All Business Monday--Half.com

I'm sure that most of you are familiar with half.com.  It's an ebay company and a website where you can sell books,textbooks,movies, music, and games. 

I currently have 88 books in my half.com store.

I enjoy half.com.  It's easy to list there.  You simply put in the ISBN or UPC number and it will take you to the item.  You choose the condition, make some comments about it and add a short description.  They even give you a suggested selling price (which I always go under).

Not all books and such are on the website though.  If something you want to list isn't on the site, you can fill out a form asking them to add it.  I've actually done that several times but haven't gone back to check it if was added or not.

The one thing that I don't like about half.com is that when you sell a book, you have to print your shipping right away from paypal.  That part would be fine with me, except they don't pay you with paypal.  They pay you through your checking account and they pay out on the 1st and the 15th of the month.  If I don't have enough in my paypal when an order comes in, this puts me into a little bind.

I used to list at least one new book each week, and I also always sold at least 2 books a month.  I've not been listing lately because....well....I've not been reading like I should!  I also haven't hit any garage sales this past season either.   I plan to work on this in 2015!

Here are just a few of the 88 books you will find in my shop:

Each of those will open a new window to my half.com shop, but you will also find it HERE.

An InLinkz Link-up

Super Sunday Reviews--Let's Create with Play-Doh

What child does not love Play-Doh? I know that all of my children have loved it as well as all of my grandchildren!
The Play-Doh Let’s Create series is geared towards pre-schoolers for imaginative and creative learning!

I couldn’t wait to show the books to my 2 year old granddaughter, Zelda. Daddy had given her a Play-Doh set for her 2nd birthday and she was excited.
She wanted to get her “doh-doh” out every morning and play with it all day long! Mommy had a hard time getting her to do anything else.

They came to visit us for the day and I couldn’t wait to see Zelda’s reaction to the Play-Doh Let’s Create Books. I chose to have her do the Shapes one pictured here. I also let her take it home with her.

Each book includes an 11 page board book story inside. It also contains 4-1 oz. cans of Play-Doh, shape cutters, a plastic 2-sided play mat, a plastic knife and a roller.

The play mat does have 2 printed sides. One is a story type print, including the shapes. The other side is all about the shapes, and items that are of each shape.

You will see from my video below that this was really a hit! Mommy said she played and played with it at home……that is until she got all of the colors mixed up and they eventually dried.

Never fear little miss Zelda…..Grandma Marsha is buying you tubs of Play-Doh as part of your Christmas. I can’t wait to see her face light up all over again.



Below is a picture of both books that I received. I want to add that I rec'd these over a year ago. The grands still get them out on a regular basis. Even the older ones have a blast with them! Of course I've had to replace the Play-doh on a regular basis.
I can honestly say that if you have a young child I highly recommend these for both learning and fun!

Disclaimer: These book were rec'd for the purpose of review. I was not compensated in any other way. This post does include affiliate links.

An InLinkz Link-up

Frugal Friday With Marsha 12/5/14 Crafts as Gifts

Christmas is literally right around the corner now.   I have tons of things that I would have like to have made for gifts.  Maybe 2015 will be the year that I actually start working on gifts in January?
I have enough past gifts that I have made to take me until Christmas so that I can share the ones from this year, AFTER Christmas.

Corduroy Teddy Bear Blanket that I made for Killian at his birth.   It's actually not finished in this picture, but I don't seem to have a picture in my computer of it after it was finished!

In 2010 I gave Ariel, Willo, and Araya bags for their birthdays.  The intention was to fill them with things to keep them busy and hopefully quiet during church.  I made each bag from a pillowcase I had bought at a yard sale for .25 each.   The items inside each bag I won with points on Listia.

A quilt for Zelda.  She wasn't born yet when I made quilts for the grandkids.  Just as the quilt above for Killian. (I do still have one grandson that I've not made a quilt for so need to work on that for his birthday in 2015!)

