Mystery couple

I found this terrific pair of paintings yesterday. I believe they depict Peruvian peasants -- based on the clothing. Each is signed ESE and dated 58. They are painted on what looks like twill canvas. The only problem I see is that they were stretched over cardboard, which has warped a bit leaving them looking a bit wavy in the frame, but the canvas is pretty supple, so it looks like that could be corrected.

Such an unusual pair -- I'm just not sure whether to list them under Collectibles: Cultural/ethnic or Art.

Store Update

Hurray! Thank you carla37865 (who I think is a repeat customer)! She's my first store customer -- 3 items purchased! Not even 24 hours after I started. Hopefully that bodes well.

My New Store!

Well I finally took the plunge and opened my own eBay Store. I took the advice of the Queen of Auctions (at least her articles and newsletters) and will use the store mainly as a way to sell my poor little orphaned auction listings. The rule will be list it twice at auction and move it to the store. There are so many items I list that I can't believe didn't sell -- the store will give them a bit more time for people to find them.

It is still pretty basic -- I'm going back through expired listings for the past year and adding things -- about 50 items in there so far. I used a standard template and just adjusted the colors so there is a cohesive look between my store and my listings. I would like to do something with a bit more personality but my html design skills are zilch -- I'll need to find something to adapt. At any rate -- check out my store here.

Tax time -- ugh

Been a bit slow at getting the listings up this week as I am working at our taxes. I use Turbotax online which seems to work pretty well -- it has the bonus of throwing in - It's Deductible -- which lets you easily calculate and import the value (incredibly high) of all the junk I cart off to Goodwill several times a year.

I'm still not taking a home office deduction, since it's basically my dining room, but I am thinking of taking the inventory storage area deduction because of my new ebay area. This is the first year that I've had a full year of eBay Reports, which also makes it so much easier to add up the eBay and Paypal fees -- I paid eBay $2800 last year! Paypal's bite was about half that. When you tote up all the expenses -- packaging supplies, the actual amount I spent on all the merchandise - it's surprising there's any profit left at all.

Enough griping - this hasn't kept me from going out and spending more! I went to an estate sale on Thursday and picked up some nice clothing and a few collectibles -- some vintage mohair capelets from Scotland, a Griffith Gray St. John Suit (which I later found had a tiny hole in the sleeve - boo), a men's Brooks Bros. Camel Hair jacket, an adorable child's strawberry quilt & pillow sham from The Company Store and a Porshe belt. The next day I picked up a pair of 1915 tankard-style mugs with portraits of dogs on them - very nice - and a pair of Cole-Haan boots. You never know what you'll find next. That's what gets me - the "thrill of the hunt" -- and why my merchandise expense is so high at tax time!

Mid-winter blues

I set out for the solitary estate sale in the paper this morning with high hopes -- it was nearby, said house was filled, low-prices and I got an early start. When I arrived it turned out it was the 2nd weekend of the sale and I only found a few things -- then 2 items turned out to have been broken and repaired when I saw them under better light, so boo!

I took a trip through a couple of thrifts and scored a bunch of expensive shoes in like new condition and a great cashmere blazer. Of course when I got home I found that one pair of boots were actually mismatched -- again boo! Both of these instances tell me I need to pay a bit more attention to details -- rather than get caught up in the thrill of the hunt.

Anyway -- I did many listings this week -- partly due to the 20 cent listing sale eBay had on Thursday and partly because I am a even more of a Warcraft widow this weekend than usual. The expansion pack came out on Tuesday and apparently my charms do not compare to that of the Blood Elf. If you know what that means you are probably in the same boat!

Support your local Girl Scouts!

