Onesies, 10 Years & My Birthday

Hi, how's it going? Can I please just take a moment to point you to Jen's blog... She has a beautiful photo of her Son, William, wearing his oh-so-cute onesie I designed! Here he is! Isn't he adorable??? I thought he was a cutie in the first photo but the second - wow!

Now you may have noticed my absence recently. Life's been crazy here ~ trying to juggle work, the gym, Avon, babygrows... But it's been totally worth it 'cos my chart is up again! I'm almost 1/3 of the way there! I added my Avon commission from my first order. And I started my next round last night so hopefully that'll be successful as well. :o) Mum and Dad are away on holiday today so I'm taking this week off work to chill. I'm going through to cat-sit Socks and Mittens and take the opportunity to start eBaying again! So much to sell that didn't sell at the bootsale last weekend. And I must admit, I'm really starting to get withdrawal symptoms lol.

One other piece of news this week... Alison and I have been grat friends now for 10 years!! We went out to dinner on Wenesday night to celebrate a Decade of Friendship. :o) After a Starbucks, we headed to Le Monde in Edinburgh's George Street (super fancy!) where we had thee nicest 3-course meal! I had assorted warm breads with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to start, followed by lobster cannelloni. Alison had pitta bread with humous and chicken tossed in pasta. Then in true girlie fashion we finished it off with a milk and white chocolate fondue with fresh fruit and marshmallows. :o) Delicious! I took some photos but it was quite dark and I didn't have my good camera, so they didn't really come out. Great pictures on their website though. :o)

OMG I can't believe I haven't blogged about my birthday! Well I turned 27 last Saturday so I'm really starting to feel old now. :o( Mind you, I'll never be quite as old as Derek! Lol. On the Friday night Derek met me after work and we went for a tapas dinner at La Tasca in Glasgow's Renfield Street, which was delicious. I'd been there a couple of times for lunch with people from work but this was Derek's first trip and he loved it! Then on Saturday after the bootsale, Alison and Jason came through (Alison being my sister and Jason being her boyfriend) and we all went for dinner at China Buffet King at XScape. It's an amazing place! A real ski-slope, adventure golf, sky-high assault course, wall-climb etc, and loads of bars and restaurants. We could see the ski-slope from where we were dining which was pretty cool. I have some photos to post so I'll get them on here soon. I got loads of nice presents. Derek and I had decided not to do gifts this year but when I got back in the car after La Tasca he presented me with a beautiful orchid and a carton of smoothie. Most girls like flowers and chocolates but he knows me better than anyone lol. Amongst other things, I got money (which is always good), two bags, a lovely pen set, jewellery, gift vouchers and a Tatty Teddy top.

Ok I think this is long enough. I'm gonna go help Derek tidy up and then attempt to sift my way through the bootsale remnants lol. Hmmm easier said than done lol.

Oh one last thing ~ I've decided I'm going to keep the photo blog but only post occassionally. If I get a chance this week I'll start on revamping that.

Have a great weekend!

An Unplanned Break & I'm Back! :o)

Hi Everyone!!

I'm back blogging again after a totally random and very much unplanned break. Since my last post, I suddenly got busy with work, home, crafting and everything else... Every day that went by I kept meaning to update and let you all know what was happening. But instead I let 4 weeks disappear! Now I could make this update HUGE ~ but to save your sanity I won't ~ well, I'll try not to anyway. *Lol*

Baby Business

This "business venture" seems to be growing faster than a baby! After I sold one personalised vest on eBay, the recipient loved it so much she ordered some for her friends! Well, I posted out 8 garments to her a couple of weeks ago and then she ordered another 4 t-shirts for her boys and just yesterday she told me she had another baby to buy for who I believe has 2 older sisters! On top of that I've sold one to Derek's Mum and one to my sister. :D And my friend Michelle (who got "the very first one") would like another couple for friends too! Oh, and Sarah I'll get yours posted asap! I've lost count!! :oD

eBay Business

Very quick update ~ nothing's happening lol. I've been busy with my crafting... see below...

