Favorite Carmel Dinner.

Went to Carmel By the Sea farmer's market today. I hike into town to get my two favorite things, the dried fruit kabobs and shrimp with pico de Gallo. 

It was hike as it's all up hill but it's worth it. Passed some older couples who I'm sure they didn't know how steep the walk was into town is from their hotel. On the map it looks doable. I'm sure it was way more than they thought. :)

I added some extra hot salsa sauce from Trader Joe's and put everything on a bed of arugula with a healthy dose of black pepper. 

Heart Shape Hag Stone

On my morning beach walk (trying to get my 10K steps in) I found a very rare heart shaped "Hag"stone!  I'm always looking for Hag stones which are hard enough to find let alone a heart shape one.  

I'm working on altering a book cover to make it look leathery and old. I'm planning on cutting a window into the  cover so I'll need something to go inside it. When I found the stone, it was just meant to be! I also decided I will cut the inside of the book out and make a diorama. Mainly because the author had published family photos of herself and I wanted to make sure they were covered. 

Don't worry about the books, as they were heading to the recycle bin anyways. 

Yes more books

One of the craft projects I'm working on while I'm down here in Carmel is to make a faux leather cover on a book. I stopped by the local church bookstore because they do have a free box of books they know they can't sell. I have to use relatively new hard bound book until I know what I'm doing. There were some very old antique books in the box but I didn't think they would hold up to all the gluing and painting.  It was funny the only "new" books in the box were ones writing by the crazies at Fox News. They must have known their books weren't' going to be best sellers because they used very cheap paper that doesn't last very long.

Of course I also had to check out the cookbook section just to see what was new. Simple Soirees (over 20 years old) isn't the type of cookbook I usually pick up - how to plan a party, menu planning etc. It was a James Beard winner and some of the recipes looked interesting so thought I would read through it. Have to say after reading it, some of the menus sound good. 

The author at the time was based in Paris and San Francisco so the recipes are still relevant here in California.   

The second book (another 20+ year old book) is a William and Sonoma "The Best In Taste" from their food and travel magazine. Didn't know WS had a magazine. It just cracked me up that one of the recipes is called "Nun's Breasts". It's an Italian recipe for a cookie. Not sure it would be called that now! :)

After Breakfast Snack.

One of the many outings I do when here in Carmel, is going to the farmer's markets. It's very pricey so instead of going out to eat, I spend my money on locally grown fruit. 

P&K strawberry farms is very old school. They sort out their berries on the spot so you only get the best ones. 

3 baskets for $19.00. I can't remember the name of the dark cherries, it's a variety I never heard of before. Was told 

they're suppose to be less acidic than Bings.  $18 per pound. The Rainers (my favorite) were also $18 per pound.  

Going to make strawberry shortcake for dinner tonight. :) 

Needle Point - Hot Trending Item.

One of my crafty friends passed away a few months ago. As her estate was being settled, I was asked to take a car load of things to Happy Dragon. One of her hobbies was needle point and she was very proud of the this picture. Since I work mainly in the back room, I usually have no idea who is buying anything. I just happen to walk out to finish a display when I saw Sandy's needlepoint going home with a new owner. It hadn't been on the floor for more than a half a day! Finished needle point work is very hot right now. Can't give the kits away but people like the finished work. Sandy would be thrilled that someone else appreciates her hard work. 

Another art projects in the works.

It took months and months to dig out the over grown bamboo in my back patio area. There was an old chicken coop (at least that is what I think it was) under all the bamboo that I also removed. After cleaning it all up, I still had the problem of the leaves and dust falling from the trees on to my patio table and grill. I picked up a gazebo canopy at an auction (I know I didn't pay much for it) which took me months to set up as I waited for calmer, non windy weather. I'm so pleased that I can enjoy sitting outside with my morning tea or coffee. 

So why the photo. I was making these little houses to do down to the local neighborhood gnome garden in Carmel. Now I'm thinking why not make a little gnome garden in my backyard? I'm not planting anything in the ground as I'm waiting for to see how much the bamboo will pop up again. I'm thinking I'll plant jasmine at some point. 

The little houses are still a work in process, as I slowly gather up the embellishments. The plan now is to put the houses on poles to keep them off the ground and go for an old mountain village by the sea vibe. Hopefully I can keep adding to my collection!

Life of a reseller.

I'm getting ready to do a major overhaul of my booth at Cottage Crafts in Campbell. The first part was to have a 50% off sale to clear out the old stuff. This is to get my ROI (return on investment) back. The second goal and most importantly is to unpack all my back stock stored at my little cottage. I'm running out of room with all the toys I'm buying for the boys. :)

If I do go out picking, I only look for the diamonds in the rough priced low.  

