skip to main |
skip to sidebar
For all you Vera Bradley lovers, use the code: SWEETAPRIL on their website and get a FREE $68 Sweetheart shoulder bag when you spend $100. Plus, if you spend over $75, you automatically get free shipping. http://www.retailmenot.com/view/verabradley.com
I purchased two Vera's "On the Go" (the only style I carry) as well as the free bag. I paid just $121 and will sell the free bag on ebay for about $40-$50. This means I paid $81-$91 for the two On the Go styles. I picked two newer lines and these would have been $60 on ebay each. I am thrilled. The sale goes through 4/12.
Here is what I got:
The free bag:
My most favorite print from their newest summer 2012 line: Lime's Up
And another favorite of mine that was on sale for $49.99, Loves Me
This style (the "On The Go") is the only purchase I now carry. It has side pockets for my hubby's glasses and for mine. It has a front zipper pocket for my cell phone so I can easily reach it. It has three inner pockets - a small center one for my two Burt's Bees lip glosses and two side pockets. One for credit cards and another for what little cash I carry. It zippers shut and adjusts from a shoulder bag to a cross body for traveling & thrifting. I love it and will be thrilled to get two more.
I hope everyone had a most wonderful Easter. The hubby & I went to church this morning. A relative took his father to his own church and so we had "off" this morning. My husband played guitar and I set up the cookies I had made. We stayed until the children performed their play and then we left. We had to do some shopping (thank goodness Wal-Mart was open) and then head back to his dad's house.
We were thinking about taking his dad out to eat but he wasn't up to it so we stayed home. I made scrambled eggs, potatoes, ham (of course!), peaches and toast. A simple meal since I hadn't planned ahead. Oops!
We then took naps - me at our home and my hubby at his dad's home. And of course my father-in-law slept in his lift chair. It was a nice afternoon.
My husband & I went walking this evening and although my knee is now killing me, I am glad we did. His dad was fine for the hour and stayed in his chair. The hubby will be spending the night with him and the day tomorrow since I have plans to shop for ebay.
Here are the promised photos of the finished cookies. Well...almost finished. I forgot to take photos when they were all boxed up & then set up at the church.
Here is what I used for the "eyes" on the chicks. I found them a months ago at TJ Maxx.
And here is what my fingers looked like after coloring the sugar for icing!
I forgot to have the hubby take a photo of my Easter dress. I found it at the thrift for $3 and it was brand new. I found another on ebay so here is a photo of the dress. I wore it with black studded bow flats and a black shrug.
I volunteered to bake cookies for our church again. I try to do this every 4-6 weeks. Today I made a few different kinds including one I have never done before.
1. Betty Crocker Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies - these are one of the most requested, favored cookies of the church. Here is the recipe: LINK
2. Betty Crocker Red Velvet Cookies. I have done these just one time before. Here are a few photos before the icing & nuts. And here is the recipe: LINK
3. A new recipe for me: Dark Chocolate Orange-Apricot Cookies. I tried one and it is amazing. Yum, yum, yum! LINK for the recipe.
I drizzled dark chocolate over them instead of dunking them in the chocolate (a suggestion on the Betty Crocker website) and they look delicious!
4. Plain old sugar cookies. I used the Betty Crocker sugar cookie packets. It was the first time I used my electric cookie press and dyed the dough some funky colors using a neon dye. I am going to leave the dyed flowers uniced and then ice the cut out cookies.
My Wear-Ever Super Shooter - purchased at Goodwill for $4.
I will post more photos when I ice the cookies & put them in decorative trays.
But here is what my fridge looks like:
April Cornell had a bunch of boutique-y stores back in the 1990's. I remember visiting one while on vacation in Vermont and thought everything was so pretty. They had long, floral dresses and pieces to match those dresses.
I went online to see if they had gone out of business (which I thought they did) but they still have stores in the US.
Anyway...
April Too! is their plus sized line and the dresses go for about $30-$45 on ebay. So if you find a few at the thrift, pick them up!
This one I had left behind at the thrift. I wasn't sure how April Cornell dresses would sell and it seemed...kind of boring. I went back about a month after my original trip and it was still there! It must have been waiting for me. It sold for $45.
