This posting will cover two weeks - the week prior to the Tucson Gem Show and the week of the show. As I mentioned last time, I made the decision not to cancel the Airbnb I scheduled back in early November and went on with the Tucson trip. In a nutshell, it was not the same without Mother and Kuochun was a good sport but he was not really up to doing a full day at one show like I had been. The Airbnb was convenient to the shows, no trip was more than 16 minutes so my original thought was that Kuochun could just leave me at a show, walk the girls and come back later to pick me up. More details once I cover the previous week!
I did sell some items before and during the trip including a coral necklace and earrings set on Depop, a Federico cross and my favorite pair of Federico earrings to two different customers on eBay, another pair of Federico earrings, a gorgeous sandcast cuff bracelet and a turquoise belt buckle with leather belt on Etsy and a pair of Leo Feeney turquoise earrings on Poshmark. I adjusted my handling time on eBay and Etsy to accommodate being gone so everything will be shipped on time. I am glad I did not put any online venues on vacation hold!
Last Monday I resumed work on the vintage cuff bracelet project, posting five pieces including this very lovely 1960s representative. The artist paid every attention to detail on this one!
I also tackled the difficult job of taking a look at Mother's jewelry. I separated it into three categories - gold, Native American and other sterling silver. I am not keeping much, the gold is not sentimental as I was not along on the trips to Italy and Mother hadn't worn it for a long time. I would like to keep one white gold woven necklace with a donut-shaped charm which has little diamonds on it. It matches a bracelet my parents gave me when they went on one of their Italy trips. I also have two other white gold pieces - a pair of earrings and a cool ring with a basketweave pattern of diamonds. I am sure I will never go back to yellow gold but would like to keep these few white gold pieces for the future. If I ever get tired of Native American jewelry they are pieces I could wear every day, along with my watch.
Kuochun had his dental appointment as well. I asked him to ask the dentist for his gold crown so we could cash it in but he would not give it to him, saying it was not worth enough. I said I am sure it is worth plenty when they collect the gold from all of their patients and cash it in!
Last Tuesday I took some time to hang a decorative shower curtain in the bedroom window as a temporary measure to block out the morning light until do some decorating. I used a tension rod so I did not have to make any unnecessary holes. It is definitely helping me not wake up with the sun every day. Also, after a couple of visits to two different locations of my phone provider and not getting the answers I was hoping for, I decided to bite the bullet and take over Mother's phone. I was not in the market for a new phone but it did not make sense to have Mother's brand new phone go unused until the contract was up two years from now. By then, it will be time for another new phone. I ended up having to take over the monthly payments that the phone provider was going to pay. I am saving a bit by reducing my account by one phone though. I had an iPhone 14 Pro Max which is larger than Mother's iPhone 16 but a number of improvements have been made since my phone came out, including an improved camera. Because the phone was purchased so recently we were not able to complete the task in one shot. I am going to sell my phone as well as Mother's previous phone, an iPhone 13 Mini.
Last Wednesday the phone updated overnight, officially releasing Mother's phone number into the universe. Her death certificates were supposed to be ready by now but the funeral home let us know there was a delay. I think it was because they put the wrong date on the application. We ended up going to the Office of Vital Records in Phoenix (very handy to be living in the capital city) and were able to get certificates while we waited. Rachel and I were also wanting to donate the bulk of Mother's medical supplies but were having trouble finding someone to get back to us. Because the man at the mobility store suggested reaching out to a veterans' group, I tried Paralyzed Veterans. They happily said bring it all on over! It turned out these two stops were only five minutes apart.
Last Thursday I made an appointment to bring my two MCM dining chairs and desk chair to a local upholsterer. I already had fabric which was a great match to the mosaic top of the table and there was enough to cover the desk chair as well. I purchased the fabric for another project - Mother and I picked up four cute Mexican dining chairs for only $5 each two years ago and she was going to paint them and we were going to have the seats recovered. Sadly although her intentions were good she never had the energy to work on this project. I am not going to paint them and do not have a place to put them so I decided to use the fabric in another way. The photos above are before the upholstery. They are going to be ready in a couple of weeks.
