Vintage Clothing and Today's Agenda - No Rest For Me LOL

I spent three hours with my dress form and my mother's gowns yesterday,. photographing them to send to a few vintage stores around town who have expressed possible interest. I also collected the receipts from the cleaning and repairs that I had done to them - almost $600 that I spent getting them back into wearable condition. I adore them, however, so the cost wasn't a factor. I'm hoping that I can find a thrift store which will want one or more of them. The two St Paul stores I contacted are not accepting any items until April - it is the slow season, after all, and that's very understandable. The Minneapolis shop wanted a minimum of 10 items, and I only have six, but I'll still send the photos to them and see if they might be interested. 

The Golden Pearl vintage shop looks like a place I could 
get into some serious trouble in. They carry a lot of designer 
items but ... I'm hoping they'll take Mom's dresses, so we'll 
see if the photos elicit any interest. 

I'm going to continue working on the shop closing today, though. I'll try to do a walk-through of the video that I need to submit to Travis early next week. In all of the time I've had a cell phone, I've never made any videos to share - I've taken hundreds of photos, but never a video. So this is new ground for me. I'll re-read his instructions once again. I think the total length needs to be approximately 5 minutes, and he needs exterior and interior shots as a prospective customer would see. I also need to submit a head shot of myself. I don't photograph well, but I'll have to see how I can manage that. 

I've read a lot of hints and tricks for filming on my cell 
phone. I take a lot of still photos, but have never really 
done much with moving videos. Still, no time like the 
present to learn t new skill, right? LOL

Last night DH and I met with our accountant to give him all the information necessary for our business and personal taxes. DH is finally admitting that we're closing the store before next year's tax appointment, so that's an improvement over prior years. We discussed tax ramifications and any issues that might arise from that, but things seem pretty straightforward. Now to just make things happen. 

It's going to be a busy day, but I suspect they'll all be busy 
until we're finally able to close the place down at the end 
of May. It's a roller coaster of emotions along with a long 
list of tasks that MUST be accomplished before we can 
lock the doors for the final time. 

So, I have a lot of things on my personal agenda today. I hope all of you have an excellent Thursday, I'm off to the pool for my final swim of the week. Stay warm (or comfortable) and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's VERY COLD and A Short Discussion of Weaving and Gowns

Happy Friday! My phone is telling me that the current temperature is -21 F. Yeah, that's a minus sign in front of the number. It's COLD. DH spent yesterday photographing Navajo weavings. We'll probably be putting most/all of them out to auction with our Santa Fe auction people, but to do that we need photos, dimensions, etc. We're also freaking out a bit over the scheduling for our closing sale - it's VERY precise - 15 pages worth of specific instructions and dates. The sale itself starts in early April, so time is running out and we're nowhere close to being ready. But, we're putting noses to the grindstone and working hard at it. 

Whichever way you look at it, it's damned COLD 
this morning. I'm grateful for my cold weather 
gear, but I'll still be shivering and Minion 
won't be happy being parked in the cold either. 

Yesterday DH pulled down a lot of our Navajo weavings, replacing them with other ones - mostly lesser quality at a lower price point. The good ones we'll be bringing down to Santa Fe ourselves after the shop has closed. But it was an all-day affair photographing each rug on the photo board, culminating with packaging many of them in plastic for storage. Our weavings cabinet is far from empty, but it's nowhere as packed as it had been. 

In this picture, the weaver is weaving a sampler 
weaving - one style on the left, a second 
style in the center and a return to the left style 
on the right. The loom is a vertical loom and sheep's 
wool is usually spun for the yarn. It's a tradition 
that goes back centuries. 

