Goings On Around Chez Sluggy Lately

Oh, where to start.

My drug regime shake up has had some positive results on me.....well, after my angioedema/hives episode happened.
First off I had ENERGY last week!  That's something I've had none of most of this year.
I am actually getting things accomplished that I've wanted to do for months.
Go me.

Last week I........
* Cleaned out my painting supplies(plus washed the tubs I keep these in).
* Cleaned out the pantry
* Cleaned out the cabinet to the left of the stove
* Did some reorganizing in the garage/stockpile
* Cleaned the bookcase next to my desk
* Got together a Food Bank Donation
* Got a Salvation Army Donation ready to go
* Went through some files and purged a bunch of paper
* Cleaned and vacuumed my car(This is something I NEVER do!)

All this was in addition to my usual routine of cooking/laundry/shopping/blogging/etc.

And all this moving around has had me losing weight too, 8 lbs. so far.  I suspect one of the meds I was on that I am now off of was hindering me dropping weight.  Has to be a combo on exercise and off the drug as my food type/intake has not changed at all.

And then Daughter got sick and shared her grunge with me.
Ugh.
This week has been spent in a brain fog and 1 activity.....just trying to be able to breath out of my nose. ;-)
I suspect if this thing doesn't loosen it's grasp on me by Monday I'll be sitting in the Urgent Care early next week.

Another thing I got done last week was to prepare a whole slew of Giveaway boxes......

The open box is for December's Giveaway and the stack contains goodies for 6 Giveaways for 2017.
As long as the blogging ad revenue continues to come in(in drips and drabs)and I can cover the postage to mail these boxes with that tiny income stream(and I get stuff for Free to use as prizes)the Giveaways will continue!
Rah.

So barring catastrophes I am well ahead of the game for at least half of next year on this score.
I just need to figure out where to store these boxes in the house until needed. First world blogger problems, eh? lolz

Putting these boxes together came out of cleaning the dining room.  I had a large box of toiletries in there that needed to be moved out before Thanksgiving as we'll need that room then.  This box was overflow from the toiletries stash in tubs up in Hub's man cave room.  So instead of shoving them goodness knows where in the house and then trying to dig it all out to make up prize boxes for Giveaways I just "got 'er done" now and that potential job is off my plate.  I can just photograph the contents and write up each Giveaway post as needed next year.  I think I have room under the daybed that the dog spends her days napping on in the living room to tuck these away until needed.  This hiding place will be easy to access too.

Here is the Food Bank donation I gathered so far......

Assorted foodstuffs and 10 bottles of shampoo

I'll probably add to the food component before I take this all in next week, as I will be reorganizing the stockpile in the garage some more and will most probably find more "goodies".

And speaking of the garage, next week once I am feeling like myself again I need to concentrate on going through stuff in the garage to donate to charity.  Between the stockpile, Daughter and BF's stuff and all my old eBay selling days stuff out there it's just too, too much in there and I am ready to let go of more crap!

I want to do at least another 4 Salvation Army donations before the end of the year(not counting the one ready to go this weekend).  I've still got lots of new/unused toys and gift wear and this is the time of year that sort of stuff is highly sought after for gifting in the charity stores.
I'd rather donate and take the tax write-off(if we hit the threshold this year-last year we didn't)than spend lots of time and energy on eBay attempting to sell it.
There are a few items if I get the "umph" that I will try to sell....mostly items I know I can get a good price for(to make the hassle worthwhile).

Ok, I am off to breath and maybe get some more cleaning/organizing done today.
Oh, and a trip to Rite-Aid too if I can sustain some energy long enough to do that. 8-)))

What are y'all up to today?

Sluggy

The End is Here!

No, not for this blog silly!
The end of the Great Purge of 2013!!

This is the last load I can drop at Salvation Army for 2013......

                Ty Beanie Buddies

           An entire outgrown teen's wardrobe(the stuff still in great shape).....lol

   Another, now empty storage bin

     More Beanies!

And my old guilty pleasure, Beanie cards.......more addictive than playing the lottery....lol

   A stack of fabric no one on Etsy wants and I can't use.

It's great to be rid of so much unnecessary stuff.  Not that I got all of it banished from Chez Sluggy but we made a discernible BIG dent.

Now I get to sit down with a pile of donation sheets for 2013 and add this all up.....YIKES!
If you don't hear from me for a week or two, don't worry, I'm just buried in paperwork.  8-)

Then it's onward to the dreaded FAFSA x 2.  Sorry I had to mention that one......

