Branching out in artwork

I've been looking for a big piece of artwork for my new place but haven't found anything yet. I really would put up a mirror that I have but it's too heavy to do myself and I'm too cheap to hire a handyman. :)

I've been paying more attention to the art lots at the auction houses so I decided to branch out and  start picking up smaller artworks for my booth and WhatNot. The smaller artwork isn't as damaged as the bigger pieces and the price point isn't as high. I know a lot of them are from vacation travels but I have very good luck selling Dutch items so I'm guess good art will sell. Will let you know if I have any luck! 

My next Whatnot show is on Wednesday and it's another glow show. 

Auction Weekend

This weekend there were two auctions. The big one at DGW auction in Sunnyvale and a mini one through MaxSold. The smaller one was in a very unsafe area in downtown San Jose, so I won't be going there again. They had OK stuff but not so great I'm willing to make the drive. 

At DGW I picked up two huge lots of Fostoria glass and everything glowed green. It was interesting when I went to pick up my lots on Sunday, I met two other resellers. One was an antique store owner and he is someone I must have been bidding against. He passed on all the lots I got because he didn't know they glowed and I passed on a few of the lots he got because I didn't see the Blenko glass bowl. There were other lots I wanted but the bidding went too high.  We had a nice chat about my UV flashlight. He knew of the line of glassware I got but didn't know it glowed. Of course is doesn't show well in the regular retail setting so I can understand he doesn't carry a UV flashlight. As we were talking another reseller heard us talking about WhatNot (reason clear glass sells well for me) and started asking questions. It was nice that even with us bidding against each other at the auction we could have a nice chat about what's going on in the reselling world. 

Making Wool Dryer Balls

One of the projects I wanted to get done was to make some more wool dryer balls. A few years ago I started out with 5 but now I was down to 1. The dryer at my new place doesn't heat up at all so until it gets fixed, I thought it would be a good time for me to make these. Finding 100% wool that doesn't break the bank isn't easy. I shopped around at several places but didn't find anything. 

I remembered that FabMo gets yarn donations and even if I thought it was a little pricey,( I don't knit) it was going to support a good cause.  These three skeins made 5 balls, so I think I'm all set. It was a nice activity to do while I was babysitting the big fur babies and watching trashy TV. :)

Green Tea Salad - Fail

I really like Burmese green tea salad when I go out to eat at a local restaurant. It looks simple enough so I gave it a try at home. I didn't have all the ingredients so I used what I had, which of course was a mistake. The cabbage was on the old side  too so that didn't help. Everything went out into the compost pile. :(

I looked up another recipe that requires the dressing to ferment over night, which sounds better. I'm also going to break down and buy the very $$$ dried shrimp. I was at Ranch 99 and they had several types of dried shrimp but for the little bit that I would need I couldn't bring myself to spend $14 for a little bag. I'm going to have to look up more recipes that use dried shrimp!

The restaurant that make the salad I like now sells it as a kit, which I think is a great idea. 

One thing I did learn from all this was how to make fried garlic oil and I can't use my smoothie blender to chop up my peanuts. It turned the peanut into powder in a nano second. I don't have a food processor anymore (haven't used it in years) so I'll have to chop them up the old school way. 

My first sold out show

Last night I had my very first show to sell out. It's a long story about how that all happened.

Towerofvintage is another reseller on WhatNot. She lives in Alaska in a 600 sqf cabin and she has a really big following. This point is important. 

Last month she was in Portland (not sure why) and her hotel room was robbed. I think she said the hotel double booked her room and whoever that another person was took everything she had in the room. 

So another big WN seller JDA heard about this (their WN friends) and did a show with all the sales going to Towerofvintage (about $2,000) so she could replace her laptop (can't do WN without a computer) and replace her stolen inventory. 

She's on WN restocking her WN store and I happen to be one of the shows she shopped at. Because she has a big following she can buy from me (my prices are super low) and flip them on her shows for almost full retail and make a nice profit.  She purchased so much I had to learn how to unbundle a shipment because I didn't have a box big enough for all the stuff she purchased. I did throw in some extra things to help her out too.

I did tell myself if I have to good show I would go down to the Carmel House next week. I think this counts as a good show. :)

I'm still one the fence because a big storm system with high winds in coming through and that would mean power outages down in Carmel. 

It's so nice to see people helping out other sellers on WN!

Beef Stew Time

With an another big storm coming through town this week, I decided to make my version of beef stew. I don't eat a lot of beef any more (bbq steak was  my go to protein back in the day) as the prices have gone through the roof and I don't have a bbq anymore. 

To me nothing smells better than browning beef in butter! I have a ton of veggies from my brother so I only had to pick up the stew beef. Turned out very tasty but of course I was also very hungry. :) So happy to have leftovers!

Never lost power with all the high winds last night but did lose my wifi for a little bit during my WhatNot show. 

