Stopped complaining and I am doing

I've been complaining about not having a space to work on my making buttons, painting, sewing, or do any crafts at all in this house since I built the house in 2003. I also complain that I have some cool vintage things to sell, but I can't find them.

It's a cute little house that was built on a low budget. It has the things that are important in Florida. Concrete block walls, metal roof, and even metal studs instead of wood. What I didn't have built was a garage. And since it is a Florida house it has no basement or any real attic space. I have the basic rooms: a small living room, a galley kitchen, and just a space by a window where the table is. It's a wonderful space for dining in front double windows.

I love my little house. It is not a model home that I chose.  I designed it myself with paper and pencil. What fun! I always enjoyed sketching pictures of houses, especially quaint ones with porches.

But, oh dear me, what was I thinking? I am a collector of so many things, and as a homeschool mother, we also collected books and a million other educational items, globes, blackboards, maps, math games, etc. Not to mention the normal extra things that do not go inside a house: bikes, tents, camping gear, skimboards, hula hoops, skates, scooters, soccer balls and on and on.

I bought a shed, and then another shed, and now we have sheds that are stuffed with "stuff." I still have no place to work.  I have been complaining about this for years.  I was always brainstorming how to solve the problem.

I thought about buying a shipping container for storage so the shed by the house could be my studio. But they cost $1600. Not too bad, but I would also need to bring in a few dump loads of fill or gravel and they said I need railroad ties to set it up off the ground some.

I thought about getting another shed. Went to Home Depot and they had one the right size for $3,850. It had 2 windows, but it was chemical treated pressboard walls. Not to mention, I don't have over $3,000 to buy one.

I'll need electric and insulation in a shed to make it an actual workshop or art studio. That's even more money.

I have tried many times to empty my shed and remove enough things to make at least some space to work out there, but the little space leftover always gets filled again. I showed the shed to my friend April who recently moved back here from another state and had not ever seen this shed before. She said, "Judy this is a case of that TV Show, Hoarders where they make people get rid of things. You're a pack rat."

Yesterday my friend came over and bit by bit, we picked our way through it. Not all the way through it. But my pickup truck is loaded high with items going to be donated this morning.

In 20 minutes someone is arriving to take 2 cafeteria tables I freecycled last night. As soon as they leave, I am driving my truck to CARE (Center for Abuse and Rape Emergencies). They have a shop where they sell things. And do I ever have things for them to sell!!

That will be the first load.

My goal is to save nothing unless it is in use. If I am not using it, but plan to use it someday, it is going.

I am going to work with the existing shed, and instead of buying another shed, the one I have will be insulated and have electricity. I will be able to move my workshop out of my small bedroom. I am so excited about this, but may suffer anxiety as I unload things I have been moving around with me for many years.

My kids have things they want to keep and that is understandable. We are going to cut an attic entrance in the ceiling in my daughter's room and cut plywood for across the trusses to make a storage space. My two daughters can put things they want to keep in the attic crawl space over their bedrooms.

My daughter is going to start thinning out her books by selling them on Amazon. A nice job for her.

The many small things I have accumulated over the years because of operating an antique store up north and just because I love old things, will be in tubs in the newly found workshop where I will be able to list them for sale on Zibbet at my Wild Goose Chase shop.

Besides small antique and vintage items I will most likely be selling the many supplies I have also pack ratted over the years because I was going to make something out of them "someday."

I won a $50 Shopping Spree on Zibbet

WOW! I am so excited. I entered a contest on Zibbet to win a $50 shopping spree. To enter all you had to do was advertise that Zibbet had just 295 Premium shops left at the low price of $7 month.

You could enter as many times as you wanted as long as each place you advertised was a different audience. I posted 48 ads. There were 118 entries.

I advertised on Twitter, Facebook, various Yahoo Groups I belong to, different Flickr Groups I belong to, Demand Studios, Blip.fm radio, My Yahoo Profile, My Space, Blogs, Craigslist, Amazon, Etsy, Paperback Swap, CD Swap, DVD Swap, Oodle, Shutterfly, classifieds.com, You Tube and Google.

