Summer Vacation and Shop Announcement

I survived my first 40 hour work week in about 4 years…and I actually enjoyed it.  While I am still a stay at home mom at heart, it is nice to get out in the “real” adult world every now and then!

But now I’ve switched gears and am preparing for our summer vacation down in sunny Miami!  Woo Hoo!  In a few short days, this will be me…

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My husband and I are even sneaking away for a few nights sans kids!  I am excited for the vacation and to meet my first niece who was born just last week.  Remember the bedding I made for her?  I have a couple of other coordinating projects for her room to share so stay tuned for those in the next week or so. 

I’ll try to blog while I’m down there, but please be patient with me if I’m hanging out at the pool, letting the grandparents watch the kids, sipping on a cold beverage, instead of sitting behind my computer, blogging.  No offense.  Make sure you “Like” my Facebook page, if you don’t already, because I’ll probably post on there a little more regularly.

And finally I will be closing down the shop while we’re away so if there’s something that you’ve had your eye on, go get it now :)

Workin’ for a Livin’

Woo Hoo!  It’s our first official week of summer!  And instead of spending it here…

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I’ll be spending it like this…

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Most of you know that I’m a stay at home mom and owner of Happy Baby Designs.  But many of you probably don’t know that I’m also a medical Social Worker.

I worked full time until I had my son at which point my husband and I decided that I would stay at home.  But fortunately, the hospital that I work for has allowed me to stay on and work when I am able to.  So, that means when my husband is home for the summer (he’s a teacher), I work as much as I can.

I’ll be working all week and then we leave for a family vacation.  So I might be a little absent from the blog for awhile.  But be sure to “Like” me on Facebook because I’ll probably post updates there more often than I will on the blog.

And please, wish me luck this week.  It’s the first full week I’ve worked (outside the home) in over 4 years!!!

 

Technorati Tags: work,social work,summer

Garage Sale Selling 101

While I was visiting my family in Arizona, I helped my sister have a garage sale in preparation for her move to Texas (yipee!!!).

She was more than ecstatic when I volunteered to help her. To say she was not looking forward to organizing and working this garage sale would be a huge understatement.

So it got me to thinking, maybe some of you are intimidated or scared about having a garage sale of your own. So I thought I’d share my Garage Sale Selling Wisdom with you all. I’ve been a garage sale seller many times and a garage sale buyer hundreds of times. These are some of the things I have learned along the way.

1) Pricing

Price to sell, not to make money. This is a garage sale, after all.

And be prepared that your house will probably be a total wreck while you’re pricing everything before the sale. Here’s what my parent’s living room looked like for days while I priced all of my sister’s stuff.

2) Signs

Location, location, location. If you don’t have good signs (arrows, address) at every major intersection and at every intersection leading them to your house, they won’t be able to find your sale.

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3) Advertising

Did you know that Craigslist has a “Garage Sale” section. FREE advertising, folks! You should also look into advertising with your local paper. You might be surprised at how affordable it is. You also may be able to chose to advertise in either the print or the online section or both.

4) Day of the Week and Time of the Day

I have my garage sales on Saturday only. Sure, you might make more money if you have it Friday, Saturday and Sunday but man, that’s a whip! I prefer not to lose an entire weekend to my garage sale. And I usually start setting up at 7a, but be aware that you might have early birds. You can say “no early birds” in your advertising, but they’ll still come.

5) Display

Think of your garage sale as your storefront. If it’s an appealing display, people are more likely to buy. Don’t just throw it all out there on a table and expect people to dig through your junk (some people will, but not everyone).

See our book “section” and our game “section”. On the blankets we have our electronic “section” and behind that is our linens “section”. See how easy that would be to shop?

6) Haggling

Please don’t haggle over 50 cents. And cut people a good deal if they’re buying several items. Again, this is a garage sale.

7) Change

Make sure you have some!

8) Donation Pick Up

Call around to some local churches or donation centers to see if they’ll come pick up all of the stuff that you don’t sell. We closed up our sale around 2p, the guy from the church came and loaded up all of our unsold stuff (and gave us a donation receipt), and we had our feet up, counting our money by 4p.

9) Sunscreen

Don’t forget it, or you’ll be sorry…trust me!

Do you have any tips to add to the list? Is there anything that drives you crazy as a buyer? My biggest pet peeves is poor signs! What’s yours?

