Happy Birthday

To Margaret from www.livelikenooneelse.com . I'm not sure how old she is but I'm guessing she's in her mid 20's and looks fabulous for her age. Enjoy your big day Margaret and your time off. Happy birthday!

Shopping

I am simple type of person. I would rather be comfortable then look good. Unlike my friend April who says you must suffer for beauty and its better to look good then to feel good. But she always feel bad. A lot of medical issues. I think dressing up is her way of hiding the pain.

I've always dated jeans and a t-shirt type of guys. Our big dates are a small local restaurant and a movie. Jason and I are lucky if we can make it out of the house without at least one child on our "dates". Just a way of life. And it's a pretty good life.

But recently we got invited out to a nice fancy restaurant. Since it was right before Christmas my budget was tight and I didn't have the money to go out and but a fancy new dress. Especially one I would probably never wear again. So what was a girl to do? Nothing in my closet was acceptable. But then my mom reminded me I a whole lot (more then I care to admit) of clothing items in the garage a.k.a. my eBay room. So I went shopping in my eBay merchandise and I found the perfect dress. Everyone loved it.

Does anyone else ever going shopping through their eBay merchandise when they need something? Or am I just weird that way?

At this point it would be nice to include a pic of me wearing my fancy dress. But I hate pics. So here is a pic of my Princess and nugget all dressed up.

30 Below

OK Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t that cold on Saturday. It might have been more like 31 degrees but it felt like 30 below. We aren’t used to this type of weather around here. But I didn’t let the cold weather stop me from going yard saling this weekend. I wish I could say it was worth getting the family out of bed but the sales were few and unfortunately not very good. This was one of the rare Saturdays I had both girls with me so they got dragged along too. Now before anyone goes calling CPS (again) on me for taking them out in freezing weather, I bundled them up in so much warm clothing that they could barely move. Princess had books, games, and movies to keep her entertained and Nugget had a fully tummy so with the movement of the car she slept most of the morning. Jason and I took turns getting out of the car so the girls never left the warm comfort of their car seats. I can’t say the same for us.

We all have our little quirks. Admit it, you have a couple too. I will share mine. Like I can’t eat two same color M&M’s in a row. I don’t know why. It’s just wrong. I also rarely wear closed toed shoes. So even though it was 30 degrees out on Saturday and I had 3 layers of clothing, gloves, a hat and scarf I was still wearing my sandals. I know, not smart. But I did have some nice woman feel sorry for me and sell me a pair of Ugg boots for $2.00. And they were my size. I threw them in the back of my car and kept the sandals on. Sshh don’t tell her. Unfortunately the only other find of the day was a Vera Bradley back pack for $2.00. I’ve never sold her bags before but I’ve read that they sell well on eBay. The purse is not my style but it’s really cute and I’m tempted to keep it as a diaper bag. The last diaper bag I had I ended up selling on eBay (I forgot I listed it and started to use it so I had to empty it when it sold) so I’ve been searching for a new one. I might just use it until it sells.

I hope everyone else had better luck on their shopping expeditions this weekend. Misery really doesn’t like company.

It's Been How Long?!

Over a month and a half. That's how long it had been since I went to any yard sales or thrift shops. No I didn't put myself on a shopping diet. I don't know what happened. Life I guess. With the holidays, baby drama, and a wet December shopping with the last thing on my mind. Hard to believe but it's true.

This weekend I broke my shopping fast and hit the few garage that I was able to find. It really has been raining a lot around here and for some reason usually on Saturdays. Since it rained on Friday there weren't too many brave people who were willing to bring out there trash, oops I mean treasures to their semi dry front lawn. But I was able to find a wood rocking chair for my princess for only $4.00! It's really nicely made and worth much more then $4.00. Other then that the sales were a bust.

But now that I got the taste of shopping again I couldn't resist and the next day made a trip to a couple of my favorite thrift stores. I didn't over indulge but I was able to come home with some button down Ralph Lauren dress shirts (those always sell well for me especially in larger sizes), a few Tommy Bahama silk shirts (can't stay away from Hawaiian shirts), and my surprise find of the day, a Steiff doll. I didn't even know they made dolls. This is my first Steiff find and I haven't researched it at all but I'm sure I can at least make back my $2.00 investment.

I'm Famous

Now don't be asking for any autographs. More on that later.

So my adventure into Amazon is going well. I have sold almost everything I had listed. But the fees are way more then eBay. I didn't pay a lot for what I listed so I'm still making a good profit. And I love
the convenience. I shipped everything to FBA and when something sells I get an email telling me it has been shipped.

