Ebay selling/buying part 2

Ebay selling/buying part 2

This is pretty much going to be a brag post

Finally I am able to do this because things have settled at our new place. It's nice

to be back in the city!

Here is what I bought on ebay... (all these prices are the total meaning including shipping costs)

Guy stuff first

Sperry Shoes $50 (guy says he wore them twice and that they were like new)

and after much inspection it seems he was right!

Orange shirt- $6.50, AE teal button down-$12.00, AE green polo- $12.00,

AE brown polo-$12.00, AE pink button down-$11.00, AE pants $20.00

AE shorts $19.50

Not pictured New AE pea coat- $41.00

Totaling for Adam: $184.00

Now my clothes

Top Row

Gray Day Trip shirt $7.50, Anthropolgie Turtle neck

shirt $8.75, Banana Republic Wrap shirt $10.50, yellow AE shirt $5.00,

Floral Hollister shirt-$10.50, Green AE floral shirt $6.00

Bottom Row

2 Jcrew shirts (they are both striped only one pictured)- $15.50, white Gap button down- $6.00, Orange BKE shirt- $4.00, Pink striped AE shirt $11.00

Pink Coupe 100% Cashmere cardigan... $15.00 THIS IS MY BIG BRAG!!!!!
It fits amazing, feels amazing, and I didn't have to pay a whooping $100.00 for it
Gap khaki blazer-$21.00




Blue J-crew cotton dress- $35.00, J-crew 100% silk dress $28.50
Yellow skinnies- $27.00, AE plaid shorts- $18.50,
AE pants (with a white tank not pictured) $8.00, White lucky pants $19.50

Totaling for me: $257.25

You can decide for yourself if I got a good deal. But personally for needing a
complete wardrobe facelift thats an amazing price. I didn't have to waste a ton
of time in a thrift store and people can tell me if the clothes are in excellent condition. Also keep in mind how much these clothes cost new. My cashmere sweater was supposedly worn once and it does seem brand new.

A word of caution of buying on ebay I struck out on buying NWOT (new without tags)
every time the time was NOT new and there were imperfections that items that
were labeled preowned didn't have.
What I did when this happened:
1. Contacted the seller
2. I didn't accuse them of being dishonest (I assumed it was an honest mistake)
3. I told them EXACTLY what I found and why I thought it shouldn't be labeled as new
4. They got back to me and we made arangements to get my money back
IF they don't get back to you,
Open a case against them
To sell/buy on ebay you need good ratings you would be surprised how big of a threat this is to people.

All of these items above are preowned and all sellers
said were in excellent condition. To be able to pay for these items I sold some of my old
high school clothes (and Adams) We sold a lot and now have a smaller amount of clothes but
still have a lot! We now have nicer clothes and now I can afford my loved J-crew.

We also just cashed in our old electronics to buy an original iPad... its on its way.
That will have to be a another post.

What has been your experience with ebay? Any brags out there?

My life right now...

I really want to finish my blogging about ebay buying/selling but these boxes say it all.

Moving has taken over. this is our spare room... not so spare any more.

Meanwhile I am trying to not let the chaos take over my life and enjoy the little things like...

Thayne can creep

I finally realized my little man of nine months is a picky eater

This morning I figured out his favorite foods

Sweet Potatoes, Malt-o-meal, and applesauce

thats all he wants oh and he likes yogurt.

My serving of malt-o-meal...

or so I thought Thayne ate half of it!



The town had an Easter egg hunt but turns out it was a
candy hunt. Thayne picked up two candies

and he wouldn't even look at me.

Packing is going really good. We might be able to leave a day earlier than we thought.

I'm really tired of feeling like we are camping in our own home.

Don't worry as soon as everything settles I'll do all the ebay stuff.

I'm pretty excited to brag about it.

Selling/Buying on Ebay: Part 1

Here's the scenario:

Graduated from college, married, have a baby and no longer have mom buy your clothes

go to your closet and its full (thanks mom!) ...

of high school clothes/ thrift store clothes from college

Not working but still want to look nice but nothing seems to work.

You don't have time to worry over what you should wear so what do you wear?

Comfy clothes

Any bit of it sounding familiar?

I have some fabulous clothes that are not getting the attention they need and I am

not good at accessories

this is my ebay story

One day I finally realized that I wasn't wearing clothes because I thought

they were too nice for a "normal day"

so why did I buy them?

I started wearing my nicer clothes everyday and loved it

I started selling my logo t-shirts that I never wear any more

ah money back to buy better clothes.

My simplifying is going great!

I now get excited to get dressed and have noticed Adam more excited to dress nicer too.

Because I dressed nicer.

Its a beautiful circle.

Ok onto the steps to a better closet

1. Stare at it (you know you do it everyday anyway) but this time evaluate it. Instead of trying to figure out what to wear try to figure out what you have

2. Write down what you would like to see. Example you have a super cute skirt but maybe 1 shirt that really goes with it. Write down a floral shirt or whatever would go with it.

