Colorado's Burning Ring of Fire

I haven't talked about the Colorado fires yet on this blog. But when I walked out of my shop tonight and saw this instead of the beautiful Colorado sunset over the mountians I decided it was time to write about it.

Please excuse the dumpster in the middle of the picture. Right after taking this, while zooming in for a closer shot I dropped and broke my camera. Luckily, my mom had just gotten me a new one as an anniversary present, so I'm covered. Thankfully I was using my old one to take this picture. I'm pretty well known for being klutz and dropping things.

The fire has been burning since June 9th. The high winds and hot temperatures haven't been helping any and as of today I believe the fire is 55% contained- sure doesn't look it from here does it?
We live about 1.5 hours away from the fire, but still find our cars covered in ash every morning and I've even had quarter size ash land on my arm while I was standing outside.

Little one and I are also having a hard time with our Asthma, since we are both very allergic to smoke. We've both been to the doctor for ear infections, and have spent over $1,000 this month just on asthma meds. I cannot even imagine being one of the many families who have lost their homes in the fire.

My dad was a volunteer fire fighter for over 35 years in our small town and had to fight many field and hay fires, so I know what a sacrifice this also is for those families.

Please keep the evacuated people, firefighters and people with medical conditions being affected by the fire in your prayers. I hope they can get the fire under control soon.

picture link

To donate to help colorado wildfire victims you can go here.

http://www.helpcoloradonow.org/

Can you find me under the pile of shirts?

I've been busy listing all of the clothing I've purchased in the last few months. My Gdub has been a great source of Ralph Lauren, and Tommy Bahama shirts. Two weeks ago they were having a half off sale. I had decided that I wasn't going to go because I have too much stuff. . .  but then had to go into town for something else, so I decided to stop by and take a look, even though it was 3pm. And I am so glad I did, I totally scored with a brand new with tags tommy bahama (the largest picture) for
$3.99! I have it listed at 79.99 or BO and 5 watchers already.  I also got the salmon RL new with tags for $4.99, listed at $54.95. All other shirts pictured were purchased for $3.99 or less and I will be listing them for $24.95 and up. I will keep you updated as they (hopefully) sell.


Sales this week on ebay have been a little better. I've gotten two offers that I accepted, but the people haven't paid for yet. What's up with taking all of the time for making an offer and then not paying for the item?

I also sold one of these today. It's made by Westbend, I think it's like a crockpot.  I purchased two of them at the same half price sale (which makes them 4.95 each) They both work great and I sold the one today for 34.95 plus shipping. I'm tempted to keep the other one for myself.

My family drove 4 hours last Sunday to go to Cabela's for Father's Day (and our anniversary, so romantic!)  However, my hubby let me stop at a Walmart in a little town on the way back. I spent $500 (yikes!) on several types of clearance legos. I listed them on my phone on the way home and I am offically sold out of 50 (3 different types) as of this morning. I made the $500 back already and still have about 30 other items to sell. I checked my local walmarts to try to get more, but no luck!
I wish it was always like this on Amazon for me.  I also decided to give FBA (fulfilled by Amazon) a try today. I got my first box packed and all ready to ship to Amazon. I hope it's all it promises it will be.

Well, time for me to list some more. I've been taking little one to swim lessons everyday, which means I have to be up and dressed by 8. Two weeks of driving 45 minutes for a 30 minute lesson. He's doing really well and looks forward to going. So, it's worth it. But cuts back on my listing time!

Six years and counting. . .

When it was decided that little one needed to arrive via c-section, the doctor gave us two choices of days for the baby to be born, before he went out of town on vacation. June 16th or the 17th, which is also our wedding anniversary. So, we chose the 16th, so they would at least be seperate days.
This year we even got to celebrate father's day on that day also.
So, please forgive me for bombarding you this week with our family celebrations.

Yesterday hubby and I have been married 6 years- we have known each other/been dating/married for 9.

So in honor of my hubby on Father's day and our anniversary. I thought I'm embarrass him a little bit by posting our picture. Love you baby!

Thanks for putting up with me and my "hoard."

