Easter 2024 (?)

Here we are two weeks later again - due to Easter, we did not have any estate sales scheduled this past weekend. We do have three sales scheduled next weekend in Chicago's Dunning neighborhood, Highland Park and Park Ridge. At this time it does not look like there will be room for the jewelry caravan in Park Ridge but the other two locations will be represented. Normally at this time of year we have more sales than we can accept but 2024 has been unusual so far. Interest rates are definitely affecting the real estate market and there are not as many moving sale opportunities. The marketplace has become even more competitive because there are fewer jobs and many potential clients feel they are in the driver's seat and have become quite demanding. I have always strongly believed in and still firmly believe in the way we conduct estate sales and figure the sales we do not get are not meant to be.

Kuochun is a little over halfway through his China trip and it still has not gotten any easier to keep up with picking up the slack. I am just taking things one day at a time and he will be back before I know it. He is enjoying meeting with family and friends but said he cannot wait to come home. My schedule has also been squeezed even more due to big news with Mother, but I am not going to disclose what it is until she has the chance to let all of her friends know.

Last weekend I posted this lot of vintage Native American beauties which actually did pretty well. All of the watch tips sold as well as the earrings at the upper left and center right, the frog pin and the copper pieces. The necklace with the corn motif and the pendant with the curly ques are from Mother's personal collection but they were not spoken for. It is on my short list to post the unsold items from these past three purges to all of the online venues as there is some really great stuff!

Mother and I took some time to go through the inventory of our handmade jewelry to see how to approach selling it. We pulled necklaces and bracelets which I felt would be worthwhile selling online. I shot all of the photos I need to post six pieces but this is the only one I was able to post so far. It has been a long time since I used my Windy City Jewelry shop on Etsy and it was a good feeling to at least resurrect it again.

I posted this adorable Southwest Style pendant as well - I know the center stone is rhodochrosite but I wish I knew what the blue stones were. They are so pretty and unlike anything I have seen. Perhaps they are dyed jade. I had originally purchased the pendant for myself but never had the chance to wear it. Time to find it a new home as I pare down my collection to my ultimate favorites.

This past Sunday I prepared eleven sets of vintage Native American watch tips, all of which have interesting inlay designs. I even had everything ready well ahead of time but I lost track of time doing estate sale work and by the time I realized it, it was too late to launch them. The two hour time difference is a killer! I may try next Thursday evening.

Mother and I did have plans to go to the local gourmet grocery store, AJs for their Easter brunch on the patio. Unfortunately Mother Nature did not cooperate and it rained cats and dogs the entire time the event was scheduled to go on. The tile which goes from the front entry to the driveway gets very slippery when wet so I did not feel it was safe for Mother to go out, even just to pick up some groceries. We will see if the hot cross buns are 50% off on Monday!

I posted a lamb cake as the cover photo this week because we made a cake like this every Easter growing up. This is not our cake but it is exactly the way we did it! We also had a bunny mold and a few times we used it to make a chocolate bunny cake but it was never as successful. It was impossible to get it to stand up. The molds originated with my grandma and Mother always advocated for using pound cake mix, and maybe that is why we never had trouble with the lamb cake standing up. I definitely have a lot of sweet memories from my childhood!