Last Friday we picked up Mother's car from the local body shop. Rachel is going to take the car and she decided to have the work done here because it is much more expensive to have it done in her area. The car looks like new! Rachel and John shipped us a car cover so we put it on and the car is in semi-storage in the parking lot at Overture Arcadia. Because the car is a chestnut brown color, they have named it Root Beer or Rooty for short. They are going to come back in March to drive the car home because the weather across the country will be better by then.
After that, we went to the Phoenix Gem Show at the Arizona State Fairgrounds. The show is put on by the same folks that run the Gem Shows at Rosemont. I have not been to Rosemont for many years and wanted to check Phoenix out since I had never been there, even though the Gem Show was the following week. I pre-registered as a wholesale buyer so I did not have to buy tickets but parking was $12. The show was a total bummer. I do not think there were more than 50 vendors total and very few customers. I felt bad for the vendors because I am sure they paid a lot for their booths. However, most of their offerings were the same. We came across someone who had pretty nice jewelry but when I asked her about wholesale pricing, she said "NO! RETAIL!!" We were out of there!
It was not a total loss though because we were not far from the Costco Business Center which has lots of different items as opposed to the regular Costco stores. Kuochun found food items he liked such as pre-made sandwiches and salads. Typical Phoenix drivers though - we were waiting in line to get gas and I was driving. I did not realize that the person ahead of us did not move up enough and someone took that opportunity to cut in front of all of us in line. We just could not believe it!
On Sunday, I posted four additional cuff bracelets and three vintage Native American consignment pieces. This appears to be a "marriage" piece - the split band cuff bracelet is Navajo made by Wilbert Benally. At some point, someone mounted this carved lapis lazuli flower with aquamarine color center stone to the front of the bracelet. Definitely one of a kind. Somehow, I still have eight cuff bracelets left to post from this group. I swear they are multiplying!
When I use Vendoo, I cross list items in the order they appear on Vendoo's list and eBay is first up. I posted one of the consignment items to eBay and Etsy is up next, which is a two-step process. I created the Etsy draft and was shocked to find that the piece sold on eBay to a Phoenix buyer in only 8 minutes! I have never had such a quick sale. Just two days later, the second of the three pieces also sold on eBay. The one left to go is more common so I think it will take longer to sell but I was very happy with those results. I was going to post them to Facebook that evening which takes hours but I did not have to!
This past Monday and Tuesday leading up to our trip, I completed as many tasks for Mother's estate as I could. I had things pretty neat and tidy around the house but had started cleaning and pricing items for Mother's estate sale and had to leave a bunch of stuff sitting all over the place. When Mother moved from Overture Arcadia to assisted living, the movers put everything in boxes (dishes whether they were clean or dirty) so everything has to be run through the dishwasher. We are about halfway through that project. Mother was a huge fan of Ball jars of every shape and size, she put everything in them. There are way too many to keep so the excess will go up for sale. We had invested in the Ball plastic lids as opposed to the metal canning lids which rust when used more than once so I am sure people will be happy to have them.
We were shooting to leave for Tucson at around 2:00 PM Tuesday as check-in time was 4:00 PM. We ran kind of late partially because I had a couple of last-minute sales to pack and ship and ended up arriving at about 5:30 PM. It is a little under 2 hours, about the same time it used to take to drive from Northbrook to Oconomowoc. This time I had chosen a more affordable place to stay which was closer to the shows. We liked the space just fine (2 bedroom/1 bath, 925 square foot patio home) but the overall neighborhood was not as nice as we are used to. It was challenging for Kuochun to walk the girls because most everyone had large dogs in their chain link fenced backyards and of course they were barking like crazy at each other. Kuochun said half the time he had to walk in the middle of the street. This is something that is impossible to tell from Airbnb photos. All I could tell was that there was a sidewalk out in front which is one of Kuochun's few requirements. It seemed that the unit next door was also a short-term rental. When we arrived, there appeared to be two men and a woman staying there. For 3 days, there was a lot of arguing, yelling and slamming of doors. After that, things were pretty quiet for a couple of days, other than a man coming in and out a lot (maybe he was the owner or working for a management company) and then Sunday, two more men and a woman showed up in three cars from three different states. It looked like they were there for the Gem Show.
