Etsy Packaging

One of my favorite parts about selling on Etsy is getting to wrap each of my sold items with care and making it look beautiful for my customers. I also made a quick video on my process, you can watch it here; since i have a full time job in the day, I work on my Etsy shop at night.

Card: Target
Ribbon: Paper Source
Stamp: FORYOO
String: Oh Hello Friend
Washi Tape: Oh Hello Friend
Tissue Paper: Anthropologie
Vintage Game Cards: The International Printers Museum

What's in my Bag

 I haven't posted a "What's in my bag" photo or blog post in a really long time. Clockwise:
Black Leather Bag with gold hardware from TJ Maxx, this was the last bag of this style, there was no tag attached, and no designer/maker label anywhere in the bag. So I paid what the management at this  particular store wanted me to pay, so I paid about $40.00 for this ""mystery bag". It was the only bag I liked that fulfilled all my bag requirements. Dark Tortoise Alba Sunglasses case (they also come in black) from Banana Republic, to purchase, you can buy them here. Guess Black Rim Glasses case which you can find here. Pink make-up bag from TJ Maxx (it came in a set with a larger metallic navy blue make-up bag) for about $20.00. The Chevron phone case and Chevron iPhone Charger are also from TJ Maxx, each was $10.00. The white and teal Contact Case is from Target. 

My work ID, I bought Wild, by Cheryl Strayed from Target. I'm very excited to read this book I've only read the first chapter so far. The light cream colored Wallet by Ralph Lauren, I paid $75.00 at TJ Maxx. I tried to look on Ebay for this (I saw it there before) but it looks to be sold out. I love this wallet so much! Lastly, my favorite Key tag key-chain that I have ever owned that reads, "Beekeeper's Club President" is from Three Potato Four. Just an FYI, I used to be a beekeeper. I'll post a 'What's in my make-up bag" soon.

No Shopping Challenge : How did I do?

As you may have read in a previous blog post here I was working on myself and some challenges that I was doing. Paige from Little Nostalgia posted her experience with the No shopping challenge. I will say that I did shop twice. I bought an outfit for a holiday work event and then another for a vacation in the snow and I live in Southern California, thus I own no sweaters. Because I went shopping, I decided to extend the challenge two extra days, so it ended on January 3rd instead.

I did pretty well, however I did do A LOT of online window shopping! I emailed myself links of things I'd like, I used Pinterest a lot too. So what have I purchased so far? A sweater on clearance at Target for $7.00 and the most amazing boots! As you can see below, they are adorable and match my purse quite well. I've been looking for black leather boots for work and I finally found some that weren't too expensive at Macy's. I was willing to spend between $80 - $100 on some if I really liked them, and boy was I surprised when he cashier told me they were half off!!! Seriously, I got some boots for $45.00 total. I feel pretty good about waiting until after Christmas to do some of my shopping. It all seemed to work out and I'm pretty thrilled about it.

A lazy person's guide to Halloween Decorating!

And by lazy, I mean a busy person's guide, because I am a very busy person. First, I got these Fall Paper Fan decorations from Target's Oh Joy Fall Collection. I love her blog and her products. I hung them at my front window.

Next, I bought some small pumpkins, because I was too lazy to carry heavy pumpkins into my apartment, design, carve and or paint them. So I got three small pumpkins and I had some gold paint. So I painted the stems. I saw on Pinterest and Instagram that people with free time have painted their stems and added glitter also. Who has the time? I wish I did.

 

Once completed, they looked like this:

 

I placed the the third pumpkin on a bowl and placed it on my dinning room table.

 

Lastly, I make Reese's Peanut Butter Cup stuffed in Chocolate Chip Cookies, in a muffin cup tin. But, unlike most years, I didn't have time to make it from scratch, like I did in this previous blog post.
Instead, I used these products, which saved me 2 hours!

I just use a piece of the Chocolate Chip dough, place on the bottom, add a peanut butter cup, then add more Cookie dough as needed. See each step here:

After about 15 minutes in an oven that is set at 350 degrees, they should be done and should look like this:

Once cooled, I removed each with a knife. They should come out easily (if you use PAM or a similar product) and then place them in individual paper cups. I don't heat them with the paper cup because, I hate eating a cupcake and some of it is still on the paper... what a waste!

The finished product! I cut a piece off to show you all what it looks like. I hope you'll enjoy making some for yourself for Halloween or Christmas, or any day really. I've also enjoyed this great song (click here, to listen on YouTube), so I had to share it before the month is out, I hope you all had a great October!

Retro Dinner Dinning Room

Here's a photo of my (almost completed) dinning room. I still need to build the other two chairs and purchase some ceramics for the center pieces that I commissioned from an artist friend of mine. Other than that, my apartment shopping is done! It only took me six months. The retro table and rug are  from an antique store in San Juan Capistrano, the chairs are from Target, the basket is from target, the sugar container is from Germany and the butter tray is from an antique store from Orange County.