I owe you some posts, but for right now I’m sitting in the Lowe’s parking lot with a car full of plants. I think I ended up with 9… I’m feeling emboldened after keeping 2 plants alive for the last 2 weeks.

“But Erin” (you say) “haven’t you been out of town for the last week?”

Ok yes, but that just means that Blevvins and I are a power-plant-keeping-alive-team.

Winter is coming, and without my babies at home I think the plants will add to the Hygge that I NEED to get from October to April.

Plus, I know the science says they’re not actually going to scrub the air but there’s a placebo effect that I’m not discounting. And green is the best color!

xoxo

I know, I’m tired of hearing me talk about it too. But I’m down 99 136 142 143 items so far and I’m feeling really evangelical about it.

So, if you’d also like to get rid of things in exchange for a little bit of cash then let’s get started!

NB: Everything I know I learned from people who are better at this than me. My friend Tracy (@PolishedTwo) is a phenom and when I grow up I want to be like her. I’m still pretty new and learning things every day.

let’s roll:

download the Poshmark app.

 

create an account, pick a name for your closet that you think translates into a good shop name. I started off as a buyer on poshmark in 2016 under ershyn, but I changed it last month to shopmyfeelings.

 

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have a spot to take good, consistent, photos. I have a bright blank wall in my bedroom that I have put 2 command hooks on – one at a good height for dresses, and one for skirts/pants/etc.

 

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I also made myself a slapdash photo-box for photographing shoes, bags, cosmetics, smaller things. I used a white foam-core trifold board from Target. I cut off about 15 inches of one end (badly) and I use that as the base of my “box”. I was going to tape the whole thing together but I like being able to fold it up and put it away when I’m done taking pictures.

 

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pick 2 hangers that you like and use just those – one for skirts, etc and one for everything else. I started with a black plastic hanger and a broken clippy one. It doesn’t make a huge difference, this might be me being a little too picky, but I like how things look when photos are consistent and part of that is the hanger. After I’d sold 40 things I made my first poshmark investment – I bought a vintage 1960s clothing hanger from the Disneyland Hotel and a cool telescoping clip hanger for skirts, both on etsy. I spent about 30$ total – I’m not suggesting you do that. It just worked for me.

 

do a minute or two of research on the thing you are selling – what was its original selling price? what is that thing selling for right now? sometimes I gank a stock photo of the thing to use in my listing. I think technically this is frowned upon but it is widely practiced.

 

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measure the thing. armpit to armpit, waistband, and shoulder to hem are the big ones. cover your ass a little bit and put a disclaimer- I use “measurements are approximate and unstretched”. because they are. Keep a cloth measuring tape with your poshmark gear and know where it is all the time. people will want to know random measurements and it’s good to be able to get back to them quickly without having to go to target to buy a whole new tape because you have no idea what you did with the last one. (Yup, I speak from experience and I still haven’t found the first tape…)

 

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open the app – select “sell”- and start taking pictures. if you think they are too dark you can lighten them using the basic photo editing software on your phone. take pictures from different angles, take one of the tags, take one of the heels and soles of shoes and of any flaws in the clothes. sometimes the flaws make me decide that the item is going to goodwill, sometimes I list it anyways and just make sure I cover it in the description…

 

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write a good title and description – include the brand, size, color, type, style name, any imperfections at all with the item and anything that you’d want to know if you were shopping for that thing. Include measurements. Does it still have tags? Adding details through the app is very easy, it will lead you through the whole thing.

