Back To Blogging

It's been quite a while since my last post and I want to apologize. As a mom and small business owner life tends to get in the way of social media at times. For the past five weeks we have either been up in the mountains working on our new property or hosting guests and I've been completely overwhelmed just trying to get the basic housework and childcare accomplished. We had a Harry Potter Halloween, the result of me finding a Firebolt broom at the thrift store, so I had to shorten a cloak for my youngest. We wrapped up another soccer season just in time to start a new season of high school swim team. Our daughter is doing extremely well in school; she's 9th in her class, so we are exploring opportunities for her to improve her chance of scholarships to college.

In the shops I've been busy listing fall and holiday staples like sweaters and fancy dresses and home decor. These are starting to sell out already. I just added the Hogwarts crest shirts shown above to my Poshmark boutique. I'm proud to say that, while I'm still not meeting my ultimate financial hopes, I've almost quadrupled my income over the past year. I've been adding more streams of income as well as automating as many processes as possible. In that vein, I ordered my first thredUP bag today. I'm going to see how it works to have someone else photographing and listing a lot of my fashion pieces. ThredUP takes kids' clothes now, thank goodness, because I have about six full tubs of consignment kids' stuff to list and no time to do it. I am selling most of the kids' stuff I already have listed in economical by-the-pound lots. You can buy four or five pound boxes of kids' clothing for boys or girls, sorted by size so they're perfect for dressing your child or even to resell! I do not photograph every piece since I'm selling this way to save time, so you should not purchase these unless you're okay with buying "mystery" boxes. Most of my customers have been very pleased with their boxes so far. I only include pieces I would sell individually in my store: so only pieces in excellent to like new or even new  condition. You can find these lots in my Poshmark, eBay, Depop, and Mercari stores. On eBay save 15% off any purchase of $50 or more through November 25th. Link to all my shops from my website.

In doll news, I am having a lot of success selling dolls for customization or parts, mostly on Etsy. I clean up Barbies or similar dolls, ball-jointed if possible, and sell them nude for you to dress or repaint. I have a bunch listed and many more on the way to the shops, just in time for the holidays! I'm glad these "blank" dolls are popular because it saves me a ton of time. It's an easy way to create your own one of a kind art doll as a special gift. It's also popular to use the fashion doll bodies for Blythe doll heads as they are sturdier than the Blythe factory bodies and fit the more affordable Barbie clothes. Look for a doll customization tutorial coming soon to the blog. That's my big interest in dolls right now and I love to share!

If you follow my Instagram you know I've now lost more than 50 pounds with the help of Dr. Wade Baskin. I want to lose at least 30 more so I'm working on back to back 48 hour fasts again this week. I've had trouble with insomnia while fasting so Dr. Wade suggested I cut back to 48 hour fasts. Dr. Wade is a great person to follow for weight loss advice and I highly recommend his group. It does take me out of my comfort zone though. I am not a person who likes to post photos of myself, but Dr. Wade says since he is providing his service to us free of charge he expects group members to pay it forward by sharing our results and methods. Dr. Wade has seen huge improvements in his health and those of his patients and group members following the unconventional advice to fast and limit food to mostly meat when eating and he wants us to help as many people as possible achieve optimal health.

At this point, you're best off following my Instagram or Facebook pages to keep up with me since I'm so short of time for blog posting or newsletter writing. I appreciate all of you who are still hanging in there following me when I've been so absent. Yesterday at a party I was telling my friend I feel like I'm so overextended I'm not doing anything very well right now. I know firsthand how fast this phase of life will pass, however. Before I know it I won't have any kiddos at home, so I'm trying to savor it while it lasts.