Sluggy

What's Going on Here Lately Besides No Heat.....

Yesterday, I went through some boxes of old ornaments I had bought years ago to sell on eBay and sorted them into keep and donate piles.   One pile of ornies is for the kids to go through and take whatever they want, as 2 of them no longer live here, so they may want tree decorations of their own.
When they get to a point where they aren't moving constantly and settle down I'll give them each the family ornaments that were bought for them while growing up.  Man, once I do that, our tree here will be practically bare! lol

So far I have 2 full cardboard boxes of ornies heading out the door.  It's a shame that Hallmark ornaments, except for a few special ones, aren't selling on eBay at ALL mostly, and the few that do sell are going for about $1 each.
sigh
So that, with a box of Ty brand stuffed animals and a box of used housewares and a swing arm wall lamp, gives me almost another full load to send off to Salvation Army in a couple of days.

Then I got up this morning and saw this report on Yahoo about Goodwill HERE.
YIKES!

Please be careful with your personal information when donating goods to any charity!
And it boggles my mind how any store manager would have let a customer buy personal documents like that......

Still no action on eBay but I am selling a couple of lengths of fabric on average each day over on Etsy.  At this rate I'll run out of excess fabric by.....oh..........2016! lolz
Still loving the ease of packing and shipping fabric. 8-))

I am now down just shy of 54 lbs.  I got past the plateau I hit back in May/June and am starting to see results.  Not being able to exercise much because of my feet is not helping the cause but I have weights to use to work my arms.  I know I'd lose faster if I gave up drinking(bad, bad carbs!)but at this point I don't want to give up the 3 or 4 drinks I have a week.  There is something to be said for keeping your sanity.....

As for what I am eating.......I haven't changed content much since earlier this year after the heart problem episode, except for having to be careful I don't eat too much green leafy veggies now while I am on this Coumadin drug.
It's been 7 months now since we basically changed our diet so I think we have made it a permanent lifestyle change.  I find I no longer crave junk food or sweets most days.

I eat a lot less at a meal(portion control)and try to stay away from carbs at meals.  I don't fix a meat, carb and veg. for dinner.  Usually I'll just fix a meat and veg(or 2 vegs. sometimes if one is a carby veg.).   Sometimes I do a sauce on the meat or veg. so I am getting some carbs anyway.  I also always have a sandwich at lunch, so I get plenty of good carbs with my bread and occasionally I'll have carbs with my breakfast-either a bowl of cereal or a mini bagel with my yogurt.

The big thing is I have cut down on cheese intake drastically.  No cheese on burgers or sandwiches EVER!  And we eat/fix cheesy dishes very rarely now.  We use to throw cheese on most anything we ate here, but no more. 

I plan on losing another 6 lbs. by the end of November, even with Thanksgiving, so wish me luck!
Right now I have 46 lbs. to go to get to the weight I was at 32, BEFORE I had children.  It won't even come close to what I should weigh, but that would be awesome if I could get there without any bariatric surgery.


I am off to get blood work done, then to Rite-Aid to use my expiring +Up Rewards and then maybe to the grocery store if the feet hold out.

Sluggy

Getting Ready To Celebrate

I went back to Dollar General yesterday since I had another $2/1 Axe Gift Set Dollar General Q and a $3.75/1 Axe set ManuQ.  I also took along a couple of $2/1 Dana fragrances Qs and $2/1 Playboy fragrances Qs since the DG ad noted that they carried the small bottles of Dana brands for $2 and Playboy body sprays were on sale for $3.50 this week.

I ended up finding the last one of each of these products at this particular store!

1 x Axe Gift Set=$10.00
1 x Dana fragrance=$2.00
1 x Playboy spray=$3.50
SubTotal....$15.50

Coupons Used
1 x $2/1 DG Axe gift set Q(don't remember where..coupons dotcom?)=$2.00
1 x $3.75/1 Axe gift set ManuQ=$3.75
1 x $2/1 Dana brands IPQ(dana website)=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Playboy brands IPQ(redplum dotcom)=$2.00
Coupon Total....$9.75

$15.50-$9.75=$5.75+.34¢ tax=$6.09 for all

After Qs, the Tabu was free, the Playboy was $1.50 and the Axe set was $4.25....plus tax.

