DIY Jewelry Cleaner

Simple recipe using items you probably already have at home!

DIY Monogram Letters

Cute, quick and easy crafting!

Shrimp Scampi Recipe

Yum! This dinner is delicious and easy to prepare!

Sesame Street Cookies

Use our sugar cookie recipe to create your own adorable cookies!

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

25 Tips for a Successful Yard Sale

yard sale, garage sale, tips

 
Tis the season for yard sales!  Have stuff laying around your house or that's taking up precious garage space that you don't use anymore?  Need some extra cash?  Throw your very own yard sale or participate in a community yard sale. 

My husband and I joined our community yard sale for the first time this year, and I must say, it was quite successful!

Below are some very helpful tips that I've gathered from friends and family who seem to have mastered the art of the yard sale.  I've also added some of my own from our experience this past weekend.

Pre-Planning for Your Yard Sale:
  1. Choose your yard sale date wisely.  Popular months for yard sales are April, May, June and September.  Saturdays seem to be the most profitable days for a sale- pick one that falls after the 1st or the 15th of the month when most people get paid.
  2. Make an inventory list of everything that you want to sell in advance. 
  3. Give yourself plenty of time to gather and price your sale items.  You don't want to pull an all-nighter right before your sale.  Save your energy!  You'll need it.
  4. Advertise your sale.  Post it to Craigslist for free or put an ad in the local paper along with a highlight of the things you'll be selling.  List the timeframe of your sale.  Ours went from 8am-3pm, however even after stating "no early birds" on our flyers, we had people on our property at 7am, so just be prepared.
  5. Use signage to direct traffic.  Brightly colored posters with large, bold text will show up a lot better than ballpoint pen on a piece of brown card board.  Make sure you can clearly read your signs.


Pricing Your Items:
  1. When pricing your items, keep two things in mind. 1) Are you looking to get top dollar for your merchandise or 2) Are you looking to just get rid of it?  Identify items that are non-negotiable in terms of price because if they don't happen to sell at your yard sale, you can try posting them on eBay or Craigslist.  If you dread the idea of packing up your items and storing them back in your house or garage, price them on the lower end so that they're likely to sell.
  2. Do your research.  When pricing items, be sure to know what the going rate is for that particular toy, appliance, piece of furniture, etc.  For instance, I had a customer try to offer me $15 for a never-been-used item that currently retails for over $100.  No thanks! 
  3. Most yard sellers price their items at 20-30% of what they originally paid for it.  Price your items slightly above what you'd accept for them.  For example, if you'd take $20 for something, list it at $25.  The majority of your customers will likely try to haggle you down anyways. 
  4. Keep math to a minimum.  Don't price items for $1.50 or $0.45.  We keep everything at whole dollar amounts ($1, $2, $3....) so that no calculators are necessary. 


Setting Up, Organizing, and Displaying Sale Items:
  1. Make sure to have enough table space to display your sale items.  We used large pieces of plywood sitting on top of saw horses and then covered them with old sheets or fabric. 
  2. Keep as many items as possible off of the ground.  Customers don't want to be on their hands and knees rummaging through piles of clothes or other items. You'll sell a lot more if people can access it more easily. 
  3. Be organized.  One re-occuring compliment that we kept hearing from our "customers" was how organized we were.  We had kids clothes laid out by size with clearly marked signs (i.e., Size Newborn, Size 0-3 Months, Size 6-9 Months, Size 12-18 Months, etc.).  It directed people to the proper area and stopped them from tearing apart our nicely folded piles.
  4. Take your items out of the box.  People are visual creatures- if they can't see what you're selling then they're going to pass you up.  Display items such as books in a bookshelf (if the shelf isn't for sale, clearly mark that on a sticker so that you don't get people asking how much you want for it).
  5. Lay out shoes so that people can easily try them on.  Just like the tip above, don't just set out a giant box of old shoes.  Neatly pair them together and set out in your driveway or on a sturdy surface-- especially if you're selling high heels.
  6. Entice male buyers by setting out tools, electronics, and yard equipment near the front half of your property.  Most times husbands wait in the car while their wives peruse the sale.  If they see stuff that interests them, they're more likely to park and get out.