My advertising brought in 277 Click-throughs which means if any of those 277 people decide to open a Zibbet shop, they will be referrals. I signed up 4 new sellers on Zibbet and one of them opened a Premium shop which reduces my monthly cost down from $7 to $6 month.

I'm going to keep doing that every week until I have 7 referrals and my shop will be FREE Forever.

Check out all the neat stuff I got with my $50 shopping spree. Well, I did go a little over and added the balance, but it was so difficult to decide because there are so many wonderful handcrafted items on Zibbet I would love to have.

First, this sheep made by an 86-year old grandmother was on my wish list for a while. Both my daughters agreed, we must have one of those sheep from Ignis Fatuus.

George of the What Knot Shop makes bracelets that we love. This guy is just one of the nicest folks I have "met." At Christmastime I had contacted him on Etsy and asked if he would consider trading a particular bracelet I had picked out for my daughter for buttons that I make. I told him I was shopping on a budget of nothing after Etsy closed my shop down just as the holiday shopping had started. He was horrified as most folks have been, and instead of a trade, he just asked for my address so he could mail it to her. What a guy! When I gave it to her Christmas morning I told her it wasn't from me, but from George. My daughter lives in the it, she wears it as an anklet and loves it so much.

He has a lot of good karma coming his way. He is easy to talk to and can make anything your heart desires in any size.

Then George opened a Zibbet Shop. I am extremely happy to be purchasing this awesome bracelet from him now.

Handcrafted ribbon? I have never before seen ribbon made by a crafter. This fabric, hand dyed and hand stamped ribbon and can be used and reused. In our home we use fabric everything: fabric gift bags, fabric tablecloths, fabric napkins at every meal. There are no paper napkins or paper towels in our house. We use fabric coffee filters also. So this French ribbon, made by RU Piper Designs was calling our names. One daughter picked Marie Antoinette in Blue, and my other daughter picked Alice in Wonderland in Yellow. My choice was the Eiffel Tower in Green, but my funds were running out. The shop also has some very unusual pillows and bags.  Must see! 

The last thing we ordered with our winning shopping spree was unbleached muslin bags from Spider Daisy who sells party and craft supplies. I'll be using the bags for the mirrors I make.

Now I can't wait to go to the post office and find all these treasures coming from Utah, California, Minnesota, and The Netherlands.

Don't Miss Out! Zibbet's $7 month shops are almost gone

There's Only 295 Premium Accounts left on Zibbet at the discounted rate of $7/month. More information here: http://bit.ly/bf3NR5


I can not even begin to tell you all the awesome features Zibbet has.


You must check it out.

http://bit.ly/bf3NR5

Yum Yum from Poocheze

I made the coolest trade on Zibbet. Zibbet is the best place on line to shop for Art and Crafts. It's just like a craft show. You meet nice folks, buy cool stuff, trade with fellow crafters.

I made buttons for Poocheze with her business logo. Poocheze baked these yummy treats for my dogs. She also made this hot cloth bag for the dog treats. We use cloth napkins, cloth sandwich bags, cloth tablecloths, cloth everything. So we were thrilled to find a fabric reusable bag for dog treats.

Alpie was found on Zibbet

Zibbet has the coolest handmade items. I found Alpie the cat made from a recycled wool Alpine Sweater on Zibbet.

Look really close and you will see him resting by my pillows on my bed. (Photo taken via Photo Booth on my Mac.)

Want you own Alpie?  You can get one at Cat Fluff.

How to Get 7 Referrals QUICKLY & Get a FREE Premium Zibbet Shop FOR LIFE!

Want a FREE awesome web site to sell your Art, Crafts, Vintage and Supplies?

You can get one! Find out HERE how I got mine free forever.

Zibbet published an article written by me. Read it and get your Free Zibbet Shop FAST!

http://www.zibbet.com/blog/2010.02.22/referrals

Have you visited TryHandmade.com ???

If you haven't, now is a great time to do so. Erika Jurney, founder of Try Handmade is running a contest to win a FREE Lifetime Premium Shop on Zibbet.

She has an awesome web site.

Here's the link to enter the contest.

http://tryhandmade.com/zibbet/