Life of a reseller

I dragged these out of a rat infested crawl space with high hopes I would also find a Santa. A Santa would sell better even with damage.

It was very hot and dusty with a whole lot of rat activity everywhere. Blow molds can't handle extreme heat. They become very brittle and will break just looking at them. Knowing I would have to wash and disinfect these I had to pass. Getting them out into the daylight, I knew I wouldn't be able to clean them without them falling apart.  It was also very sad to see all the boxed Christmas village sets in the crawl space heading off to the dump. The boxes looked in good condition (no chewed corners) but again with all the rat poop there was going to be a lot rat pee on everything. Right after this I had to go home to shower and wash not only my clothes but my shoes too!

Life of a reseller - urban legend

Did I manifest this?

People joke about finding a suitcase full of money all the time. Well this past week that's what happened as I was prepping for the estate sale. I'm talking about maybe $20k - 30k! It was a "holy sh*t " moment when I opened up the suitcase. Yes, I turned it all into the estate person in charge. 

This wasn't the only $$$ I found. We had been asked to find the dad's Rolex watch. It didn't turn up so I asked my psychic friend if she knew where it was. She said it was behind some boxes on a counter but it left the house the week before in someone's pocket. We checked the bathroom counter anyways (there was a shoe rack on the counter) and found a  big bag of cash! Large yellow envelope with about $400 in new $2 bills from the 70's. It still had the bank band around it. 

Then during the estate sale I thought the kitchen cabinets had been sorted out but they weren't. So I opened one of the corner cabinets and found where all the sterling silver was stored! Two large candelabras and several smaller pieces. That was another "holy sh*t" moment!

The only down side was I locked the briefcase tonight thinking the numbers showing was the combination, well it wasn't. But it did get me wondering why wasn't it locked and why doesn't the name on the airline label match the dad's name? So I took the suitcase to a psychic friend to get her reading on it. I said finding all this money and valuables in random places made me think (sense) that he did some things under the table. Not saying illegal, but just a little shady. Her take on it was he lived a double life. He was a courier of what we're not sure (probably money) but the suitcase/briefcase was used a lot. The suitcase gave off a happy partying feeling, lots of drinking and laughing. 

Pumpkin Evny

I really really wanted to buy these over sized Martha Stewart pumpkins today! At $60 a pop, I had to walk around the store several times. Doing the math on what I spend on real pumpkins, they would have to last at least a few years. Not sure how well they would handle the bright California sun. Plus getting them up in the attic would be an issue. The check out line at TJ Max was so long, like 30 people, I decided I would pass. Doesn't mean I'll stop thinking about them! :) 

 

Life of a reseller

One of the reason I like helping out at estate sales is seeing the good stuff first. The family does go in and take what they want before the sale. My job is to get rid of the junky stuff that won't sell for the haulers to take away. Then set up the house for the sale. 

I'm always on the look out for artwork, especially for my son's house. Has to be interesting and sort of in theme of Lake Tahoe. While I was clean up the office, this 3D map was buried under a pile of papers. I knew right away that was a keeper. I didn't have good cell service at the house so I just had to guess my son would like it. That was a nice surprise but that wasn't the biggest surprise. Have to wait until the sale is over before posting about the urban legends that are true. 

 

Life of a reseller - booth redo

Today I'm doing yet another major overhaul of my  main booth. I wanted to do it last week but with my back issues, it had to wait. It does take all day as everything gets cleaned and in some cases repriced. Older items get packed away and sent off to other resellers. I also have several smaller booths that my items are used as fillers until rented. Those need to get a little clean up as well. With the holiday season coming up more people come in to rent so my stuff gets moved to the backroom, that also needs to be cleaned up.  Today is the only day I have on my schedule to get it done. I'm working two estate sales so will be busy and really tired for the next few weeks. 

Update: Worked on my main booth all day and got most of it done but still have a little more to do. It's a little to bottom heavy but I didn't have the time to track down another glass shelf. The paintings are the ones I picked up a Last Chance thrift store in Monterey. I think is added a whole new vibe to my booth. The overflow of stuff in the backroom is a hot mess that I will have to deal with next week. Just ran out of time today!

 

Trip Down to Monterey

 My long time dentist in Monterey is retiring after 42 years. I don't know why I'm so surprised that he's been my dentist for that long. It's still sad and a little scary that I will have to find someone I trust as much as I trust him. It's worth making the drive to Monterey to visit his office. Of course it was much easier when I was spending a lot of time at the beach house. 