I sold this one for $33.
And this one for $32 since it was missing the slip.
April Cornell's other pieces do pretty well too. I sold this smaller sized dress for $20. I realize that is not a ton of money but perhaps you could find them at yard sales this summer.
If I was super rich and could shop anywhere in the world, I would pick romantic, artsy pieces like April Cornell currently has on their website.
My hubby & I are taking turns being with my father-in-law. He was discharged from rehab a few days ago and is doing much better now that he is back in his own home. His shoulder was replaced and will be in a sling until atleast May 1 and so we are staying with him until then.
Here is what my day looked like:
6am: Wake up at my own house. The hubby slept over at his dad's house a mile down the road. I print shipping labels until 8:30am - I sold 30 items yesterday!
9:15am: Pack up what I need from my house and go to the FIL's house. This includes my laptop, books, food, etc. I will not be home for around 10 hours.
10am: The therapist comes and I meet him. He does simple exercises with my FIL while I watch.
11:30am: I make the FIL's lunch early since he has a nurse coming in the afternoon. I heat up chicken, mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables with a homemade biscuit. Pudding is for dessert. The FIL eats everything (he is a great eater!).
12:30pm: The nurse is early. I am extremely thankful that her top is more modest today. On Wednesday she came and it was very low cut. I held my tongue (aren't you proud of me?!?) though.
2pm: The FIL is asleep. I try to lay down since I only got 5 hours of sleep (I was up late listing on ebay) but people knock on the door. He has visitors.
3:30pm: I cut FIL's hair. He wasn't able to get it cut while at the hospital & in rehab and is extremely long. He has beautiful hair - silver-white, straight and super thick.
4:15pm: FIL decides it would be "fun" to walk around outside. This is fine with me - hopefully I wake up a bit! We walk around the entire house and my knee starts to swell (more on this later).
4:45pm: I start supper. I make fried eggs, toast, bananas and serve Jell-O I made earlier. FIL grosses me out when he puts the banana in the Jell-O and pours milk over it. Yup...milk...over Jell-O. It looks disgusting. I pretend to do dishes and move things around the kitchen so I don't have to look at it.
5:15pm: I look around for some chocolate and all I can find is hard candies wrapped in strawberry wrappers and something called Bit O Honey's. I eat a Bit O Honey candy and cannot decide if I like it. I eat another. Nope...not as good as chocolate.
6:00pm: I get on the computer and re-list everything that didn't sell yesterday. Hopefully some of the stuff will sell the second time around.
7:00pm: My hubby gets back to relief me. He had a busy day of church rehearsals, errands and shopping for the FIL.
7:30pm: Print more shipping labels. People have been busy paying for the items that have sold over the last few days.
9:00pm: Go to bed. I am exhausted. Again. (Update: I slept 11 solid hours!)
__________________
So you see from my day that I am up at my FIL's house most of the day. Since we rely on my income from ebay to pay our bills, I have been trying to squeeze in shopping while the hubby is up at his dad's a couple times a week. Hubby has been taking nights and has been getting less sleep than I have.
I know my iron level is incredibly low since I feel like I could drop at any second. Thankfully I still have a few B12 shots left and the hubby gave one to me this past week. It didn't seem to help though.
And good news...I am getting my knee operated on! The doctor thought I tore my meniscus but the MRI didn't confirm it. He said that the MRI doesn't always show the meniscus and so on April 26 they are going to go inside my knee and "clean it out" a bit. I am thrilled since my knee is swelling whenever I walk on it and is very painful.
Okay, now that I have complained I think I am done. I hope everyone has a most wonderful Easter!
I am one of the millions of people who has read Hunger Games. One of the guys on the church worship team posted on his Facebook account he was reading it. I had never heard of it (I rarely watch TV or listen to any kind of news) but it piqued my interest. The next day I was at TJ Maxx and they had the first book for $5.99. I picked it up with the last of my birthday money.
I got home and started to read it and couldn't put it down. I read constantly and love almost all types of literature so this wasn't anything new. I go through books quickly and I finished this one within hours.