The first thing we did once we settled in was to make a beeline for Sweet Tomatoes! I mentioned before that this is the only location in the country and it turned out to be only 4 miles away from the Airbnb. It was as great as before and even better in some instances. The salad bar was basically the same except for a couple of additions. There was a couscous salad made with couscous that was so tiny. It was delicious! I always used to do half Caesar salad and half build my own salad, and add the cold pasta to it. I was easily able to duplicate that once again. The chicken soup is now rice instead of noodle and although Kuochun loved it, I think the one at Costco is much better and it is made with clean ingredients. I used to avoid the pasta because it was always overcooked but not this time! The mac and cheese cavatappi was perfectly done. No pepperoni cheese bread, there was cheese bread, foccacia or cornbread. The soft serve ice cream was still there and the chocolate cookie crumbles were really finely done and tasted great. There were chocolate chip cookie bars which were good, we used to buy the bag of chocolate chip cookies. We were honored to be there and enjoyed our visit.
Wednesday marked the first show day and although we arrived early and were able to find a parking space the line was hugely long to get in. We came to find out that the procedure changed and although I cut out the show passes and put them in the holders from last year, they were not the "actual" passes. New passes on laminated paper were generated for each of us and it really slowed down the process. But it gave us time to admire the amazing sculptures on display at the entrance! They are made out of individual metal tubes.
While we were waiting in line, I made the decision to visit Federico first. He had a single booth at this show and it was easy to shop because it was not so loaded with customers. I selected quite a few pairs of earrings, mostly on the budget-friendly side (for Federico, anyway!) I also picked up four of the turquoise squash blossom necklaces and four of the "tab" turquoise drop necklaces. I also chose quite a few vintage pieces, including a sterling silver box with a turquoise accent and a butterfly pin and ring by Federico as well as some very interesting Navajo pieces from the 1920s and on. Federico wanted me to see a colorful cuff bracelet which was hiding in the back of the case and I did not see right away. I recognized the artist instantly. It turned out it was by Don Lucas, a renowned Southwest jewelry designer. Mother passed on a similar bracelet at a Phoenix antique mall a few years ago and always kicked herself for not getting it. This felt like a little sign from the jewelry gods. Federico let me know that they would also be at their usual show on Saturday with a booth four times the size. All of a sudden I feel Kuochun touching my arm and I thought "what's going on?" He then yells out for Federico to take a photo with me. I HATE having my photo taken but this one is not too bad.
Next, I went to my favorite massive Native American booth. I am not sure what I missed by not going there first but I did find beautiful pieces. For the first time in several years, handmade Navajo pearls were abounding. I did not take inventory of what I might "need" because I figured there would not be any. So I choose various lengths and sizes with the intention of filling in my collection and selling the rest. There was one longer necklace with fluted beads from which I will be able to have a bracelet as well as a shorter necklace made. There were bracelets too which will be up for sale.
I love to dig at this booth and search for hidden gems and as usual I found some including four cuff bracelets without stones by phenomenal artists such as Ronnie Willie, Roland Dixson and Sunshine Reeves. I could not find the artist on the fourth bracelet but in my opinion it is the best of the bunch. Most everything I chose did not have stones but I did select a 5-station necklace with Armenian turquoise, which I have not encountered before. The color is such a dreamy green.
I made one boo-boo and selected two cactus-themed pin/pendant pieces by Bob Becenti without looking closely at the tags. They are great but I thought they were discounted and they were not. Apparently his work goes for a lot. I will keep one and try to sell the other one for what I paid.
