Saturday, December 26, 2009

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Hope your Christmas was everything you wanted!!! 

Mine was very nice, however very strange.  This is the first Christmas without my father.  We spent extra effort to spend quality time with my mother.  It was fun, but yet something nagged us all... the empty chair my father left behind.  The weather was not helping us out.  The forecast said big snowstorm coming, my brother who lives 2 hours away made it impossible for him to stay.  Wednesday night it started sleeting.  So we woke up Christamas eve with ice.  My brother (his wife was working) came early and spent time with our mother.  While I readied the food and house for our celebration.  Well I thought when my brother dropped off mom and since he couldn't stay I would make him a plate of cookies and candy to take back with him.  My lovely 13 year old daughter helped with everything..  This year she made the caramels, her first attempt.  She did good.  Anyway my husband said put the caramels in the garage to get them cold, because they are easier to cut.  Which most of the time that is true, however this pan of caramels was very firm and didn't need it.  Which I found out.  After spending a few hours in the cold garage I tried cutting them for my take along plate for my brother.  So I had my daughter hold the pan while I cut.   Well the knife slipped and yes I cut my daughters finger.  It was a bad cut.  I knew it she knew it.  I'm not good with injuries when they first happen.  I'm not a person that should ever be the first at an accident scene.  I would end up being someone the EMT's would have to treat. LOL!!  I called my mom to have them come early and decide what to do.  It's Christmas Eve..  How to deal with it??  She needed stitches.  So I called our family clinic and yes it's early, they were still open.  But come now because they are closing soon.  So my brother drove my daughter and I to the clinic.  I thought this place is going to be packed because they will be closed for 4 days..  people are going to try to get all their medical needs done before the long weekend.   But we pulled up to the clinic and there was only 1 vehicle in the lot.  So that was good.  My daughter was in and out of there with her 4 stitches in an hour.  The clinic locked the doors behind us!!!!  Boy did I feel bad and very guilty.  My daughter could have asked for a car and got it on the spot.  But she was great.  No tears.  She wasn't freaked out at all.  I'm the one, shaking and near tears.  The horror and guilt...  Up until now neither of my kids ever had stitches or broken bones.  My son is 19.  I've always managed to keep them safe.  Anyway back home...  my brother stayed for a few minutes and left to go back home.  The weather was ok then.  No sleet or snow at that point, so he thought he better get going.  My daughter and son went shopping...  yes she just had 4 stitches and she went shopping.  In the afternoon we played domino's.  It was a wonderful night.  We had Tenderloin on the grill, it was great!!  My mom bought the kids a Wii, we hooked it up and played that the rest of the night.  Great time!!  When everyone left I tried to watch It's a Wonderful Life.  But couldn't finish it I was tired and needed to sleep.  Christmas Day we spent with my mom.  My husband made this plant holder for my dad's stone..

I put the flowers together.  So we took this out to the cemetery.   My dad would have loved this. Can you believe it rained all morning on Christmas Day.  It didn't start snowing until dark.  The forecast was so wrong.  But all worked out alright anyway.  After the cemetery we ate again!!! This time we had a very tender Pork Roast..  Then we played Wii again most of the afternoon.  By this time my mom was tired and wanted to go home for a nap.  So we took her home and then went to my husbands parents, who live next door to us.  We were there for a short time.  We celebrate the holiday with them earlier in the month.  So everyone drops by whenever on Christmas Day.  When the house starts to get full we leave.  My husbands family is huge (55 or so people) verses my side has 8 people!!!!  So then my husband and son went to clean out my mom's driveway of all the frozen sleet.  My daughter and I played Wii for a while until they came home and I went to bedroom to finish It's a Wonderful Life and guess what...  yup fell asleep!!  I'm now caught up on my sleep. 

Hope everyone had a safe and Merry Christmas!!


Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Huge Kelloggs Savings

Today was my shopping day.  Last week had a huge snow storm so I didn't get to Pick n Save for double coupon day (Wednesday only).  But I made it today!!!  Boy did I do well...  I saved $125 dollars!!!  I spent $28!!!!!!!  I got 20 boxes of Kelloggs cereal for $1 for all!!!  Thats not $1 each, thats $1 for all 20 boxes.  I had one $5 off 4 boxes, several $1/1 or $.75/1 and the rest were $1/2.  Pick n Save buy 8 boxes and get them $.99 each!!!  So I made a haul.  12 boxes of the cereal was donated.  There is no way my daughter or I can eat that much cereal before it expires.  Sadly we are the only 2 in the house that eats cereal...  Allso included in the Kelloggs deal were Keebler crackers or cookies.  I only had 2 $1/2 coupons for crackers.  So I only bought 4 boxes of crackers.  Which was ok because I have been stocking up on crackers and really couldn't use any more.  Cereal is a better item to donate then crackers.  This sale ends tomorrow.  Pick n Save has Maxwell House coffee on sale with in store coupons for $3.87 Limit 1 and milk for $1.49 Limit 2.  They have Phil. cream cheese for $.77 each and I had $1/3 coupons!!!  I bought 9 bricks.  I had to make 3 trips into the store for all these deals but it was well worth it. 

