Goal #1

Pay off Paypal Buyer Credit-- $550


Done. I had enough in my paypal account to pay it off, plus some. Yay!

And, paid off and closed Card #2, which was one of the annoying little ones that kept hanging out there. So, second goal half done. One more small one left, and then, onto the big ones!

A conversation with myself.

I just walked out to get my mail, and I thought to myself "Now would be a great time to walk out in the woods and take winter photographs."

Which is true, because it's sunny, and not so cold, and I have good boots, and I could really use some winter photographs for my notecards. And I thought to myself, "That is something I want to do more of; photography."

And I thought, wait a second, aren't I supposed to be cutting back?

And I thought, But photography is for notecards, and maybe prints, and easily reproducible; isn't that supposed to be the point of finding a craft I can do with a day job and everything else?

And I thought, well, yeah, true... and it's also not expensive to produce, and doesn't have a million supplies. And I have a box of leftover notecards from the craft shows that I really should post on etsy anyway.

And I thought, well, then, why don't you post some? You have a great photo area set up for ebay, so why not post notecards on etsy and see what happens?


And so, that's what I'm going to do. I don't have time today to go take winter photos in the woods, but I will go. Before winter is over. I promise.

Looms and Such

Here is what I've decided:

I am unlikely to use the Union #36 rug loom, so I've posted it on ebay and craigslist. I would prefer to end up with a four-harness loom of approximately the same size, or else another small floor loom. If I want to weave a rug, I can do so on Ester (my Glimakra Pysslingen table loom) because I can't believe Ester's not sturdy enough for that.

I've also listed my Willcox & Gibbs treadle sewing machine on ebay. Again, I'm unlikely to use it, and having something just for the heck of it isn't the right reason to have it in the first place. These are fairly highly collectible; I only paid $30 for it anyway, so I should be able to get a decent price for it. We'll see.

I will be going through my yarn as well, and selling some of it that I won't use, like a whole box of Aunt Lydia's rug yarn (acrylic) that came with another lot of yarn I purchased. And I will post that on ebay as well. Once I get upstairs in my craft room, I'll be posting a lot more stuff until I can move in there again--I really want to work on sewing some bags and other things, which I can't do right now because the room is too full to work in. And I don't like that.

Eventually, probably after this is over unless I find a decently priced one, I would like to get a castle-style spinning wheel; one that doesn't take up much floorspace. If I can sell my Union #36, my loom room will become just that; I can move Lisbet into this room and there will be more space to walk.

I will keep my Davis Treadle sewing machine, and both Singer 99k's. I will also keep my Featherweight and the Apartment sewing machine. I will sell the Singer 5140, which I always intended to do anyway. And of course I will have my New Home sewing machine for alternative stitches.

I would like to be able to use more than one sewing machine in my crafting room, but we'll see. Right now, it looks like a bomb went off in there, and I'm not really kidding.

I intended to take the coat rack I bought last week at the auction upstairs to replace the one that is in my bedroom, but then I realized I could use it down here for my project tote bags. (My projects are all in bags for easy grabbing if I want to take something somewhere.) This works out great, so the bags aren't all on the floor or hanging elsewhere. Now, in the loom room, the only spot I have to clean up is my typewriter desk and in front of the yarn cabinet. So I should be able to get to that today.

I've been working in the kitchen, too; I didn't discard any baking dishes, but I rearranged them a bit better. I just went through them a few months ago and got rid of quite a few. I might not use all the ones I have right now, so I reserve the right to go through them again if needed. We'll see.

Moving onward!

Mugs--25%

Some of my favorite mugs. All Goodwill finds.

The two brown ones on the sides are Pigeon Forge Pottery, the blue one is Village Pottery, the owl is unmarked. In the back is another marked pottery mug and a small brown mug that just fits there perfectly.

I thought I would begin the 25% challenge with my mugs.

I have quite a few mugs. Not quite as many as I had before I weeded them not long ago, but enough that my mug cabinet is full again, and I have some on display as well.

