Turquoise Avalanche

by Brigid McAlpin February 15, 2026

This past week marked the first time in 2026 that we have hosted more than one estate sale in the same weekend. We actually had three and were able to put on a Whatnot show at our Chicago location Wednesday evening. It was our first non-jewelry Whatnot show in two months so it was not hugely populated but I am hoping that we can gain momentum once again. We tried again at the office on Thursday evening, this time starting with home decor and we sold some pieces. It was a small fraction of the result we had the previous week but at this time I do not expect that. Last year I was scheduling some Whatnot shows at our estate locations on Tuesday evenings but it is too challenging for me, normally that is the time for me to work on the newsletter as I like to schedule it for Wednesday mornings at 7:00 AM. We do have a sale in Winfield next week and I plan to schedule a Whatnot show there on Wednesday. Unless something else comes up (and it should) we will not have another sale until the weekend of March 19.

The March sale, which we just booked this past week, is not only located in Park Ridge which is one of my favorite places to work but the location is on the street where I grew up, just a few houses away. I did not recognize our client's name but I have been gone from Park Ridge since 1992. She is not moving but is going to redecorate and what she will be selling is every bit estate sale-worthy. I am looking forward to it and Sue G, let your mom know, it will be March 19-22!

On Wednesday, Tina our Prescott designer came "down the hill" as she likes to say so we could have a meeting at Cement Tile Shop in Old Town Scottsdale and choose tile for the Arizona room. After some deliberation, it looks like we will go with Tina's first choice which is called Monaco. We will not change the color palette because this one will look great with my existing office furniture.

It unfortunately will not go with my tile top dining table and chairs which I wanted to put in there so I may have to try and sell it. However we have not pulled the trigger yet as Tina needs to make sure the tile is not too thick to install in the room. There is an option to order it thinner but I wonder if it would be more prone to breakage. Hopefully the thicker tile will work. Before the meeting, I looked at the website and found the above tile which is a great match for my table but Tina said the colors are "too oceany" and would not flow with the rest of the house.

After the meeting, we walked across the way to The Herb Box, which is a very cute healthy restaurant. It is not Kuochun's favorite but it was very convenient and Tina had never been there. We dined outside and I went with the chicken arugula wrap with homemade sweet potato chips which I have had before. I should have asked for a steak knife, it was really hard to cut the wrap with a regular knife so it basically turned into a salad. I just ate half of it and saved the other half for lunch the next day. Tina enjoyed her salad and Kuochun really liked his steak sandwich.

After all that, it was time to get into gear and prepare the jewelry cases for the Scottsdale estate sale next week. The pressure was on to fill the cases and shoot photos before Robin was ready to post her ad to EstateSales.net. I made it just under the wire Saturday evening - there will be a large case each with Native American jewelry (one vintage and one new.) It was challenging to unearth these two cases from the garage with it being so stuffed but with Kuochun's help I was able to do it. I have a third large case which is really cute, it is a natural wood tone and Mother had rubber stamped arrows on it. I knew generally where it was but it was impossible to get to. Instead, I filled one medium case with more new Native American jewelry and another with a combination of Southwest Style, Mexican and a few designer pieces. The cases look fantastic if I do say so myself and I hope to make some good sales!

The sale schedule is set - there will be a preview on Thursday evening from 3:00-6:00 and the rest of the weekend the sale will be open from 9:00-2:00. The home is about 25 minutes away so there will be some early mornings in my near future! I do need to take the jewelry away each day because the checkout is going to be outside on the driveway. There is not enough room in the house for it and this house is 6,000 square feet!

With a busy week, I was not able to post new items every day. I did post three squash blossom necklaces on Tuesday though. Each one is amazing but I think I have to give the edge to this pre-1970s stunner. I love the unique naja and charming details. There will be at least a dozen more squash blossom necklaces coming - all turquoise except for one which is orange spiny oyster shell and another which is mother of pearl. Still another is turquoise but is gold filled. It must be very rare, I have never seen one before.

I also posted three new pieces from the Tucson Gem Show on Sunday. They are all very beautiful but I have to choose this fanciful cuff bracelet by Navajo artist Cody Willie. I totally love the swirling design with a combination of repousse and stamp work. I was happy to find one of Cody's pieces each of the past two shows!

I sold three pieces this past week - interestingly enough two of them were by Buffalo Dancer. I had sold this necklace on eBay last summer, feverishly searched for it and could not find it. I had to give the buyer the bad news and even though she was a past customer, she rewarded me by leaving me negative feedback, marring my perfect rating for an entire year. I am still at a 96.3% rating because of it and I think it has hurt my eBay sales. When we returned to Scottsdale, I found the necklace mixed in with Buffalo Dancer pieces which I had not posted online yet. I put it back online and received an offer on Poshmark for $110 less than I had originally sold it for. I took the offer so I can move it on to a new home.

I also sold a pair of Buffalo Dancer squash blossom earrings on eBay and I accepted an offer on a small pair of Navajo-made barrel bead earrings on Depop. I believe this was the fifth person who made me an offer on Depop for these earrings. Depop is based in the UK and their way is to not hold a buyer to their offer when the seller accepts it. The buyer has to go in and officially accept the offer. As a result, most of the offers do not result in sales, even when we agree on a price. I much prefer the Poshmark way which is to put the sale through once a seller accepts an offer.

That is all the news for the week, I was in the throes of some kind of allergy attack for about nine days and happily doing better. I will be back with the blog once we book our next estate sale and as usual will include it in the estate sale newsletter.