Another great day at Walgreens.  I saved  $46 dollars and spent $13 received $8 in Register Rewards for next time.  Plus I will get $5.99 in Olay Quench rebate back in the mail.  I used a The B1G1F was buy one Body Wash get the Lotion free, this coupon was in the Sunday inserts over Thanksgiving weekend. This hobby is so much fun.  I love saving money.  I also made a trip to Walmart and price matched some items from Festival Foods.  Didn't save as much there but I still got a few good deals there too!!! 

While I was checking out at PnS the woman behind me was watching and couldn't believe my 4 bags of groceries cost less then $6.  She was shocked and started asking me about how I did it.  She will be emailing for some of the printable grocery coupons links so she can get in on some of these deals too!!  It felt good to able to tell her about this hobby and help!! 

Monday, December 14, 2009

New Items Added to Different Things

I just added a bunch of new things are Different Things.  Some Wilton items, Starbucks travel mug,
American Girl Craft Kit and more...  Check it out!!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Ebay Buyers That Don't Pay

Some time ago Ebay changed their rules on sellers leaving feedback for buyers.  We as sellers can not leave a buyer a negative.  This is not a big deal until a seller gets a buyer that refuses to pay for their auction that they won.  To me this is a binding contract, no one made them bid and win an auction.  Buyers expect the seller to describe the items correctly, answer endless questions that are many times answered in the listing (if only they would read the entire thing), wait for payment with some unbelievable reasons why we should wait or ship even tho it's a holiday or Sunday.  And the biggest one have it to them in a speed of light.  The buyer can leave a negative and ding away your stars, for reasons that are not the fault of the seller.  Additionally the buyer never even contacts the seller for a solution to their problem.  However the seller can only leave a positive.  I have a buyer right now that has not paid even tho I've sent a invoice, a friendly reminder email asking for them to contact me when I should expect payment.  I'm a reasonable patient person, talk to me and I will work things out.  Well after 8 days of waiting and no reply to my requests for communication or payment.  I filed a non payment against the buyer.  This action will have ebay contact the buyer and ask them in the nicest way to pay.  The buyer still has not paid and no communication.  Now I can close the case and at least get my seller fees back.  However I do not get the listing fee or the time it sat on the shelf waiting for the buyer to pay.  And the biggest one I can't leave a negative for the buyer so others can see this person bids and win but doesn't pay.  So the buyer can move on with her 100% feedback as if this person is a valued buyer.  This is wrong.  Why didn't  this person contact me and ask me to cancel??  I would have.  Can't beat a dead horse.  Plus I would have been able to relist this item right away instead of waiting 2 weeks to move on....  I value my customers and work hard to get items out throughout the day.  Even when I have something going on in my family.  I take the time to ship the item asap.    Here is a wonderful email that was sent to me just yesterday...

Wow! Thank you for the quick service! After ~10 years of shopping on eBay, I've gradually slowed down because of the declining service and quality of the eBay experience. Boy, did you break the mold with your quick service. It warms my heart that you're from WI; I grew up in IA. There's something about the Midwest work ethic ... . :-)

It's one the nicest emails from a buyer that I have received.   Here are another..

Hi Toni
I have just received the pattern by this morning's post. It arived in good order and beautifully wrapped! Thankyou very much for all your effort, it would be lovely to deal with you again.
Must go now, can't wait to get cutting out!
All the best


Here's another memorable email...  great, friendly lady!!
Toni,

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I just got off the phone with you and as soon as I hung up I called my mother. She was SO EXCITED when I told her that you were going to scan the recipe for the brownies and send it via email in advance of getting the cookbook in the mail. Her first words were "We can make them for New Years! How exciting!" For just a moment I felt like I was a 9 year old little girl again talking to my mom.

It sounds utterly crazy I know, but that brownie recipe holds so many memories for my family. Whenever we had a family "celebration" be it a school achievement, any kind of "award", the first day of summer vacation, the first day of school and even my parents wedding anniversary, those brownies where made. 

I can't wait to get the cookbook!  Have a very Happy New Year! 
And another

Toni, Thanks alot for the quick ship on the MOPAR can/cloth. I have listed you as a favorite for future use. Keep me in mind if you get any more MOPAR or PLYMOUTH items. I am going to use the can as a prop with my MOPAR cars at carshows. I see your email has mustang in it. I also have a classic '70 Stang. Thought you might enjoy a couple of pics. Take care.

