Has It Really Been 30 Years?

A lot has been happening these past two weeks! Last week was the combined "moving in" sale for Melinda's friend. With the sign company's assistance, I had our estate sale signs modified for general purpose use in Arizona. I used my domain BriesSale.com to direct folks directly to the EstateSales.net ad for the sale. Melinda said someone even asked if we were Brie's from Chicago. Yes, those hours are correct! Estate sale customers are early birds in Melinda's area, especially during the hot weather months. We actually extended the ending time by an hour because I wanted to get six hours in per day. I was indirectly advised otherwise but applying my approach to an Arizona sale paid off. The sale was a big success for everyone involved. I shipped a package of Southwest Style jewelry to Melinda so there would be some new offerings and a number of the new pieces sold as well as some pieces she already had.

I am not able to use professional signs for a sale at my home as the HOA does not allow conducted sales but we have plans when I come back in the fall to conduct a sale for one of Melinda's friends, she has a gorgeous million dollar home in Phoenix. She is not moving but would like to downsize her possessions. We are also waiting to see if the sale at the huge home of the former major league baseball player will come through for Melinda's friend who conducts estate sales. Either way, I am very curious to try a sale in an upscale area where the customers have disposable income. I plan to bring my entire Tucson Gem Show, Native American, Southwest Style and new costume jewelry collections with me in the fall and the hope will be to move many of the pieces in advance of the Tucson Gem Show 2023.

I will do my buying in Tucson next year depending upon my remaining inventory at the end of 2022. I am not sure why, maybe it is the time of year but the amber jewelry has not been moving. I think I will skip the amber booth next year regardless of how it sells this year. The designs are great but it is very expensive, even for wholesale. I have some Mexican silver pieces I bought three years ago from a vendor I love to work with which also proved to be too expensive for estate sale customers. The vendor has kindly offered more than once to exchange them for me but I never brought them along. We have some high-end estate sales coming up, I am going to try and sell them again and will plan to bring whatever does not sell to Tucson and make an exchange. I will also dial back on the new Native American jewelry vendor as much as I love their stuff. They were selling a lot of their pieces at full price last time and even with their discount, the prices are too high for an average estate sale.

I am happy with the way the Federico and Buffalo Dancer jewelry has sold online and I have not even had the chance to put it all out there or try to sell it in person. These will definitely be the two vendors I hit up the most next time. I also really liked the vendor I found with an interesting array of designer Southwest Style, Native American and Mexican jewelry - although he was not a super bargain I am all about seeking out quality pieces and hope he returns in 2023. I also hope my favorite Tibetan vendor will be back as her jewelry has been steadily selling all year. Maybe Kuochun will go with me again, he was such a good sport and very helpful in 2021.

A lot will depend upon everyone's health. Mother had her knee replacement surgery this past Tuesday morning, I took her to the hospital and stayed in the waiting area until she was transferred out of recovery and into her room. For most people, this type of surgery involves a one-night hospital stay and possibly two nights. However, Mother experienced complications - the next day her wound started gushing blood like crazy and the doctor had to add more staples and glue to seal it. She then developed a blood clot which the doctor manually removed. These occurrences are not surprising as Mother takes blood thinners for her heart. She was given narcotics and although it may have helped with the pain, it was causing her to be extremely tired and kind of loopy all the time.

Mother was released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon but not to go home. She is currently at Lutheran Home in Arlington Heights. It was a bit of an adventure moving Mother to her current location. The transport company sent a guy and a girl to move her, they were nice but it was not enough muscle. They actually had to grab the sheets from under her and throw her from the hospital bed to the gurney and again from the gurney to the new bed. We all went to the main entrance but it was the wrong entrance. Mother is claustrophobic and did not want to get into the ambulance again so we had to walk to her room. It was such a maze, going through congested residential floors and down one elevator in order to go up in another elevator to get to the correct floor. However I was happy to see that she was placed in a nice big room which is suite-like with a living room area and a wardrobe for all of her belongings. Mother is in a lot of pain and has not been able to move much but the hope is in the calmer and nicer environment she will be able to improve to the point where she can go home. I am not sure if that will happen before Rachel is scheduled to drive home next Saturday. It looks like I will need to stay with her a while until she is self-sufficient again.

For now, Kuochun is dealing with his catheter, he has been wearing his leg bag a lot more so he can be more mobile and help me out with work a bit. I told him we have not yet begun to fight, we are not just going to accept what the nurse said last time that lots of people wear a catheter for life. We are waiting for Thursday, June 2 which is when we will visit another urologist for a second opinion. Kuochun may be in a riskier category to have a procedure done due to his heart issues but he is willing to take the chance to not be sentenced to wearing a catheter for life. It has definitely been a very difficult time these past three months and we could all use some good news!

I will not be posting a jewelry lot Memorial Day weekend, but I posted the above lot the weekend before. The black onyx squash blossom earrings, the turquoise solitaire and inlay cuff bracelets, the liquid silver earrings and nugget necklace, the pendant necklace, the howling coyote pin and three of the smaller rings sold, the other items are available. I am due to receive a few more vintage Native American pieces next week but it is not enough to make up a totally new lot. I will plan to combine these pieces with some I originally offered last year. It is all in the timing as far as selling online is concerned. The previously shown pieces will get new eyes on them and hopefully some buyers! I never know what I will receive on a daily basis but for now I think this will be it for vintage Native American jewelry and I look forward to working on something else. The goal is to really work on it during the hot summer months so it is all ready to go for the fall and holiday seasons.

As what normally happens during holiday weekends, I am mired in estate sale paperwork. In between helping Mother, Kuochun, Vivi and Margot I have been working on paperwork and made good progress. Just one and a half more packages to go and I will be finished with the month of April and ready to move on to May sales. We had a very full estate sale schedule in May and this trend is continuing through June. Sales have been great, folks have been coming out and buying like crazy in spite of inflation and high gas prices and that makes all the hard work very rewarding.

May 30, 2022 marks what would have been my 30th wedding anniversary. In some ways it seems like a lifetime ago and really it was. My life is so different now than it was then. It was a safe, cookie-cutter path but I was tied down to corporate work which I hated and lots of "rules" about how to look, dress, spend money, spend free time etc. My former husband was not one to think outside the box, I always had a side business but he did not have the faith to allow me to jump off the safe path and totally branch out on my own. Although leaving that life behind was very difficult it gave me the freedom to do just that. It took time to get to where I am now but I never doubted that I could get there. And I have a partner who is my #1 cheerleader 100% of the way.

I just stumbled across a quote online which I had never seen before, the timing was perfect...

{If people doubt how far you can go, go so far that you can’t hear them anymore}