Then Daughter and I did some Holiday baking yesterday as well.
We did 3 batches of fudge.
Then we had a take-out lunch.
Then we lost the motivation to do anymore baking and napped.

But here is what we got done before lunch....

Chocolate Nut Fudge
Butterscotch Nut Fudge
Salted Butterscotch Fudge

Then I went and used our hotel points to make a donation of $40 to Rebuilding Together.  The membership company doubled the donation to $80.
Awesome!

A large box of gifties arrived today from my brother and sis-in-law.  The tree is looking quite grand and bountiful now.....

That old Christmas rug by the way has been in my family since before I was born.  It is a bit of tradition that makes the Holidays feel like home to me. ;-)

I also hung a few more ornies on the tree.....

Celebrate in Maxine style!.....

And everyone's tree needs other kinds of crabbiness as well.....

And really, if you have kids that grew up in the 1990's, it's not Christmas without cartoon characters like this one.....

And mom get's equal time on the tree for her childhood.....

Sluggy

Oooo Baby....I'm Hot for Decluttering P*rn!

Starting off February right!

 If the above photo doesn't make your heart race, then read on and check out the rest of the photos
 below for a thrill! 8-)

I finally got the Daughter to go through the boxes of crap in her old room.  This would be all the junk she left strewn about her room when she went away to college for the first time last Fall, that I then boxed up and stacked in the closet.

After she brought the boxes of things downstairs, I went through everything she designated to throw out before it was pitched.  4 garbage bags of actual trash left 2 weeks ago.  Sorry, I forgot to take photos of that....

And here is what I gleaned from the designated crap that can be recycled via Salvation Army.

1 Pr. Rubber Boots
12 Assorted Hats
3 Guitar Books
1 Art Case with some Art Supplies in it(pastels/colored pencils)
3 Stencils
4 HeadBands/Bandanas

1 Make-up Case(filled with hair bands, clips)
1 Fan/Water Bottle Spritzer thingy
8 YA Books
2 Purses
1 Personal Planner
2 Silly Hats
4 HeadBands/Bandanas
1 Flat Iron Hair Straightener

And yes that's a flat iron hair straightener and it works!  She had to have that expensive tool once upon a time.  Do you know how many Rite-Aid +Up Rewards it cost me???!!

I also gleaned various HBA products that still had stuff in the containers.  These went back into the toiletries supply closet and drawers or her personal box of "in use" toiletries.  When she comes home she's using these up before she opens a new product!  Just because I don't pay money for toiletries doesn't mean she can throw out products when they are only half used!
Argh!!!

In addition to the half-used HBA goods, I gleaned a fistful of pens and pencils, cork board thumb tacks, some change(???!!!), 10 notebooks(with only a few pages used so I ripped those out and I have 10 new notebooks!), college prep books, knitting needles, novelty jewelry, her French Honor Society & National Honor Society pins, Academic Letter(for her letter jacket) and a perfectly good cell phone.

She was throwing away a working cell phone.....actually it was TWO cell phones but when I told her they were in her garbage pile, she went and took one out.
WTF?
Ok, the one she still wanted to throw out was "old" and not "fashionable" and didn't have a qwerty keyboard.....who could possibly be expected to use that one?! *insert eye rolls here*

The next time she loses her phone or something happens to it and she is desperate for a "phone fix", I'll sell her back this one she can't be bothered with. ;-)

After Hubs emptied his car at Sallie's last month, I got busy filling it back up again with new toy/old eBay inventory......

1 Small Soldiers Board Game
1 Small Soldiers Slot Car Set
2 Fisher-Price Briarberry Doll Furniture Sets
1 Cinderella 50th Anniv. Doll
1 Blackbeard's Ship Model Kit
3 Star Wars Concept Vehicles Sets
1 Box of Cinderella Trading Cards
2 Replica #1 Spider-man Comic Books
1 Johnny Lightning Partridge Family die-cast Bus
1 Box Star Wars metal trading cards
1 Power Rangers PVC White Ranger Figure
1 101 Dalmatians Night Light
1 Matchbox Replic Double-Decker Bus
1 Racing Champions Surf Rods die-cast Car
1 Racing Champions Set of 5 KISS die-cast Cars


58 more items this trip makes 108 total for the year(added to last month's 50 item donation).
2 donation trips down for 2012, lots more to go!


Sluggy

More April Donations....Clutter G-O-N-E!

Here is what is leaving the house this week.....