I am having trouble accessing pictures from my disc so that's going to be it for this week.  Please wish me luck on getting my disc to read....it has lots of pictures on it that I don't want to lose! 

I look forward to the frugal posts that you link up this week.

An InLinkz Link-up

Writer's Unite 12/4/14

I missed writing this post last week, even though it was Thanksgiving.  I felt like something was missing in my Thursday.   I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.  We did.  We first ate with my husbands mom at the home and then we traveled to the little town close by where my middle daughter lives and 24 us gathered there to celebrate the day of thanks.

I'm in a scramble for Christmas now.  I do this every year....I guess I'm beyond changing it.  Working on gifts for my family, but also in my writing life as well.  So much to do, and so little time!  It's truly the busiest time of the year for me.

How is your holiday and your writing coming along?

An InLinkz Link-up

WIP Wednesday 12/3/14

Here we are to December and as usual, I'm scrambling more worried about getting Christmas gifts together over other sewing projects.   I wish I wouldn't procrastinate so much of the time.

I did work on the doll bedding sets this week although it's really too late for me to get them done and listed in my online shops in hopes of Christmas sales.  I'm working on a bunch of them all at once in a step-by-step fashion.

I finished sewing up the remainder of the 25 Christmas bags.   I do have 5 that I plan to list in my etsy shop later today...hopefully not too late into the season to get them listed.

I've been working on getting back in to couponing, which involved a lot of cutting and sorting.  I've even gotten in some shopping.   I got back to reading The Wedding Quilt that I checked out from the guild library back in September!  I just don't take the time to read like I should.  I do hope to finish the book before our guild Christmas party on the 15th.

We did also get our poorly looking Christmas tree set up and decorated this week too.   I'm happy that we do have a tree to put up.  There are a lot of families that don't.   I've even wrapped 3 gifts so far.  I have more to go.  I also have a really good start on filling the fabric Christmas bags.  I should have taken a picture of those.  I will hopefully get a picture for next week's post.

Only one thing removed from my UFO list.  It's a lost cause that I will finish these before the end of the year so the list will continue.

UFO's:

Rectangle quilt
challenge wall hanging
GoodNight Irene quilt/wall hanging
Yo-Yo Table runner
Emerald Island Fusique table runner
Five and Dime quilt
Fractured Pineapple quilt
Charming Stars quilt
Brown half square triangle quilt
? sets of doll blanket, pillows and rug
Hexagon flower table runner
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer quilt

I am linking up with the following blogs:

All Business Monday--Zazzle

There are several print on demand websites. I have only designed a few things on zazzle. I need to get busy and get more items designed. Hopefully I will get that done this week!

About anything you can imagine can be designed with your own photos and image creations on zazzle! My favorites to design are postage stamps and address labels. My first order of business in my shop is to make matching address labels for the postage stamps that I have in my store already.

You will notice by my banner that zazzle is having a sale up to 60% off for Cyber Week. Best time to buy!

Here are a couple of the postage stamps that I have in my line up:

Sunflower with Flag Postage Stamps by marsha32
Browse Sunflower Stamps

Raindrop Rose Postage by marsha32
Check out other Rose Stamps at zazzle.com

Here are a couple of cute Christmas cat items:

Kitty for Christmas Playing Cards by marsha32
Find more Orange Playing Cards at Zazzle

Christmas Kitty Mug by marsha32
Print your pictures on mugs.

Feel free to add your print on demand shop to this week's linky in addition to any blog posts you have written about businesses that you do online!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Super Sunday Reviews--Extreme Origami

Extreme Origami
transforming dollar bills into priceless works of art.
By Won Park
ISBN 978-1-93799-402-0
Hardback, 144 pages
Published by Race Point Publishing

Extreme Origami is another book that my children and grandchildren are excited about.
They have had fun in the past making origami creations with dollar bills. They hadn’t seen anything until they seen this book!

