Today’s 365 picture was a self portrait I did for a contest over at The Creative Mama.  The Creative Mama is a wonderful blog about photography and the beautiful things that inspire us.  They are celebrating their one year anniversary and offering wonderful prizes.   This photo entry was for a Marta Locklear workshop contest.  Requirements were a photo of me with the Creative Mama sign in the photo.

My idea for this photo was to show how The Creative Mama has inspired my creative side:

• Organization – the pretty white boxes neatly hold all my supplies.
• Fine Arts – A still life drawing by moi
• Homemade Crafts – Cross stitched The Creative Mama logo to show my crafty side
• Photography – Since I was using my camera, Understanding Exposure book with The Creative Mama logo
• Sewing – You can’t really see it but I’m sitting at my sewing table with a pattern laid out

This one is for all the scrapbookers, stampers and anyone who has children who like crafts.    Recently, Stampin’ Up has partnered with Build-A-Bear for an exclusive line of stamps, papers, and die cuts.

As an introduction, my boys and I were invited to a special workshop at the home of a local Stampin’ Up Demonstrator, Susan LaCroix.  Only a few Stampin’ Up demonstrators throughout the country were picked to host this wonderful family event.   Susan has been a demonstrator for 7 years.   She has a wonderful home and a basement studio that anyone would envy.

YES! Those shelves behind Susan are stocked with stamps !!

Our evening started out with popcorn and a movie featuring “Holly and Hal Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure,” an animated TV special.    It is a wonderful film and all the kids sat glued to the TV.   Hal Moose dreams of being part of Santa’s reindeer team.  One evening he decides to make his way to the North Pole.   His sister Holly follows him to keep him out of trouble.    There is a bad storm coming on Christmas Eve.  But Holly and Hal help Santa and the elves save Christmas.

Following the movie, we had the opportunity to try out the Stampin’ Up Build-A-Bear projects.    The kids enjoyed Build-A-Bear coloring pages.

They also made their own Build-A-Bears using die cuts.   The kids made Beary Merry Santa Bears and Boy and Girl bears in coordinating outfits.   I could see little girls loving this.  They could make their own paper dolls (well bears).   It would also make a wonderful project for girl scout troops.

While the kids were busy with their own project, the moms were able to make these Beary Special Christmas Cards.  I think this will make a wonderful card for my son’s preschool teacher.

We were able to try out a variety of the Stampin’ Up products including the Papers, Ink pads,  Beary Best Friends stamp, the Watercolor Wonder Crayons, and Scallop Edge Punch.  Just to name a few.  Being an art student one of the most useful tools was the Aqua Painter.  It would be a great tool for watercolor painting.   It is so messy having the cup of water.   The Aqua Painter is available in two different sizes and holds the water right in the pen.

Many people think they aren’t creative enough to do scrapbooking and stamping.   But all of our cards turned our wonderful.   Even those who complained about their lack of artistic abilities.   Susan’s demonstrations were very easy to follow.

By the end of the night, the kids were full of cookies and Build-A-Bear fruit snack (yes they make Build-A-Bear fruit snacks).  As the evening wrapped up, a few of us left with wonderful gifts from Build-A-Bear – the “Holly and Hal Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure” DVD, a Holly and Hal Moose Story Book, and Sparkles, a cuddly Build-A-Bear with light up Merry Christmas Shirt.

It was such a wonderful relaxing evening.   It would a great girls night out/in.  We all left talking about getting together to scrapbook again.

To find out more about Stampin’Up, please visit these websites:

• If you live in the Metro Detroit area, please visit Susan LaCroix’s website.
• For those of you outside of the area, please visit the Stampin’ Up website to find a local demonstrator.

Here are a few additional samples made with the Stampin’ Up Build-A-Bear products:

Its time for my post-garage sale recap.   After 3 days outside wheeling and dealing, the grand total on my garage sale was….

Drum roll please…

Approximately $900.

Now that was split between two people, my sister and I.  But I think that is darn good.  

So how did we do it?   I’m here to share my tips.