I strayed from my usual path and chose skull-themed Southwest Style jewelry from Santa Fe artist Gregory Segura. The centerpiece of the collection was the eyeglass holder with black leather cording. For the right person, it is so cool.
By the time I finished with these two booths it was time to walk the girls. I decided to call it a day and go back to the Airbnb with Kuochun. We had lunch there and went out for dinner. We looked at "restaurants near me" and came across Little Anthony's Diner. I thought Kuochun would like the '50s theme so we gave it a try. The food was not amazing but it was a fun place. They played half the songs from Grease which I just loved. A young lady was the DJ and she was making announcements throughout the night. I am glad we had the experience, it was much needed to just forget about everything for a short while.
Thursday was the second of the three shows I like to attend. I just like to tour the indoor space. I first visited a vendor I purchased from for the first time last year. I sold nearly everything I purchased, which included Navajo jewelry but two excellent artists so I was excited to go back for more. Last year I selected butterfly rings but there were not any this year. However I bought out all of the butterfly pendants. They are all so cute but I will only keep one! I also got lots of statement rings, earrings, hair combs and pendants. I am so happy with everything I chose! I did not expect to keep it but I really took a shine to the Picasso jasper fetish bear pendant. There was a second one which I left behind, I wish I would have gotten it. In previous years I observed that customers were going ga-ga over the Mexican pottery pieces. I did not pay attention to the pieces last year but decided to take a closer look this year. I ended up buying a whole shipping box worth! Of course, I gravitated towards the flowers, butterflies and dragonflies. I chose a larger piece which I will put on the credenza in the office area. The rest of the pieces will go online.
The second stop was Buffalo Dancer - I just love the artists and their work and really believe in what they do but I have so much backstock, several years worth to be exact. I did post some pieces online this summer and some of them sold during the year. One of the artists asked about Mother and I had to give him the bad news. He was sincerely sad and said his father is not doing well. Of course it is a given but I did say to treasure every moment. Although Mother was not in good health I never expected that I would not be able to talk to her again.
I did pick up pieces which I do not have in my current inventory such as the leather keychains made with vintage coins and some new styles like the Isleta Cross pendant and several earrings, concho rings and a concho necklace. As usual, I gravitated towards the hearts and I chose a couple of statement necklaces, five pairs of earrings, three rings and two cuff bracelets. I did find three vintage pieces including a baby cuff bracelet, an adult-size cuff and a flower ring. Luckily I brought the cash with me that I had received from in-person sales because their new policy is to charge an extra 10% for credit card use.
Finally, I made a purchase from vendors I had seen before but had never shopped with. A colorful vintage Navajo pendant caught my eye and when I find one thing at a booth, I keep looking for more. I chose lots of Navajo pearls, all of which are handmade except for those that are 4mm or smaller. There is a multi-strand, several single strands, graduated stamped beads, necklaces with turquoise, bracelets and more. They are not only beautiful but reasonably priced for what they are so I think they will do well. I found several amazing vintage watch tip sets, including two more sets of the owl motif that I had and sold last year. Every set I selected is going to look amazing on Apple Watches!
Kuochun decided to go walk the girls at that point so I stayed and walked the rest of the building. I ended up not purchasing anything else but was happy to walk around and view it all. Every year I hope to see the Tibetan jewelry lady and every year she is not there. Unfortunately she has not been back since the pandemic. She was so wonderful to work with and her prices were unbeatable. After that, we went for lunch. Last year, Mother and I were on our own and stopped by Beyond Bread for lunch one day. It was unforgettable, out of this world good. I had a shrimp po'boy and Mother had the Reuben which is one of their specialties. It was on my list to have Kuochun try Beyond Bread. We both went with the po'boy. For me, it was very good but not quite as outstanding as the last time. The turn-off for me was that the shrimp on the po'boy was cold. Kuochun he really liked it but I do not care for cold shrimp. I had pasta salad as my side which was very good. I would definitely go back again though.
