355 days: my first giveaway!

So, I have 3 items left over from the raffle that I had to nix plus some handmade Scrabble tile necklaces that had been donated. I've been staring at them for weeks now wondering what to do with them and this morning, it hit me: I'll do a giveaway as a thank you to everyone for their support!

The Items!

The Scrabble Tile Necklaces, made by The Great and Wonderful Mrs. Gibby

Item #1
Tree necklace


Item #2
Stained Glass necklace


Item #3
Red Bird necklace


Item #4
Patchwork Quilt necklace


Item #5
Pigeon necklace


Item #6
Best Thing Since Sliced Bread necklace


Item #7
Shades of Blue necklace


Item #8
Spa Gift Basket


-10 oz and 2 oz bottles of Bath & Body Works Aromatherapy Body Wash (Lavender Vanilla - Sleep)
-Vibrating Sponge with batteries included
-hair clip
-rolly massager thing
-nail buffer/shiner
-Aveeno oatmeal bath
-pumice stone
-self-heating red clay mask
-1 oz Victoria's Secret illuminating body lotion
-Mary Kay Timewise cellu-Shape body moisturizer (1.7 oz daytime and 1 oz nighttime)
-.17 oz Aura Science eye recovery cream
-cute little basket :)

Item #9
Emergency Travel Case for Men


-carrying case
-Old Spice anti-perspirant and deodorant
-1.7 oz Gillette shampoo
-1.8 oz Dove body and face wash
-Gilette razor
-Chapstick
-grooming kit (nail file, tweezers, finger nail clippers, scissors and cuticle thing)
-bandaids
-Scope mouthwash (not pictured)
-nick stick to stop bleeding (not pictured)
-Aveeno lotion (not pictured)

Item #10
Wedding Emergency Kit


My maid of honor put some of this kit together for me for my wedding day and it was a blessing to have it on hand! It's filled with lots of little things you may forget on that big day that you'll find yourself needing! Would make a great bridal shower gift or just be nice to keep in your car for random other uses!

- carrying case
- protein bar
- matches
- toothpaste and toothbrush
- 4 Shout wipes
- 2 maxi pads and 3 tampons
- comb
- hairspray
- static guard
- sewing kit
- bandaids/alcohol wipes
- nick stick to stop bleeding (not pictured)
- tissues
- Tums
- ponytail holders
- bobby pins
- Aveeno lotion
- tweezers
- superglue
- clear nail polish (stops runs in pantyhose!)
- clear tape
- contact case
- saline solution
- nail file
- nick stick to stop bleeding
- small mirror
- hand sanitizer
- scissors

(The Scope mouthwash and one of the nick sticks pictured have been swiped from here and put it in the man's emergency kit, so they're not included.)

The Rules

The contest begins immediatley and will end 10/10/10. (Because that's a fun date!) I'll post the winners on 10/11/10.

Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.
You have 72 hours to get back to me with your mailing address, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Enter up to 4 times!

1. Leave a comment telling me which item you'd like to win along with your e-mail address.

2. Blog about it, leaving a separate comment letting me know you did so along with the item you'd like to win and your e-mail address. (You do not need to leave a link to your blog. We'll go on the honor system. ;)

3. Post it on your Facebook page, leaving a separate comment letting me know you did so along with the item you'd like to win and your e-mail address.

4. Twitter it, leaving a separate comment letting me know you did so along with the item you'd like to win and your e-mail address.

For each separate entry/comment you leave, you can list a different item you'd like to win or the same one 4 times - it's up to you! However, only list one item per comment.

amazing

I had a friend who lives across the country from me e-mail saying that since she couldn't be here to support our garage sale, she wanted to donate the $67 difference to make our total for the weekend an even $1k.

I am... humbled.

And get teary-eyed every time I think about what a sweet gesture that was.

341 days: The Garage Sale

The garage sale was a huge success!!!

My hope was that we'd raise around $500 but our grand total was $936! We have a TON of stuff left plus we got more donations, so we're going to reopen it next weekend - Friday and Saturday from 10-4. I have no doubt we'll break the $1k mark!! That's crazy!

We also had ice cream sundaes, pop, water, coffee, hot chocolate, chips, brownies and cookies. I will definitely have food at all yard sales I do in the future. We probably made about $60 on hotdogs alone!

I loved meeting all the people who stopped by who had adopted. We met foster families, people who had adopted from China and Russia, those who had done private and agency adoptions, special needs adoptions... all of it. Seeing their families and hearing their stories was just so awesome. It also made up for all the negative nancies who left comments on the paper's article online about us being lazy for holding this "so-called fundraiser" and not being appreciative of Kasen because we want more kids. I was expecting that because I've read it all before on other blogs, but I should have warned my family. They were definitely blindsided. :(

I only sold one of the raffle items, so I still have those left. If anyone is interested in buying one, go here to see what's left and e-mail me at mollie_79@yahoo.com.

I did sell 10 of the necklaces donated by my friend! Thank you, Lauren!!! They were very popular and are adorable! She sells them online at her Etsy shop if you're interested!

Also, my roommate is now selling Lia Sophia jewelry so we opened a book show with 10% of the profits going towards our adoption fund. Just go to www.liasophia.com to see their gorgeous stuff and e-mail me at mollie_79@yahoo.com with your name, address, order and payment information. I'll pass the info onto her, she'll place the order and your stuff will arrive in the mail in a couple weeks!

Pictures!

Our garage the day before the sale. It took me a week to get everything set up.


The first morning:


Tons of clothes:


All the stuff had to spill out into the driveway:


Shoppers!


Lauren's necklaces:


Kasen had fun spending so much time outside all day long with Poppy:


Reading an enclyclopedia that was donated to us:


Matching Daddy and Kasen:


Sidewalk chalk!


So. Exhausting, yes, but totally worth it! After next week's sale, I'll be going through all the kid/baby stuff and putting it in a consignment sale to see if I can sell any more of it. Everything else is being donated to my friend whose company is holding a fundraising garage sale for the Walk for Autism!