So why the picture? Smoking isn't as common as it use to be at least here in California.  I didn't think there was a resale market for ash trays but I was wrong. Some of my biggest sales have been cigar ash trays. As much as I think cigar smoking is nasty, the ash trays sell well. Also people smoke other things that are now legal so having an ash tray out is cool. Found two vintage made in England ashtrays at the Goodwill for $1.25 each. I'll try and flip them for $10. It was made for both cigars and cigarettes so that was a bonus. 

At the Happy Dragon, we received a huge donation of  high end tea cups. We priced them at $5 each and they've been selling like hot cakes! Not knowing much about tea cups but seeing there is a resale market for them, I thought this vintage mini tea cup would appeal to a collector. Paid $1.79 and will flip of $8.

Daikon Slaw - fail

I made the daikon slaw from the 365 salad cookbook. This is suppose to be a winter salad because that is when the daikon is at its best. I made it anyways.

I used arugula instead of radish sprouts and imitation crab instead of real crab. 

Even with those substitutions, it wasn't good at all. Could have been the daikon was out of season but the dressing did nothing to for the "slaw" either. 

This recipe is a hard pass. 👎

Now I have to think what to do with all the left over daikon! 

Cooking - Life Skill

I was listening to Chris Kimball's talk on people thinking cooking is a wealth thing. That you have to have all the latest high end gadgets to cook good food. He disagrees with this and said cooking is life skill everyone can learn even with basic cooking tools. 

Some of the first comments, were about food deserts and Chris being out of touch with people (low income) not having the time to cook because of having to work multiple jobs or even the money for basic food. I think they missed the point he was trying to make. 

Years ago at the Wellness Center we started a cooking program with the VA hospital. The program taught basic cooking skills along with the social workers who taught life skills, like grocery shopping.  The hospital found that most of the emergency visits (from the same vets) were from poor eating habits. When they got hungry, they would eat quick fast food which would trigger their medical condition. Teaching them what to shop for and how to cook it would reduce the number times they had to go to the hospital. Cooking doesn't have to be a labor intensive if you know the basics. 

For me cooking is a hobby I enjoy but it's also because I can't eat fast food without side effects. Is it more cost effective for me to cook at home, yes it is. Do I agree with Chris, yes I do. Do I whip up fancy meals everyday, no I don't. 

When I was in Alameda, it was a cultural food desert with only two grocery stores on the whole island, Safeway and Trader Joe's. One of the major reasons I moved back to Cupertino was the access to all the grocery stores. 

So the photo, yes it's another fluff cookbook. It's more like reading diary and to see what's on the menu for today. Living in California eating a salad everyday is just a thing, at least in my world. :) Going to try the daikon radish slaw with crab and black sesame seed salad. 

Trader Joe's Mini totes

This photo has been sitting in my daft folder for a while now. 

My daughter took home a set of the mini Trader Joe's bags for the boys. It's cute to see that it's the perfect size for their quick trips to the grocery stores. If they want a snack, they have to carry it. Mees was good about it but Henk who likes to eat wasn't a fan. Carrying his snacks back home wasn't a very "unpleasant experience" from what my daughter said. :)

Auction and China Sets

DGW Auction House - Sunnyvale

I haven't been to the local auction house in months. It's only once a month now (use to be every two weeks) at the end of the month. I've always been out of town or dog sitting so timing hasn't been good. 

I'm trying not add to my huge stash of inventory as I feel like I'm living in a storage unit in my tiny ADU. Slowly working my way through all the boxes. There wasn't anything at the auction that was a must have. 

I did put everything in my booth at Cottage Craft on sale for 50% off just to clear the shelves. My profit margin isn't as high and taking a loss on some things. Part of the reselling game is to get your investment back even if there's no profit. Many resellers hold on to things way too long hoping for a big payday which never comes. They end up with over stuffed storage units. 

One of the debates we have all the time at the thrift store is about the china sets. It's always been a tough sell and it takes up a lot of space. Even knowing the original cost was $$$$ it has not resell value at all. At the auction house there were over 20 sets of china. I stopped counting there were so many. 

At my family get togethers we always used real plates, my mom insisted on it. Over time the china became very worn but I'm happy that it was used and enjoyed. 

So please stop saving your china for only special occasions that never happen. Use it now because down the road after you're gone, it will end up in the landfill. :(

Book vs Movie

I'm just a little jealous of those ladies whose favorite thing to do is read all day. It's not my things and I own that. :) 

I finally figured out I like books that have been turned into movies. I find it interesting to see what creative license the screen writers took and what they decided to keep in.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book was a fun read.  The letter writing format made it an interesting read. I liked the movie, which I saw first but the book goes into so much more detail about what happened on the island during the war. 

I also decided to listen to the audio book but the format of the book, makes the audio book not as interesting. Plus the voices of the actors at times made them hard to understand. 

Next up on my list is "Chocolat" by Joanne Harris. Johnny Depp and Juliette Bonoche were great in the movie.