Moving Along...

I was disappointed to find that the two mid-century modern stores I contacted regarding purchasing some of my items never responded to me, after I took the time to shoot photos, describe the items, put the information on customized webpages for their convenience and asked that they let me know if they were interested one way or the other. As a result, I decided to bring all of the approved items to the consignment store I contacted beforehand except for this antique settee which we had refinished and Alfredo expertly reupholstered. At best, we would have only gotten 25% off what we put into it. I was hoping to sell or send all of the Drexel Counterpoint pieces to the same place but the consignment store was only interested in the vanity. I have the desk online and I will post the bookcase headboard as well. The consignment experience was great, although their store is fairly new they have a smooth process and easy to understand and comprehensive contract. I wish I would have had a contract like this back in the day! The owner is going to send someone to pick up my two wrought iron railings I brought from home which have been hanging around in my back patio since I have owned the place. They have lots of wrought iron outside in front of their store and tons in the backyard behind the building. It was really kind of her to offer to pick the railings up so we do not need to rent another U-Haul cargo van or pickup truck.

I posted four more vintage Native American cuff bracelets and have about a dozen left to go. It has been more than a month since I have taken any new photos of jewelry items to sell. I decided to get through these cuff bracelets first since I already have the photos.

Even though I have not been posting new items consistently, I did still make some sales this past week. I accepted offers on three items on Poshmark - this Blue B sweatshirt was not very profitable after the offer but the request was for size Small which is the most challenging size to sell. I also sold a pair of simple earrings I have had for a long time and a Hubei (Chinese) turquoise necklace.

Interestingly enough, after the fiasco with the matching pendant I received a strong offer on Poshmark and sold the cuff bracelet to another customer. Before I ship, I am going to make a little video showing that the stones are all secure in their settings. They feel extremely solid so I hope the cuff will make it safely through Poshmark authentication and then on to the customer. The returned pendant made it back to Mount Prospect where Sue R. verified that the center stone was loose. She shipped it to me and I will bring it in for repair once I receive it. The original customer for the pendant actually asked me when I would be reposting it! I guess I cannot stop her unless I block her but I hope she does not buy it again.

I received an inquiry through my website about this stunning Federico necklace and this abalone and amethyst ring. I offered the customer my 10% discount code for first time customers and she ended up purchasing the necklace. I am so eternally grateful for any customers who purchase directly from the website as they are putting their faith in me. The necklace is amazing (I thought about keeping it but have a different Federico turquoise necklace already) and I hope she loves it.

Speaking of Federico, it occurred to me that I had not yet pre-printed my passes for the first show that I like to attend in Tucson. I always plan to arrive on a Tuesday and this show starts on Wednesday. I printed the passes (it was definitely sad taking Mother off the list as a buyer) and was looking through the list of exhibitors and was really surprised to see that Federico moved venues to this show, instead of the one he was always at which starts Saturday. I actually preferred him at the other location because it is a true wholesale show, they definitely keep the retail customers out. There will be a lot more competition for his jewelry now. I will need to make a decision as to whether to visit Federico first or the big booth I normally go to. At any rate, I am really glad I learned about this change. If I would have gone to the other show Saturday and not seen Federico there I would have been shocked.

I was also happy this week that I keep up with local real estate because I learned through Redfin that our "lovely" neighbors across Louis Street listed their home on Friday and it sold by Sunday. She moved there in 2003, two years after me and a man entered the picture a few years later. I never had any interactions with them and with good reason. Back in the day when I was having extensive remodeling done, plus our people coming and going for estate sales, she called the village multiple times to "report" us. She even dragged Kuochun into it and we both had to go to Mount Prospect court. She called code enforcement to scope out one of my garage sales, when we are allowed to have three sales per year in Mount Prospect and at the time I was only having two, spring and fall. Another time, they rang our doorbell at 8:00 AM on a Saturday to tell us not to have our dogs set foot on their property. Unless we cross the street, we would need to walk past their house to head west. I was half asleep and Kuochun answered the door, I could hear him apologizing over and over. If I would have answered the door it would have been a different story. They did not have any right to tell us our dogs cannot step on their parkway, as the parkways are all owned by the village. After years of having a cat, last year they ended up getting a puppy! I do not like confrontation and personally did not walk in front of her house after that but Kuochun always wanted to walk through there. He lets the girls walk anywhere they want on people's lawns. After he got yelled at through the window by a guy for doing this in the neighborhood adjacent to us in Scottsdale, I feel anxiety every time it happens. He does not want to change so I just keep walking and let him deal with it. Our neighbor behind us said both she and this woman belonged to a "Concerned Mount Prospect Citizens" group on Facebook and she had to leave the group because she was so annoying. They will not be missed!