Crafting

I've been kept ever so busy with craft projects recently. Since I got it into my head I wanted to open an eBay shop, I started buying in bulk for such eventualities. Poor Derek and Jazz are tearing their hair (and fur) out! There's boxes of paper and card everywhere ~ all different colours and textures lol. And cellophane bags all over our dining room table! Everywhere you look there are wee packets of fabric teddy bears, metallic stars, paper flowers...
But there's a reason for all this! :o) Mum and I are going to a craft fair on April 28th!! We've been making cards like crazy and plan on selling them along with my baby vests, kids t-shirts, maybe adult t-shirts for wedding parties and hen nights etc... personalised children's pillow cases, and our *NEW* lines ~ framed greetings cards and wrapping paper! Once we get enough stock together I'll post a pic for y'all! Seeing as it's being held at a nursery in Edinburgh I'm hoping the baby-themed items sell well. :o)

Toronto 2007

Plans are coming together! :o) I've got holidays off work confirmed for September and I think we've found the perfect flight and hotel. I won't say too much just yet 'cos I don't wanna jinx it lol. But my estimated fund is proving too low. So I must raise it and start selling on eBay faster! Which is just as well 'cos they have a 10p listing day coming up this Thursday. Not too sure how much I'll manage to list, what with the craft fair and all... but I'll definitely keep you posted!

The Gym

I'm still going but not really putting as much effort in as I should be! So last Thursday I suddenly decided to pull my finger out and start a serious fitness and diet regime. So I'm going to the gym 3 times a week for 30-45 minutes a time, and doing Pilates 2 times a week for like 20 minutes at home. Hopefully I'll build that up to 1 hour sessions at the gym and 40 minutes Pilates but baby steps to start with lol. Needless to say the weight's crept back up so I'll scrap my graph and start over. Watch this space... (well the column to the right anyway...)

Thanks for reading guys. I'll definatly keep this updated from now on in. I really want to try and get into the daily photo again too. I'd like to backdate it too but I don't know if anyone will look... But I'll start the photos again this weekend.

Bye for now!!! :oD
~* Caz *~

eBay Shop ~ Phase 1

PHASE ONE

~ A Name ~

Please, please, please help me!

Suggestions encouraged *lol*.

Derek's suggested

"Jazz it Up"

More Sales & My First Store!

I can't believe how well the babygrows and t-shirts are selling! After I made my first 6, I e-mailed my client to let her know. Well, she now has another 2 newborns I've to dress and on top of the other 7 I knew about she's added another 3! A popular line at the moment seems to be t-shirts for older siblings... Like big brother, little brother and baby brother in a vest. :o) So chuffed! I have some new design ideas which I'm working on photographing. When I get all my designs online I'll post the link here.

While I'm blogging... I was through at Mum and Dad's at the weekend and while Dad and Derek were talking football, plasma TV's and multimedia centres *yawn*, Mum and I were looking into opening up an eBay shop! To cut a long story short (and by long I mean at least 2 hours of conversation lol plus an hour with Derek in the car) we're doing just that. It's going to stock a mixture of craft supplies, personalised baby clothing, other baby clothing, skincare products, handcrafted stationery and cards etc. etc. I might even consider giving Derek a couple of shelves for IT bits and pieces. :o)

We need a name for the shop... but I'll post that in a new post...

Advertising Well-Dressed Babies

Just to let you all know that I received a cheque this weekend for the first 6 babygrows of the batch I mentioned at the start of the week. So I updated my Toronto fund! :o) In provisional babygrow sales alone, my total will be nearing 30%! I put ads on some other sites this weekend... AdTrader and Families Online so here's hoping I have an update for you again soon.

Ok you know what ~ it's late and I need some sleep! Night night..... Zzzzzz.....

Paypal Sucks Big Time!

I bet almost everyone reading this uses Paypal. When you buy & sell on eBay it's an essential part of the trading process! Up until now I've been happy, happy, happy with their performance but this week I've lost all faith in them altogether. :(

Basically, I'd sold an item on eBay. The sale was a complete success. It was purchased, paid for through Paypal, posted and recieved - no problems, glowing feedback and not a bad word to be said. 2 or 3 weeks later I was shocked to see that the payment to me has been held by Paypal while they address a "dispute". The annoying thing is that there was no dispute code - to this day they can't give me one! After requesting a huge amount of information, Paypal's investigation began. What a bloody joke! Within 5 days they concluded that the buyer was rightfully due the refund!! A refund that neither the buyer of I had instigated. When I try to contact Paypal, well I can't. I have rightfully sold my item and now the buyer has their original payment as well! Both my pockets are empty! I'm so annoyed with Paypal! Considering the mammoth fees they take and slow service they provide, the least they could do it treat you with a bit of courtesy!

