first time around, I was ambitious on the price due to the scarcity and desirability of the turquoise but I lowered the price a bit and they sold right away this time. The concho earrings, cross necklace, roadrunner pin with cutout, round stone ring and both cuff bracelets sold, the other items are available. The rings are all great but most of them are very small sizes which is common with vintage jewelry.

Since I had good luck reposting pieces which did not sell the first time around and I have now gone through my vintage Native American jewelry collection, I am going to revisit the unsold items and see if any should be reposted. I am waiting for an amazing Persian turquoise squash blossom necklace to arrive along with some interesting earrings and carinated cuff bracelets so I should be able to combine these pieces with some existing ones to make a nice lot. I also am planning a visit from one of my sources next week who always has amazing pieces to show me so for a little bit at least the lot posting will continue.

Posting the jewelry lots is worthwhile but very time-consuming, so we decided to celebrate Mother's Day on Monday May 9. Mother could not decide where she wanted to go so I suggested we go to TNT Snack Shop in Arlington Heights. The food and service was delightful the time Mother and I went there and Kuochun had never been so I thought it was a good opportunity for him to try it. The service was just as lovely as last time and the weather was ideal so sitting out in their covered patio area was great but unfortunately this time the food was not up to par. We each ordered a different omelets with side orders of breakfast potatoes and toast. The server did not understand Kuochun, he wanted grits and she was trying to get the type of bread for his toast so he ended up with wheat toast which he does not like and the potatoes instead of grits. Mother ordered an orange juice and thought it looked brown when it arrived so she made Kuochun drink it. We thought it looked fine and Kuochun did drink it and survive! But all of our omelets were way overcooked and the potatoes not really cooked at all, they were totally white and not browned. Possibly they have a different cook now. There are so many great breakfast spots in the area we will not be back. It is on my short list for Kuochun to try Scratchboard Kitchen in downtown Arlington Heights but they are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so we have not been able to get him there yet.

The Sun City West, AZ estate sale for Melinda's friend starts next week so I put together a box of jewelry and sent it out there. I was looking all over for the shoebox of Southwest Style jewelry I put aside to send and could not find it, but I did my best with the time I had and priced a bunch of Southwest Style vintage costume jewelry, a really pretty copper belt, a couple of non-sterling belt buckles and a bunch of Lee Sands beaded necklaces. We are going to do 50% off on the jewelry since I am hosting the sale and the new pieces are really reasonably priced so I hope a lot will sell. The sale will run Wednesday-Saturday from 7:00 AM-1:00 PM each day. The folks in the area are early birds and it is starting to get hot there so it keeps the temperature manageable. Also, Sunday is not a popular sale day in the area but I thought it was important to keep the 4-day format. We are going to discount most household items down to 75% off which is non-existent there, I think the customers are going to love it!

Next week we are very busy with five estate sales and I have four estate sale packages to do but hopefully next weekend there will be some time to organize the garage and get Kuochun's car back in. The plan is to take all of the jewelry out of the garage, display it in medium size cases by category and put the backstock in shoeboxes so it can easily be filled in when pieces sell. Eventually I would like to retag all of the jewelry with the new, way easier to read labels and computer-generated dumbbells. This will be a good summer project to work on so everything is all ready to go for the fall and holiday seasons.

Until next time!