I spent a fair amount of time on the phone contacting a variety of places I thought Mom's couture dresses might be accepted at for resale. I have two "very interested by not accepting anything until April" responses, and one recommendation for a specific Minneapolis shop that I had thought would be worth while to contact. When I contacted them, they expressed an interest in photographs, but also warned me that they usually will only accept items in a group of 10. Well, I don't have quite that many - I think it's either 7 or 8 items that I have - but she said to go ahead with the photos and send them anyway, even if I'm below their minimum quantity. Exceptions can sometimes be made. So I'll try to get that done early next week. Meanwhile, they're in the trunk of my car - not the best place for them, but then again, with the temps as they are, the car is probably safer than many other locations. I might move them back into the house, but I'll leave them for the time being. 

Large weavings, such as this one worked on by two 
weavers simultaneously, are rarely made any more. 
The looms are too large to fit within the hogan, 
and the dollars paid don't make up for the time 
when several smaller weavings will sell for the 
same or more and take less time to make. This photo 
probably dates from the early 1900's. You can see 
a second loom in the background with an additional 
two weavers working on it. They were probably 
working at one of the trading posts and would 
sell the finished products directly to them. 

So, despite the cold, I have to get a very early start today. I need to get the W3 typed up for the Federal Government, and I only have a single copy of the form. NO MISTAKES ALLOWED. I have no correction ability on my typewriter at the shop anymore, and the computer and computer printer can't be used on it either. So, I've got to eat breakfast, bundle up, and hope that my car will start tonight after sitting in the parking lot for hours and hours. Minion was a bit slow to start last night when it was -11, adding an additional -10 to that and an extra hour in the parking lot ... well ... it could be problematic. Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. Slava Ukraini. 

I'm Getting Pulled In So Many Ways Right Now

Yesterday was a VERY busy day. Between errands here and there, I took my Mom's couture gowns to the local thrift shop to see what they would accept. I wasn't happy with them, so I didn't leave any of them, and they're in my car trunk. I'll need to make a few calls and see if any of the more upscale 2nd-hand stores would like any of them. Otherwise I'll look into putting them onto Etsy or Ebay. 

In the 1950's, emphasis was on the shape 
of the body, and draping. The gowns don't 
look great on hangers, but they look amazing 
on a dress form. I don't have the time to deal 
properly with them while we're working on 
the store, and DH was bitching about the space
they were taking up in the spare closet. So, I 
need to sell them or toss them. 

I also got an extensive email from Travis, our business liquidator. It's a full schedule of everything that we need to accomplish, the dates that we need to have them done by, etc, etc. It's rather scary. DH is saying "I don't see how we can get this done in his timeframe" and I'm thinking "It's got to be done, I'll have to make it happen". The one thing I'm a bit worried about is the walk-through video that he needs me to make and send to him. It should be 5-7 minutes long, and I've never made anything of the sort. I'm horribly worried about whether my phone will accommodate that length of a recording. Any of you who have done similar things - can you advise me? 

I've taken a lot of photos with my phone over the years, 
but I've never done much with video. Any advise you can 
offer would be appreciated. He needs a 5-7 minute 
full walkthrough of the shop as well as a serious look 
at the exterior (snowbanks and all, I guess - LOL). 

Along with everything else, DH and I were at the attorney's office yesterday signing the final legal agreements for what will happen to our funds when/if one of us dies. (With the stress of the next few months, that's not out of the question - LOL). But, we're all legal now for the estate and how things will be handled. We each had to make some compromises, but that's how life operates. Because it was snowing and we had the meeting with Corey at 8:00 am across town, I gave up on swimming yesterday - it would have been crowding too much into a short window of time. I'm swimming today, though. I actually was at the YMCA, waiting for the doors to be unlocked, before I decided my schedule would be too tight, told another friend who was also in the parking lot that I was skipping the day's swim, and headed to the gas station to top off before the long day ahead of me. It was a good decision. 

 
We're on a strict time schedule for closing the store and it's 
stressing both of us out. DH can't push things out anymore, 
and I have to really focus on what is needed and get Travis 
the information he'll need to make this successful. 

So, any information any of you can offer on the video that I need to make would be very appreciated. I've never done much with video, and I'm super concerned about whether my old phone will have enough memory left to accommodate a video of that length. So ... please message me back and let me know if you're more up on that particular technology than I am. I use a Google phone, so no Apple, if that's helpful. Have a great Thursday, Slava Ukraini! 