Tip #1 – Preparation is key 
In the weeks before my garage sale I cleaned my house front to back, top to bottom.  I followed some early prep tips for garage sales from my friend Dawn.   I moved everything that did not belong in that room or wasn’t being used to one corner of my basement.   Once I cleaned out my garage and set up table, I simply moved everything from the basement outside.  

Oh one more preparation tip – stockpile your plastic bags for weeks/months.   Ask your friend for their stashes.  

Tip #2 – The “I don’t know if I want to sell it” stuff
If you are up in the air on things to sell, you don’t use it that much, you probably wouldn’t miss it if it was gone.  I say throw it in the garage sale.   If it sells, you made some money.  If it doesn’t sell, it was meant to be kept.

Tip #3 – Small Sale vs. Large Sale
I would recommend waiting to have a garage sale until you have a large amount of stuff.   Its just not going to be worth it if you only have a few things to put out.   If you don’t have much, see if your friends and family have things to sell as well.   For my sales I emptied out 5 large totes of baby clothes we had 10-12 feet of men’s and women’s clothes.   Then there were tables of household items.

Tip #4 – Location
If you are combining sales, pick the best location.   My sisters house is located off a main road, but it is in a subdivision that would require 3-4 signs to show people how to get there.   My house is located 3 houses off a main road and right across from a baseball field.

Tip #5 – When?
So when should you have your sale?   This advice may not apply to all areas.  I’m in the midwest so the good weather months are limited.    But based on my success, late April is a good time.   Being the first garage sale of the year has its perks.  Everyone is fresh.    

Are you selling alot of clothes?   Consider what season your clothes are for.   Lots of winter stuff?  You might do better with an end of summer, September sale.    Lots of summer stuff? You should plan for early summer then.

Other things to consider:

• City Wide Garage Sale weeks.   These draw a number of people.   Plus during those weeks you usually do not need a garage sale permit.   Many cities offer a map of the garage sales.   If you register your sale is listed.  Take advantage of it.
• Events in your area.   Piggy back on other events that would draw additional traffic to your area.   The weekend I had my sale was little league opening day.  I had 200 people across the street.   Did they all come?  No, but many parents who were waiting for the next game to start stopped by.
• Weather – This is pretty much chance.   But if you are deciding between two upcoming weekend.  Take a look at the forecast.   If you are completely prepared and know a good weather weekend is coming up, you could easily be ready for a garage sale in just a few days.

Tip #6 – Advertise, Advertise, Advertise
Did I mention advertise?   This is big.  

• Spend $25 to put your sale in your local paper.  
• Post it on CraigsList a week in advance.   Add nice photos of your large items.  If you say that you have tons of baby clothes, back it up with a picture of the tables.
  
  
• During your sale, re-post and update it daily on Craigslist.   Note – Craigslist will not let you repost an ad exactly the same.   So copy your wording, delete the original ad, and repost.
• Make your ad stand out on Craiglist.  Capital letters, asterisks, and catch phrases are key.  For my sale I use “LOOKIE LOOKIE***GARAGE SALE – FINAL DAY – 1/2 OFF SALE****“  
• Put up flyers in local business.  Many of your local hardware stores and drug stores have a board to post items for sale.   Make up a snazzy little flyer and put it up. 

Tip #7 – Think Boutique
When laying out your merchandise, think boutique.   Make it appealing and people will stay longer to look.   All of our men’s and women’s clothing were on hangers.   We used a long pipe strung by 3 bungee cords (the thick rubber ones that barely stretch).   This also sectioned off the back of my garage where items not for sale were kept.

Household items should be grouped together on tables.   Try placing tables against the side of your garage in order to stand pictures up.

Don’t squeeze your tables together.  Customer don’t want to worry about knock into things.   Unless its raining spread out.  

Make sure your garage is well lit or move things outside.   I noticed when I moved the baby clothes outside they sold much better.  

Lastly, Dust or wash everything.   People do not want to buy things if they don’t think it was taken care of.   Put the stained shirts right in the pile for charity.   They won’t sell and just take up space.