The Day of Your Sale:
  1. Have enough change on hand.  We took out $25 in ones, $25 in fives, and $20 in tens which worked out great.  Most people are looking to break their larger bills early in the morning.
  2. Make sure to have at least two people running the sale at all times.  That way when one person is handling a sale, the other can keep an eye on everything else.  Not only do yard sales bring out shoppers but they also bring out shoplifters.
  3. Keep your money on you.  Refrain from using a cash box if possible.  Use a wearable pack, small purse across your chest, or keep it in your pockets (just make sure you have deep pockets so that bills won't fall out).  That way your money will never be left unattended. 
  4. Every so often, pull out large bills like $20's and $10's from your earnings and stash them away in your house.  You really only need to have $5's and $1's on hand for change. 
  5. Play a little background music.  This helps eliminate that awkward silence and makes people more comfortable cruising your yard.
  6. Make sure to have extra grocery bags and empty boxes on hand for people to pack their purchased goods.  I learned this the hard way when a couple wanted to buy a whole set of dishes and had no way of carrying them to their car.  I had to scramble through the garage looking for a box to empty out.
  7. As you near the end of your day, consider slashing prices, offering two-for-one deals, or marking some items that you never want to see again as "free".  That way you're not stuck repacking and storing your leftover items.


Other Tips to Remember:
  1. Wear sunscreen.  Even if it's overcast outside, chances are that you'll be outside for the entire day so keep your skin protected with SPF or a hat.
  2. Drink lots of water and keep snacks handy.  Just when you think that it's safe to take a lunch break, a mass of shoppers will pull up.
  3. When in doubt, just set it out!  You never know what people are looking to buy.  I had a large box that had what I considered to be really funky, old, in poor condition shoes and clothes in it.  Too embarassed to set these items out, I left them in the large box on the side of our house.  Well sure enough, people started plowing through that box and making me offers.  I was surprised that there's truth behind the saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure!"

Good luck!








Monday, May 20, 2013

Savory Veggie Pancakes


It's Spring and farmer's markets are in full bloom. I love taking my kids to pick out all the vegetables and fruit for the week. It gets my son involved and so excited to touch, feel and smell all there is to offer. I am lucky I have a vegetable lovers on my hands.

I watched someone make these a few years ago and have been making them ever since.

What you need:

  • 3 Carrots (shredded)
  • 3 Zuccini (shredded)
  • 3 sliced Green onions
  • 3 minced garlic cloves (I love garlic)
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1Tbsp Olive Oil




Instructions:
1. Whisk the eggs and pour over shredded veggies
2. Add garlic
3. Mix together flour,salt and baking soda
4. Stir into veggie mix
5. Add olive oil to pan on medium heat 
6. Spoon veggies onto hot pan, the smaller the better about 2 inches across
7. Flip when golden 
8. Serve plain (which is how I have them) or with an aioli sauce (maybe like this one)









Friday, May 17, 2013

10 Hot Sunglasses Under $50

Summer is here (at least here in Northern Califorina, it's 92 degrees today!) - and I'm on the search for some trendy sunglasses that don't cost a fortune.  I used the ever so handy Polyvore and narrowed it down to my ten favorites.  Aviators are always my old stand by but how fun are those pink retro and the tortoise shell glasses!?

Which do you like the best? 

Zoey found these cool ones in the boy's section at Target (she wore them throughout the whole store):



Thursday, May 16, 2013

A Very Home Made Bird House


I'm not the craftiest person when it comes to throwing together a project at times, but I will make things with love and for fun with Stella. We have been wanting to make a bird feeder or bird house of our own, instead of just buying a pre-made one or one you decorate yourself. One day I thought it would be fun to just go outside and start gathering up some sticks to build our own little bird house. We have a ton of trees on our property and have even more random branches lying around. I found a lot of sticks that were pretty close in diameter and cut them all the same length with some big pruners. Then I cut the remaining sticks into a smaller length for the ends. We essentially were planning on building something that resembled a smaller log cabin for the birds.


After all the branches were cut to size I started by picking out the ones that were closest in size so they would lay as flush as possible. I then stacked the two smaller branches across the top ends of the larger sticks. Using hot glue (probably not the best choice in adhesive, but it was what we had around at the time) I glued my foundation together.




I continued doing the same thing until I reached a height we were happy with. I let the glue set as best as I could, even filling in areas where the sticks barely touched with hot glue as a filler. After the glue dried we had some random pieces of wood lying around that we used for the roof. I glued those onto the top to make a pitch. I had some thicker wire that I cut quite long to wrap to the outer bottom sticks of each side to help create a handle for the tree. We decided not to paint the wood and leave it more natural in hopes of attracting a possible renter. We put a little potting grass in the bottom to entice any birds to make a nest.



We found a nice branch in one of our red woods to hang our house in. If we do happen to end up with a little family of birds in our little home it will be fun to be able to see through the house and see the family that decided to make use of our house we made.




Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Release Your Inner Artist

Monster truck that I painted for Heidi's oldest son, Sawyer.