I have been wanting to go to a farmer's market ever since we came back to AZ and we finally had the chance on Saturday. I decided to go with the Uptown Farmer's Market in Phoenix because it is the biggest and best. At the last minute I remembered to grab my small Hulken bag and I am glad we did because we filled it up! There is a nice lady who sells wonderful baked goods at reasonable prices. We loaded up on apricot rolls, a mini cherry coffee cake and four different types of cookies. Usually by the time we get there Pasta Rea is completely sold out but luckily for us they still had some fresh pasta remaining. For $8 each, we chose large containers of rigatoni, linguine and the last container of gigli, which are pretty pasta cones with ruffled edges. Chubby Cheeks Cookies are fantastic and have a 4 for $15 deal for huge gourmet cookies. I chose two stuffed cookie butter, a salted caramel chocolate chip and a snickerdoodle. Baker Thirteen is always a must for me, I love the Apricot Walnut bread and this time I also spotted something new - Rosemary Italian bread. They are already sliced which is awesome. I always pick up one flavor of each scone and a bundle of sugar M&M cookies. McLendon's has a huge booth with produce, nuts and more. This time, I noticed a choose your combination of raw spinach, wild arugula and spring mix by the pound. It made the most amazing salad and in my opinion is worth the trip just to get it. We also picked up some salmon dog treats for the girls. They really smell fishy but they love them. Kuochun hemmed and hawed over the giant vat of jambalaya they were making at one booth but in the end decided against it because we were not going right home. This farmer's market is also awesome for dog watching - there were Chihuahuas to Great Danes and everything in between. We even saw a Mini Schnauzer puppy (my guess was about 12 weeks old) in a front baby carrier wearing little shoes. I guess starting them early on the shoes is the secret!

Kuochun has a dental appointment to replace a gold crown with a porcelain one on Monday. He was concerned that after his appointment he would not be able to eat properly so he suggested we go out to eat Sunday evening. During our numerous trips to assisted living, I noticed a California Pizza Kitchen nearby. We used to go to the one in Arlington Heights every so often until they left and were replaced by Passero. My favorites were the Caesar salad which was stellar, shrimp scampi pizza, the roasted garlic chicken pizza and the garlic cream fettuccine with shrimp, chicken or both. When we arrived and I grabbed my phone to step out of the car, I noticed their Yelp review average was 3.0. I thought that cannot be, I will judge for myself. I was sorry to see that the menu has been streamlined and now they are down to 18 pizzas from two menu pages worth. Both my favorites have been scratched from the menu. I ended up ordering the fettuccine with shrimp and Kuochun went with the jambalaya. Although the restaurant was not busy and our server was very friendly, the service was excruciatingly  slow from beginning to end. CPK used to have sliced sourdough bread upon request. This time we did not need to request the bread, thick half slices of warm bread and a small bowl of olive oil for dipping were brought out which were good. The Caesar salad was not as good as before but still fine. However for both of us, the pasta was way undercooked and hard to chew. Definitely not worth the calories! Turns out this is the only CPK in the Phoenix area. Maybe we will try the one in Schaumburg this summer to see if it is any better.

Goals for next week will be to continue to work on Mother's estate and to wrap up the cuff bracelet project. I also need to tackle Mother's items in the garage that will be sold in the March sale. I would really like to get my car back in the garage before we head for Tucson.