Tip #8 – Be Approachable
Welcome everyone to your sale.   Say Hello.   Let your customers know that you are approachable.   You will probably end up with more sales this way.   If something has a story, tell them!  It might get the sale or it justifies why you are asking that price.   We had an antique pedal car fire truck we made a point to say was 40 years old.   The old electronic battle ship set – “look it still works.”

Ask the customers just wandering around if they are looking for anything in particular.   It just might be something in your house that you are not too attached to.   I checked on some bar mirrors for one customer.  I chose  not to sell them since they were my hubby’s favorite beer.    But if they were any other beer I could have made $10 and gained some space.

Tip #9 - What to do with the leftovers?
Donate leftovers to a local charity.   Many will pickup anything that doesn’t sell at no charge.   Check with St. Vincent De Paul, Purple Heart, or Easter Seals.   Call in advance  to schedule a pickup right after your sale.  Most will ask for items to be packaged in boxes or garbage bags.  As you bag them, make an itemized list of everything.   Enter your list into a program/website like TurboTax ItsDeductible to determine the value of your donation.   Keep the receipt the charity gives you.  

Tip #10 – Pricing
I’m sorry you will have to come back tomorrow for this valuable information.  

I will say I didn’t spend days individually pricing items. 

Well I haven’t completed my desk organization project yet.  That will be coming soon.   First I have to have a garage sale before I go out spending money.   That means I have to clean up the garage.   Easier said than done.   Here is my garage.   As you can see its been another neglected part of my home.

Did I mention I have a thing with plastic totes? I think I get it from my mother. For the record seven of these totes are baby clothes. My mother and mother-in-law also have a thing for shopping.

So I’ve been MIA the past week getting this organized. It was 70 and sunny out so I had to take advantage of that. All of these toys now have a place of their own.

Next week after all this stuff is gone.

I will post some pictures of my newly organized garage. I did this project for under $100. And I reused a number of things from my home.

 Well today I got a little crafty.  Part 3 of my desk organization will be vlogged.   Here is the previous post on desk organization.  Its my first one so please forgive me I know I say um and stumble over my words a few times.   Today’s episode will show you how to organize the papers you need at your fingertips but don’t want everyone to see.

Products featured in today’s episode:

• [In] Place Magazine File by Peter Walsh available at Office Max
• DiVoga Document Envelope available at Office Max
• Ikea Kassett Magazine File

Many times when you hear Peter Walsh speak he doesn’t just address the physical clutter in  your home.  He also addresses the mental clutter and how the two are linked together:  

 ”The word ‘organize’ and the word ‘organic’ come from the same place. Organic is to be whole; to be complete. That’s what organization does. Organization actually helps you live a richer, fuller, less stressed life.”

That is what happen to me.   When I lost my job, I went on this cleaning frenzy.   I had this sudden urge to rid my house of all this excess stuff.   It was only after listening to Peter Walsh that I realized how it was connected to the changes in my  life. 

When I was employed, I was stressed out trying to fit everything into my life.   A unfulfilling  job provided for my family, but I wanted to spend more time with my family.  I was also going back to school to pursue graphic design which made me happy, but again I had to give up time with the family.  With all that stress, I was holding onto all this stuff and buying more stuff thinking it would make me happy.  It didn’t.   I’m now purging our house of all this stuff.  I can say I am so looking forward to our Garage Sale.

Well back to organizing.   Remember the area I called my desk?   Here is the previous post on desk organization and here is hell:

How did I start organizing my desk?   I used one of Peter’s suggestions for organizing on a budget – Don’t buy a thing.   Why start out buying boxes and storage solutions when you don’t know what you need yet.   The first step is to get rid of clutter, only then assess what you need.

So to declutter – I bombed my desk.   Well I didn’t really bomb it.  I stripped it down to the bones.  Its completely naked and vulnerable right now.   I decided it was best just to start from the beginning.   Plus I needed to remove the inch thick layer of dust covering everything.  Here take a look:

Remember the cords under the desk.  I had surge protectors plugged into surge protectors.  

