August Art Offerings

This sculpture resides at the Mendocino Art Center in Mendocino, California. 

Metal sculpture near the Mendocino Theatre Company in Mendocino, California. 

Thrift shop offerings of a painting

A rock print

and foot and jar obscura. All thrift shop residents. 

Ending the post with Flower Guy - not quite sure what is going on here. 

Auditing the Listings

The lead-off image is yet another thrift shop painting. This one I have entitled "Eye See You."

This week meant each day was spent on the audit of eBay listings of Simplicity and Vogue sewing patterns. I brought up each listing, checked the details, and revised the price. Most were overpriced, some underpriced. All of the cut patterns were culled. Some were out of numeric order. Some were duplicates. Some weren't listed at all. Some needed pattern packet scotch-tape reinforcement. 

If you are an online seller, I would highly recommend auditing your listings. I removed the reference to Vintage on my listings. I figure I will let the buyer determine whether a pattern is vintage or not. 

Lockdown blips in selling were books and CDs. Sales in those two categories have come to a near standstill. I will start segueing out of those categories in the months to come. 

I work each day on eBay now. My extra disposable income of $1,500 per month has disappeared as a result of the reduction of my state salary to a fixed income, and putting my eBay store on time away during the summer. I have more than enough inventory to list for the next three months. 

There is a possibility for retired state workers to return to work without jeopardizing their retirement benefits. One must wait 180 days from their retirement date to return to work as a Retired Annuitant. I would be interested in working a couple of days a week. I have signed up for the CalCareers weekly notifications. California just went through a budget crisis (my suspicion is overspending on COVID-related programs), so there might not be many of those positions available. 

I am still adjusting to this retirement thing. From legal analyst to caregiver. There is lots on the plus side, but I miss being around others. 

Completion of the 2024 Fan Quilt

The lead-off image is the center of the completed fan quilt done in a dragonfly quilting pattern. 

Image below is the quilt in the wild. 

I bound it in a dramatic fabric that brought all of the colors together. 

Close-up of the dragonfly quilting pattern. 

Next quilt queued up is Lava Lamp - king-sized with a wool batting. 

Seller update: After I finish the audit of my sewing patterns, I will begin listing my quilt projects for sale. Other listing sessions queued up are Barbie clothes lotted by color, Boy Scout items, yarn, and CDs. 

Pattern of the Day is from 1997 Butterick 5030 Woodland Elves. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186640198514

I reactivated my Instagram account Tamaschen. It was on hiatus for almost 3 years. I guess because I have an active Facebook account, the IG account easily reactivated. It is the most popular app and I like to enter the contests. 

August Blogiversary

Celebrating my 13th anniversary as a blogger. It has been a quiet summer in blogland for my posts. I spent the month of June finishing out my tenure as a state worker. July and August have been spent involved in a dispute over our summer home. The lead-off image was a painting at a Fort Bragg, California thrift shop. 

Back to thrifting in my area produced a pair of Black Americana salt and pepper shakers. My most recent finds have been mainly sewing patterns, nothing as cute as these two!

Pattern of the Day is an undated Butterick raggedy clown doll. I had scanned in this batch of patterns for my listing session then I misplaced the scans! They were saved in another folder, so glad I found them! 😌

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186634084833

Getting back to quilting - my next post will be the completion of the 2024 Fan Quilt.