My Artsy Husband!

While out antiquing one day, my hubs and I came across a really cool booth in a mall that had all these really cool light fixtures made from pipe fittings, insulators, pulleys and all sorts of other cool, non-conventional things. I looked at the price tags and went "Whoah", looked around a bit and moved on. Well my husband being the resourceful thing he is started looking at the mechanics of the lights and thought, hey, I could make these! He snapped a few pics of the light fixtures he liked and we moved on to the next booth. The prices by the way, in the $150-200 range! Like I said, "Whoah!"

While out at a couple of estate sales the very next weekend we came across a vintage wooden tool box FULL of old rusty vintage pipe fittings and knobs. I lugged that thing along with a pair of old roller skates to the check out station and asked how much for all this? Well the lady wanted way too much for the skates so I put those back, the box full of fittings? Two Dollars. Yep, sold!

Right away hubby started twisting and turning those fittings and shaping them into what turned out to be something really cool! After a trip to Lowe's for a couple of lamp kits and some cool vintage style bulbs, here are the first two of what I hope will be my husband's new hobby!

Can't you just see these as bedside tables in someone's super cool loft or studio apartment? We currently have them listed for sale on craigslist but I'm not sure it's the right venue for them. I'm not super keen on the idea of shipping them out because they are kind of heavy so we'll see how it goes!

Yard Sale Day!

 While cleaning house last week I was looking around at all the clutter in our small house (Our family of 4 lives in under 110 sq feet) and out in the garage the boxes had been piling up to save for a garage sale later this summer and I flipped, I couldn't look at it any more, some of it had to go! So we decided to do a Friday only yard sale and I spent the next couple of days pricing and going through everything to weed out some of the stuff we just don't need anymore.

It wasn't a super big sale by any means but my sister brought some stuff and my neighbor contributed too. Plus I let Naomi have her first lemonade stand since she is saving up to buy an American Girl Doll soon. She did pretty well, I also gave her the money for any of her toys that sold so she ended up with $21 to add to her piggy bank which puts her savings at around $75! Girl is determined to buy one of those dolls! I'm hoping maybe around Christmas time she might get her wish!

We didn't do bad overall but it was colder and windy that day after being sunny and beautiful all week so I'm not sure if some people were not out that day or maybe the sheer volume of sales in the area was too many for people to get to. (over 10 within a 3 mile radius!) We ended up getting some rushes in the later afternoon and ended up keeping the sale open until after 5pm and then took almost everything that was left over to Value Village.

I ended up with around $125 for all my "junk" and I'm totally happy with that! Plus I can breathe a little easier when I walk out to the garage and see a little less of a pile!

Online sales have been the pits for 2 months now. Last week I went an entire 7 days without hearing that Cha Ching sound on my phone, which for an online seller can be pretty distressing! I know its slow because of summer but man it is SLOW! I have more listings up than ever right now but no one appears to be shopping. Usually I get desperate and slash my prices but I feel like everything is priced really reasonably right now so I'm being stubborn and just waiting for things to pick up.

I have had a couple of decent sales and I can show you a few here:

 This is Owl from Winnie the Pooh. Most of you sellers of plush know this already but for anyone looking to find valuable plush here is a tip: Everyone has the main characters already and they don't go for much most of the time. But when you find a character that is not super popular or didn't have a huge role, they tend to sell for more because there probably weren't many of them sold when they were in the stores.

I picked up Mr. Owl for 50 cents at a garage sale a few weeks ago and he sold within the 1st month for $29.99 - shipping! Someone who either collects owls or someone looking to complete their Winnie the Pooh collection was looking for this guy and since he is a little harder to find he went for much more than the Pooh bear would have!

 This was the last of the mugs I picked up on our road trip to Seaside back in March. I bought it for 50 cents and it sold for $14.99 with free shipping. Not a lot but not complaining about any of my sales lately! I sold another Starbies mug for $16.99 the other day as well. The way I see it is that everything that leaves my storage area the better so I can make room for more exciting treasures!

This was just a funny pic I wanted to post. I always pick up vintage Scrabble games because the tiles can sell for a great profit and I can usually find them for $1-3 at garage sales. I can sell the games for maybe $6 or I can save them and then break down into bigger supply lots and make way more. This listing was on Etsy for 16 tile racks. People use these in crafts and paint them or sometimes in tournaments. I sold these for $11 + $5 shipping. I also have the tiles listed and then I can sell the boards all together in a big lot as well.

When it comes to selling on Etsy your photographs are everything! If you have an eye catching picture of the item you are selling you are more likely to sell your's first than someone else because most people who buy on Etsy are artists themselves and like pretty pictures!

Projects for Sale!

Everybody loves Pintrest right? I don't know how it happens but ever since I got the App on my phone I am on it just browsing around ALL THE TIME, it has to stop -- seriously! But the part I do love about it is that it has motivated me to get crafty again and start repurposing and upcycling ugly things into pretty things! It gives me ideas and then I try to make my own personal mark on it as well!

I wish I had a before picture of the first one but alas I don't, it was an ugly green calendar board before.  I picked it up at a thrift store for $3, sanded it down, painted it off white and made the inside a chalkboard, added a cool iron accent on top and some cute knobs below for about $5 and voila! An adorable menu board/apron hanger!



I was very pleased when it sold quickly for $25 on my Facebook group!

Up next is a fun project that I did with an old board we had lying around! I painted the whole board white, then I added some vinyl sayings and sprayed the whole thing black. Peeled off the letters, distressed it a bit and added some cute black knobs to make it a gorgeous towel or coat rack!

This also sold quickly for $20 after only about a $8 investment!

I picked up the below child's chair at a Church rummage sale for only a buck! It was in pretty bad shape though like it had been an outside chair for a while, I didn't need to do much just add a coat of paint and its like new again! Best part?! I got the paint at Home Depot for FREE! It was one of the unwanted mix paints and there wasn't much of it so it said Free to Good Home on the sticker, I can't hardly ever resist free!

 This hasn't sold yet, I haven't listed it. I may wait and see if I can get a cute stencil for the seat to jazz it up a bit but if I do sell it I'll list it for at least $10, not bad for only a $1 investment! I also may use it as a prop for my son's 2nd birthday photos which are coming up in a couple weeks, bonus!

Last up we have my $2 ugly thrift store tray. I think it may have even been hand made by someone but I sanded it down and painted it some cute colors with a chalkboard of course. Now its a fancy dancy cheese serving tray for a wine party... or any other kind of party items you may want to write down like dips or different kinds of crackers, whatever your heart desires! Going to list this for $12.

 

I have been doing some other home refinishing projects as well and most of the paint I used in these was left over from other things so very minimal supply investment as well. It's fun and I usually love the finished products and I'm proud to sell something to someone that I "made"!