To solve this, I removed each piece of our computer and the accompaning cords.  By doing that I was able to determine what wasn’t being used.   Once I cleaned each piece, I began to put them back on the desk.   This time with one exception – I took inexpensive masking tape and labelled each cord.

There are still alot of cords, but I did get rid of one surge protector.  

Up Next – Organizing Paperwork….Check Back Soon.

You’ve seen him on Oprah and TLC’s Clean Sweep.  Now organizing expert Peter Walsh is bringing his own line of products to OfficeMax.  

The [IN] PLACE line of products includes durable frosted poly folders and file organizers.   The frosted color is neutral and goes with any decor.   It also lets you see through the folder at what is inside.

No need for manila file folders with 3 and 5 cuts.   No longer will you run out of folders for the right or left side.  Instead of tabs the  [IN] PLACE  file folders use Post-its.  A single set of Post-Its can be used in the entire [IN] PLACE line.  Use them on the side of the document wallet, expanding file, or the magazine file.  

You can also use the  [IN] PLACE system clip tabs to organize your files.  The erasable marker writes easily on the tabs (or any of the products).   Flip to the other end of the marker to erase.  

The  [IN] PLACE line of products is flexible and portable.   The files, document sleeves and envelopes can fit into the expanding files, the hanging files, magazine file or file tote.

Personally, one of my favorite features of the [IN] PLACE line is on the expanding file and document wallet.   Instead of a button closure that you wrap a string or elastic around, the [IN] PLACE line has a notched cutout in the bottom.  Simply slide the bead in to close.   It may seem very simple, but I’ve ruined many expanding files by popping off the closure button.   All you can do after that is hope you have a rubberband that fits.   This is one reason I will be replacing my sons’ art portfolios with the [IN] PLACE expanding files.

I recently join a webcast with Peter Walsh and OfficeMax’s Julie Krueger.  In just a quick hour, I left with numerous tips to organize  my office.   This is my desk aka office hell:

My quick assessment of my office space.  Peter would say I’ve lost the battle.  Why?  Because I’ve let clutter take over the flat surface of my desk.    Well really its 3 books deep so not only did I loose the battle -  I lost the war.   

My desk is also very open.  It has adjustable shelves but no way to even hide the clutter.  In the past when I’ve had guests over I’ve thrown a green piece of fabric over the top.   Sad I know.

Another problem I face is that with small children everything gets relocated to the upper shelves.   I don’t want my 1 year old to eat the markers.  So they go on the top shelf.   My 3 year old made paper airplanes out of the entire ream of copy paper.   That goes up.  

Lastly, take a look below my desk:

You will be able to find Peter Walsh’s [IN] PLACE line in OfficeMax stores next week.  

In preparation, I am decluttering my office space.  

Join me in the days to come as I share more tips I learned from Peter Walsh.

Hi my name is Stephanie and I’ve been a Bad Housewife.   

I’m starting a support group for us women who have been to busy working 40+ hours a week outside of the home.  For us women who squeeze in a few precious hours of quality time with our children at night.   For us women who have done the quick clean on weekends just to keep the house presentable.   For us women, who just gave up hope that the house would ever be immaculate.  For us women, who still have the guilt of being a bad housewife.

I didn’t realize how bad it was until I lost my job.   I am so not Donna Reed.   Now that I actually have the time.  I’ve been cleaning my house like crazy.   I honestly think I’ve lost my mind.   But I have realized that my house was filthy.   Not like hoarder I need to be on a TV show filthy.  But it was filthy and needed a thorough cleaning.    The day to day quick cleans just don’t cut it.   I keep putting off the big spring cleaning every year and where did it get me:

• I could have made a small child a coat with all the dog hair I vacuumed behing the fridge.
• What did I find under the fridge, half of the magnetic alphabet, a race car, oh a two bugs – luckily they were plastic but it was still creepy.
• Did you know that my spare shower was beige and not this dingy moldy brown color?   Yeah I was quite suprised.
• Bleach isn’t as scary as I thought.   I was always afraid that I would destroy clothing with it.   But its not that bad and it is very effective agains the dingy moldy shower.
• Dust makes me sneeze.   The dust has to go.
• I really hope my hubby’s grandma did a great job of cleaning before we bought the house.  Because I haven’t given it a good cleaning since we bought it….five years ago.