I filed a complaint with Watchdog yesterday so we'll see what (if anything) comes of it...
Here's a link to the BBC's Watchdog Website.

*Huge* Catch-Up!

Sorry again for the delay in posting. I always run through things in my head to say but never get around to typing them. :oP So I'm making up for it here! Grab a coffee, sit back, put your feet up and enjoy...

Healthy Living

Unfortunately I've not been noticing much change in my weight loss, but that's probably because I took a week off from the gym when I had my cold. But I feel a lot better now so I plan on going 4 times this week to make up for it. So far I've been twice lol and it's Sunday night so time's up lol. I've also re-started my healthy eating plan (after munching through what's left of the Christmas chocolates... and going to Starbucks 3 times in the past 10 days lol) so it's back to the herbal tea and fruit for me! I got some sorrel and ginger tea in Barbados which I'm liking, and green tea with peppermint... and I bought green tea with pear and apple but it's a bit bland. Oh, and I bought Danone Activia yoghurts on special offer so eating one or two every day will improve my digestion and make me feel great too. Or so the tub says..... And fruit ~ I can't get enough apples and grapes at the moment!
So it's all good! Hopefully I should have a positive update on the graph soon! At least I've not put on any weight on!

eBay

I'm taking a break! I had a great wee run and managed to make enough money to finance over 20% of my Toronto trip! Derek did not bad either ~ he made around 11% ~ plus I made Mum and Dad loads of cash too. Speaking of which, I better write them a cheque... *Hmmm*.
And guess what else I did? I set myself up as a trading assistant on eBay so if anyone's interested in selling but can't be bothered or doesn't know how, I'll do it for them for 20% of their item's sale price. So minus all the fees I should still make a wee profit for my troubles. No calls yet... :( I'm thinking of making up flyers and posting them through every house in my street. Start nice and local. :) Then maybe branch out to local shops and stuff. Lol I'm never happy unless I'm working on something lol.
In any case, I'm going to wait until another free/cheap listing day and get some more auctions running.

Dentist

Remember how I told you I had the dentist last week? Well I have to get root canal done next month! :'o(

Business Venture

I mentioned a few days ago about starting a new project. Well, I can now officially unveil it!

*Drum-roll*..........
*Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*

Personalised baby clothing!! :oD Baby vests and t-shirts for older siblings. :) It all started when I made one for my friend Michelle's baby daughter, Beth, and her older daughter, Amy. Since then I've made another 2 for friends, 1 sold on eBay, and generated from that sale I've just recieved an order for another 15!!!!! So chuffed!!! Once I've fulfilled that order I plan on advertising locally. Pretty soon, every new baby will be sporting a Carol Reid designer baby-grow! :D

Here's one of my baby vests being modelled by a super cute wee man in Ontario! Thanks for doing that Jen! :)

Toronto Fund Update

eBay sales have broken... no... shattered the £100 barrier so I'm now over 15% of my way to Toronto!! I'm expecting a load of auctions to end this weekend so hopefully I'll have an update for you again on Sunday. :o)

*Charts*

I added a couple of charts to the sidebar of my blog last night. They're not at all fancy or interactive but... they help me (and you guys) follow my progress towards affording to go to Canada and losing weight! Lol, this blog is just getting cheesier by the day! :oP

Btw I had a request in for my photo blog ~ 7 days showing my favourite 7 things about my street. So I'll go out at the weekend and get those photos. I'll have to give it some thought... But thanks for that idea! :)

Catch-Up

My posts have been a bit thin on the ground the past week and so I apologise for that. I'm back-dating a pile of photos (to the start of February!) so plenty of viewing over in my 2007 Photo Blog!

But ok, a few wee updates for ya...

