Happy New Year! We are back to doing estate sales after a 3-week holiday break so that means it is time for the blog again! For me, it is never fully a break as I am still cycling through 2025 paperwork. Next week the last estate sale package of the year is due and then I will not have to do any for three weeks. I appreciated the time away from the daily grind so I could continue to work on the integration of the items we moved from Mount Prospect to Scottsdale. I would say I am about 90% through it, I have made huge strides from when the movers dumped four U-Boxes worth of stuff on us to now. The house was an absolute mess! It was expensive but for my sanity I needed to hire the movers to stage items to go to Prescott in the garage. I have been adding items as I go through everything and the garage is chock full.
I have started the process of posting items online and on Facebook Marketplace for Mother and myself and it has been a great success so far, even though most of it was after the window of when people want to receive items for Christmas. For Mother, I started by posting some of her home decor items I thought people would enjoy, like her Daum crystal decorative dishes, Michael Aram picture frame and antique sterling silver picture frame. a couple of sterling silver decorative items and a Native American pottery vase. These items all sold within 3-4 days of posting. The only items which have not sold yet are this Clay Bay pottery vase from Door County WI and a pair of sterling silver napkin rings. I also posted a new pair of L'Artiste by Spring Step shoes which are available. But they will all sell in time! I have a pair of beautiful Michael Aram picture frames that I am going to post but one of the frames is missing the glass. I am going to see if I can buy one at Michaels. I know they do framing there so I bet they have pre-cut glass, I had all of my diplomas framed there back in the day.
Next up (after we return from Tucson) will be Mother's handbags and clothing. There are about a half-dozen handbags but many more pieces of clothing. There are beautiful dresses by Printfresh and Daughters of India as well as Eileen Fisher items. We gave about 150 pieces of Eileen Fisher to the store for their Renew program, which recycles clothing and pays $5 per item in store credit. These were the pieces with damage or stains that were not worth selling online. Unfortunately I did not have time to hit the Schaumburg Outlet before leaving town but I think I will use the store credits to buy a new coat for Prescott. I had to donate all of my coats the night before the house closing because there was no room in the U-Boxes or the car. I took a look at the Eileen Fisher website a while back and liked this coat. I had an Eileen Fisher alpaca coat that I wore for years and it held up really well. I just checked the website again and it is now on sale, 35% off! I have plenty of credits to cover it.
After holding on to it for years I finally took the time to list my Emilia Castillo silver plate cream and sugar set. It was such a challenge to photograph due to the mirror finish and took the better part of an afternoon to list it. Now I know why I was putting it off but this is a new era now! It sold the next day when I accepted an offer of $30 less than my asking price.
However when I was researching comps for this set on eBay I came across the cutest necklace by the same designer! It was on auction but ending soon so I waited it out to see what would happen. In the end I was the only bidder. The listing photos were not great so I took a chance but I totally love it! It is such nice quality, the stars are double-sided which is a great feature. This is a quick pic I took to show Rachel. I think I am going to have four stars taken off each side because it is quite long. The good thing is if I change my mind I can easily have them put back on. The sale of the cream and sugar paid for most of this necklace so it was a win-win!
Another thing I did during the break was to redo the way I store my jewelry, as well as purge some more. As much as I love the style of vintage Native American pieces, I have found that they just do not suit me to personally wear so I purged them all out. One of the pieces I purged was this vintage butterfly which was originally a pin but I had converted to a pendant with the addition of a shepherd's hook. It sold on eBay in a few days. I do not like the way the shepherd's hook pendants lay on me so as beautiful as it is, if it does not look good it has to go. During this process I thought of my neck as valuable real estate and asked myself - is this piece worthy? This made it easy to eliminate the pieces which are not right for me and concentrate on the ones that are. I guess I hit a home run with these pieces I purchased from Rocki Gorman's store when we were in Santa Fe this fall. I rarely receive compliments on my jewelry but when I wear this necklace and pendant I receive compliments everywhere I go. It is lightweight and easy to wear so it is great everyday jewelry. We did not have much time at the Rocki Gorman store because we were waiting for our place in line at lunch but the moment I saw this I knew it was for me. I have several other Rocki Gorman pendants so I can wear all of them with this necklace.
Something else that really helped take my jewelry organization to the next level was developing a system. I am sharing it because I hope it helps others. Once I eliminated the pieces that I knew were not going to work for me, I purged further by trying everything on. Most of my necklace collection is Navajo pearls and pendants, but depending upon the size of the pendant, some of the Navajo pearls work better than others. Most of the time if I am going somewhere I ended up not wearing jewelry because it was too time-consuming to figure out what goes best together. I had already used my Brother P-Touch to label the Navajo pearl bags with their length and bead size. I took it a step further by figuring out what looks best and actually putting the necklaces and pendants together in bundles. I used the P-Touch to make a note to throw in each pendant bag with the necklace it looks best with in case it were to get separated. As an example above, I found that I have five pendants that look great with this Navajo pearl and Kingman turquoise necklace by Preston Haley. I have many pearls from the Haley family, there are fantastic quality everyday pearls. Then I have my Virginia Tso and Rose Martin pearls for more special occasions. This allowed me to purge the pearls that are still very nice but not as nice as these. I am keeping one of each size because I use them as display for selling pendants online. I do have some pearls that I do not need for myself or for display and I will be posting them later this month. I have started a box with priority jewelry to post and they are in the box!