Frog eating continues.

Current project box

I'm slowly eating all those little frogs that have been hiding in every corner of my studio for years. I finally went through all the DMC thread I have collected over the years. When I moved to Alameda I had the floor space and didn't have to worry about Annie getting into anything, I sort out everything by number and put them in little baggies where they sat. Last night for several hours I started putting them in order in those embroidery thread boxes. I have 8 full boxes, which is way more than anyone needs!  I hope to start using up what I have and give away the colors I would never use. 

I've been making cards with my thread because it uses up a lot of thread. It also keeps me from falling into the social media rabbit hole of mindless scrolling.  I at least feel a little productive when I'm making something. :)

I also did a deep clean of my kitchen area.  The landlord said the pace was cleaned (I think by his wife) it wasn't even close to what I would call clean.  Everything got scrubbed down and washed. Yes I can flash a UV light in my kitchen now and not find anything nasty. 

 I know when you first move into someplace new, you just put things wherever and most of the time people never reorganize the space.  I knew at some point I would come back to putting things where it made sense to how I use the kitchen. So I tackled that and now have a clean and fully functional kitchen space. 

Eating one frog at a time.

I've been debating whether I should go down to the beach house in a few weeks. In the past I wouldn't have hesitated in going. Loading up my car with crafty projects (which I never did) and having Annie sitting in the car for hours on her bed waiting for us to leave. But now with her gone and not having a regular job (steady income) I have to think twice about going. The thrifting down there isn't good with the prices being way too high to flip so I can't tell myself I'm going to source new inventory.  

I could keep doing my WhatNot shows down there but that means loading up my car with all my stuff which is a lot of stuff!

I decided to challenge myself to get all those little projects I've had on the back burner done. My reward for eating all those frogs (and I have a lot) would be going down to the beach house.  

For years I've had plans to make these cross stitch cards. Having downloaded the pattens into my Pinterest folder. I finally stitched up the brown spotted cow (my mom's lucky charm) and a few other patterns and made them into cards.  Everything is bagged up and ready to go to my card rack at Cottage Crafts. 

Carrot Soup

With all the veggies I've been getting from my brother, I've had to find ways to do something with them. 

I do give away what I can't use but even then I can't always find someone to take the overflow.

I usually get a tons of carrots and onions which as a single person can only eat so many. I started making soup with what I had because surprisingly it takes a lot of carrots to make on bowl. Back in the day I had every kitchen gadget you could think of because I had a huge kitchen to store everything. Now days with all my down sizing and moving, I only have the bare essentials. Carrots don't mush down like the acorn squash so I was wondering how I could blend this to make it smooth. Chucky carrot soup doesn't look all the pleasant. I've been making my fruit smoothies in a Nutri blender so I gave that try and of course it work like a charm! 

Weird and creepy

I had to go to the post office yesterday to mail off a birthday present. I didn't have any plans to go thrifting but I was close to  a favorite Goodwill store so I popped in. There wasn't much there as usual so as I was leaving I noticed this very weird and scary face. I had no plans to buy it but just wanted to see what the face was made of. As I turned it over thinking the base was made of wood I realized it was a giant vertebra and the face must be bone. That had to be one big animal! It will be interesting to see how much I can sell it for! Any guess what I'll get for it?

Acorn Squash Soup -2023

I was given several small acorn squashes and it's not something I cooked with. I was going to just compost them but after removing the seeds (going to plant those out in the yard and don't ask me why) I decided to roast them. That turned out just OK. I got the bright idea of making soup since I had nothing to lose if that didn't turn out. What I didn't know was roasting the vegetables before hand makes all the difference in soup making.. My acorn squash soup turned out great! I have a ton of carrots, so I'm going to make that tonight and roasting is key to making flavorful soup at least from what I've been reading. Will let you know if that turns out. 

The one that got away.

The Michaan auction was this week and I still look at the catalog even with the auction house being over an hour away. It would have to be something super special for me to make that drive. It's not so much the driving but having to go through a very rough part of town to get there. 

I talk a lot about how I love the smell of coffee but I really don't like the taste. Growing up with the smell of fresh coffee being made every morning just makes me happy. I did watch the bidding on this over sized Folger coffee can (the brand my parents liked) which I knew would sell for good money. You can see the final price of $140 but you also have to add in all the fees and taxes, so it probably top off at $200.00.  I would have seriously considered it but I also have to factor in the cost of gas to go pick it up. There wasn't anything else in the auction I would paid top dollar for so I had to pass on it.

Did a WhatNot jewelry auction last night which was a total bust with zero sales. Since I had the time, I decided to see if I could sell off some more cookbooks before I donate them away.  I sold a few but the best part was I had a nice chat with someone about all the weird things he's eaten as a food writer. Now I just have to get motivate to get things tagged and in my booths at CCB.