This above buyer actually sent me pictures of his car.  I loved it.  Over all most buyers are wonderful people and solidify the reason I sell online. However today I'm more disappointed in ebay then the buyer, all I wanted was to tell others this buyer doesn't pay for items they won.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Received My HP Wireless Printer

I received my printer.  I love it!!  It has a touch screen!!  I had some trouble with the software.  On the main desk top (which is mine) I had to download the software twice before it worked.  Then I worked with the laptop.  Man, it didn't go well at all.  It was a challenge and it took a good part of the day.  The laptop should have been the easiest because it has built in WiFi, but nope.  I had to hook up the printer to the laptop before it would pick up the printer.  The software had to be loaded several times before it loaded properly.   I was a very happy person when it printed the first job!!!  My daughter thought I was crazy!!  Then I tried it on my daughters desk top.  I had to load the software twice on there too before it worked.  But when it worked, it did everything by itself.  It picked up the router/printer signal so fast.  You should have seen the computer screen... boxes and pops flying around so fast.   I thought oh no what just happened here.  Then it settled down and the page said ready to print!!  Oh my, it's done already.  Very cool.  I was home alone and no one to celebrate with!!   My daughter has a wireless adapter on her computer and it picked everything up all on it's own.  Nice!!  The printer works great, now on all the computers.  I have the old printer on Craigslist for sale, but no one is interested so far.  It's a great printer, nothing wrong with it.  I just wanted wireless, so when the other computers have something to printer they didn't have to put the jobs on a jump drive and move over to my computer where the printer was.  With the old printer I couldn't get it to work on my network because my computer is an XP and the others are Vista.  The printer software was for XP.  I tried to download the updated Vista software from Canon and it wouldn't failed every time.  So to have a printer on the my network I had to buy a different printer or different computer.   We'll see if the old printer sells.  If no one is interested I will sell in next summer at the Rummage Sale.

Merry Christmas


This our Christmas Card for this year!!
I got 50 free photo cards from SeeHere.  It was only charged for shipping, which was $3.20!!  They are nice, came quickly and w/evelopes.  However their website is NOT user friendly.  It took a few hours to create.  I wasn't to fussy on what I chose, so it wasn't me that took that long.  It was the site, hard to figure out and a bit of a guessing game if it would come out right. 

That's Henry.  He is such a ham!!  He didn't like it that I had the xmas balls and lights sitting around him.  He knows he's not suppose to touch them.  So he got lots of treats to put up with the props.  He poses great tho.  Just about every photo I took is the same pose...  like here...

 
and here...

 
These are all different photos..  I had to switch from color to sepia to black and white and he didn't move and and it's the exact same facial expression!!
I swear he was a model before he came to live with us!!

If you are looking for a small dog... look for a Havanese...  they are great dogs!!

SwagBucks

SwagBucks is really easy!!  So far I have earned 2  $5 gift cards for Amazon.  That's not bad considering I haven't been doing it for very long.  Maybe a month if that.  My daughter is also doing it.  She hasn't earned anything yet.  She isn't online very much because of being in school.  But she is more then half way to her first gift card.  On Fridays there is a chance for bigger buck values....  Anything from 3 to 100 bucks.  So every Friday until the first of year remember to do a few searches!!

Buying Christmas Gifts Online

It's very interesting when I think about it.  I sell so many things online, however I rarely ever buy anything online.  However this year for Christmas I have changed my thinking.  I bought 90% of my gifts online.  I have a Best Buy Credit which doubles as My Rewards Card.  So I get points with every purchase and double the points when buying from Best Buy.  Plus I'm a Premier Silver Card holder because I purchase more then $2,500 every 2 years from Best Buy.  So then I get free shipping on all online purchases from Best Buy.  (there are some other Best Buy benefits too) AND if I go through Mypoints I get 4 points per dollar.  So I have been racking up points at Mypoints and Best Buy.  I went through Mypoints to buy an Entertainment book, got free shipping, a discount and points.  Mypoints give points for Ebay purchases too.  So I have bought what I could off of Ebay.  If your interested in joining Mypoints I can send you a invitation.  I need your first last and email address.  I get rewards if you sign up from me.  Mypoints is really easy.  And they are associated with many online companies.  You can earn points by click on links through emails, purchases and other ways.  The rewards are in a form of Gift Cards.  They mail them quickly.  I usually get Gift Cards for Walmart or Target.

Open by Andre Agassi

I'm reading Open by Andre Agassi.  It's not as interesting as I had hoped.  I'm not quite half way so there is still a chance it will get more interesting.  Have you read it??  What are your thoughts?

Help Animal Rescues With Just a Couple Clicks


This is pretty  simple...

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting  enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of  getting FREE FOOD donated every day to abused and neglected animals.  It takes less than a minute (about 15 seconds) to go to their site  and click on the purple box 'fund food for animals for free'. This  doesn't cost you a thing. 

The Animal Rescue Site 

Olay Quench Body Lotion Free After Rebate

Here is the link to print Olay Quench Body Lotion Rebate Form it will be free after rebate Olay Quench Form   You can make a profit if you purchase the item with a coupon.  Circle the before coupon price on the cash register receipt.  There are usually at least a $1 off coupons all the time in the Sunday inserts.