After my appointment I went to Goodwill in Pacific Grove that isn't very good. I was driving by it and found parking so I stopped in. It's still very sad and I always wondering where all the donations they get in go, because it's not ending up in the store. Then I stopped by Branches (supports the local catholic school) and was shocked on how much they raised their prices. On my way out of Monterey I stopped at Last Chance, which is right next to the dump. Prices there have always been way to high and they really don't have a lot of anything good. The one thing I do look for is art. Original artwork is hard to Google or find on eBay. I some times can score something unique or at least a cool frame. They did have these tiles out in the yard that I really wished I had a project for. It's sold by the pound but even at $1 per pound, I just couldn't bring myself to buy any. :(

Always a good sign

I always like it when my morning coffee does this! I think of it as a good sign. 

I'm a night owl by nature but there are some things that just have to get done in the morning before it gets too hot. To keep myself on track, I set a timer for an hour. It keeps me focused on getting that task done. After each hour I can take a 15 minute break for something fun or eat a snack. There still are boxes of stuff I still need to tag even after four hours. The general house cleaning and laundry took an hour and organizing my crafting dies took another hour. There are some new crafting projects that use dies I think I have in my stash, so I had to round them all up and put them in one place. Yes, I have that many, it took an hour. :) 

There still are big totes of stuff that need to be sorted out before the estate sale I'm helping out with this weekend. I'm guessing I'll be bringing more stuff home to refresh my booth. 

Late at night I work on my crafting ideas, which is a quiet activity. So far the two ideas I found online didn't work out at all! I'll post those later as it's way down on my task list. :)
 

Creative Dilemma

I'm working on Henk's birthday present. I know he would prefer Legos or some other toy but this is what he's going to get. :)  These are the photos I like from our vacation but I'm not sure if I like the captions. Should I keep them? I will clean up the  frames and add some embellishment but can't decide which one to use or should I just send both?

Update:  I did one of the photos. The cement curb was throwing me off in the photo. During my clean up of my craft supplies I found a scrapbooking kit. No idea where I got it but it was in my stash. The little adventure banner helped break it up the line. The rocks are ones we picked up camping and when we went to the lake. Gluing everything down was a challenge as my Gorilla glue was semi dry. Fingers crossed it still works. 

 

Life Of A Reseller - Hand Made Sashiko Bag

This past week I've been processing two car loads of stuff. One was used vases that came from a estate clean out. This required A LOT of cleaning and washing because of all the dirt and dust. Having hurt my back, it was slow moving for a few days. Even with a dishwasher, it took all week to get through most of the boxes and I'm still not done.

The second car load was from my cousin and that got sorted out into what was being donated away (clothes went to the unicorn thrift store) and what could be resold. Overall there wasn't much for me to resell, so most went to the Salvation Army truck behind Cottage Crafts. 

My cousin is a retired home economics teacher and she sews really well. I'm guessing she made this sashiko purse. It's a little too short for me to use as an everyday tote but I'm thinking it would make a cute bag to hold my stitching supplies when I go to a meet up of crafters at the library. 
 

Vintage Lace Found!

 I've been in search of lace types of fabric big enough to cover a shirt. It's not been easy as this type of fabric isn't really a thing any more. I was at Cottage Crafts talking about this when Tami (the owner) said there was some in the ZZ booth. When they took over the store years ago, the previous owners where into buying up old lace. All of it was left at the store!

Now the very slow process of washing everything, prepping the clothing and mixing up the bleach and cyanotype ingredients. Everything is done in stages and needs to be prepped ahead of time. You even have to check the weather to make sure there will be enough strong sun light. I also have to clear off my work station in the garage. Getting ready for the boys visit, things just got stacked on the table. I'm excited to see how things turn out!

Life of a reseller - Working Thru the Pain

I threw out my back picking up this car load of stuff from my cousin. Everything was on the floor so all that bending over just did me in. I sorted the boxes and bags while at her house instead of just loading everything into my car, which is what I normally do. Sorting out from my car is much easier on my back. 

Since I've been away from my booth for over a month, I also have to restock and get things cleaned up there too. It's almost time to switch things up for the big holiday season so going up into the attic is also on the to do list. Moving super slow but things are getting done. :) 

New old jacket

Super find for $8

One of the very first things I did when I got home from vacation was try on this jacket. It was super hot (high 90's) and I was really tired from driving back from Tahoe. Still just had to see if this jacket fit. One of the down sides to MaxSold is you can't see anything in person so I had my fingers crossed.

Well it fits great and the best parts are the pockets. There are pockets under the pockets you can't see in the first photo.  Plus it's 100% cotton and made to get that old denim look.