I Was A Busy Bee Yesterday - Housecleaning and Voting and Range Extenders

I had a really busy day yesterday, not just shopping at Whole Foods and my local grocery store (still ended up forgetting one item - oh well...), but then I dove into housecleaning. I straightened up Sharon's Room, moving a few boxes into the Library until she's returned home, and doing a general clean-up, ending with a thorough vacuum of the carpeting. I haven't pulled out and made the bed yet, that will come closer to when she arrives. Then I moved on to the hallway. 

I have a lot of nooks and crannies I need to go through, 
and a lot of corners that need to be cleaned out. For some 
reason, things seems to accumulate in corners. I have no 
idea why. Do you? 

The hallway held several boxes of outdated software that I also moved into the Library, and after it was all cleared, I vacuumed that as well. I didn't bother with the main bedroom - I'll catch that at a later date. 

I purchased four of these ExtendTech WiFi boosters 
and they arrived late last week. I took an hour off 
from housecleaning and other tasks to get them installed 
and set up. I couldn't put the one in Sharon's room quite 
where I wanted it. I judged it was too close to the heat 
vent and would be too hot in the winter months when the 
heat is almost always on. So I had to pick a secondary 
location. Hopefully it will be a good one. I also put 
one in the den and one in the kitchen. They seem to 
be up and operating, and I think I got DH's phone set 
to work with them after he got home last night. At 
least that's the hope. He has a Samsung phone, and that's 
set up totally differently than my Google phone. 

Moving down a level, I took a break and got my latest set of WiFi Extenders installed. I hope they are installed correctly - LOL. Although I got four of them, I really don't have a good place for the fourth at this time. I'll probably put it into the craft room at some point, but that particular device was also giving me some problems, so I left it with the three - Sharon's Room, the kitchen and the Den. All of them are merrily sporting four green lights now, so they seem to be properly installed. I have no idea, to be honest. I've always been a bit flummoxed by WiFi extenders over the years. 

Sharon arrives on the 1st of September, so I have all of 
August to get my house cleaned and ready. That's not 
bad, and I got a really good start on things yesterday. But 
I have some deep cleaning that I'd like to do, and really, 
I only have Wednesday and Friday to clean, so I'll end 
up needing every one of those days. It would be nice 
if I could keep it going after her visit, but that's 
usually when I shift over to designing and making my 
holiday cards. 

After my "break", I vacuumed the living room completely. My goal is to carpet clean it next week, although I might switch to carpet cleaning the Den instead - it needs it a lot more. I'll see what happens and what seems most important. I want to get to dusting and the finer points of cleaning next week - that always takes time. Also, I might be able to fix some of my dragons, now that I have the correct glue. That would make me very happy indeed. I've got the rest of August to achieve a clean house. It's far from impossible. 

One other thing I did was pick up my latest cleaned garment of my Mom's collection from the cleaners, and drop off the next one. The staff is totally loving these gowns - and they are exceptional. They're cleaning up very well. Each gown is unique and absolutely stunning in its' own way. So, all in all, it was a very busy but quite successful Friday off, and I feel like I might be on top of things for a change. I'm sure that will change, I still have to tackle the computer room, after all, and that room is a disaster! LOL 

Voting cuts off tonight, so please, if you haven't voted, 
do so. There are some rather amazing stories that I'm 
going up against this time. If you're looking for a great 
read, I highly recommend SwirlsofPurple's story this 
week. Take a look and think hard about what she's 
pointing out here. 
https://swirlsofpurple.dreamwidth.org/7324.html

Have an excellent weekend. If you haven't voted for my story, you have until 7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time to get your vote in. I'm lagging, but I suspect a lot of that is because other people have more friends that are voting for their stories. Technically, mine is on par with most of them, so I'm holding my head high even though my vote count is low. Enjoy your weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini. 

