Garage Sale

What a busy couple of weeks we have had! Since we moved into the new house a year ago last month, we finally decided it was time to sell some of our "non-usables" in a garage sale. If you have never had a garage sale, let me tell you... it is a chore to get ready! I have had many over the years and I tend to think I have it down to an art!

PRICING:
First, I have been collecting items since the move. I price every item as I put it in the GARAGE SALE box. (This makes it TONS faster on you when you decide to have a sale). I use bright neon stickers for most items and then on clothing and hard to sticker items I make hang tags.

**How to make a cheap hang tag**
Use brightly colored paper (I use scraps of old scrapbook paper) punch a hole in the corner, write the item description and the price, and hang with some curly ribbon or on clothing I use a safety pin.

You ask why I write the description on it?? Well, after many successful sales, I have found people to change prices on items. I know, I know, it's just a garage sale, but why would I want to get $4 for a Coach purse that I had marked $50. Also, I think it extremely important to have every item priced. Nothing is worse than a non-priced item. I also don't like the "make me an offer" gimmick. I don't want to insult someone nor do I want to under price something that someone would have paid more for or vise-versa.

GATHERING:
We, meaning the hubby and I, started working on the sale 3 weeks prior to our big sale day. We would scour the house and garage for items to sell, price it and set it out in the garage.

We hung clothes on the rack as we priced them

Look at all the goodies we gathered!

My "work station" Everything was priced and inspected here. I made sure to fix any broken items, or insure that they worked via batteries or plug.

SET-UP:
I divided all of our items into like categories. All the kitchen items on one table, Christmas on another, household goods on one, baby on another, etc. It was like browsing at a store!! This makes it much easier to find something when someone asks if you have a specific item.

I staged the garage with the tables set up the night before the sale. When Friday morning rolled all we had to do was roll out the tables and place everything on the driveway.

Baby table

Notice the blankets and sheets in the background? We did this to hide our stuff that wasn't for sale.

See the sign in the background? We attached flags to it, to blow in the wind, as if all the stuff on the driveway wasn't a big enough eye catcher!! :)

We even had a 4 wheeler for sale!

More clothes on the much used racks

We had a display case for the sunglasses and we also had it for sale!

The overall display of our items

DATE AND TIME:
We chose a gorgeous fall day for our sale and made sure that our State football team (OU Sooners) played a night game on Saturday and that it wasn't the same time as our Sate Fair. Both of these events would have put a damper on things. We opened the doors at 7AM and closed them around 6PM each night. We had people non-stop the whole time!

SIGNS:
I don't take a picture of our signs, but I made them on NEON orange poster board and in big letters wrote GARAGE SALE--->
I taped them to some realtor signs that we had laying around. This is much easier than taping signs to a pole, and they stand up high off the ground. Our street intersects with a major city street, so we had LOTS of exposure with our signs.

FYI:
We had so much stuff, I was concerned that we wouldn't be able to sell it all. So, here was my master plan: EVERYTHING that was left at 1PM on Saturday was 1/2 off the marked price!!! I made another sign to put by my original sign... and boy did I open the flood gates! We had people standing in line to pay! We were slinging money and bags full of goodies faster than I ever expected. I will definitely do that again if I have another sale (hopefully not anytime soon!!!)

Overall we had a fabulous sale, we made over $3,500 and got rid of lots of clutter! After the 1/2 off sale, we only had 3 plastic totes of items left! I donated them to Good Will and got my tax slip. It feels good to declutter and make some money at the same time! We were too exhausted by the end of the weekend to clean up and organize the garage, so that was put off until the next weekend. Next blog post will be the new cleaned out garage!

Hopefully you can take a tip or two from me and have a successful garage sale too!!

XOXO-

Shauna's painting skills in 5 EASY steps!

I found a unique piece of furniture at my favorite store Breezy's and decided it needed my touch! I couldn't pass up a good deal, $15 for this boring white hunk of wood. What to use it for... Use the shelves, take them out, towel holder in a guest bath, wine rack, the possibilities are endless! I opted for the wine rack. Here's the before and after!


BEFORE: BORING!!!

1) I took out the shelves and sanded the whole piece.

2) I painted the whole thing dark red. If you have ever painted with red paint, you know that it takes numerous coats. The piece went from pink to dark red after 4 coats!

3) I let it dry overnight

4) I then painted the black accent marks. I wanted a distressed wood look. This process is a lot easier than you think! I started with a 2 inch wide DRY paint brush dipped in jet black paint. I lighted painted the top and then wiped the excess off with a damp paper towel. I continued with the shelves and then the overall piece itself. (Whole paint and wipe off process took less than 20 minutes)

5) Let dry and then insert the shelves.