Inside Extreme Origami you will find 20 things to fold and make with dollar bills. You will find a butterfly, a tank, a car, a fighter jet, a dragon….even a toilet! (See photo below of the back cover to see each of the 20 designs inside the book)

Each creation has step by step instructions including photos of each step. I do mean step by step. Some of the creations have over 40 steps outlined!

Some creations take just one one dollar bill, others take more than one. The front of the book does include pages that show the terms and symbols.

If you have an origami fan in your house, I am sure they will love this book! Won pays a lot of attention to detail and all designs are his own.

An InLinkz Link-up

Frugal Friday With Marsha 11/28/14--Crafts as Gifts

I hope this find that everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend and that your holiday weekend is going well.    Are you out shopping Black Friday?   I'm afraid I would be if I had money, but it seems I can't ever remember that I need to save money throughout the year to have some to try to catch the really good deals!



This week I am continuing to share different things I have made and given as gifts.  I'm sure enjoying sharing them and the memories that go with them.

Just about every adult got a hot pad from me in my early years of quilting.  I think I made these the following Christmas after making all thekids and grandkids quilts.   Guess what....I have made more for this year that I will share in a later post too for this year.

Every year I make up sacks for everyone, both children and adults.   Two years ago I decided to make them more personal and turn them into a family craft event.  The first year I had my youngest daughter help me make them and counted it for some art time in her homeschool.  Last year I pulled out the big table and made it a Saturday evening project with 5 of the grandchildren.   I plan to do the same this year.
We use Christmas cards from years past and then we have the ribbon and stampers.

This actually concludes all of the photos that I had in squidoo lenses.  I have lots of other pictures available to share yet that never made it to a lens, plus gifts from this year, so fear not.  :)

An InLinkz Link-up

WIP Wednesday 11/26/14

I almost didn't realize that today is Wednesday.  It's a holiday week so hubby is off working on his usual day off since he has the holiday off.
It's been another busy week as usual.   I didn't get in much sewing.

I worked on the light blue hexagons at a stitch group and then again at our guild meeting.

I had a special order come in for a mustache pillowcase and bag that I finished and got mailed out.  The order also included 12 dis scrubbies so I was busy crocheting those as well.

Otherwise I am sewing around large pieces of polyester to make tablecloths.  Those don't warrant taking a picture.  My mom's friend gave me the fabric and a lady in quilt guild told me she makes tablecloths with it, so there you go.  I got an idea and I'm running with it.  There are several colors so I will have them for several occasions.

Still working from this UFO list and adding in more for Christmas gifts that aren't on the list.

UFO's:

Rectangle quilt
challenge wall hanging
GoodNight Irene quilt/wall hanging
Yo-Yo Table runner
Emerald Island Fusique table runner
Five and Dime quilt
Fractured Pineapple quilt
Christmas bags (total of at least 25) (15 done)
Charming Stars quilt
Brown half square triangle quilt
? sets of doll blanket, pillows and rug
Hexagon flower table runner
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer quilt


I'm linking up with the following blogs:

All Business Monday---Zibbet

Zibbet has been around a few years yet many seem to have never heard of it before.   Zibbet is a lot like Etsy.  A place to sell handmade items, craft supplies, and vintage items.

It was founded by Johnathan Peacock and has evolved in many ways since it's beginning.

It used to be totally free to list up to 50 items.   There was an upgrade to list more as well as offer sales, have more than one photo etc.
You can still list free on Zibbet, but only up to 10 items now.

I debated with myself on upgrading, but did decide to go with the basic membership and am paying $5 a month to have up to 50 items listed.   I currently have 42 listed.

Promotion, promotion and promotion is what I need to keep on for myself if I expect to be a successful seller.  After 3 years, I've not sold even one item there.
So here, I am to promote the website as a whole, as well as myself.

I was using Zibbet as an alternative to paying to relist items as they expired in my Etsy shop.   I will still list them on Zibbet as they expire in Etsy and work towards always having my limit of 50 items listed at all time.

Here is a breakdown of the Zibbet memberships:

Here are just a few of the items that are in my store:

You may find my store HERE.

 

An InLinkz Link-up