Artichokes 2023

I'm trying to be better in posting on my blog for the few of you who check in. :)

It's artichoke season and around here they are super big! Always reminds me of my Dad. When he was driving through Monterey, he would stop and pick up artichokes straight from the farm. 

This week I'm babysitting the boys, Woody and Buzz, two very old labs. They have a huge backyard, so we spend most of the time out back. I work on cleaning up the vegetable garden area and the boys just follow me around. It's a low impact way of keeping the boys moving and getting a little exercise. Woody would really like me to throw the ball all day but his limit is 15 minutes - per his mom's orders. He would be way too sore if I did it any longer. Woody also has the habit of jumping into the pool to get a drink of water as he prefers standing up when he drinks. There is always a stack of towels ready to dry him off before he comes inside. 

Made it to my first Whatnot goal for 2023

I had a goal for my Whatnot auctions this year, to make 1K sold items. The reason for this is once you make to that number, all the sales you make get directly deposited directly into you WN account. There's no waiting for the delivery confirmation to happen. I'm a small seller so it took time to get to this point but I did it!

As a rule I don't cash out my WN account until the end of the month so it's really not about having access to the money ASAP but that I made it this far!

Winter weather meal!

Still dealing with the wet and stormy weather here. So far been lucky no loss of power or flooding but a lot of the stores I would normally go to today were closed. 

The front garden is getting a little wet now but the soil is so packed down, the water is just running off. 

When the wether is like this, I really like to make a pot roast but it's not a one person type of dish. I decided to make baby back ribs with sriracha BBQ sauce.  I do plan to get a BBQ as I do miss grilling a steak and eggplant. That was something I did a lot when I live up in the hills. Annie could be outside doing her guard dog thing and I could get dinner ready without heating up the house. Made roasted veggies to go with my ribs. Everything turned out super!

I'm 25 sales away from hitting the 1,000 goal on my WhatNot auction site.Hope to get to it by next week! 

Dreamy beach house

Yesterday I drove over hwy 17 to pick up auction win in Santa Cruz. It was suppose to be raining so I was hoping to get back before the storm hit. 

You're picking up at people's home so you have to schedule a pick up time since parking can be an issue, which was the case at this house. 

 This house is way off the beaten path with huge crop fields along the road to the house.  All I can say is WOW when I drove up! This had to have been this man's dream house. It's on the cliff over looking the pacific ocean. Yes, it's a 6 million dollar house but it has a very warm and comfortable feeling. Very much a family home, not built for show. It's a big with, 5 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms with every room having an ocean view. If I could design and build a house over looking the ocean, it would be this house. Even the furniture is exactly what I would have picked. I wish I could have taken more photos but that's not allowed when your picking up. I'm glad that I made the decision storm or no storm to go and pick up my auction win. 

There is a challenge to pick a word for 2023. I seriously can't think of one that would guide me through this year. Do you have a special word for 2023? 

Whatnot auctions

Check out my WhatNot auctions!

I'm working on trying to get a set schedule to do my WhatNot auction but being an everything sellers, it's a little hard to do. I never know what I'll have from week to week to sell! My goal is to get to 1,000 sales on WN so my payments are automatically added to my account. Right now  I'm paid as soon a delivery confirmation is posted which is usually within a week. 

Huge storm is passing through this week. Dumped a lot of rain, which we really need here in the valley. I would really like to get out into the garden and dig some holes to catch the water. The garden area is very packed down so the water is just running off, not really getting down to the tree roots. 

I stayed home yesterday (the rain was very intense) but today I have to do some errands that can't wait. Hopefully the freeways aren't flooded!

My booths at Cottage Crafts did really well last month. Everyone at the store did well which is super. I think it was my best month ever at CCB!  People were there to shop and support local artists. 

Working on restocking my card rack so while being stuck at home, I prepped a lot of card kits.  I spent over 20 hours on Sunday getting my craft supplies in order. I got rid of a lot but it still took that much time to get things in the right boxes and labeled. Hopefully when I'm sitting down instead of surfing the internet, I put some cards together since I have the kits together. 

Goals for 2023

I was telling my daughter that Henkie's followers were wondering what the little guy was up to so I needed some more updated photos. They do send a bunch but most aren't story worth, at least for my limited creative writing brain. :)

On Sunday I spent all day (and I mean all day) trying to get my auction studio set up to run a little more organized and be kept neat. The organized part was easy, the neat part not so much.

I really wanted to find some of my favorite dies so thought if I went through all my crafting stuff I would find them, but so far I haven't. I was even going purchase them again after hours of looking for them but their old dies that have been discontinued. So the search continues!

My business goals for 2023 is to have a consist auction days scheduled. Being an everything seller, that's not the easiest thing to do as I don't always know what I'll have to sell. 

I'm pretty good at being able to take my auction on the road so that isn't an issue or should I say not an excuse. :) 

Do you have any goals for 2023?

Brown Spotted Cow to start the new year off right.

24X24 signed art work

I went to DGW auction house in Sunnyvale on Saturday for the first time in maybe 4 years?  It's been awhile for sure! It was so nice that they remembered me and I still had my same bidder number on file. It was a very raining day (flooded roads etc...) and it wasn't really smart to be out driving but I went anyways. :) 

During the lock down, DGW did online auctions of only their high end items, so there was nothing I could even think of bidding on. I wanted to see if their in person format had changed and how many resellers would be there. The place was packed and the starting bids were still a little too high for me. The gold coins were going to 10k+, which was a little shocking to someone who doesn't deal in gold or silver. 