What I like about reading is that you can skim through parts you aren't interested in...which happened a few times during the most violent parts. As an adult, I liked the book. I liked it so much that I purchased the next books on ebay. They took about 2 weeks to get to me and I read them just as quickly.
As a reader, I have read thousands of books and most have a similar plot and story line. I like something fresh and new. I loved the story of Benjamin Button - I had never heard of reverse aging in a book or movie. And this plot was different as well. I think that is probably what I enjoyed most about it.
With that said, I will not be one of the millions of people going to see the movie of The Hunger Games. I would not be able to skip the violent parts (unless I went to the bathroom a lot!) and it wouldn't be worth it for me.
But I was one of the people that sold the book on ebay! Here are my results...
1. The first book I purchased for $5.99. I purchased it to read it; not necessarily to make money. It sold for $9.10 which means I got paid a couple of dollars to read the book. Ha!
2. I purchased the 3 book series from the UK on ebay for $19. I was shocked when they sold for $38!
________________________
My father-in-law is coming home from rehab today. He lives alone about 1 mile down the road from us but for the next few days or possibly weeks my husband & I will be taking turns to be with him around the clock. Please continue to pray that things go smoothly.
My husband installed grab bars in the bathroom, a pull-up system over the bed so he can easily pull himself up and swing his legs over the side of the bed and he has a power lift chair. We have moved his bedroom to the bedroom closest to the bathroom so he doesn't have to walk far and we will be making meals for him while we are up there.
Amongst all the craziness my life has become, I have been selling on ebay. Ebay had a listing sale which ends today where if you have a store, you could list anything on auction for free...for three weeks. So I have been trying to shop & list as much as I possibly can.
And I have sold over 100 items for three solid weeks. Here is what the USPS pick-up looked like one day this week.
Thankfully the mail carrier picks up the packages and puts our incoming mail in the rubbermaid bin. I don't have to go to the post office at all.
Here are a few of my recent sales:
1. Calvin Klein dress - sold for $75.
2. Vintage Ceeb swimsuit from the 1960's - sold for $46.
3. Eileen Fisher sweater - sold for $45.
4. J Crew dress - sold for $43. This would make a lovely casual wedding dress.
5. St. John Collection sweater - sold for $35. The buyer of this piece also bought four other items.
...and about two weeks ago I went to another bag sale. You could fill a huge kitchen bag for $5 and even though the items were more winter-y than most I pick up during March, I still filled a bag.
I have already made $100 from the one bag and still have about 10 pieces.
___________
On the schedule for today:
-Print shipping labels before the mail carrier gets here at 8:30am.
-Photograph & edit the photos for the last 20 items before the listing sale ends tonight
-Go finish cleaning up a painting job my hubby & I started last week. The timing was very bad for us with my FIL being in the hospital & rehab but we took on the job before we realized what our weeks would hold. The couple is away until Monday and I am thrilled we will be finishing this job today.
-Visit the FIL in rehab. He gets discharged on Monday and my hubby will be staying at his house with him until he is able to live by himself again.
-Spend a bit of time with the hubby. Perhaps get a movie if I can fit it in the schedule.
Sorry I haven't posted in a week. Even now I should be doing something else but I will manage a few minutes to spend here.
My father-in-law had shoulder replacement surgery a week ago. We were at the hospital for 13 hours. The surgery was successful and the plan was to discharge him the next day (last Wednesday).
Well...that didn't happen. If you don't have senior citizens in your life you may not understand this but somethings the child becomes the parent and the parent becomes the child. My husband is an only child and his mom passed away years ago. So it is just his 86 year old father, him and me in our family. My father-in-law (FIL) does have a 90 year old brother still living but he has Alzheimers.
The anesthesia the hospital gave him to do the surgery made my FIL very confused. He thought the world was out to get him and came up with a complicated plot to his confusion.
At first the confusion was every day and he was quite mad we were "in on the plan". After a few days the confusion was only at night. We were called at all hours to come in and sit with him to calm him down. He was scared and angry and it broke our hearts.
The doctor did a CT for a stroke and it came back that he did have a stroke. And then they did an MRI and it came back that he did not have a stroke.