After that, we went to Uncle Bob's to pick up some popcorn, which has apparently been a Tucson staple since 1963. When we headed out of town last year Kuochun and I noticed a sign from the highway but we did not have time to stop. We went in honor of Mother because popcorn was one of her very favorite foods. The shop was really tiny and we ended up making our own Chicago mix by getting a bag of cheese popcorn and a bag of caramel corn. I did not notice that Kuochun had the XL bag and I had the L. I would have reversed the two so there would have been more cheese and less caramel.
Normally on Fridays we take a break from the shows because the third show I attend does not start until Saturday. The past several years we have driven to Tubac which is a wonderful place to visit but we had decided in advance that we would take a year off from it. It is about 45 minutes each way and on the way back, everyone has to stop at border patrol because it is close to the Mexican border. My thought was that we would go back to the first show since I had only visited the two booths the first day but we ended up going out for lunch instead. I chose Postino, which I did not know anything about but it looked nice so I wanted to try it. I have seen a few locations around Phoenix and Scottsdale. I now know Postino is a wine bar and they also serve food. Their specialty is bruschetta but Kuochun and I went with sandwiches. I was surprised but Kuochun chose the cheddar ale soup. He is not a cheese fan at all. He said it was OK because he had the feeling it would be thinner. Good thing he was right. My chicken sandwich, homemade potato chips and prickly pear lemonade really hit the spot. I never order drinks at restaurants but I ordered the lemonade in honor of Mother, who really liked it. Prickly pear is a cactus so it has an interesting taste but I enjoyed it. I will definitely go to a location in our area in the future.
Saturday it was time for the third and final show. Since I had already been to Federico at the other show on Wednesday, I decided to go to another booth I enjoy first. These folks have an amazing selection of vintage to new Navajo and Zuni pieces. Their prices are up there but I am always willing to pay more for uniqueness. We did not get there at opening and the booth was swamped. My favorites are the Rose Martin pearls and the jewelry which is sold by the gram. I selected four Rose Martin pearl necklaces which I did not realize they were an additional 10% off. Comparing this year's to the ones I purchased last year, I just love the two I kept which are 18" and 20" bead lengths and have extender chains. The two necklaces coordinate but are not exactly the same so they look really great together, especially with a V-neck top because they fill in the V nicely. I will probably keep the one with saucer beads because it is so different than the others. I also chose a graduated strand of statement pearls by Preston Haley. I have several beaded necklaces by the Haley family and they do a phenomenal job. I also selected really cool vintage cuffs, rings and earrings as well as a few new pieces. Someone is just going to love the turquoise statement ring!
We then went to pay Federico a visit. Since I had already made one purchase of staple pieces, I did not buy as heavily but found very interesting items including two different filigree necklace and earring sets, a statement turquoise cluster pendant, one of a kind earrings, two different butterfly pin/pendant pieces and a butterfly money clip. I also filled in the collection of 3-dimensional flowers with a cuff bracelet, line bracelet, pin/pendant and rings. Federico was very proud of and wanted me to purchase his new abalone earrings. I chose the 2-stone post dangles and a chandelier style. Federico let me know that they did not fully back these pieces in silver in order to keep their weight down. I walked the rest of that building but did not purchase anything else.
After that, we took a short break, Kuochun walked the girls and then he said he would like to try the Desert Diamond casino buffet because it was crab legs Saturday. The higher price for a crab legs buffet is wasted on me but I was sure I would find plenty of other items to eat. The buffet opened at 3:00 PM and we arrived shortly beforehand but the line was long. We finally made our entrance and it was really good! I was able to make a nice salad and I had some of the best fried shrimp that I can recall, shrimp pasta which was melt in your mouth, macaroni and cheese, cilantro rice and andouille sausage. There were lots of dessert choices so I was sure to save room for dessert. I just marveled at all of the people who were loading two plates at a time with as much as they could possibly fit. It was as if they thought the place was going to run out of food! Kuochun tried a few crab legs but as usual, he felt it was a lot of work for not much payoff. But he did enjoy everything else.