Technorati Tags: garage sale,tips,yard sale

Sharing my secrets here:

Truth Be Told Tuesday #13 - Hiding Out

I know that Tuesday is technically almost over, but I couldn't let the night end without sharing my truth this week. For those of you that are new to Truth Be Told Tuesday (TBTT), it's a day when we can all come together to share the truth of our lives...not the life we portray on our blog or on Facebook, etc... To catch up on past TBTT posts, go here.

Truth Be Told, I aimlessly drove around tonight after getting out of a meeting early in order to purposefully miss bedtime for the kiddos. That's right, I hid out to not have to put the kids down for bed (remember, no judgment on TBTT!). My husband had already planned to put them down, the kids had already anticipated that Daddy would be putting them down. And while I could've made it home in time to put them down, I chose to drive around killing time instead. Sometimes, it’s just nice to not have to be on Mommy duty.

So now it’s your turn, tell us your truth. And if you hide out from your kids sometimes, feel free share that as well (seriously, I can’t be the only mom who does this!).

Technorati Tags: parenting,mothering,truth be told

You Asked for it…You Got it!

Well friends, for those of you that said you’d like to see my Bandana Skirts in the shop…you’re in luck! I just added them today :)

You pick the color!

I also added a few other things, like these adorable dinosaur crowns for your little dinosaur-lover (they also make great party favors!).

And some Binky Bag/Burp Cloth gift sets. Perfect for a baby shower gift!

And consider pairing these gift sets with a bath cloth or blankie for the ultimate baby shower gift!

So come by and take a look…you just might find something you can’t live without :)

You Know You’re a Fabric Addict When…

…You stand in line at 8:30a with 20 other women (about twice my age, BTW) to get 4 FREE fat quarters at a local fabric store.

They were having an awesome sale and I came away with 8 fat quarters and 3 “bits and pieces” for $9.95! C’mon, you seriously can’t beat a deal like that!

Now I just have to decide what to make with all of this beautiful eye candy! Hmmmm….maybe some checkbook covers, or an apron or two. That’s the joy of being a fabric addict, you don’t have to have a purpose for the fabric you buy ☺

I did pick up that cute cowboy fabric to make some stuff for the shop, but the rest is just for fun!

What are you up to this weekend? Any fun fabric purchases on your to-do list?

Oops! New Layout?

Ok, so I accidentally messed with my blog layout (as you can probably tell)! I was messing around with some things (duh!) and somehow permanently changed my layout! Yikes!

Bear with my while I try to fix it...or maybe it's time for a new layout ;)

Easy Bandana Skirt

My cousin asked if I could make some bandana skirts as favors for her daughter and her friends for her cowgirl-themed birthday party. They are pretty inexpensive to make since you just use one bandana per skirt and the sewing is definitely beginner level. So of course, I put together a tutorial for you :)

These will fit up to about age 6 or 7 with tights underneath. For older or taller children you might use 2 bandanas to make it longer, or add a strip of coordinating fabric to the bottom to add some length like V and Co did. I found the best selection of bandanas at Hobby Lobby. They have some really great colors and they were the cheapest.

Start with one bandana (unless using 2 as mentioned above). After you’ve washed/dryed and ironed your bandana, cut it in half. They are a rectangle, not a square so make sure you’re cutting across the short side (making each half about 10 3/4” long). Also they are a little wonky, so don’t expect your cut to be perfect. But you can correct it later. Just try to get the halves about the same.

Now with right sides together, sew a straight stitch down each side seam. Iron your seams to one side or open it up and iron it (I don’t think it really matters which way you iron it).

If you have a serger (lucky!), serge the top all the way around. For those of us (losers) without a serger, just zig zag stitch around the top (or you could probably use pinking shears to cut the top). See the picture below.

Now, depending on what size elastic you’re using, fold, pin and iron down your casing (my elastic was 3/8” so I folded over 3/4”).

Next, sew a straight seam around the top to form your casing. Make sure you leave about 1” opening to feed your elastic through. (I used about 20” of elastic for the birthday girl who wears a 5/6T).

Use a safety pin at one end of the elastic and begin feeding it through the casing. Once you’ve fed it all the way through, sew the 2 ends of the elastic together and then sew the opening closed.

And voila! You’re done and you have a super cute skirt for about $1. This was an easy and quick project. Perfect for a beginner!

And just in case you're not the sewing kind...and since you all requested it, I am now offering the skirts in my shop!


Linking up here:

Show and Share Day with Just a Girl
Show and Tell with Blue Cricket Design
Strut Your Stuff with Somewhat Simple