Looking forward to many more years together!

Happy birthday Little one!

Three years ago today I was blessed with this precious gift.

Who knew that a 9 lb 8 oz baby could come out of this little 5 foot frame?  (please excuse my 80 pound! weight gain and very messy house, I spent the 3 months prior to this with the PUPP pregnancy rash)

Oh my little one, you were unique from the start, full of energy and stubborn! (like a visit to the hospital for a baby turning, that ended up as a c-section anyway- just like you to always want your way)

You have amazed me from the first ultrasound, to the first time you cried, crawled, walked, talked, and now never stop talking!  You love learning about Jesus, your family, reading, singing, and anything new (including complete strangers). If you had your choice mommy and daddy would have a house full of kids to keep you company (at least until it was time to share the toys)

Listening to you in the backseat all this week, singing your new bible school songs (I think you learned them faster than I did!) watching you be so compassionate to a little girl in our group with special needs, makes the tears fill my eyes and my heart tingle- you have become such a big boy in such a little time. You make me so proud to be your mommy.

Happy birthday my sweet boy! 

Glad to know it's not just me. . .

I'm glad to know its not just me http://www.houseunseen.com/2012/06/7-quick-takes-when-critters-attack.html#more

My parents took little one on a trip to basspro today and left me with time on my hands. I think I've forgotten what to do with that!

So, I cleaned the house a little, drank a frappuccino (yum!), clipped and organized my back log of coupons (yes, I am a little bit of an extreme couponer, one day I'll shop you my stockpile)
took some photos, listed some new items, organized a bit and read some blogs.

I found lots of good stuff, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Here's what I found:

make your own iced coffee
thinking of trying to make this using almond milk and truvia to make it more diet friendly!

trying to find some organizing inspriration
trying to find some organizing inspiration

Now, it's time for me to get back to listing. I'm up to 375 and have sold a few things or would be above 380.  I might reach my goal of 800 by the end of the summer if I can keep it up!

Stop Crampin' my style!

Once upon there was a girl who liked to sell and sell and sell. But in order to sell she needs to box and photograph and list and pack and organize. She does this best in her shop, across the driveway when the rest of her family is sleeping and it's dark outside. Too dark to see little creepy crawling things like these  . . .

We have found 3 rattlesnakes in our yard this week. One was under the step my son and I were standing on to get into the house. My two year old said " Look mommy, there's a snake under there."
I thought he was kidding, until I took a closer look. So, I grabbed him, quickly and literally threw him over the threshold and jumped over the step myself to get into the house. 
Since that incident, my hubby has declared a curfew at our house. No one outside really early in the morning or after dusk, and extra care at other times. No more little one playing on the cement outside my shop while I work, no more open doors so I can get my wireless internet in my shop and no more staying up late working in my shop.

And while I appreciate the thought and I'm fine with it because I am very scared of any kind of snake-it's really crampin' my style, I do my best work from midnight until about 3 am.

 I will be making a new plan of attack until snake season is over, which is hopefully soon!

1st Bonanza Sale

Overall, things have been very slow on the sales front.
Amazon has been slow but steady with about 5-10 sales a day, ebay has been a sale a week or less, and etsy has been 3-5 a day (Thanks to a popular Father's day item I have)

This morning I woke up to my first sale on Bonanza. I had listed some old VHS tapes and dvd's all with
Robert Redford in them. I had them listed at $30 and got an offer for $20, which I was more than happy to take. I was surpised that VHS would go for so much.  I need to spend some more time fixing all of my shipping on that site. I think that I would have more sales there.



As for the slow sales, I hear about slow sales from a lot of people, but I think that it's my own fault for not being able to list very much, but now my inservice for school is done and I'm on summer vacation. I've been trying to come up with a summer schedule to make sure that I spend enough quality time with litte one, as well as get the houe sall cleaned up and gone thru and have time to get my inventory organized and stock listed.

So, I was wondering for all of you resellers out there, what's your daily schedule look like?

Do you list only on one day as a marathon, a few each day. . . . .?
My goal is to get 800 items listed in my ebay store, which would be about 10 a day.