Can I really plead stupidity on this one?   I’ll even admit I was a messy spoiled brat growing up.  I really didn’t clean a thing.   I had to learn how to do laundry when I moved to college and I still haven’t used bleach yet.   I never learned how to clean.

So I am a bad housewife and I’ve confessed my sins.  Please forgive me daddy I know not what I did.

So I believe I am channeling my inner Bree and the quest for an organized home.  Maybe I’m just throwing myself into motherhood and housewife-dom.   If its not that then I’ve completely lost my mind.  

The past 5 days I’ve been on an all out spring cleaning spree.   But I don’t like to clean.   I usually despise it.  But I’ve just had the overwhelming urge to clean house – Back to Front, Top to Bottom, Inside to Outside.   See I even have a plan.   Scary.   

Today there was a mass exodus of stuffed animals as I cleaned out my boys toys.   I have to retrieved some boxes from my mom’s house, then I plan on completely emptying the toy box.   I feel that will allow me to completely analyze the toy situation.  

I am following my friend Dawn’s suggestion to move everything for a garage sale to one location – read about early prep for your spring garage sale here.   Well almost.  I have two locations.  Sstuff that is definately going in the garage sale goes right out to the garage.  Stuff that still needs to be sorted through but doesn’t belong in the room I purged it from goes to the basement.   I’m being ruthless this time.   If it doesn’t belong in that room, it needs to find a new home.   That is my criteria.   When I’m done, I will have clean rooms and will probably feel differently about all this excess stuff that I just had to keep.   It will probably end up in the garage sale.

I swear I’ve been doing this for 5 days one room at a time.  I haven’t sat down.  I think I forgot how.   And I’m looking forward to the next day and the next room.   I kinda like this feeling that I need purging things.   That I don’t have a reason to hold onto all this junk.    But it is work.

Label Daddy ,

I am submitting this plea on behalf of my daycare.  Instead of the usual daily report, the following letter came home with my children yesterday.   

Dear Mrs. Doran,
This letter is not for you.   We have given up hope and are pleading to higher powers.   See attached.

Sincerely,
His House Daycare

Here is the letter they enclosed. 

Dear Label Daddy ,
Our pleas to Mrs. Doran have gone unanswered, so we are turning to you for help.    While Mrs. Doran is not the only repeat offender, we see this contest as an opportunity to make an example of Mrs. Doran and send a message to our other parents.    We have sent home numerous reminders to Mrs. Doran to label her children items.   But week after week she ignores them.   So we are turning her in to you:

She is being charged with:

• Forgetting that as a daycare, we have approximately 8 sippy cups, 9 binkys from 3 different brands each with their own set of germs, 28 backpacks (which include 3 Cars designs, 6 Hannah Montana, and various others that without a doubt resemble each other), 32 coats, 25 pairs of gloves for a total of 50 gloves, 25 blankies, 3 loveys, 2 teddies, and 25 extra outfits.   – Only half of which is labeled and that includes her children’s stuff.  
• Ignoring repeat citations documenting the above charge
• NOT DOING ANYTHIING ABOUT IT!

Please Label Daddy answer our prayers – send her to BlogHer, make an example of her, and send her home with some labels.  

Sincerely,
His House Daycare

My husband is now laughing at me. Why? Because he packs the kids bags in the morning and takes them to school.  And I’m the one getting blamed.   But if it means our house will get organized I will take the blame for the crime and confess:

“I, Stephanie Doran, am guilty of being unorganized.   While I make valient attempts, I am unable to do this alone.   If I am chosen for the Label Daddy BlogHer Sponsorship, I vow to label everything, even my children, my husband and dog.    With the help of my friend, Dawn, self proclaimed anal obsessed organizing freak, I will become organized.   I will not send my children and their stuff to school unlabeled.  Finally, I will blog about my labeling experience and tell others the importance of labels.”