Blog Housekeeping

I have been so busy that things are getting neglected. Household chores, office slash craft room cleanup and reorganization, spring cleaning for garage sales and this blog have played musical chairs on my back burner for the last month. I am determined to get a post in before the end of the week, which means a baseboard or two will not get dusted. The blog changes so far...

I cleaned up lots of old links in the sidebar. I added more links to the shopping section. I love a great deal and I have been (semi) obsessed about all these daily deal sites. I have posted my affiliate and referral links under the shopping section. If you would like to support this blog (and not my daily deal habit), please shop through those links. I have plans to post deals, sales and specials periodically. I would like to do this daily but for now "periodically" is what I am committing to.

I don't even think my husband reads this blog so I removed him from the About section. My next update will be my info since it has been over 2 years since the last bio.

You can subscribe to this blog which will send notification when I update posts. This will prevent blog rage when you visit the blog, anticipating an entertaining read, only to find posts 2 weeks old and then sending me hate comments.

Everything after the linky love section is for my other obsession, entering giveaways. Those buttons are posted to allow extra giveaway entries. If you are interested in finding more info on giveaways or entering, just pick a blog and read about them. If you have time to commit to this, you can win lots of stuff.

My ultimate goal is to have a blog makeover. I like this free template but there aren't options for me to expand columns which would help me keep sections less cluttered. Hopefully I can get that going during the first half of the year. So far, I have accomplished one this from my list at the top. Blog post down, 103 more things to do before the end of January.

Consigned to consignment

There was a very large consignment event this past weekend. I decided to do it to start getting some items out of the house, mainly clothes and toys. The one think I liked about this event was that it had web based where you entered your items and printed your tags. You could also track your sold items.

I worked on this for 2 weeks. I gathered baby clothes and accessories, maternity clothes and toys. I entered the items and printed tags. I bought toddler hangers to hang the clothes and attached the tags. I bagged smaller items in Ziploc bags. All this up until the night before I dropped the items off at the location. I ended up entering 177 items but made mistakes on 3 items so ended up not including them because entering items had been locked down by the time I noticed the error. Despite that, with 174 items, had high hopes of making buckets of money.

I checked the online inventory throughout the weekend and it showed no items sold. That couldn't be right. I certainly did not want to pick up all my stuff. The sale closed Saturday at 3. I got there at 2:45 and saw so many clothes still on the racks. Yikes! I would have to search through all the racks to find my stuff.

I spent 2 hours going through the racks and then marking them off the list. I did sell some items, or at least hoped that I did because I don't offer the 5 finger discount. I got checked out with my items to make sure I didn't grab anyone's stuff. I did some quick calculations and it looks like I sold a little over $200. After the fee and my percentage, I probably made $130. It's a good thing I didn't shop for anything.

Do I feel it was worth my time and effort? Not really. My mom's group also has their biannual Buy and Sell in September and I was hoping to get away from doing that. I may have to to get more stuff out of the house. At least my items are prepped so I won't be spending as much time getting things ready.

I took away some things from this experience.
*Prep way in advance if there are lots of clothing items to sell
*Don't price items too high
*Use special identification such as a brightly colored tag, special hangers or ribbon tied around hangers to easily spot my items
*Don't let the boys "help" or be in the same room while I am prepping and tagging. (Their idea of helping is to remove every single item out of all the baggies, hiding said items and trying to pull all the tape off the roll. I have crumpled up baggies and tape everywhere.)

Gifts for the baby daddy

2/3/09 - 31w5d

What a weekend. I had a wonderful baby shower Saturday and am still recuperating. It was like going out and partying all night, dancing on tables (fully clothed of course) except without a hangover and a stranger in your bed the next day. Read: it was all good! I will have to finish uploading pictures before I post about it.

With all the stuff that momma and baby got, I thought about what things I could get the baby daddy to include him on the gift giving. Of course all the stuff that we get for baby, he gets to use too, like the diapers and the wipes. And the diapers and rash cream. And the diapers. If you see a diaper duty trend, that is no coincidence.

