Friday, May 21, 2010

Garage Sales and Decluttering!

I want to let you know why I'm not here very often. 

I have been busy getting rid of clutter in my home, something I've been neglecting for far too long.  I believe I've been going through a bout of depression since 2006, for many reasons, and I also had a bit back in early 2002, that I may have never been completely over.  I've not been diagnosed, this is just my own opinion.  I had days where I would just lay around and do almost nothing.  On other days I would go out and shop for home decor or craft supplies.  I finally had a break through in January of 2009, but I still was not out of my hole yet, because I went back to acquiring items.   My house has gotten completely out of control!  I am slowly finding my way with the support of my husband and the encouragement of our pastor.  So this past Saturday I had my first garage sale in 2 years.  I had a lot of stuff, but mostly knick knacks and home decor and seasonal.  I only made 266.00 and was hoping to at least break 300, but I did better than it felt like I was doing.  It was a slow morning as there were 50+ other sales to compete with.  I had committed to sending what did not sell, to our church's garage sale next week.  Although it was tough, (there was still a lot of good stuff!), I did send it.   (I had already given them all the leftover stuff from my last garage sale and even gave them 90% of my beanie babies I had collected since 1998.)  About 5% of the items left after the garage sale, I kept and took to a consignment shop.  

I'm still going through many things.  Monday I went through some old books and magazines and today I went through my clothes.  I have a huge bag ready to go.  I hope to have one more sale before we go on vacation in June and then maybe another after vacation.  It's amazing how much freer I feel letting things go.  So far it's been pretty easy, but when I get to the good stuff that have no place to go, and I have to let them go, that's when it's going to be tough.  But it's all for a good cause, (my marriage, my sanity, our family and our friends), and by God's holy spirit guiding my way, I'll be able to do it.  So if this blog is lacking, this is why. 

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Fishing Vest Card

Here is a fishing vest card I made for my FIL for his birthday.   I found the idea at splitcoast stampers.   It took me about 4 hours to make, but that included figuring out how big it should be, making a rough draft, making the templates for the pockets and then making the final version and adding all of the details.  I'm really happy with the results and hope to make another one.

Click on pictures to enlarge.
Here is the finished card.  I chalked around all of the pieces before gluing them on.  The pockets are all a shade lighter of textured paper than the jacket.  Also, all of the pockets have folded tabs under them to make them pop off the jacket more, I could have just used pop dots, but I like to make things as real as possible. 

Click on pictures to enlarge.
 Here is the inside of the card.  I added the pocket after the card was done.  Next time I'll add that to the template and just fold it up for one uniform piece.  I liked how it gave me a place to put a gift card and the fishing license we gave him.   The papers and the stickers were all out of my existing stash of supplies, so this card cost me almost nothing to make.   So, how did I do?  Cute, huh.  Enjoy!