AFTER: Pretty red and black wine rack!

This whole process took less than 3 hours, and was cheap! $15.00 initial investment, and $8.00 in paint. (I already had the sander and the sandpaper on hand). So, for $23.00 I have a great looking wine rack that would have cost LOTS more if I bought already finished. And who is to say that I would have found one that was red and black, and just my style?!?!

Gotta run, time to look for another project!
XOXO

Tips and Tricks!

Who doesn't love a little tip or a trick to make your day go a little smoother? Well,I have compiled 10 of my favorites for you. Hope you can use one or all of them to solve your problems!


1) Smelly hands from an onion or garlic?

Rub your hands on your stainless steel faucet or over a stainless steel spoon. Rinse with warm water.

2) Rust spots on your hand held can opener?

Use an old toothbrush dipped in apple-cider vinegar to scrub away the rust. Rinse off vinegar and dry (a hairdryer makes this super fast!)

3) Do you have left over rubbery shelf liner?

There are actually numerous uses!
*Place under a rug for a non-slip surface.
*Cut a small sqaure and leave in the untensil drawer to help open those pesky tight lids on your jars.
*Tape a piece to the back of a photo or painting to keep it in place on the wall- the texture grips the wall and doesn't harm it.

4) Stuck zipper?

Rub it with a bar of dry soap

5) Tired of mosquitoes bitting you??

Rub yourself down with a dryer sheet or place one in your pocket while sitting outside to avoid being bit!

6) To remove old wax from a glass candleholder

Put the candleholder in the freezer for a few hours, take out and turn upside down, the wax should fall out! (I have done this numerous times and have saved many of my crystal pieces!)

7) Blood stains on clothes?

Not to worry! Just pour a little hydrogenperoxide on a cloth and proceed to wipe off every drop of blood. Works every time!

8) Streaks on your windows?

Use vertical strokes when washing windows outside and horizontal for inside windows. This way you can tell which side has the streaks. Or hire a housekeeper to do the dirty work for you!!! :)

9) To clean artificial flowers

Pour some salt into a paper bag and add the flowers. Shake vigorously as the salt will absorb all the dust and dirt and leave your artificial flowers looking like new! Works like a charm even on greenery and plants too!

10) Burnt on food in your skillet

Simply add a drop or two of dish soap and enough water to cover bottom of pan, and bring to a boil on stove top. Rub lightly with a scrub brush and dry!

Since I love reading up on and testing out new ticks and tips, I will start posting more on a regular basis. Enjoy and see you soon!
XOXO

Rice Krispie Pumpkins!

Just reposting a favorite receipe for my famous pumpkin treats! They are always a huge hit and fun to eat! I like to make mine bite size where you can eat it in 2-3 bites! (Click the title to preview the step by step instructions)

Falling in love with fall

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year... cooler temps, the State Fair, OU football and Halloween! Here are some of the fall crafts that you will see around my house and some some of my favorite decorations!

Halloween Invitations!


Mummy pumpkin
I have also made mummy coozies for our Halloween party. You can mummy just about anything! All you need is a little gauze, some googly eyes and a drop of glue!


Flower pumpkins. You can use the faux pumpkins and flowers for a piece that will last from year to year!


Super cute and simple to make!!! All you need is some paint, paper sacks (which come in all colors), paper plates, some scrap paper, markers, glue, staples and some free time!






I am thinking this for my front porch, but a little smaller scale!


Carve a pumpkin using a drimmel tool! Too easy!!


Happy Fall Ya'll!!

I've been gone awhile!

Well, I hate to neglect my blog, but over the last few months I have been a bit busy. I HAD A BABY!! I hope to update more often now that things have settled done a bit. Here's some pics of my hectic life over the last 13 months! Carson is now 4 months old and doing great! He is the light of our lives!

A few of my favorite things

Kentucky Derby

It has been WAY TOOOOOOOOO long since I have blogged!!!! There has been so much going on since New Years!!
I wanted to post a link:
http://mrsoklahomaamerica2010.blogspot.com/2010/05/kentucky-derby-event.html
(or click on the post title)
that a fellow blogger posted to share with everyone. She is the new MRS. OKLAHOMA and was a judge at the Remington Park's Kentucky Derby hat contest. (That I happened to win) She is a fabulous woman who supports a wonderful cause. Please check out Alyssa Siler's link and blog page!!
I promise when I get home form vacation next week to post LOTS of new posts about what has been going on in the Morrissey household and a few decorating tips!!!

XOXO
Shauna