See, my biggest weakness is finding a handmade mug at Goodwill for $.50 and not being able to pass it up, because I realize how much work the potter put into it, and I realize what it probably cost at retail price. Or a Japanese floral print mug; I really like those, even though I only have two.

However, unless I'm drinking a different flavor of tea, I tend to use one mug, every day, the same mug that matches my batter bowls.

I bought two of these mugs on Etsy a couple of years ago to replace my 'everyday' mug that one of my cats (now outside) broke; that one I bought at a discount store and I used it almost exclusively for ten years. I tend to use them until they break. And I hate trying to find another one. It is so hard to find a decently-sized large mug to my specifications. It took me quite a while to find the one I'm using now, and it's even smaller than I really wanted, although I've adapted. ;)

One of the pair is cracked, and on display. The other one I use all the time. My other 'favorite' mug to use is a porcelain one from Pier 1 that I bought a while back; it's blue and white and has a very pretty pattern. I usually use that for green or white tea. Another Pier 1 mug fits perfectly into the drink holder in my car, so when I want to bring something to drink along (not my thermos) I use that.

Some of the rest of my mugs.

Only a couple of weeks ago, I found five coffee mugs in my Franciscan Madeira china pattern. I intended to keep them until I really thought about it and realized that I would probably never use them; right now, that $2.50 investment is making me over $75 on ebay, so I'm not complaining.

I am unlikely to stop buying handmade mugs, but I did manage to eliminate eleven mugs from my collection in the purge. That was more than 25% of the ones in the kitchen; the others will have to wait until I get to those particular rooms.

Weekend Plans

Will be making piles of stuff to sell, taking pictures of stuff to sell, sorting through stuff, baking, cooking, and cleaning. I am not complaining, mind you. And I will post a real update later, and more of the 25% challenge.

Goodwill

Why yes, I did spend $55 at Goodwill today.

What did I buy for that $55?

--An 8-qt Farberware stockpot--retail price on Amazon is $51.43, for $15
--Six pairs of pants, sorely needed; all able to be worn to work, $1.99/each
--A Calphalon beehive teapot to sell on ebay for $6
--A pair of Covington oxfords that look kind of like chukkas for $8 (a bit high, really, but they're cool shoes, and they fit.)
--A very neat looking slip decorated mug, pictured above, signed on the bottom, for $.50 (there are more pictures on my blog)
--Two Fire King mixing bowls that match the cereal bowl I already own for $10 (I've been wanting one more medium sized mixing bowl, and now I have one.)

First Goal

My first goal is to pay off my Paypal Buyer Credit, which was around $530. On my plan sheet, I have that with an estimated payoff date of March 31st. The goal was also to only use ebay money to pay this off. I paid $250 of it just last week.

Right now--with 17 items sold, and 10 with bids that will sell, I am within $20 of my goal to pay off the first credit card. And I fully expect to reach that goal by the end of this coming weekend when my Sunday auctions end.

That is two weeks into the twice weekly auctions. I am very pleased!

Once that is gone, I have about $200 on two other credit cards to get rid of, and then I will concentrate on one that will take me a bit of time to accomplish-- to the tune of $2800. I have on my plan sheet that the estimated payoff date for that one is July 31st. I have a free paycheck in July, and while it would be nice to be able to put that towards something else (which might happen; we'll see how much money I can make from ebay until then), I will have $1000 to put towards that credit card if needed, so I really only have to make $1800 on ebay from March until July. That's 21 weeks. My goal is $100 a week, so that is under my goal. So if I get lucky, I will be able to pay off that credit card without using the free paycheck. That would be very nice indeed.

If I can manage to make the $2800 on ebay without having to use my free paycheck, then I will use the free paycheck to pay a portion of the next credit card, which is also around $2800. But we'll see. A lot could happen between now and July. I can only hope things will continue to progress the way they are right now, and that decluttering will continue to pay off.

Onward!