I'm home!

I'd blog more about the work trip but ugh I don't even want to think about it anymore lol. TG that is done! I love how they are like wooohooo we're having a big conference it will be a great time and it's more like torture to me haha

I had the guy driving the work vehicle drop me off in Manteca (a bit closer for Trevor to pick me up and right off the freeway). I drove us home when Trevor picked me up because GD it I needed to have control haha. So nice to drive my own car.

I spent the evening working on packaging up my Etsy orders and signing up for some craft events.

Last Sunday & Monday I spent some time working on listing all those patterns I bought the last time I went to the thrift store and there are a couple in here that sold.

I sold 2 mug cozies I had on sale too. I have some on 50% off. Trying to clear out some of the ones I've had awhile.

and here's my new upcoming events for craft shows. I'm going to have a booth 3 weekends in a row at the Outlet mall that is super busy. I hope it goes well since the booth fee was a bit spendy!

So now I need to sew, sew, sew. If only I didn't have to go sit in a cube during the week. Although I got my TSP Statement and I'll only get $97 a month if I retire now, so I guess I should keep going ;)

Day 2 Down

Well I'm here, in my room back from Karaoke Night in the hotel bar! Talk about some crazy shiznit. I mostly just watched and laughed and sang along and maybe danced a tiny bit.

Some people are freaking crazy.

I've seen one girl drinking since at least 5:30 and last I saw she was going in for some shots with a drink at 11. Like how do you even function the next morning.

So today started out with our mandatory "breakfast" which was some fruit, some muffins, oatmeal (gag) and yogurt (gag) and little boxes of cereal (like Froot Loops? Who eats that?).  I took one muffin and a little bit of fruit and then spent the rest of the day being hungry.

The big wig "chief" came and did a talk, it was actually pretty good and I got all teary when he was talking about how his wife died and stuff.

In between everyone they kept wanting us to applaud this person and that person and lets give this person another round of applause. Like wtf aren't they just doing their jobs? No one gives me a round of applause lol.

After breakfast we went to our "classes" I'm doing a class on civil rights which is partially being taught by someone with such a thick accent I can barely understand her. Seems mostly like a time suck since we worked on that before and after lunch and only got through the first section. Like OMG I have 2 more days of this class.

Lunch was extra fancy and "mandatory". They actually served this one at the table.  They had 2 options we had to pick ahead of time, chicken or vegetarian. I had the chicken, which came with some rice, a tiny bit of vegetables, a sad little salad with fancy greens a roll. I felt like I could have eaten a whole nother plate lol. After inhaling that they served us some key lime pie.

While we were eating there was someone that I think was trying to give a motivational speech of some sort but it was so loud I didn't get much out of it. Well just more applause.

Did I mention how much coffee I drank today?  Our classroom was like -20 inside so everyone was drinking coffee just to warm up and have a hot cup for their hands.

Dinner was also "mandatory" I was starving to I just went for the food. I've realized no one is making us sign in for all these mandatory meals. It's a good thing I didn't bring my own car because I'd just be driving off to find something better to eat. For dinner I had a bunch of vegetables (that was like the whole first section I went through), a little piece of chicken, little piece of beef, little bit of pasta, little pieces of bread and oh a little potato. Everyone was like OH I'm so stuffed. Apparently I'm a fatty because I was like eh I could go for some crackers lol. 

The rest of the dinner was this "tech show" was all just science crap related to my job but nothing I really gaf about. I'm a data entry type position not a soil scientist. Three of us went for a walk and we found a gas station with a little store so I bought some snacks (and a couple Diet Cokes-they are $1.75 a can in the lobby).

I went up to my room for a little bit and then we went down to the bar. So we've come full circle. I can't believe I have 2 more full days here. I feel like I've been here forever and I'm so tired of talking to people. Give me a hotel room and some You Tube and I'm good lol. At some point I want to go down to a Goodwill I saw that's less than a mile away. I should probably take our work vehicle but I might just walk. Guess I won't buy too much if I do that right?

Another Fun Weekened $$

Saturday I spent my day at the mall in Pleasanton. This was my first time having a booth at this mall and only the 2nd weekend the organizer had anyone set up there.

When I got there the people set up on both sides of me were saying that they had not had very good sales the weekend before.

 I was like ah crap this is going to be a waste of a day. BUT surprisingly I did pretty well!

This is not my favorite set up because I feel like I'm so far away from the customers walking by. I'm glad I have my taller folding chair (from Ikea) so I can be up higher and see over my key chain racks.

I kind of felt like maybe the two girls next to me would have done better if they would have had a better attitude. Also the one girl wasn't dressed very nice and maybe that would have helped her out a bit too. This mall is a bit more upscale. 

For the first time I charged sales tax on ALL my sales. I used to just charge it on the card sales to make it easier but that ended up with me having to pay a lot of the taxes out of my profits in January. I figured out how to use my Square app for cash sales. It worked great since I could put in what I sold and it calculated the tax (it's 9.25% in Pleasanton isn't that crazy!) and then I could put in what tender they gave me and it would tell me the change. 

Also it was fun to see what I sold. Before I would just count my start and end money and call it good.

I probably would have sold more wine bags if I had them. That's on my to do list of things to make altough I don't really enjoy making them all that much. 

The gal that organizes the events asked me if I'd do a booth at a very popular outlet mall. She's still negotiating the prices but if it happens then I will put the wine bags at a higher price since it's a richer shopping area (and wine country)

I raised up my key chain price to $5 and at first I wasn't selling any but sold some later. I need to make some more unique ones of those too. 

