Craigslist

I am no stranger to selling or buying things off of ebay or craigslist. For the past two years, my goal has been to not spend a penny for Christmas gifts. What I mean by that is, I will only spend what I make from selling things that we no longer want. It's worked out really great the past couple of years.

I would go searching the house for unwanted or un-played with items and post them on craigslist. Since, I tend to buy bargained items anyways, I generally make the same amount as what I paid. Usually, if I paid retail, it's an item the kids really wanted and those items we usually keep.

You never know what people are going to buy. My husband was just going to throw away his Law Books, but I decided to post them anyway. Fortunately, for us, they sold!

When selling any item on craigslist, make sure you spend the extra time cleaning and making it look as new as possible. People are more likely to offer less for an item that is dirty or run down. If it is clean and polished, you can ask more for it.

Just because it's craigslist doesn't mean that you can't sell new items as well. I bought this handbag at such a great price, I couldn't bear to return it so I sold it on craigslist and got a hefty profit which enabled me to buy the purse that I really wanted at the price I wanted.

It's worked out so far from the items that we sell, we make enough to buy new gifts. Three months until Christmas and our Christmas savings fund from Craigslist is nearly there. Maybe we'll have enough this year for some birthday money as well. What's even better is the space that we have gained by purging the things we no longer need and making a little extra along the way. Things that we don't sell (like clothing and shoes), we'll donate.

Since every post is better with a picture. Here's a pic of the boys (A. wasn't born yet).

Probably the only Asian Santa you will ever see. "Hey, Santa, you look awfully familiar."

My life of studying

I flew home last Wednesday only to say goodbye to my husband as he flew out on Thursday. My poor kids haven't had two parents for a few weeks now as we have been alternating our parenting roles.

I am so grateful that my kids were able to entertain themselves as I was doing this:

I was studying. Let's just zoom in on one of my many reading materials.

Do you see how many pages it is??? Since I worked all last weekend, I have been completely behind. This weekend my day consisted of breakfast, studying, lunch, studying, then, I made myself take a break.

I interrupted my kids from playing with each other so that I can play with them. E. decided he wanted to build so that is what we did. It was a nice needed break. Now back to studying...and I thought school was over when you graduated.

Owl Cupcakes

E.'s school was having a PTA picnic so we decided to make some cupcakes for our dessert. We made some strawberry cupcakes.

If the cupcakes aren't for a party, I don't usually decorate it because I don't usually eat frosting and it's only E. and I who eat cupcakes in our household. Hard to imagine, huh?

Fortunately for us my sister came over with a huge bag of decorating goodies and a cupcake book for ideas to help us decorate. We ended up making some owl cupcakes.

First we spread half a cupcake with chocolate frosting.

Then we cut an oreo in half for the ears and piped on more chocolate frosting for the "fur". We put chocolate frosting in a plastic bag and cut the end of the tip in a "v" shape.

The other half of the oreo, we adhered a junior mint with some more chocolate frosting to make the eyes. We added a dab of white frosting for the pupil.

We added the eyes to the cupcake then used a banana runt for the nose.

We decided to make mini-cupcakes as well. For those, we used the snack sized oreos and mini m&m's for the eyes.

We have a dozen decorated cupcakes, but no eaters...hmm...I guess they are going to work on Monday. "WHoo WHoo would like some?"

Newest Reading Material

What are you currently reading? I subscribe to a couple of magazines, but I also get all these for free:

It's nice to get your freebies in the mail. Unfortunately, I don't have time to enjoy them. Instead, I am currently tackling one of my many CISSP books.

Flying to DC this time, my trip consisted of this book in my arms. No more reading juicy gossip, instead, I've got to memorize things like the OSI model, physical security, cryptography, intrusion detection systems.....did I lose you already?

I myself am lost. As I am studying for this hideous 6 hour long exam (yes, it is 6 hours), I won't be blogging as much, but I hope you still stick with me as I plan on bringing more creative ideas and projects soon!

Kids say the Darnedest things

Kids say the darnedest things, especially in my household. I have kids ranging from 13 down to 2. It's funny what they say sometimes. Here are some recent conversations I have had with my kiddos. Keep in mind their ages when reading what they have to say.

From the 6 year old:

E.: "R. come play with me upstairs. "
R: "No, I want to play my DS right now. "
E: "Please, come on."
Mom: "E, I’ll play with you. Let’s go."
E: "No, I want to play with someone cuter."

E: "Dad, why does that car have a tire on the back of the trunk."
Dad: "So they can have an extra one just in case something happens to one of their 4 tires."
E: "Does, everyone have 5 tires?"
Dad: "Yes."
E: "Where’s your fifth tire?"
Dad: "It’s in the trunk."
E: "How does it fit?"
Dad: "It’s a smaller tire."
E: "Smaller than the other 4 tires?"
Dad: "Yes,"
E: "Will it blow up to size when you put it on the car?"

From the 4 year old:

Mom: "R, what do you want for breakfast this morning? Cereal?"
R: "No, I want pork chops and squash."
Mom: "For breakfast?"
R: "Yes, I LOVE your squash and pork chops and Mom, I want rice too!"

From the 13 year old:

Mom: "J, do your homework."

J: "I'm a kid and I'm supposed to be having the time of my life and you are making me waste it."
Mom: "You need to pick up your grades by doing your assignments."

J: "Please stop invading my privacy by looking at my grades. They belong to me and you have no right to look at them"

Mom: "Find me another parent that thinks checking your grades is a bad idea and I may reconsider."

J: *huffs*

Mom: "Did you think of one yet?"

From the 2 year old:

Mom: "A. You stink, did you poo?"

A: "I'm a pooping a-cheen.."

Mom: "Get a diaper and tell Dad that."

A: "Dad, I'm a pooping a-cheen..change my diaper."

What do your kids say to you?

Flower headbands

I've been loving flowered headbands lately. So much so that I bought this one at Target for $10.

I looked at it and realized that, yes I can make that, but I didn't want to so I went ahead and bought it. Then my sister bought me this at H&M for only $3.95.

I think it looks absolutely gorgeous. I decided to make my own flower headband this weekend. This is what I came up with.

To make this, you will need tulle, beads, thread and a headband.

Layer the tulle 20-30 times by folding it back and forth, the size of your flower template.

Pin the tulle down around the edges and in the center of the tulle.

Cut the tulle, following the flower template.

Once cut, it should look something like this:

Rotate the layers of tulle in different directions.

Sew the center of the flower so that it doesn't shift.

Now thread the glass beads.

You can bead them straight to the thread of the flower.

When you are done, you have a cute tulle flower.

Put it on a headband, and voila!

My sister modeling my product.

I decided to make a smaller one for me.

Perfect!

I simply love how it turned out.

Making Artwork from Your Computer

I am redoing J.'s room and needed some artwork for his walls. Since he loves playing video games. I decided to frame some of his favorite games on the wall.

I found a website that has wii box covers you can print out.

I cut off the back of the box cover using a paper cutter.

I took a frame that I bought at my company's surplus sale.

I think people thought I was nuts to buy this print. I wasn't looking at the print when I bought it. I was only looking at the nice silver frame that came with it. For only a buck, it was definitely a steal.

I pasted the prints on the back of the print.

I laid the images and then framed them.

I like it. I decided to make the second one with less images and I think it turned out better.

For only $2.00, I think this was a nice solution for some video game artwork.