On Sunday, I wanted to try a restaurant for brunch (not a buffet) and chose Locale Neighborhood Italian Restaurant. It looked good for a meal at any time of day but we went during brunch hours. I went with the breakfast sandwich with roasted potatoes and and Kuochun chose the linguine with clam sauce. Not brunchy but it is what he wanted. We both really enjoyed our meals and the atmosphere was great. I would definitely go there again to try lunch or dinner.
We finally made it back to the first show, I did want to walk the show but also was looking for the sister booth of the new to vintage booth at the other show. A very cute girl was working at the other show, I was wearing the Leander Tahe flower pendant I purchased the first day and she asked me if I purchased it from them. I said no, but I was interested in getting more. She said the sister booth had them as well as the matching rings. They have a $1,000 minimum so I normally just spin through there and do not purchase anything but this time they had enough items of interest. I went with two each of the pendants and rings and the pendants were $100 less than I paid! Mine is a little larger and more detailed though. I also picked up some fun stuff by known artists including cactus, dragonfly, butterfly and star necklaces. I was also thrilled to find some star necklaces by Navajo artist Jacqueline Silver whose pieces I love but I have never seen out in the wild before. I tried to find the Leon Martinez family, who I had purchased gorgeous pieces from the past three years but sadly (but good for my wallet!) were not there. It worked out OK because I forgot my large wallet which had my other business credit card in it and I was out of limit on my other cards.
In the evening, Kuochun wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant nearby and I actually overheard the people in line behind us on the first day talking about it. They do not take reservations so we went over there, only to find that the wait was 1.5 hours! That would put the seating time at 30 minutes before closing. I did not know where else to go so we went to Caruso's, which has been a Tucson staple downtown since the '30s. We had not been there for three years so I thought it was a good chance to go again. We were quoted a 20-25 minute wait when we arrived and Kuochun gave his phone number to receive a text when the table was ready. Shortly after, he realized he forgot his phone in the car and went to go get it. In the meantime, our table came up early and I decided to take it because I was not sure how long it would be until it was our turn again. The hostess said she would take care of it and let Kuochun know. Unfortunately she did not and Kuochun was left waiting up front while I was in the back at the table. Our server went to go get him and boy was he mad at me! I said the hostess literally said she would take care of it and it had only been 4 minutes. He said no, it was definitely 20 minutes! Then I got out my phone and showed him that it was 4 minutes from the time he texted me asking me where I was and the time I let him know I was at the table. That definitely put a damper on the evening. I normally get the special which is a combination ravioli and spaghetti and meatballs dish but decided to get the half and half this time which was ravioli and pasta of my choice. I asked for rigatoni with pesto sauce as my choice but I received alfredo sauce with mushrooms and pesto on top of it. The server must have heard me say "oh no, it has mushrooms!" and came back and said that is how they do pesto. Unfortunately pushing the mushrooms onto Kuochun's plate was not enough. The meal was cold and the normally fantastic garlic bread was not good either. We got a lot of end pieces and they were not warm enough. They have also instituted a new policy - first basket is complimentary, subsequent pieces of garlic bread are $2.00 for three. Kuochun ended up with spaghetti and meatballs when the server thought he wanted lasagna and he was trying to tell her linguine with seafood. But I said you had that for lunch! What a mess. We had such great experiences elsewhere I do not think I will be back.
Other than the final dinner, we had a very successful trip. I will be bringing back lots of goodies to offer for sale and we were able to try several new restaurants. The Airbnb was more affordable, convenient to the shows and a good place to work but the neighborhood left something to be desired. So far, I have not found the one place I would go back to year after year.
This is more than enough to talk about, in the coming weeks I will post photos of the new arrivals. It may be a tall order but my goal is to get everything posted online by the end of February. We brought the full size computer along and during our downtime I set up on Vendoo the approximately 70 items I purchased the first day. All I need to do is take photos and cross list and they will be good to go.
Until next time!