I used the 24mm labels for the necklace specs and the 12mm labels for the "goes with" information as well as where, when and how much I paid. I prefer the black text on white labels for this purpose. I suggest getting the model PT-2700 for making labels. The PT-2700 is an older model (I inherited the first one from Dad and purchased a second one on eBay) but I much prefer it to newer models. The number one thing I prefer is that it automatically cuts the labels off at the perfect spot. I had purchased a newer model and it leaves a long tail, so then I purchased a tiny paper cutter to cut off the tails. I use the Plymor 4mm weight bags, I get them on Amazon in different sizes. The 2mm bags are flimsy and look worn out easily. This project has paid off already, now it takes seconds to grab the packet of jewelry I would like to wear for the day. It will be great for traveling too!
I posted nearly 60 items online in December, including a few Facebook Marketplace items for local pickup only. Even though it was very close to Christmas, I posted several Christmas-themed items. I decided to sell two of my three remaining vintage ceramic Christmas trees. They both sold but financially I gave them away. I knew that Poshmark had a 5-pound limit for their standard shipping cost and that additional weight would be extra but I did not know that there was an upper limit of 10 pounds. I sold the larger of the two trees on Poshmark, packed it up extremely well and the package ended up being 17 pounds. In the end, I paid $22.50 for the extra Poshmark shipping label and $139.50 for the dimensional weight difference at the post office and I only received $64.00 for the tree. But I did not want to disappoint the buyer, even at a big loss for me. It would have been easy to cancel the order because Poshmark does not publicly display feedback (it actually happened to me once and I was really disappointed) but I did not feel it was right. I did sell the other tree locally through Facebook Marketplace for $60.00 and the buyer was so thrilled with it. He originally thought he was going to place it in his infant daughter's room so she could look at the pretty lights but they loved the tree so much they placed it in the living room and put their previous tree in their daughter's room. I always look at the big picture - you win some, you lose some.
A couple of the jewelry sales of note were these statement pieces - the amazing Art Nouveau style hinged bangle bracelet by Amberman and the Chimney Butte #8 turquoise and pink conch shell cluster pendant. I have sold a lot of Amberman jewelry over the years through the jewelry caravan but some of the pieces I selected were priced out of the budget for estate sale shoppers. I was thrilled to sell this piece for the full asking price. I have another one which is the same style but slightly smaller in scale. It is now online. The Chimney Butte pendant is from my personal collection - I love the combination of stones but it was just too large and heavy for me, especially when paired with the size Navajo pearls it needed. I accepted an eBay offer for $100.00 less than asking because after fees it still allowed me to break even.
I sold a couple of incredible cuff bracelets locally through Facebook Marketplace - I had sold the top cuff which is by San Felipe Pueblo artist Jacob Troncosa in the spring but the buyer had a change of heart (said it was damaged) so I allowed a return. It came back to me with a rattling sound (it did not leave my possession that way) but it was during the time I was transitioning back to Mount Prospect for the summer and it was shipped there. I could not have it repaired until I returned to Scottsdale in the fall. I had it fixed up and promptly knocked if off my desk and a couple of the leaves fell off. I had it repaired again at my go-to place and the owner of the store happened to be there when I picked up. He told me that he watched his repair person work on it for 2.5 hours, saw I was only charged $25.00 and he said he "doesn't make any money on me!" I did not say anything, what does he want me to do, offer to pay more? He repeated it and his daughter who was ringing me up told him how many repairs I bring there. I also refer many people to shop there and take repairs, including numerous times in the Facebook jewelry groups which have hundreds of thousands of members. He did not care a bit and when his daughter said "that's my dad" I said I worked with my family, I know how it is! That man does not know how to treat customers. It turned out that the man who purchased the bracelet saw it online in the spring, figured it sold and then was pleasantly surprised to see it back on the market again. I thought he was purchasing it for himself but it turned out it was a surprise gift for his son. I am so happy that it has a new caretaker now.
The sugilite bracelet by Navajo master Allison Snowhawk Lee is a true work of art. A gorgeous young woman of East Indian descent came for it and she was wearing a beautiful purple eyelet blouse. The bracelet fit her like a glove, it was meant for her. She was actually visiting from Gallup NM where she is a jewelry dealer. She personally knew Allison Lee who sadly passed away in 2022 as well as his super-talented sons who are carrying on the tradition so it was meant to be. I have a third cuff bracelet on local layaway, a very nice man stopped by chose it for his wife's birthday. Unfortunately because the garage is packed I had to do these transactions in the driveway but hopefully by the end of February everything will be off to Prescott.