We got the large messenger type diaper bag that he chose from BRU. But I was also looking for a smaller diaper bag that he can keep in his truck. I found one that looks like a tool bag from babycenter.com and it was on sale.




While searching, I came across this hilarious toolbox diaper kit from Gifts for dad to be.
This kit comes with:

Mask – toxic fume filter for when it doesn’t smell like roses.
Goggles – for protection against your own mini version of Old Faithful.
Patent Pending Poop Poncho – need we say more???
Tongs – Several inches of steel separation between you and the little warm wrapped gift.
Turkey Baster – for precision hiney washing.
Ear/Nose Plugs – use with care.
Pacifier – scream plug.
Baby Wipes- for cleaning baby bottom and various parts.
Diaper for newborn- cute as a kitten until it gets wet then it looks and smells like a sewer rat.
Bio Hazard bag and rubber gloves - for quarantine containment of the nuclear meltdown.
Emergency Formula Container – doubles as a PeePee cover for WeWe.
Hand Wipes – to clean up afterward. (For Dad’s use only).
Picture Frame- this is your badge of honor.

Seriously, the tongs are a must.

There is another great site, Dad Gear, where you can get manly man stuff like the diaper vest. I like the changing pad in the back that can double as lumbar support. I don't think my DH can fully appreciate the awesomeness of this vest until he has both babies in his arms and has to carry a 50 pound diaper bag.

2009 - Goals and Word of the Year

1/2/08 - 27w2d

Some site updates:
Sidebar has links for friend's blogs and sites I visit.
Added Amazon baby wish list under Shopping section.
Also, you can sign up for email subscription. You will get an email when a new entry has been posted.

I was talking to Rod last night about our New Year's resolutions. He didn't have any at the time but I immediately thought of some for him. I don't think he liked any of my suggestions. :P
Until he can think of some or I can come up with other more attainable goals, I will focus on my own resolutions or rather goals for the coming year.

Ali Edwards writes about coming up with a word of the year.

"The idea behind the one little word concept is to give yourself something to focus on throughout the year. As I stated in my newsletter back in January 2007, "A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow."

Because it is so fitting, I am taking Ali's word as my word for 2009.

Nurture


Twins - As my top priority, I will care for and encourage the growth and development of our twins.

Other things I plan to nurture:

Marriage - I hope with the birth of our babies, Rod and I will become even closer. It will be stressful and fulfilling at the same time and out focus may be all on the babies but we will definitely work on nurturing our relationship.

Photography - I hope to find a nice camera to replace my 10 year old Canon Powershot. With the arrival of two babies, I know we will be taking tons of pictures. This will also help with my next goal.

Scrapbooking - I have this great craft room and since being pregnant, I have not done as much scrapbooking as I would like. There are so many memories and milestones I want to preserve and I don't know where to start. I know I want to document everything that has to do with the babies.

Friendships - It is difficult to find "kindred spirits" or make lasting friendships but hope to develop more this year and grow the existing friendships. I joined a KAPOM, Katy area parents of multiples, and will be attending the first meeting this month. With common interests being kids, I want to find other parents to bond and make play dates.

Myself - I want to take better care of my health, nurture my body and soul, so I can better care for my family. I tend to neglect my health and this year, I plan to focus on living a healthier lifestyle. (Rod- This means purchasing fewer bags of peanut M&M's and strawberry pop tarts)

Home - Last but not least, I want to be a better homemaker. This means better organization, working on home projects, cook more and clutter less. This one is a doozy for me and will stretch me way out of my comfort zone. If I don't start channeling Rachel Ray, I may end up stocking back up on peanut M&Ms and strawberry pop tarts.

Martha Stewart has a resolutions planner along with some other planners.
There are printable forms here that you can use to create a home organization binder.