Sundresses and Skirts

It seems like all I've sold lately is Sundresses and Skirts. That's not completely true, but it comprises the majority of my sales. For example:

Charlotte Russe floral skirt with lace trim purchased for $2.50, sold for $9.99

NY & Co Blue & white floral Sundress, purchased for $1.00, sold for $7.00

Talbots Cream & Red Japaese inspired skirt, purchased for $2.50, sold for $9.99

Dress Barn White Sundress with Roses, purchased for $1.00, sold for $8.00

Speechless Black skirt with satin floral embellishment & rhinestones, purchased for $1.00, sold for $7.00

Gap Blue & Green Plaid Sundress, purchased for $$1.00, sold for $8.00

Talbots Circles Skirt, purchased for $1.00, sold for $7.00

Roxy Strapless floral dress, purchased for $1.00, sold for $9.99

DownEast Basics "Fall in Love" floral skirt NWT, purchased for $3.99, sold for $9.00

Gap White Halter Sundress, purchased for $1.00, sold for $7.00



Coldwater Creek floral faux wrap skirt, purchased for $3.99, sold for $8.00

J Crew Peach and Beige floral sundress, purchased for $1.00, sold for $10.50



Abercrombie & Fitch Cream corduroy mini skirt, purchased for $1.00, sold for $7.00

 



A little Comic Relief

...is what I found this morning on my camera, after my 7 year old inadverdantly flooded my bathroom, closet, bedroom, basically half my upstairs. It happened to leak through the  kitchen air vents downstairs before she realized she had never turned off the tub water. Catastrophe!! Anyhow, this guy made me laugh:

 

As well as this little guy who was measuring his apple and told me
"My ..apple..seven, six!"

It's cute, but also funny because he is the reason that I don't measure a lot of the clothing I list on ebay. Occasionally I do, when I FIND my measuring tape, but he is always taking off with them (I have several), and now I have proof! When people ask me for measurements I usually have to grit my teeth and scour the house for a measuring tape.

Aside from waking up late (I work nights 10pm-2am) to my daughters hysteria over the flooding, and the disaster of the flood itself, today looks to be gorgeous! The sky is so brilliant blue it is giving me flashbacks of childhood summers playing in the sprinklers.

There's a sprinkling of big fluffy white clouds (never mind a few pesky gray ones) and a slightly cool breeze. It makes me want to get outside and run! Run away from this messy house complete with every towel in the house soaking up water and a lot of soaked clothing which will all need washing. It's my 2nd daughters' sixth birthday, my little guy has already told me he wants to go to chucky cheese (which we promised for his birthday...in sept). I'm going to take my little girl a special lunch and eat in the cafeteria with her and her friends. I'm so happy to be alive today! It is going to be beautiful day if I allow myself the luxury of enjoying it!
What are you going to do with your day?!

Got Messy Cords?

Here's a simple yet totally GENIUS idea from Unplggd

Nearly 2 weeks

I've been MIA. Sorry about that. I actually do have several posts that I've been working on, but I decided to keep working on them and in the meantime keep blogging. Cuz, I do love to chat and I've missed chatting with you.

A couple great things...

I got to spend a kid-less weekend with my husband and a few of his brothers and their wives in Colorado. We got a really great price on tickets and had some important reasons to see family and just went for it. It was a fun, fast, much needed get-away. I wish I could say I came back all refreshed but like I said it was FAST. Friday night to Sunday night fast. Now had I had a week there, I would be ready to get back to life. But here it is Wednesday and I'm already tired of this week.

I sold THIS on ebay this week:

It's a Anthropologie ODILLE brand blouse. Feminine, ruffly paid $1 for it, sold on eBay for $46! This ranks up there among my top 5 sales ever I think. Boy I wish I would make a $45 profit on every item! I was really psyched and it got me motivated to keep on listing.

Goals

I'm sad to admit I've always been a lousy Goal-achiever. I'm great at making and listing Goals, but the oophf that comes after and leads to success seems to get lost somewhere. I don't know for sure, but I think that its because of my personality type. I'm not really sure how to change that.