More goodies we hauled up from the basement--
* 2 Pewter Mr. Spock Figurines...poor Mr. Spock no one on eBay is loving on him anymore

* 1 Grinch Ceramic Cookie Jar....cute but very limited as a decorative item since if you put this out on your kitchen counter all year people will begin to wonder about your sanity.  Perhaps I should have marketed it toward those people who keep their Christmas lights up all year?

* 1 more Crinkle Claus house....I think I am all 'crinkled' out now.

* 3 assorted Football Stadium Replicas-Penn State Beaver Stadium/Rose Bowl UCLA Stadium/Candlestick Park....these are actually quite nice on real wood bases, but because of the weight nobody wants to pay anything for them once you add on the shipping costs. 

2 used items....
* a Beagle Gum Ball Bank....#2 son's cast-off

* a Small Soldiers Activity Case with colored pencils, stamp pads, etc.....#1 son's cast-off

Then the new stuff....
* 3 Dept. 56 Christmas ornaments-replicas of different light-up houses done as ornaments...while the full sized light-up houses still sell ok, the ornies not so much.

* 2 Hot Wheels LE Christmas Cars with Surfing Santa....even the Limited Edition Hot Wheels market has bottomed out

* 2 boxes of Star Trek TNG Tv Show Cards-Season 4....again, not much Star Trek love out there anymore.

* 1 box of Star Trek Movie Cards.....movie, tv series....no love for either.  They are still mad for ST down in Australia but the weight to ship=not selling them.

*1 Boyds Pig.....cute OLD boyd's critter but it has a stain and I don't feel like spending an hour cleaning it so I make .79¢ on it after fees.

* 2 set of Ty Teenie Beanies 1998.....can't sell if for enough to buy me something off the $1 menu.

* 1 miniature Lionel Train Lunchbox tin....the only thing selling in Lionel is the old trains.  I fear this is one of the areas where the collectors are too old to spend their money on toys from their childhood.  They need that social security check to eat. lol

* 1 Limoge type porcelain trinket box in the shape of a beer mug....do NOT ask me why I bought this!

*1 Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz Musical Figure.....not sure why I never was able to sell this....it's cute and WOZ and Glinda are still collectible.

* 1 Set of Stationery with Envelopes.....A personal item of mine but I have way too much stationery.  I have never been able to sell paper ephemera on eBay.

* 1 Small Soldiers Cassette Player and PA System w/microphone....a cool toy and Small Soldiers is still highly collectible in Europe but this is heavy so the shipping is an "ouchy".

Today's total....25 items.
Grand Total to date....96 items to Sallie's.
Add 78 items to the Food Bank=174 items G-O-N-E!

Sluggy

DeCluttering in April Part Deux....

Here is what hubby dropped off yesterday at Salvation Army.....

6 new toys I can't sell for anything
a plastic tissue cover
a roll of poster paper
a photo album
1 yd. of red knit fabric--don't look McVal!
another stack of Beanie Baby Sticker Cards
An AromaSpa diffuser which has sat in my bedroom under my ironing board unused for 10 yrs. now.  I keep thinking, some day I'll get the umph to take it out of the box and set it up and pour the tiny bead thingies in......if it hasn't happened in 10 yrs., it is likely NOT going to happen ever!lol 

In the used department there are....
2 book sox(my kids don't use these anymore)
a pair of track shorts
a decorative cobalt blue mason jar(can't be used to hold food)
a tall wrought iron candleholder with a cobalt blue tassle.  I love and collect cobalt blue glass but I have too much and these are NOT my favs nor do I have anywhere to put them.

In this picture we have.....
2 Mystic Knights action toys
a Board Game
3 Matchbox Mets themed cars
box in the back is a set of Burger King Star Wars toys still in the packages
2 Christmas Houses
a Home Decor set of a candle on a metal dish with Christmas-y decorations. 
my Noah's Ark shelf.  This was a Christmas present many years ago that hung in my old house.  I have no place for it in this house so off it goes.

I love this tin box!  It's huge.  If the shipping wasn't so gawd awfully high on it, I could sell it for decent money even though it got left in the damp basement and is starting to rust.  
But it's not, so I can't.....**sigh**

Also taken but not pictured where another 5 Diabetic Glucose Meters from the "Buy Meters, Get Free RR$$ at Wags Frenzy"  of '09.

34 More Items.....GONE!

37+34=71 items to Sallie's
78 to the Food Bank
149 Grand Total so far.

Back to the piles.

Sluggy