It's that time again! Girl Scout cookie time. Now through Jan. 28 you can order your favorite cookies from your local troop. Individual troops receive .55 per box to use for service projects, trips and other troop activities. Each council receives funds to support larger scale regional activities.
My personal favs are the coconut/carmel Samoas, with peanut butter Tagalongs a close second. This year they've discontinued the Lemon Coolers and introduced Little Brownies - a crunchy chocolate-chocolate chip cookie that is sugar free. I've had a sample and they're really pretty good.
In our council cookies are $3.50 per box and will be delivered the week of Feb. 22. It is actually a no-no to sell GS cookies on eBay (Girl Scout rules), so please support your local troop. No one knocking on your door -- find your local council here . Still no joy -- shoot me an email and my troop can hook you up.

My new eBay workspace

It is still a work in progress, but so much better than what I had previously -- It makes photographing, measuring and packing my items much less of a job. It also gives us a place to play and store board games and lets my daughter pound on the keyboard or get out messy toys without anyone hassling her. I originally intended to put another TV out there, but the electric wiring would not handle it. I had to rewire all the sockets after the space heater blew one out.

Like I said in my last post, I still plan to finish the floor with some concrete stain. I also need to rehang the matchstick blind I'm using to cover the closet. You can't see it in the photos, but I created a closet using the Rubbermaid wire shelving that was all over the garage -- I fit it into an 8-foot alcove to give me storage for clothing -- as I seem to be selling more and more clothes. Actually the whole project was all about recycling items I already had. All I bought was 2 heavy-duty plastic Sterlite 5-shelf units (on sale for $25 each), 1 gallon paint ($10), the gray couch ($30 at Goodwill), the 5-arm floor lamp ($19 at Target), and 2 orange area rugs ($7 each at Goodwill).

I read that garage renovations that take out the doors so it can't be used as a garage anymore actually hurt the value of the home, so I didn't want to do anything permanent (and couldn't afford to anyway). Luckily the interior was already dry-walled and the ceiling finished. To make the doors blend in I painted them the same as the wall (I thought the beige I bought would be darker than it was) and brought in the huge Algerian Ivy plants I had on my porch all summer. I moved the sports rack to the center of the garage doors on one side and hung the ivies on each side. I took apart the Sterlite shelf I already had and combined it with the 2 new ones to create 5 3-shelf units that I arranged in an L-shape to make a 3-1/2 foot half-wall around the utility part of the garage. Backing the shelves with some vintage grasscloth wallpaper I found at an estate sale a couple of years ago blocked out the lawn tractor, bikes and tools that needed to stay in there. Topping them with 3 large Boston ferns that needed to winter inside helped mask the 2nd garage door.

My work area is a bank of Sterlite drawers and shelves that I had - just reconfigured, with one of the rubbermaid shelves covered with grasscloth as a display area above. I made an island to hold my boxes and to use as a staging area for shipping from half of a heavy-duty utility shelf I had and a big piece of MDF board that was already in the garage. I also made cheap casings for the door and windows out of some scrap wood bought, but never used for another project. The curtains were made from a piece of linen I had been using as a photography backdrop and a tablecloth I also used to back my photos. To unify the fabrics (and make them wide enough) I edged them with part of an old green bedskirt I found in the basement. Oh -- to cover the bare bulbs I made fixtures with up-turned cloth lampshades - super easy. I have a ceiling fan (new in the box from a yard sale for $4) that I will try to put in my spring. Like I said - work in progress.

Resolution #1 -- Update this blog!

Geez -- I can't believe I've been such a slacker blog-wise. I did list like a maniac through the holiday season and that kept me busy -- as well as all the general holiday hoopla.

I'm now trying to recover from the holidays -- got all the decorations stowed away and spent time actually cleaning things so I feel a bit better about the old house. When you work from your home you can get really tired of the place -- especially when the junk starts to accumulate (since apparently I am the only one who knows how to put anything away).

One thing that kept me away from the blog is something that will actually help with the working from home thing. We gave up thinking that we might eventually park at least one car in the garage and I re-designed the space as an eBay workroom and game-room (with a little nook for the lawnmower, tools, etc. It has made for a much more pleasant and organized workspace -- though I still need to stain/seal the concrete floor to make it look good. I will post a few before and after photos of the space.