It's That Time Again...

Time to add another year to my total! For the past several years, my birthday has fallen during pop-up sale weekend but this year it was Monday. It was kind of difficult to find a nice restaurant that we have not tried yet which is open on Mondays so I decided not to stray too far from home and chose Francesca's Tavola in Arlington Heights. Kuochun and I have been there once before and I also went with Mother once as she used to live nearby. Kuochun did not remember it at all so it was new to him. I was in the mood for risotto and it is hard to find; Francesca's has a risotto of the day. I went in hoping I would like the day's choice but had a backup plan of another favorite meal, rigatoni vodka with crumbled sausage. The risotto of the day had sausage along with tomatoes and spinach so I went with it. This is the big splurge for the year so we shared an order of calamari and a Caesar salad. The calamari was kind of tough but edible, the Caesar salad and bread for the table were good and the risotto was underdone in spots but the taste was good. I was really glad the spinach was thrown in at the last minute so it was not soggy and overcooked. Kuochun ordered a shrimp and scallops scampi and enjoyed it. My risotto portion was small so there was a little room left for dessert. We chose the sticky toffee carrot cake with sour cream gelato. I thought it was pretty good, Kuochun liked it more than I did. The gelato really did taste like sour cream which was very unusual!

Mother surprised me and ordered the traditional hazelnut torte from Central Continental Bakery which is also closed on Mondays so we needed to pick it up on Tuesday. After four days, Kuochun was tired of it so now it is up to me to take care of the rest. I have been cutting calories here and there each day to make up for it. Next year I will be ready for a new flavor!

On Wednesday our customer Patti headed to our Schaumburg moving sale to do a Whatnot live sale while we were doing the reset between weekends. She was able to make some sales but the live sale biz is definitely one that takes time and patience to get going. Doing live sales has been on my mind but time is getting short for us here and I may just bring all the jewelry with me and try live sales in Scottsdale. It would have been fun to do them from the backyard but I am sure the neighbors would not enjoy that!

I am excited to announce that I will be adding a new product line soon - fabulous leather goods from Vintage Cowgirl Cases! It was really hard work but I was able to purchase quite a few one of a kind and limited quantity items at the owner and designer's live moving sale. I did not think I would have a chance at anything because these products are amazing and so popular but I stuck with the sale from beginning to end and was very pleased with what I got. There were products that are too Western and do not interest me, like rope bags and cowboy boot holders and I do not want to get into clear stadium bags so I passed on those. But I tried for just about everything else!

I learned about VCC three years ago when I came across her Western-style round jewelry case. I thought it would be perfect for Mother to store her jewelry in while in Scottsdale. It was and she still uses it to this day. I do not have any photos of the products yet as everything is going to be shipped to Scottsdale. The pieces are a mix of cowhide, tooled leather and plain leather in a variety of colors. There will be small round jewelry cases, fringed purses, totes and fanny packs, bum bags, backpacks and sling bags, squash blossom cases, cosmetic and makeup brush cases and more! The owner decided to liquidate her warehouse instead of bringing everything out of state with her and it looks like she will be narrowing down her product offerings to travel-related pieces. The background story is interesting and I will speak about it once I launch the products. I unfortunately do not have photos but once I get to Scottsdale and take a look at everything, I will have a better idea of what will be for sale. I think I will just have to keep the lavender rolling suitcase and matching lap top bag! I sure wish I would have been able to go to the warehouse sale which took place before the live sale.

I had a good week with online sales including these three pieces from a Tucson Gem Show capsule collection I purchased earlier this year. I was able to complete the posting of the collection online this past week which included two more Royston turquoise statement rings, four Purple Mojave butterfly rings and two sets of watch tips as shown below.

I also sold a vintage turquoise nugget necklace on Poshmark and a gorgeous cuff bracelet which I let go for a bit of a loss because I overpaid and knew it would be difficult to find the right buyer for it. I made my first clothing sale on eBay of three Easel tops. The buyer was so lovely and asked if I could combine shipping. I pay for shipping on jewelry but am unable to do so on the clothing. It was very easy to refund her the overage. I am still in building mode as far as the website goes (next will be promotion mode once everything is posted) so anything I sell at this time is a big bonus.

I not only sold one, but TWO of these Federico necklaces through my website this week! I started with four and only have one left. I do have them in stones other than turquoise and I will be posting them soon. All of the tools for the online business are in place so all I need to do is keep listing. Currently I have 282 active listings so it was time to reopen my eBay store. I have not had an eBay store since I used to sell clothing full time but since eBay only allows 250 "free" listings per month, it was time to upgrade. I noticed that my eBay name chummie does not show on the listings, it just shows my store name, C'est La Brie's. I spent a little time on the eBay store but have lots more to do before it is fully organized.

I had someone purchase a pair of Federico earrings on eBay which I no longer had - originally there were two pair but they both sold last year. It took several days but I was able to work with Federico's and and the customer and although the pair she originally requested is out of stock, she will be purchasing two different pairs of earrings at the end of the month. This prompted me to inquire with Federico's about budget friendly earrings (which to them is $200 or less) and they are receiving more next week. They are just so delightful to work with!

The situation prompted me to go through my eBay listings to make sure I have everything that is listed. There were some old listings which were not linked to Vendoo including ten tops which are currently in Scottsdale. I am about halfway through the list and set the tops up in Vendoo drafts which I will be able to post once we are back in AZ.

I priced some jewelry which was polished on the last cleaning day and I punched holes in a total of three cards before the new puncher broke. I probably made a total of 25 cards with it. I have two new ones on order and sure hope they last longer. While making that purchase I found a nifty 4-way tag maker for making price tags of any size. Two of the sections punch the top and the other two punch the bottom corners.

I was originally thinking I did not do much with the jewelry this week but I actually did! Over the next two weeks I have several medical appointments but I plan for the next step to be to prioritize what I will be taking back to Scottsdale. We are driving which is a long 3-4 days but it gives me the opportunity to bring all the clothing and online store items I would otherwise have to ship. I promised Kuochun I would not overload his car so I will see what will fit. The clothing hub will be Scottsdale going forward and the future plan is to just bring the online store jewelry back and forth. If I do not post jewelry, it will stay in Scottsdale until next time. As usual, I was ambitious and shipped jewelry home this summer that I will not get to, such as the Federico and Buffalo Dancer pieces from past years. If I can finish up the 2024 Federico jewelry before we go I will be happy and it will be nice to minimize the back and forth.

Until next time!