DIY selling :/ a hard lesson

So I was super proud of selling my first piece in my last blog post. Sadly, it had a bad ending. I was attempting to sell on Mercari, an app like poshmark for resale ( Use my code MSHFAW to join Mercari and get $2 off your first purchase!

https://www.mercari.com/dl ) 

A truly fantastic app they even sell products like Lush for super great prices! Anyways, my lesson was learned though the hard way. I had someone buy my beautiful lamp. They even paid for the shipping I’d chosen.  $15 dollars to cover something 20 lbs. I was ecstatic because my lamp, although heavy, didn’t weigh near 20 lbs. So I March my happy ass down to the post office on my lunch break. I don’t even make it 2 feet in the door before they tell me they can’t ship it. 1st problem… I was disappointed but not to be undone. I went after work to the ups store! I where guess what? They could ship it! For the low cost of 130 bucks not to mention they said no matter what I did the shade would be crushed in transit. Well I bought boxes and cheap stuffing material to at least cut the cost down a little, and then headed home. Only to realize it still would cost about 80 bucks.  So I messaged the woman and explained the situation to her. She understood and we cancelled her order with full refund. And from now on I will stick with selling in my area. I Love  Letgo ( here’s a link to my account http://app.letgo.com/k8Mk/KQsOIjMLzE

Take a look at everything I’m selling on letgo!! ) Its a community based barter/buy/sell/ trade  and it’s amazing!  There’s also of course Facebook market and the many buy/sell/trade pages within 20 miles of me. I cross post and get hundreds of views in hours! So lesson learned… and I’m expecting great things to come!! 

DIY your way out of debt!

Hello my name is Bex, I’m going to use this blog to chronicle my journey as a deeply in debt single mom, to debt free! I’m starting my own up-cycle business, thrifting and repainting, fixing up items for resale! I sold my very first item today so I’m going to try to keep you posted on what works and what doesn’t! I’ll also be including info on other ways I manage to save money on a small budget! I’ve made some poor choices in the last few years and I’m finally about to get on track! I’ll be sharing links, tips, and apps that will help you save and meet your goals, if you’re in debt or not!

Since it’s a special day, first blog post, and first sale!! I want to put up some pics of this particular project! I’m actually super proud of how well it turned out!

 

I bought this lamp at a thrift store, it was super heavy so I knew it was ceramic or cast iron. there were a few chips, but nothing too noticeable. Plus I loved the blank canvas of the large shade! I bought some black spray paint, (the 3-4 dollar kind), I had silver Rub and Buff from Michaels ( find it here  https://www.michaels.com/rub-n-buff-wax-metallic-finish/M10183569.html ) and a high gloss spray! I sprayed it down with black paint first, I went over it with two coats to make sure it got in all the creases and little patterns. I then used tiny amounts of silver rub and buff to really pull out the details in the ceramic with a small sponge.

 

I still wanted some of the black to shine through, giving it that aged, distressed type look. ( side note, rub and buff ain’t cheap guys, but I swear to you I’ve used one tube on like 8 projects and it lasts forever! A little goes a long way with this stuff!)

So the base was exactly what I wanted, but now on to the shade!! I had a stencil I’d been dying to use, and a perfect blank canvas with the shade! So I got my trusty chalk paint that I keep around always… and went after it!!

 

I stenciled the shade with black chalk paint and then lightly sponged silver rub and buff over it so it would sparkle a little! Then I used fabric glue to trim the top and bottom with silver ribbon! VOILA this is the piece I sold today! I tripled what I spent on it! I’m super proud *happy dance* and can’t wait to keep posting about my journey getting out of debt! Happy thrifting y’all!