I'm at a work conference/training thing all week this week so no sewing. I debated on bringing something to work on but the training days are pretty long so figured I'd be too tired to work on projects. 

Did I tell you guys one of my new favorite You Tuber's? Her name is Evelyn Wood and she refashiones thrift store clothes usually into some kind of vintage style. I dont really like sewing adult clothes but she is cute and fun to watch.

Ok off to watch some You Tube videos in my quiet hotel room with no furry buddies. :( I hung out in the bar for a bit and socialized and then everyone I was hanging out with left. I went to the bathroom and debated finding a new group to hang with or going up to my room and obviously the room won haha. 

Sewing & Stuff

I signed up to have a booth at another mall this Saturday. It's a bit farther away so I'll have to get up early again. Why does everything I like to do have to start so early in the morning ;) 

Here is the last of the zip bags I got done last weekend. (still have a bunch cut out but that will be for when I get tired of sewing other things lol)

After that I cleaned up a box of scraps (still have a lot more to go through but I got tired of that) and then found some key chains that were about 1/2 done and sewed those up. 

I'm not even sure what inventory I have for this weekend since I haven't pulled it all out since the mall show before Christmas.  We shall see! I need to figure out how to get all my stuff inside in one trip. I used to be able to do it then I added a 3rd box of stuff which made it too hard.

Last time I left the other mall I was a bit freaked out that everyone had pretty much left and I still had to make one more trip.  Would be nice if someone with the organizer hung out to make sure everyone got out safely but I guess they figure we're all adults or something (But it was a bit scary!)

We'll see if I get anymore sewing done before Saturday! Not sure what I'm going to work on next. I tend to just start cleaning up and then something grabs me. I do have a bunch of other types of bags that I had cut out and some wine bags too. 

Etsy & Ebay Sales

I know this is probably not everyone's cup of tea but I kind of like doing it for now so here it is ;)

Here's what I sold in the last week. Not a ton but about 2 things a day. I have a bunch of patterns I need to put on Etsy but I haven't got around to it.

Most of these items were bought for .10-.25. The knitting needles I had bought about 10 for $5.00 at the flea market awhile back. I still have a few left of this kind and some others.

On my other Etsy--This was 2 orders, the first order is the one of the top left and someone else bought the other 4.  That's always nice when people buy multiples! I have a sale of "heart" items until Valentine's day and the 2 sales ones have a heart on there somewhere lol.

Then over to Ebay, I think I forgot a few of these the last time I did my sales.

Top and bottom are those little plastic confetti things. I got those in a box with some other junk and just thought I'd give them a try on Ebay. I was just about to pull them off and give them to my friend who teaches preschool and then sold a couple. I had them listed for $5 but took best offers. I'm always hopefully someone will come along and buy a bunch of them instead of just one.

 The other thing I sold is this fun book from the 1920's that was like a Home Ec type of text book complete with stuff written and stapled inside. I got that at the flea market for $1. I took a best offer on that one too.

This is my homework for some day soon. Stuff I bought at the thrift store about 2 weeks ago. I haven't shopped again so it's ok I haven't listed them yet lol. I thought I had posted before about what I got but I don't see it anywhere. Sadly I got charged .50 each for the patterns but didn't realize it until later. Guess I have to double check the price now when I buy them. 

Happy Selling!

Happy Birthday to Me

Last Saturday was my birthday. Scott made me breakfast and then I just worked on my little sewing stuff all day until it was time for dinner. We went to Chili's with the family since my birthday landed on a Saturday and no one takes reservations anymore. Usually they are pretty good about larger parties and they were.

Here's Scott & I and my brother Louie (I didn't even know he was coming), mom and dad

Daniel, Jess & niece Adrian

Eric, Melissa & Trevor 

Getting old! Mom got some fun candles they lit up and flashed

She ordered my usual german chocolate cake but they messed up and frosted it. It was still good though!

So dinner was nice except for them forgetting my niece's food but eventually she got it 2x, once the way she wanted it, and it was free lol.

After dinner Scott & I and Jess & Daniel went to the bar (Melissa was like SOON I can go too-she'll be 21 in April). My friend Cassi was there but not a big crowd so it was nice but would have been more fun if there was more people there.  

Another year older another year crankier. Get off my lawn you whippersnappers!

Just Sewing Along

Well it's Tuesday already! Scott has been gone since Friday having a boys weekend. He should be home about the time we go to bed tonight! Trevor and I have been living off teenager food lol. Last night we had nachos for dinner.

I'll be happy for him to get back to taking the dogs out at 5am. It's freaking cold out.

I have been sewing away trying to finish off my stack of these zip bags so that I can do something else. I'm ALMOST there. I should be able to finish what I have left tonight.  That was a lot of bags I cut out! Actually it's not even all the ones I cut out just what I had zippers and batting for. Still mostly "animal" fabrics but a few others I had in my bin made it through too.

I've been watching a lot of You Tube videos lately and came across Scraptastic Patchwork. She's doing a big reorganization/destash. Interesting to watch ;) I try to organize as I go and I've pretty much stopped buying fabric unless it's at the thrift store. Eventually I'll have my book cases I want (don't know why my mind is not working on just getting those lol) and everything all pretty. One thing I've notices is most people who like sewing with scraps can't let go of fabric down to the tiny little pieces. I cut down to 1 1/2 inches for my key chains and anything smaller than that gets sent to someone I met online who makes crumb quits. Part of me is like I could use those myself and then the other part of me is like OMG you have 15 totes of fabric just LET IT GO haha.

I think after I get done with these bags I'm going to pull out some denim that I've saved to re-purpose along with some embroidered linens and make up some fun stuff with those. I am going to have to order some more zippers though ;)