Regardless, I plan to continue to keep Goal-setting and this time I am going to switch gears and set goals strictly pertaining to eBay. Kelly, over at MyDearTrash has set and achieved some amazing goals (i.e. Family Trip $4000+; a new computer $2000+; and now she is planning on paying for her daughters wedding costing $5000 in only 5 weeks of eBay selling) and she achieves her goals very well in a short period of time. In the past I've just used my eBay money for whatever comes a long, bills, food, gas, etc whatever. Now I'm thinking I need more focus to make this really worth it, and not just a hobby. Because if I'm being honest, my favorite part is the shopping ;) I need some push to get my clothes actually up on eBay so they can sell, and I can do more shopping ;)

So, that being said here are some goals (in no particular order) that I'd like to achieve with my eBay profits:

• Pay Off my credit card debt
• Buy a new computer (to make listing way faster)
• New couch!
• Gym Membership
• Landscaping
• New Washer/Dryer
• Shopping Spree at Down East Basics (this one goes a long with my losing weight goals ad my Gym membership Goal) I just LOVE their clothing
• Food Storage
• Take my kids to Disneyland
• Silhouette machine
• New bikes for everyone in the family for Christmas

So... what are your goals? What gives you the drive to work harder & smarter?
Its kind of fun to make a list!! Go to it! Some of the things I want feel lofty and will take time others can be achieved in less time than you think if you just stick to it. I've seen it over and over with Kelly and have faith and hope that it can work for me too.

Ice Cream Chore Chart

Spring Break seemed like the perfect time to institute a regular chore system in our home. Am I a mean mom? I don't think so. I'm making it fun! And a week with my 2 older kids home from school meant lots of good practice. I intend to make Spring Break next year the beginning of an annual Spring Cleaning time. My kids are 7 & almost 6 and fully capable of handling small jobs.

To make it fun I drew then copied sheets of ice cream scoops and added all kinds of jobs to them. Everything from wiping all the door knobs in the house, to cleaning all the toilets, to tidying this room or that. Pretty much I summed up all the jobs that could make our home much cleaner and tidy most of the time. Then I laminated the ice cream scoops and an ice cream cone with each persons name on it and taped them to our pantry door.

The goal each week would be for each person in the family to do a different chore each day (i.e. no one person gets to gather shoes each day that would be too easy) Monday thru Friday, and then each person would have a designated laundry day. So by the end of the week we should have a tidy house, 6 scoops on our ice cream cone, and thus earning the treat of the week: an ice cream sundae any choices of toppings. In addition, they could earn 10 cents extra for any jobs done after the first 6. Ever the over-achiever, by the middle of the first day my oldest daughter had 7 scoops ad was angry with me for asking her to slow down and relax. When their dad got home from work they began hassling him to catch up. 

I put the jobs up as I need them done, until then I store them in an old ice cream bucket. I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out. And as more jobs are needed, I can make new scoops and add them to the bucket.

The first week went really well with my oldest earning 12 scoops total, my middle earning 10, dad got his 6, I think mom earned 13 and the 2 yr old earned 3 but he got his ice cream anyway! He's a happy little helper and will grow into it with this system.

A book I insist you all read

Have you ever purchased a book just because you liked the name? Or the cover?

How did it turn out for you? I do it all the time. Sometimes I read books that I wonder what was the point. But more often than not, I'm lucky.

On an unsuspecting, regular day at Goodwill, I picked up this book:

This is a wonderfully heart warming story that keeps you wanting to read. The imagery was beautiful and whimsical, well downright magical. It has the powerful effect that makes you wish you were the orphan children in the story. I actually had to revise this commentary because the first time I wrote it I think I said too much. I'm not really very good at writing reviews, I was just so excited about the book I felt I needed to shout it from the rooftops.  

With this book, I feel like I hit the jackpot. I found a new author and she has a whole slew of books I am excited to read. In fact I was reading it to my children each day and night, and one evening when they were all asleep I was too engrossed that I just read straight though. My kids were not happy with me for leaving them behind even though I am still reading it to them. They think I cheated.

This is the kind of book that should be required reading in school because it has a beautiful sense of hope, even whilst dealing with real world problems. It's a fun read, and it will be one of my favorites from now on!

Get a copy and fall in love with the characters!