It’s Heating Up…and Cooling Down!

Where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area summer temps don’t usually get insane. In fact this past week the weather was just perfect–sunny, mid-70s, low humidity with a light breeze. But this coming week it’s going to be a bit warmer. I say “a bit” because they are already issuing a heat advisory. For us that means shutting the windows and shades during the day (no AC) and opening them when it cools down over night. (That works surprisingly well.) It also means watering my potted plants every day, deep watering a few of the more vulnerable trees and making sure our birdbath is kept filled. (It is a popular place this time of year.)

On the vintage reselling front, after a fairly spectacular and unexpected month of good sales (June normally isn’t like this!), they seem to be cooling off now. Slowing down heading into the summer slump. But I’m feeling very que sera sera about it. No more moaning.

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On the sourcing front…

At my neighborhood thrift store, I found a small cutting board. I’ve sold one or two in the past but they can take a bit of work to refurbish so I haven’t been buying many lately. This one had a pretty end-grain pattern and I decided it was worth the effort to clean up. But darn it Goodwill put the label smack on top and when I peeled it off, it left a ton of sticky residue. It was a pain to get it off without marring the wood.

Afterwards I did a very minimal sanding on top with fine sandpaper and sanitized the whole board with 3% hydrogen peroxide. After the wood was thoroughly dry I did an application of Boos Mystery Oil and the next morning I applied a layer of Boos Mystery Paste. Later I wiped off any excess and you can see it came out fine.

Prices for larger, new end-grain boards can go in the $$$.

Mine has a few natural wood flaws and is smaller (and pre-owned though it didn’t have cut marks) so I’ve priced it at $60.

Cutting boards aren’t an exciting category but I do appreciate their beauty and usefulness and it does feel good to rescue them from a landfill death.

Speaking of death I also listed this 1984 “Highgate Cemetery” softcover book. This has been in my personal collection for decades (I love old cemeteries) but decided I can let it go now.

Years ago I took my eldest to London (she was 9 or 10) and we stayed at a B & B in Highgate. We were planning on getting to Highgate Cemetery, but midway in our trip she caught a cold and we had to limit some of our activities and, alas, we never did make it there. We did make it to nearby Kenwood House and into London proper for the Tower and a Pollock’s Toy Museum and a few other activities. Another interesting bit on this trip was the home we stayed in. It was run by the parents of the then new film director Christopher Nolan. His dad proudly showed us the premiere night photos from his “Insomnia” movie. His pretty blonde mom was a flight attendant and the bathroom we used was wallpapered with shopping bags from around the world. It was quite charming. There was a huge stuffed walrus plushie in our room and my daughter can say in all honesty, she played with Christopher Nolan’s walrus. Not many can say that!

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I digressed a bit there but the truth is I am not sourcing a lot. I am mostly focusing on listing things from my “death/money pile” and from personal collections. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and stop buying. I would love to have less inventory about!

I’ll close for now. Not looking forward to this hot week, but I know many around the world have been suffering the same.

Wishing you happy hunting,

Karen