I did like this signed painting, as brown spotted cows was my mom's lucky charm.  I decided to stayed until it came up for auction. It was funny that another reseller was in the same row as I was bidding on it. I had seen what he was bidding on so I had an idea where his price range was. I decided to psych him out and keep my bidder card up, which means I wanted it and I would out bid him every time. I got it for $45 so after all the auction fees, it costed me $54. If I was going to do a fast flip on it I wouldn't have paid that much for it. 

It's now hanging up in my auction studio and I  hope some of my mom's good luck rubs off! 

Since I now know how fast the new auctioneer goes and how many people are there, I know when to show up and not have to sit there for hours.  Hopefully this month, I'll be able to score some good stuff. 

Hopefully for the new year!

I know I've been slacking in posting on my blog! I've been on the road a lot this month and I'm still trying to settle into my new place. Working on the front yard and getting it ready for this spring is on the top of my list. It's more time sensitive than where I've going to put all my boxes of stuff.  Getting back into the routine of doing my WhatNot auctions has been a slow process. Still not happy with how I have my auction studio set up, that's a work in process! While I was down in Carmel for Christmas, I did stop by all the thrift stores. I picked up this Lalique reproduction decanter which to me is the size of a perfume bottle. Originally it came with four little glasses but those are long gone. The mold to this was sold a while back, so this isn't a true Lalique piece but it is made from the same mold. It was one of the first things sold in my WhatNot auction this week. 

I'm hopefully 2023 will be a calm and boring year for me. No plans to travels or do anything adventurous but those things just seem to find me. :) Wishing everything a wonderful new year and thank -you for stopping by my blog.  

 

High Tech World

Living now in a world of high tech gadgets, it's great until they don't work.

At the house with Woody and Buzz, it's nice that's there's no forgetting to turn off the lights as you just have to ask Google to do it.

This month my Rollo shipping printer (high end printer) went on the blink. After going through two customer support techs, it still not working correctly. That's even with a live on camera tech looking at my printer and laptop. I finally ask to return it but that was a no go, they were going to get it working if it means keeping me on the line for days. It's a great printer when it works but when it doesn't and you have a shipping deadline, it's bad. I finally told since they won't let me return it, I'll have to call in my own IT people to see if they can figure out what the problem is. It's been narrowed down to a software problem. 

Then my laptop wasn't charging. With my Apple IT guy now living in Holland, I was on my own. I'm getting ready to go down to the beach house for Christmas so not having my laptop working would be bad. Decided to go into the Apple store in Los Gatos and it was packed! Guess Santa will be bringing a lot of high end toys to people for Christmas! I was very surprised that I could get an appointment quickly and they trouble shooted my problem in minutes. It took longer to find a parking space! It wasn't a serious problem, just a hard reset and I was go to go.

Christmas 2022

Spending Christmas at the beach house this year. With COVID still being an issue and everyone living in far flung  places it will just be me. 

Being here at the Carmel house has always felt like home.

My favorite time at the beach is during low tide, when it's easier to walk and still be very close to the water. It's a super low tide in the afternoon, so makes it a perfect time to walk the beach. Couldn't ask for a nicer holiday present!

Great auction find!

This week I added to my persimmon collection. My mother left me a persimmon jam jar (lower right hand corner) she got many years ago in Japan. She said the man who made it basically burned down his house to keep his kilns going as he tried to find the perfect color and glaze for his pottery. 

It's not a very common item to find here in the states so I'm always thrilled when I find them up for auction. I think this is the first time I've actually have seen more than one at any auction. 

It was interesting that this auction through Maxsold, was only a few blocks away from my family home. Most of the items in the lot (auction term for a grouping of items) were damaged but I plan to keep the persimmons ones chips and all as finding them in the wild is so rare. 

While I was waiting to get permission to pick up my items there was a Louis Vuitton wallet at the check in table for $200.00. In my time running a thrift store and working with a consignment person, I've learned a lot about high end luxury goods. So I gave it a quick inspection to see if it was the really thing. I spotted three things that made me guess it was a knock off. Really, I only had to be sure of one thing. I had a nice chat with the auction person and she said the owner had purchased at a store (not sure what store or where) but didn't have the receipt. I said it didn't matter where she brought from, it's a fake with or without a receipt because I'm sure it didn't come from a LV store. So I'm guessing that's why it wasn't in the online catalog, selling fakes is illegal and LV will shut you down in a heart beat as well as empty your bank account in lawsuits. 

Still missing my fur baby

Today would have been Annie's 13 birthday. There isn't a day that goes by I don't miss her. 

I'm babysitting the Woody and Buzz again this week and it helps with lifting my spirits. It also doesn't hurt that their house is so comfortable and has all the latest gadgets. Nice music, perfect coffee made at a touch of a button and my bagel toasted just right. Last night I soaked in the hot tub for the first time in many many years. Doesn't matter where I go, the dogs will follow me just like Annie. :(

I'm still working on getting my studio set up and cleaning up the front garden area. I pulled out a dead apricot tree which was close to my front door. With all the rain, the ground was soaked so knocking it over was the easy part. Now getting rid of it will be the challenge! My goal is to clean up what I can while the ground is still workable. Once it dries out, I'll be working with very hard clay soil.