As you've read, my friend (and quite possibly my most loyal reader) Jen had a baby boy on Thursday! :oD So congratulations to Adam and Jen!! And welcome to the world little William. I have no idea how long mail takes to reach Canada from Scotland but expect a package in the next week or so. :o)

Work's been keeping me busy! I spent 2 days last week doing a course on system development training. Pretty intense technical stuff like learning the scripting for our case management system so I can build a new HR records database (which is both interactive and useable!), setting up data extract reports and other such stuff. I also helped with interviews for our new Admin. Assistant which was pretty cool. Very enlightening - I'm not used to being on the other side of the table lol.

The gym's going ok. I'm still a member lol. Been twice so far but I'm aiming for 3 sessions this week. And I've lost another lb since my Special K diet! Slow and steady..... 11 lbs to go 'til I reach my target!!

Apart from that, what have I been doing? Em, eBay stuff. Been working on that quite a bit actually. I had around 90 listings up and I'm down to 71, so things are selling. I figured that I can make enough with this batch of stuff to raise between 15 and 20% of my total Toronto fund. Which isn't too bad considering that leaves me with another 6 months to get the rest lol. I also have a new business venture idea but I gotta keep it under wraps for now. ;o) All will be revealed in due course... *Mysterious Look*.

What else?? I've been playing The Sims 2 quite a lot. I'm not sure if anyone else (apart from Az) actually plays it, but I'm getting pretty addicted! Please, please, please let me know if you're at all into sim-type games... I think I'm boring Alison with updates ~ it's about time I shared with someone else lol.

Remember, requests are welcome for photos. Charms, I'll get the curtains posted for ya soon!!

Toronto Fund Update

Well it's been a good week for eBay sales. Nothing enormous but I'm up to £51.69 which I'm pretty chuffed about. :oD And on top of that I've made Mum and Dad over £30 as well! Now I see that eBay are having a half-price listing day on Tuesday so I'm gonna stop typing now and start designing more ads! It's kinda sad in a way but it's good fun! :o)

*Cha-Ching, Cha-Ching*

Picture coins falling into a bucket, or a bank, or really any container-type object suitable for holding money. Anyway, that's what I mean by cha-ching! :o)
eBay's going well. I listed a total of 122 items at the weekend ~ mostly CD's ~ but also craft stuff *I cleared out*, clothes, DVD's and Vichy products. Already 11 CD's have sold: 7 of mine, and 4 of Dad's. I've not made my million quite yet but that's at £14.50 towards my Toronto trip. It'll be a bit more 'cos I should make a weensie wee bit from the P&P costs. So not much but it's a start! And you need to have a start in order to have a finish, so meh! *Sticking tongue out.* Technically I'm 2% of the way there already!

Getting Fit & Making Money

Since I did so well with my Special K Diet resolution, I decided to try out another! Another New Year's resolution that it, not another diet. :o) I went to the gym on Tuesday night for a show-around ~ I'm going to go back Monday and join. I was SO impressed!!! Let me tell you, there are 4 levels of fitness, so I'll have no excuse! Check it out! There are two pretty intense weights rooms in the basement, a resistance room on the ground floor with ultra-modern pneumatic resistance machines, a boxing training room with Pilates area on the first floor, and finally a massive cardio room on the top floor ~ which is probably where I'll be living. So I'm excited about it! Hopefully I'll start to see the lbs fall off. I'll update this often so keep checking back!

The other resolution was to save money and make money. Well that's going ok... It's not going great but it's going ok. I devised a spreadsheet (I have one for like everything!!) and it details ALL my expenditure separated into categories and sorted by date. Then I have a summary page so I can see at a glance what's what. Incredibly organised, eh?? And as for making money, I've been working on a load of eBay listings so the next cheap listing day they have I can upload them all. However, last night when I was online, I noticed that eBay are doing a special CD and DVD weekend so it'll only cost 5p to list an item instead of 20p which is fab! But I only had like 5 CD's to sell. So I decided to be ruthless and completely slaughter my CD collection 'cos I never listen to CD's now ~ it's all MP3 to me! :o) So I ripped almost my entire CD collection onto the laptop and now I'm selling the originals. I have of course kept a few for sentimental purposes lol. Besides, no guarantee they'll all sell. But it does clear a massive section of my bookcase lol.