Revamping, Resizing, and Restoring - That's Been My Week

Today is the first day we're actually working with the Tarot cards in my course on Tarot. I'm relieved that today is a "day off" because I'll actually have a bit of down time to settle, relax, and work with them for a little while. Of course I'll have to fit that between various other errands and I also want to get some more work done on my Etsy pages. 

Right now I have photos similar to this for my Swarovski 
crystal cubes. It's good, but it can be better. I'm going to 
cut it down and do overall and in-depth photos for each 
one. I think that'll be a better direction to go in. 

After living with my Etsy 8mm Swarovski crystal cubes pages for a couple of weeks now, I want to change them. But I'll start out by revamping and rephotographing the 6mm cubes first, because I have those here and can work on them without having to pull from the shop bins. I'm not really looking forward to re-photographing them - it's actually a lot of work. But good pictures bring buyers in, and I think they're really important. 

We have a bunch of old Tandy Leathercraft 
kits similar to this that we need to sell. I think 
this type of product is better suited to Ebay than 
to Etsy, and DH was in charge of photographing 
and getting them up on that website. He took 
a lot of photos (not very good quality), but 
never got as far as getting them listed. I guess 
I'll have to take over, but not until after I've 
got the crystals completed, and that's going 
to be quite a long time. 

DH was supposed to be working on our Ebay stuff. I don't think he's done anything for at least two months. I'll have to be a bit more pushy. I can't do both - I'm quite filled up as it is. So, it's back to the drawing board on my computer and with my photos. I think I'll enjoy my working time with the Tarot cards much more than I'll enjoy going back to the beginning with a category of crystals. *sigh*

Treasured Garment Restoration has excellent 
reviews and a good reputation. Another plus 
is that I can drop the gowns off at any 
of the St Croix Cleaners locations and it'll 
get picked up and then dropped off again 
by Treasured Garment. My Mom's gowns 
are drop-dead gorgeous and need some 
tender loving care. We'll see how they do 
with this first one, but I have confidence. 

I got a phone call on Wednesday from Treasured Garment Restoration. I had brought one of my mother's cocktail dresses in to the cleaner associated with them on the 22nd. As I was leaving the shop, the clerk said she would just sit there and drool over the gown until they came to pick it up later in the day - LOL. So ... the owner of Treasured called me on the 27th, totally over the moon at the construction and condition of the gown. She said for a gown that was almost 80 years old, it was in phenomenal condition and the actual construction of the gown had floored her. So detailed, exact, and beautifully done. She had never seen anything like it before. 

I chose this gown for the test run. I knew it was 
in excellent condition and if there were any 
repairs, they were very minor. It's a side zip 
gown, and I actually can wear it. I just don't have 
any occasion to put something like this on. 
It's original velvet - long before the fake stuff, 
boned in the bodice, size zipper - metal of 
course - and absolutely stunning, one-of-a-kind. 

I said my mother had designed and sewn the gown, and it was unlikely she would ever see another one like it, but I had several more of her gowns, so if they did a good job on the one, they would eventually get all of them. I ended the conversation feeling very good about how they will care for my vintage gowns. I can't wait to see how they do with it. 

Looking at the full view, you can see the 
gown isn't draping properly. It was stored, 
along with the others, in a steamer trunk 
for decades, then in boxes in my attic. In 
a way that was hard on them, but they 
also didn't get handled, so they're actually 
almost all in excellent condition. 

Last week, I also decided to try on every skirt in my closet and cull. I ended up giving nine to Goodwill, taking four to a local tailor for resizing so that I could wear them without them falling around my ankles, and hanging 15 back into my closet. I'll pick up the resized skirts on Friday next week. I can't wait to have clothes that fit me again! 

So that's what's happening in my life right now - not drop down excitement, but at least not boring either - LOL. By the end of summer, I hope to have my whole wardrobe revamped and sized properly. It would be nice to be able to wear clothes without adding pins to keep the waistlines tight enough. Have a wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.