3. Notice the style trends that are in. This is what I did. At this moment loose floral shirts are in, bright colored pants/shorts, Nautical clothing, ect. ect. Notice and then write down which styles you think you would look best in.

4. Now is the hard part realize you have too many clothes and you don't wear them all

5. Make a donate box and a for sale box. If you plan on buying more clothes better get rid of some right? RIGHT!!!!

6. Take pictures and start selling

But what sells the best on ebay?

Clothes that you would buy

1. No holes or stains

2. Name brands (take a look at ebay fashion then brands to see what they promote)

3. Good pictures and descriptions

My rule is 3 tries if something isn't perfect I'm always honest about it. (has a stain, hole)

Item doesn't sell after 3 tries I donate it.

Get ready to start selling

1. Get to be friends with your local postal person. They are an asset to getting to know the mailing system

2. Know shipping prices and charge the right amount!!! Ugh I think I am finally getting this one down

3. I suggest buying bulk shipping supplies I got a happy medium size

4. Start by selling light things. Like shirts, pants... I haven't had good luck with yet

5. Take a picture GOOD ONE!

6. List it on ebay. Usually you can list 50 items for free in one month sounds like a lot until you start downsizing two wardrobes.

7. Enjoy!

My newest website I'm obsessed with smallnotebook.org

She has been a huge help in my trying to simplify my life.

Here we go again...

I made the mistake of telling Adam I was envious that he lived in the

same house most of his life.

We moved, moved again, then moved, then said we were never moving,

then moved, then moved, then moved, (repeat)

This last year we almost bought a house.

Meaning we'd be in Minersville for a long time

Things didn't work out and we found out why.

We are moving

Adam is planning on going back to school to be a vet.

Which equals apartment living for at least 6 more years

It must be divinely appointed because I'm ok with it.

I have accepted the fact that I wont own a home and that I'll have to

continue being creative with my organizing.

I love this blog about simplifying

HERE

She has been an inspiration to me and given me a new insight on apartment living

although we probably wont ever be able to live in Italy (I wish)

we at least will not be attached to any area and wont have to worry about a mortgage for a while.

So Easter weekend we are off on our next adventure.

Welcome to the new mini van family

We got our mini van!!! Hurray!!!

Here it is our chevy uplander 2005...

Here is the DVD player

Power Sliding Doors...

basically we are loving it. To celebrate we went out to a cute little Hawaiian place

and had luau Pork it was so good.
For Minersville this is like an amazing car.

Canvas Bin Makeover

I found this wonderful canvas bin at DI...

at least I think its canvas

Got this at the DI for $1.00

Only problem is it smelled like smoke and no one in this household likes Hannah Montana

(sorry Miley Cyrus)

So what to do now?

Well I thought about covering with fabric

but the bin folds and putting the fabric over it would disable the folding power.

So I painted her... I mean the bin. Looks great right? Well this is before it dried completely and you could still see her face!

Let me show you what I went through... about 4 coats of PAINT! UGH

Turns out the dark wasn't the best covering power the white was.

By the time I figured that out Adam had come home...

He let me get out some of my frustration by letting me start a paint war. He almost washed it all off before I could get a picture.

So back to the bin... here it is all white.

Much better

You could easily stop here or...

(drum roll please)

...Add a chevron pattern to match your babies room!

If you really want a tutorial to how I did the chevron I'll do it. But basically all I did was sketch it out with a ruler and pencil. 3 1/2 inches from point to point. With the blue. I didn't use any tape. Then after the blue dried I went back and did the yellow.

I took an angled brush and just outlined. For someone who doesn't paint I think I did pretty good.

Finished product. I didn't paint the inside. I figured no one would really care if it was purple inside.

Chicken Pot Pie!!!

My first chicken pot pie!!!

It turned out pretty good. It was a little runnier than I wanted but I just looked at the recipe again and figured out why... I didn't put the flour in!

Here is the recipe:

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup chopped onion

1 3/4 cup of chicken broth

2/3 cup of milk

2 cups cooked chicken (chopped into 1 inch pieces)

10 oz. package of frozen mixed veggies

1/2 tsp. of salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp celery seed (optional)

Pie crust

Blend together butter and flour over low heat until smooth and bubbly.

Remove from heat

Stir in chicken broth and milk or cream

heat to boiling

boil and stir one minute

Stir in the rest of the ingredients (besides the pie crust of course)

Place everything into the pie crust (which is in a pie pan I used 2 8" pie pans because thats what I had)

Bake at 350 for about 50 min. Put foil over top so it doesn't overbrown about the last 20 min.

Thank you Michelle for the recipe!

I did a homemade crust and it was amazing!!! Hope you enjoy!