Till the season comes round again...

It has been so long since I've visited my little blog. I doubt anyone is still checking in and looking for updated posts, but I've been thinking about writing.

What have we been up to? Well, life has been busy - more so after M entered kindergarten last year for some reason. If you have school-age children, I'm sure you understand. We get up, get ready for our day, leave the house early (too early!), spend our days on our respective campuses, reunite in the late afternoon, do homework, eat dinner, relax a bit, and climb into bed. Our days are usually very good, but they just fly by. Michaela loves school, and so do I. It's all good!

It has been a very full year in which we had several adventures, added a new family member (of the canine variety), reached various milestones, and have been mulling big plans for our future. We look forward to the New Year and what God has in store for us, and I look forward to sharing more here in the weeks and months to come.

Merry Christmas!

What's Up Wednesday

It's a good thing having a blog isn't like having a pet - or a houseplant. If it were, this thing would be dead from neglect. It's just hard to squeeze in an unbroken thought (or written sentence) around here. As I type this, Michaela is in the tub asking me what I would do in case of a "fire drill" in the house. She wants to know that if she were asleep, in the tub, or playing with her toys if I would get her. And if the fire burned up her toys would she get new ones...

Anyway, here's my attempt at blogging this month week.

Making: One pot meals on Sunday, and enjoying the leftovers again at least once during the work week. I have a love/hate relationship with cooking. If I can make something that makes leftovers so I don't have to cook again another night, that makes me happy. Here's a recipe for Skinny Turkey Taco Soup that Michaela and I really like, and it's super easy. I totally blew it this past Sunday and could not come up with anything that sounded good to me. We ended up going out...

Drinking: When I was doing the Arbonne 28-Day Detox, I fell in love with their pomegranate fizz drink mix. Not only does it taste great, but it has a little green tea extract (or something...) that gives me a boost in the afternoon. Sadly, I am out of that and nothing else I've tried compares. I might have to splurge and buy another box of it. On a side note, I've lost ten pounds since I did the detox. Yea, me! A protein shake in the morning, and a salad with chicken for lunch is my trick.

Reading: Named of the Dragon, by Susanna Kearsley. It's kind of slow, but kind of good. It's sort of a historical mystery. Not like anything else I've read recently. I'm reading it on my newish Kindle. I resisted the whole reader thing for a while, but I have to say that I like it.

Wanting: I've been wanting a new sofa for several years. The one I have is more than ten years old. It's threadbare, stained (potty training...), torn (cat prior to his, um, procedure), and all around awful. I've covered it with one of those Sure Fit slipcovers, but that is not all that great. That kind of slipcover gets messed up the first time you sit down on it. The cat put a hole in that, too. So I broke down and ordered a new sofa the other day from Pottery Barn. They were having a 20% off sale! Then I went back on Tuesday and ordered a new armchair (still 20% off!) They won't be here until sometime in December, so I'll be wanting them for a while longer.

Listening: I try to start my first period class with a happy song every day. It's good for me and good for them. Last year's class liked to dance to the happy song, but this year's class isn't ready to do that. 

Playing: Now that school is back in session, we haven't had too much time for games. However, we did play lots of "No Stress Chess" over the summer. It's a great way to learn how to play chess. I did not know how to play chess before we started playing this. I still don't really know how to play chess, but I do know how the pieces move. Ha!

Wishing: I'm wishing for rain. It's been too long since it's rained. We've had some cloudy skies and light sprinkles the past couple of days, but I haven't seen a real shower.

Using: I got a super cute teacher plan book from May Designs this year. That's not an affiliate link. I just think their planners are pretty. 

Loving: I'm loving the idea of fall. We have had cooler weather than usual for September, but it looks like it will be warming up this coming week. Did I mention that I'd like it to rain? To kick off fall, I picked up some inexpensive decor from Home Goods and Goodwill. I focused on pops of yellow, red, and white - yellow accent pillows for my ugly sofa, artificial apples in a green ceramic basket, and a couple of owls. I love pumpkins, but they can wait until next month.

Watching: I'm not watching anything. The second season of Outlander concluded in July, and I'm not expecting it to return until spring 2017. Maybe I'll break down and watch the debate on Monday night. I'll have to pour myself a generous glass of wine to endure it, though.

What's up with you?

Find & Flip - Summer Edition

I have to be more consistent with these kind of posts. I think the last one I did was during winter. Ebay has become such a big part of my life that I should post about it more often!

Anyway, I learned that most of July and the first part of August are super S L O W for the types of items I sell the most - clothing and shoes. It was depressing! But things have really picked up in the last ten days or so. I am averaging two sales a day, and while that doesn't seem like much, it actually makes for a really nice amount of sales by the end of the month. My average sales price per item is about $35.

Even though sales were down, I used the time to increase the number of listings in my store. I also focused on things I thought would do well in the fall, and things besides clothing and shoes.

Here are some of my best flips this month so far:

I found these NEW at the GW for just $6.99. All of my listings are Buy It Now, but I add Best Offer to my listings so that buyers can negotiate price with me. This buyer did not want to negotiate - she paid full price! If these shoes had been my size, I would have kept them. They are so cute!

This shirt was also new. It even had the original tags attached that said it retailed for $90 originally. I had a couple of lowball offers on it earlier in the summer, but I didn't accept them. It sold for full price the other morning. I had paid just $4.99 for it at GW.

Like I said, because sales were slow, I ventured out of my comfort zone. I found this at GW in great condition (just a couple of tiny chips) for $5.99. It sold overnight for full asking price.

I found this on a shelf in the GW. I didn't know it was Coach until I picked it up and opened it. The Coach emblem was on the inside of the billfold. I paid 99 cents for it. It sold in a couple of weeks for a Best Offer of $35.

All great finds and flips! However, the absolute best find happened last night when Michaela (after a summer of looking!) found an American Girl Doll. She was/is so excited about her find - Molly a retired doll. I will not be flipping Molly and that's okay!