It has not been all fun and games during the holiday break, I could not help but think often about what we were going through last year at this time. Sunday January 4 marked the one-year anniversary of Mother's passing. I was able to almost settle Mother's estate in 2025, I still need to sell the rest of her possessions as well as assign values to the items Rachel and I are each keeping. I am keeping a white gold necklace with a little ring of diamonds around it and matching hoop earrings. Rachel kept a lot of furniture, home decor and art items. The one little vase I wanted to keep sadly did not make it here safely in the move so now I will not be keeping it. All in all I think it will end up being a wash. Next week I am going to host a "family estate sale" on Whatnot to try and sell some of these items including gold, silver and costume jewelry and the remaining home decor items. I have been spending all of my spare time since we have been back in Arizona to tag all of the for sale items. I will split up any unsold items, sending better items to my new Prescott boutique and keeping items better suited for a garage sale in Scottsdale. Once the garage is cleared out and the items moved to Prescott I will be able to host the garage sale, then whatever does not sell will be donated so I can move forward and devote more time to building my online presence, both for estate sales and jewelry. Prescott is not ready yet but the permit for the Arizona room was finally approved. I sent a progress payment so the company can buy the materials and get started. I also approved the carpeting and cabinets for the boutique. Next week my closet will be installed as well as outfitting Kuochun's closet and the laundry area. This small home will be organized to the max! Now if we could only go see it, it has been nearly six months since the closing and the last time we were there was for the home inspection before that.
On Christmas Day Kuochun and I went to We-Ko-Pa Casino for their buffet, it is about a half hour away and we had taken Mother there two years prior. It was a long wait but they only charged us $29.00 instead of the $34.00 we were expecting. Maybe it was a senior rate? Overall I would give the buffet a B grade this time, some of the food was better than others. I enjoyed the ham with bourbon sauce, fried rice, pizza, lasagna and Christmas cookies. The egg nog was warm and I did not try the shrimp scampi because there was no pasta or rice to pair with it. It was very nice to do something for the holiday but I am looking forward to going to Sweet Tomatoes in Tucson at the end of the month!
For New Year's Eve, Kuochun made the suggestion to order Lou Malnati's. I said since we ordered deep dish last time we should do thin crust this time. I chose a sausage and pepperoni along with Carol's chocolate chip cookes and Kuochun added on garlic parmesan wings. Normally he is on top of things as far as picking the orders up right when they are ready but he goofed and did not get there until 25 minutes late. It really showed in the consistency of the pizza. It was fun though seeing the downtown Prescott boot drop on CNN. Kuochun was so excited to have me come look at it. Next year we will be able to walk there. It is my understanding that there is an early drop at 10:00 PM and the actual drop at midnight.
On New Year's Day, I had a new handyman come to tackle some projects around the house. I found this husband and wife team through the Scottsdale Living Facebook group. Their company is called The Perfectionists and they were recommended by more than one person so that sounded good to me! He works for a contractor and does handyman work in his free time. Their premise is that he performs the same quality work as hiring a contractor without paying their big fees. He can do anything which does not require a permit. The original plan was to replace the two bathroom exhaust fans (they are both the originals from 1964 and the one on the first floor was making a dreadful noise) as well as switch out the chandelier in my work area with the one from my dining room in Mount Prospect, hang a sconce and towel bar which never got done during the last design project and rehang the toilet paper roll holder which was not hung properly the first time. It turned out that the new exhaust fans were not needed, it was just a loose screw in the first floor fan. Our atomic style fans were saved! It was a long and early day from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM but everything on the list for the day was accomplished plus a bonus project. The guest bedroom is open to below with three sections, each with a planter. Both designers suggested I take it all out and drywall it closed but I like keeping the architectural features. Since there was extra time, I asked about capping off the planters and he made caps out of wood and painted them to match. These projects made me so happy, with the exception of the light fixture from Mount Prospect the other items have literally been sitting around for three years. I reserved another day on January 31 which will make me very happy as well - I am going to take the designer's advice and cap off the strange hole in my room that wakes me up with the sun every day. It is a weird storage space with windows on the opposite side. It is not practical for storage, especially during the summers so closing it up makes sense to me. When I moved in, it was the only window in the room but I had a big window put in for Mother so she could see Camelback Mountain. I am also going to have the double door to the bedroom changed to a single pocket door, that way I can hang a TV on the wall and have extra wall space on the other side. Then eventually I can make the sitting area the workspace and have a dining space once again. This will cost a fraction of what it would have to go through a designer and contractor. After that, we will see about adding a door to the guest bedroom, adding a railing to the stairs and removing the carpeting.
Sue G is coming for her visit this coming Thursday evening so I have been preparing for her arrival as well. Once the Whatnot show is past me on Tuesday I can pack up the unsold items and try to fit them into the garage. My room is ready to go and next up is to move the for sale items which are in the sitting area so Sue has her own apartment-like space. I think she will really enjoy it because the bedroom has the on-suite bathroom, she will have the sitting area and the back patio and kitchen in close proximity. The winter oranges on our little tree are ready for her and our next door neighbor has a huge regular grapefruit tree. I saved the fruit picker I inherited with the house so we are good to go!
If there is down time, I will post an update next week, otherwise I will be back in two weeks!