Growing up as a kid, our grandmommy always enticed us to release our inner artist.  She would constantly introduce us to ample art supplies including markers (the ones that smelled like different flavors), colored pencils, stamps, ink pads, paints, glitter glue, watercolors and anything to draw or paint on such as paper, card board, and even rocks.  We were always asked to create a new picture for her refrigerator when we visited. 

I strongly believe that it was through her mentoring that provoked my love for art (well, that mixed with my dad sitting us in front of endless episodes of Bob Ross: The Happy Painter on PBS).  She taught me to explore my creative side as a child early on, and from that I developed a stong passion for drawing and painting that I hope to pass along to my kids one day. 

I love sitting Zane down with crayons, sidewalk chalk, or washable paints and letting him just have at it (regardless of the huge mess that typically follows).  On days where I have no energy to clean up after him, we'll usually stick with the Magna-Doodle or fun, drawing apps on the iPad.  Either way, I find it important to pass on what I've learned from my grandma (who was also a painter, herself).

If you ever have those moments where your kids are just bored and looking for something to do, never under estimate the power of a crayon, a piece of paper, and imagination! 







Happy painting!






Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Swamp Birthday Party


Wow, I can't believe today is our 200th post!

Now here is a boy's birthday party that was straight out of the swamp! My friend threw her son's 3rd birthday party at a really cool science museum in Rocklin, CA. It was the perfect setting for this creature-filled birthday. I was so impressed and inspired I just had to share! Thanks Kelly!




Bug catcher party favors from the Dollar Tree Store with hand-painted names.


School of Shark sammies


Turtle Cupcake Cake
Swamp Water made from Odwalla Superfood's Simple Lemon and Simple Apple


























Serpent Salad

Monday, May 13, 2013

Strawberry Peach Fruit Bar Popsicles

Strawberry Peach Fruit Bar Popsicle Recipe from EightByFive.com


It's been hot, hot, HOT here in California, so we've been breaking out our favorite popsicle molds and trying our hand at some new flavor combinations. This Strawberry Peach Fruit Bar recipe is one that we came up with on the spur of the moment, and it was a big hit with all three of my boys.

You will need:
  • (1) 15 oz. can of peaches (in fruit juice or light syrup)
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries
  • 1/2 frozen banana
  • Small splash of milk or cream (optional)
Blend all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor, and pour into popsicle molds. Freeze and enjoy!


If you're looking for more recipes for cool summer treats, be sure to head over to Mom's Crafty Space to check out our new summer series that kicked off today, Hot Days, Cool Treats! 

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day




As we discover what being a mom is all about, it gives us a greater appreciation for the hard work that all moms do- from working moms, to stay-at-home moms, to work-from-home moms, etc...... it's definitely a tough job!  We all need to take a moment, pat ourselves on the back, and recognize our god-given talent of multi-tasking!  Being a mom is the most challenging yet highly rewarding job there is. 

Us ladies at Eight By Five want to wish all of our mommy readers a very special (and hopefully relaxing) Mother's Day! 

Friday, May 10, 2013

Sweet and Savory Pork Roast


One day while cruising the grocery store I was trying to decide what to make for dinner. Of course I never go with a list or a plan for our meals so I find myself making the same stuff often. While looking around the meat area I came across these nice looking lean pork roasts and I thought what the heck I'll give this a try, I've never done a pork roast yet and figured how hard can it be. So I went home and took out some stuff to throw together.

Here's the recipe for our pork roast. 
2 lb. lean pork roast
Mix together:
1/8 cup. olive oil
3 TBS. pepper
2 TBS. cinnamon
 2 TBS. nutmeg
Rub this all over the roast, I found myself mixing up a little more just to make sure everything was covered nicely.


I had some red potatoes, peppers, onions, and mushrooms that I cut up and placed around the roast pan. When I was just about ready to put it all in the oven I
sprinkled the top of the roast with some brown sugar, a splash of soy sauce, and optional A-1 sauce. If you want a little spice sprinkle a small amount of cayenne pepper over the top also. I LOVE pork with some sweetness and a little bite so I always add a dash of cayenne. Make sure to drizzle and toss the veggies with a little olive oil too so they don't stick in the pan.

Bake it in the oven for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Next time I make this I will probably leave the veggies a little thicker since it does stay in the oven for a while, so nothing gets over cooked.



Thursday, May 9, 2013

Baby Shower Cookies

Remember my Sesame Street Sugar Cookie Recipe that I posted a while back?  Well, here's a great one to do for baby showers!  All you need is a onesie cookie cutter like this one, some fun sprinkles, icing, and a steady hand!  SO CUTE!

Here are some photos from the cookies that were done for my baby shower.  I didn't even want to eat them because they were so amazing!