My FIL needed two blood transfusions with a total of 4 units of blood. He could not walk at first and could not feed himself. We were at the hospital constantly.
Have you ever been so exhausted that you could sleep anywhere? I have felt this throughout my life and I have fallen asleep on the floor of many places - including the streets of NYC in November while the hubby watched to make sure I was safe.
Thanks to my Thalassemia and low B12, I need 9-10 hours of sleep a night. Well, when you are up at midnight for hours at a time, that doesn't happen. My body shuts down. I cannot think and I go into a state where everything is blurred.
Thankfully on Saturday night my FIL was discharged from the hospital and was taken to a rehab. On Saturday night we got a call at 1:30am to come up. He was experiencing the same confusion. We were there until 6am. We came home, slept for a bit and then the hubby had worship to lead at church. Thankfully I was able to skip church and sleep in a bit.
Things are getting better with my FIL. He is now able to walk 80 steps at a time with a cane. Therapy is working with him to dress himself (Velcro shoes and elastic-waisted pants are helping) and he is able to feed himself. Unfortunately the confusion is still there but it is dulling. He is realizing that parts of his memory are confused and parts are real. It is just hard to know which is which.
Once he comes home (and we don't know when that will be), we will be living with him for a bit.
If you think about us, please keep us in your prayers. I hate to complain (okay...I probably don't hate to complain but I know I shouldn't!) but I am tired. Plain old wore out tired. Thanks!
More ebay posts to come...once I sleep.
Today I am posting from the hospital waiting room. My father-in-law is having a shoulder replacement surgery today. Since he is 86 years old, it is a bit more "high risk" than normal. Thankfully the hospital has free, fast internet service.
Here are a few things that recently sold:
1. Ralph Lauren blazer - this is their higher "purple label" and it sold for $100!
2. Armani blazer. I listed & re-listed this for a lower price with no bids. Then two people decided they wanted it and it went for $76.
3. Vintage Pendleton jacket. These can go as high as $500 if you find the right one. Mine was a newer, vintage label and it didn't have the Southwest thing happening. But it still sold for $50 and it had a few moth bites.
4. BCBG dress with ruffles. I loved this dress but it was WAY too low for me to keep. It sold for $45.
5. Betsey Johnson does fairly well on ebay. Usually the crazier the print/style, the better. Of course I found a fairly plain black dress but I was still pleased when it sold for $35.
6. This Storybook Knits sweater was in the local consignment shop window. They wanted $12 for it which is about 3-4X the normal amount I spend. But I loved it and I knew it would be an easy sale since it was Easter themed. It sold for $35. After ebay fees, paypal fees, etc. I made about $18. It took me only a few minutes to list so it was an easy $18.
7. I sold another Christmas sweater! It is March and so someone will have to pack this up for next year. It sold for $34.
...and I am going to end with something I thought would never sell. I picked up this reversible kilt knowing that I have previously sold them with success. This one sat & sat in my ebay store. I listed it for $9.99 a bunch of times. Since ebay is having a free listing sale (if you have an ebay store), I just kept putting it up. It sold this past week for $14.50. Not a ton of money but since I paid only $1.50 for it and listed it for free, this is still a profit.
That brings me to the discussion of what to do when something just won't sell on ebay. Well, I package it up and drop it off at my local consignment shop. I can get 50% of the selling price from them. I can drop off a bagful every month as long as the items are seasonal. I just dropped off a bag of jeans, skirts & tops that I had listed on ebay for $4.99 and they didn't sell. Rather than keep trying to get $5 (minus ebay fees!) for them, I would rather the consignment shop deal with them. I will only get a few dollars per piece but I only pay a few dollars per piece so I break even on them.
If they don't sell at the consignment shop, they automatically donate them to local thrifts.
After walking today I found myself without anything to do. I just got a shipment of vintage material and I had a bit of left over elastic. I wanted to try my hand on a child's size skirt.
Please note that my sewing skills only include sewing in straight lines. That is all I can do. So I was pretty pleased with how this turned out! I plan on trying a few more and listing them on etsy.