On the eBay front things are slow. Including my listing. But life is so complicate lately. I did sell the Hanna Anderson jacket I listed.

Now on to my brush with fame. Apparently I'm a horrible person. Yep you might want to deny knowing me. Baby's daddy was on TV last week saying how his daughter was ripped from their arms for no reason and he's worried about her safely. That their are constantly bruises and bites on baby and she is always dirty. Luckily he doesn't know my name so I wasn't actually named in the newscast. Needless to say with all of this happening I haven't had time to think of a wedding. But are hoping for January 12, 2013.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful season and are selling like crazy.

What Did The Bird Say ...

... When it flew over Kmart? Cheap, cheap, cheap.

OK that’s an old joke from my youth. But the bird would also say the same thing while flying over me. I will admit that 90% of our family’s clothing comes from yard sales. I just can’t spend a ton of money on clothing that is going to get ripped, or torn, or stained, or spit up on within a few (sometimes one) times being worn. That doesn’t mean that my babies don’t look adorable.

Ella’s dress was $1.00. It is officially her holiday dress.

Andi’s outfit was $3.00 including the backpack, pants and top.

This one was $2.00.

But just because I don’t like to spend money on my daughters clothes doesn’t mean that other people don’t. It always amazes me how much parents will spend on brand name clothing.

Today I’m listing this Hanna Andersson jacket. I paid a dollar for it. Unfortunately it didn’t fit my daughters. But Hanna Andersson sells really well on eBay. Moms love this brand. I can always spot it when I’m out because they have such bright, floral prints. Before I list anything Hanna Andersson I always try to find the style name first. My favorite site id is http://megancrown.com/hannafannas.com/index.html . I can’t always find what I’m looking for but 9 out of 10 times it’s there. And it helps. I once listed a dress for 2 months with little interest. I looked up the style and included it in my title and listing and it sold within a week for $5.00 more then I originally had it listed for.

Another brand that has sold well for me is Lilly Pulitzer. Very cute and adorable prints but I never find anything in my daughters size. I’ve had good luck finding style id’s for this brand at http://home.comcast.net/~sweet36/site/ .

Of course my favorite brand is Matilda Jane. I think their clothing is absolutely adorable and sells incredibly well but I have only found it twice in over a year that I’ve been looking.

Does anyone else sell children’s clothing? What brand sell well for you?

Update

My life is has been hectic lately. I actually cried one day last week because I felt so overwhelmed. But I picked myself up and kept on going.

On the eBay front things are not so good. I will admit it has been over 3 weeks since I listed. And no listings means little to no sales. Don’t you hate how that works? By the time I get home for the day I am exhausted and eBay is the last thing on my mind. And the time change isn’t helping any. When we get home my daughter thinks it’s bedtime because it’s dark outside already. I did get a few listed yesterday and my goal is to do 5 today. I need money quickly (more on that later) so any free time I get I will be listing from now on. Unfortunately all the free time I have isn’t very much.

The girls are doing great. Baby Ella is growing (really growing) and doing wonderfully. No effects from the drugs are showing. She is a happy baby. But she has so many appointments lately besides the twice weekly visits with parents. Being a single mom is hard! Andi is blossoming. Sometimes I’m amazed of the things she says or does. I still see her as my little baby. I did decide to take her out of ballet and only leave her in gymnastics. I have too much on my plate right now. This week alone I have two appoints today for the girls (McStart and Parents as Teachers), tomorrow I have PTA and my monthly concurrent parents class, Thurs I have parent teacher meeting and gymnastics. Friday I have a vet appointment. Every week has been like this lately. Next week I’m  scheduling an official burn out. Wish me luck!

On a personal note, I’m running off and getting married next month. I am engaged. I guess I won’t be a single mom for long. His name is Jason and he is great with the girls which is a major plus. I don’t have the money or energy to have a huge wedding and don’t want to plan over a year in advance so we are going to have a very small wedding next month in a chapel in Monterey followed by a lunch at a local restaurant for everyone who attends. A toast and cake and it will be done. Just what I need right now, nothing complicated. But this is the reason I need money! I don’t want to charge anything if possible. So hopefully I can get some extra money from eBay and pay everything cash.

I hope everyone is doing well and is ready for the holidays. I know there are so many people on the east coast affected by weather and as much as I stress I also feel grateful for everything I have. They have all been in my prayers.