Pinecone Research Accepting New Applications

One of the ways I add to our household income is by doing surveys through Pinecone Research. These surveys usually take about 15 minutes to complete and they typically send me about 2-3 per month. They pay $3 per completed survey. Payment can be received by check or via PayPal.

Obviously, at $3 a pop, this is not a huge boost in income! But it's a little and when saved for a period of time adds up. In fact, we put all of my Pinecone survey money into our Christmas envelope last year and it nearly covered Christmas gifts for our extended family!

Pinecone is now accepting new applications. So if you're looking for a relatively easy way to make a little extra  go here to apply.

20% Off Code For The Gingham Cottage

Through Saturday August 20, get 20% off your order at The Gingham Cottage when you use the code SUMMER11.

 There are children's aprons,

 crayon rolls- only a few left!,

 women's aprons in a variety of styles and prints,

 wallets and a few bags and purses,

 a cool Fire King vase,

 some gently used stamp sets and more!

Thank you for looking!

The Gingham Cottage News

It's been a while since I posted an update about my Etsy shop, The Gingham Cottage.

I've recently added a number of new items. Be sure to hop on over to take a look!

Here's a sampling of what's new:

Blue Patchwork Pocket Apron

Pink Floral Child's Apron. 

A matching adult apron is also available for an adorable mother-daughter set!

A couple sets of rubber stamps.

Some vintage treasures!

I plan to add some pieces of fabric from my stash soon as well as more handmade items so keep checking back!

Daily Charts

This is what I use to keep track of Baby Boy (2 months) and Toddler Girl's (13 months) accomplishments throughout the day.

Between the two of them, there are so many feedings, diaper changes and naps that I know it would be extremely difficult to try to remember the details for the parents. Some days I need a checklist for feeding the dog since I can't remember!

Whenever I care for infants, I make a habit of writing down their schedule for that day. It's always helpful to mothers to have that to take home and refer to if they wonder about something later that evening.

With two so young, I knew I'd need a more efficient method than just a scrap of paper. So we made up a simple document and I hung a clipboard on the kitchen wall for each child.

So far this has worked great!

Pinecone Research Now Accepting Applications Again

If you're interested in earning a little extra money, you might want to consider signing up to be a part of the Pinecone Research Panel.

If accepted, you will earn $3 for each completed survey.

Click on this link to sign up:

https://www.pineconeresearch.com/Signup/Signup_Form.aspx

Hurry, this will probably fill up quickly!

I've been doing surveys for Pinecone for almost a year and have enjoyed working with them. Payment is prompt and occasionally they will send me a full-size product to try.

The Gingham Cottage News

New items in my shop, The Gingham Cottage: 

Some thrifted treasures:

Sweet vintage strawberries. 

A beautiful Fire King vase. 

A handmade item: 

An apron featuring vintage aprons!

Make yourself at home, poke around and see what else is in The Gingham Cottage!

Missing: One Living Room and Some Yard Sale Tips

Help! We can't find our living room!

Our living room is full of stuff to sell at our yard sale this weekend. We also have another pile of yard sale stuff in our shed that is just as big or bigger than the one you see above.

I would like to know:

1)Where did we get all this stuff?

2)Where have we stored it in this little house?

It's amazing, isn't it? The amount of stuff we can accumulate!

I'm praying for lots of people to show up on Saturday. Lots of people who will buy lots of stuff! The weather looks like it will be gorgeous!

From my experience, here are some yard sale tips:

• Brightly-Colored Signs: Use the same color of posterboard for all of your signs. If your signs are uniform, folks will be able to follow them and know they're all for the same sale. (This is helpful, especially if you are located at the back of a neighborhood or off the main drag where many turns are required to arrive at your house.) Cardboard may be cheaper than posterboard but nobody can read a cardboard sign written in pen. So buy a couple sheets of brightly colored posterboard and a thick black permanent marker.
• Easy-To-Read Signs: When making signs, keep it simple. Using that thick black marker, write YARD SALE (or whatever you call it in your neck of the woods) at the top. Underneath, write your address: 123 Smith Street. You do not need to list the town you are in, because hopefully, passers-by are already there.  Draw arrows on your sign and make sure they are pointed in the right direction. You can put the date on if you like which may be helpful if your neighbors tend to leave their old signs up for  a while. Do not clutter up your signs with a list of what you have to sell. The point of the sign is to get people to your sale. They can see your junk once they're there.
• Be Ready: If you have advertised your sale or put signs up, be ready to sell. It's also a good idea, barring inclement weather, to stay open until closing time. Here in the South, a typical yard sale runs from around 7-noon. Where I grew up, yard sales run all day from 9-5. Find out what hours are good for sales in your location and follow suit.
• Have Change: Plan ahead and make a bank run the day before your sale so you have some change on hand. You want to do business, so you want to be prepared. If you price everything in quarter increments, you only need some quarters, and some bills for change.
• Price Your Items: Some folks love to make offers and barter for everything they find. Others are put off by no prices and will not ask. So it's a good idea to have most items marked. I normally will put a sign up for clothes prices since tagging every item of clothing is a bit ridiculous. And sticky tags fall off of fabric. I also like the simplicity of selling most articles of clothing at the same price. Small like items can be placed together in Ziploc bags and priced to sell as one unit.  You can still barter and negotiate prices with your customers, but having items priced will be easier for everyone!
• Get Rid Of It: Since you're having  a yard sale, you obviously want to sell things and make money. So price things to sell! Being an avid yard sale shopper, I know about what I would (or did) pay for each item so I price accordingly. Of course, there are some bigger ticket items that you want to make a specific amount of money on, but generally speaking, be willing to lower your prices a bit so things will move. You may make a little less money that way but you will make more than if you priced things higher and nobody bought anything. It will even out in the long run.
• Be Honest: If things are broken or rickety, say so. A handy man will often be interested in something he could fix or use for parts.
  
• Take Your Signs Down: At the end of the sale, take your signs down. This is a courtesy to your town and neighborhood. Old yard sale signs look nasty and drive me nuts.
  

And there you have it, tips for a successful yard sale. I'm off to take my own advice and price all that stuff!

A Patriotic Little Side Business

Hi readers!

Andy here. I wanted to let you know about some great people that I recently got involved with. Products For Good is a company that offers patriotic products while generating money to help support our troops and their families. Particularly those who have been wounded in combat. Here's how it works. If you click on this link, it will take you to my Products For Good order page. Any products that you purchase will provide a little extra income for MaryAnn and me AND you'll be supporting our troops as well.

Let me try to give you a brief history of the company. In 2003, British and American troops were sent in to Basra, Iraq to secure banks and other key facilities. In the bank vaults were found approximately 6,000,000 uncirculated, decommissioned Iraqi coins. As it turns out, the coins were decommissioned in the mid-1990's because Saddam Hussein's face was not on them. He actually ordered the coins to be melted down when he replaced them with something that featured his face. The coins were later brought to the U.S. and were sold to the gentlemen who run Products For Good. With the sale of shadow boxes that feature the coins, as well as other military-branch specific products, they (we) are able to give to our troops and their families in times of need.

I have never served in our military. My disability prevented that from taking place. However, I have two generations of incredibly proud military service ahead of me in my family. I see Products For Good as a tangible way that I can finally serve my country. For those of you reading this post who are serving or have served, thank you for fighting for my freedom. For you civilians, thank a veteran. Of course I would love for all of you to purchase something from the site. But even if you don't, I encourage you to take a moment to think about those who make the sacrifice of fighting for our freedom.

Works For Me Wednesday: Extra Books = Extra Bucks

I listed a stack of books on Half.com last week and I've already sold four of them. Yeah!

Half.com is a part of eBay. To sell books, after creating an account, you just type in the ISBN number and follow instructions for writing a description and picking a price. Once it's up for sale, you just wait until you get an email stating that you've made a sale. All you have to do then is ship the book(s). Half.com pays you directly according to their pay schedule.

I've sold books this way off and on for years, starting in college. I would buy the books I needed this way; there are often much better prices than the campus bookstore! Then after a semester or two, I'd sell them again to make money to purchase the next semester's textbooks.

Ok, so I'm not making hundreds of dollars each month by selling books this way.(You could if you had lots of popular items to sell, I guess!) But every little bit counts. This would be a great way to make a little extra Christmas money or to help pay for a weekend away. This can be a great avenue to bumping your savings account up a bit too.

I make some extra money for only about 15 minutes of my time, declutter my bookshelves and let someone else enjoy a great book at an excellent price!

That works for me!