 

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Choose the price – good rule of thumb (that I read and follow but your mileage may vary) is to set your price at 50% of what the item originally sold for. Your GAP jeans that you paid 68 dollars for are now worth 34 dollars AT MOST, and likely will go for much less. That 68$ is a sunk cost, you’re not going to get it back, and that is ok. Sometimes you might sell a thing for more than you paid for it, but I’m talking about poshmark as closet clean out, not as a resale situation for thrifters. Lots of people DO make a living at reselling thrifted clothes on poshmark. It is a tough gig but if you can do it then more power to you. For me this is very much a side-hustle. (even though I don’t currently have a full-time-hustle…)

 

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or 11a. Poshmark takes 20% of anything over 15.00 and 2.95 flat fee for anything under 15.00. So keep that in mind when you consider listing everything at 5.00 to get it the heck outta your house. (not a terrible strategy but a limited one, especially if you want to lower prices or field offers.)

 

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fill your closet and share, share, share.

 

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When you make a sale- and you will if your photos are good, your prices are reasonable and your responses to potential buyers are timely and helpful… you need to ship within 3 days. Use up all of the boxes in your house first- from all of the online shopping that you’re NOT doing anymore and then turn to the good old USPS who will provide you with free priority mail boxes and envelopes.

 

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I spend money on the paper and ink to print my shipping labels, packing tape, tissue paper for wrapping the items and cute inexpensive thank you notes which I include in every package. It works out to less than .40 per package. Other than paper and printer ink don’t buy things yet! I’m positive you have a stash of cards somewhere that you never send, or pretty stationary or interesting post-its, and tissue paper or wrapping supplies from holidays and birthdays. Use all of that up first. The whole idea is to get all of this shit out of our houses, right? Plus, when else are you going to use that minions wrapping paper?

 

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*Don’t use newspaper* I know you know that, having at least purchased one thing from ebay at some point in your life. Newspaper is a terrible idea for anything other than packing dishes for moving or reading the obituaries.

 

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Is there more? Yes. Did you actually read this whole thing? Questionable. Do you need to? Probably not. Will you find it helpful? Hopefully.

I really think that it all comes down to common sense, and you’re all super smart so you probably didn’t need any of this. So thank you for indulging my need to write this.

And thank you for Re-homing your clothes instead of throwing them away, and thank YOURSELF for all of the room you’ll be making in your closet so that the things you actually wear can hang all neatly with room to breathe.

You rock.

xoxo

a few weeks ago I was in South Carolina drinking rum and floating in the sunshine when a friend suggested we sign up to do the trio of Marvel themed virtual 5Ks that Disney is hosting this summer. It took no time at all for me to plonk down my registration fee. At which point I had committed myself to run three different races over three months. (and by run here, I think I mean walk quickly)

hilariously I’m sitting here with a nice little bump in my achilles tendon which I’ve got to get a handle on – having my achilles tear and roll up my leg like a too-tight window shade is pretty much up there with having a clown in my back seat as one of my worst fears ever.

so- three “races” one each in June, July and August. I’m in AWFUL shape, I’m 60 pounds overweight – which is FINE, there are fat marathoners kicking ass and taking names all over the place running ACTUAL marathons, and triathlons, and ironmen (ironmans?) and ultras. so my fat ass can handle 3.1 miles. it’s not the physical shape of me that is the problem, it is the… physiological shape of me that I need to care for a bit better.

Naturally this weekend I registered for an actual physical, on property, Disney race. Because I don’t run, I may as well agree to do it four different times. I literally spent a full 60 seconds considering doing a 10K instead of or in addition to the 5K and then I got a cookie and some tea and came back to my damn senses.

January 9th – at 5:30am I’ll be running the Disney Marathon Weekend 5K for one of my favorite charities of all time: Give Kids the World. My goal is to raise at least 500 dollars to give critically ill children and their families a medically safe place to stay when their wishes take them to Walt Disney World.

In addition to hitting you up for money, (<— that’s the link again to donate) I’m also going to be oversharing my journey to running 3 miles in a row because I probably can’t just wing it the way I used to 10 years ago. All of a sudden I’m a little sad for the days when I could just go DO a 5K without thinking about it. And yeah, I know, you probably run 3 of them on a slow Sunday but some of us are busy curating our chocolate collections.

So if you need me I’ll be planning my costume.

xoxo

 

who is the writer of a shopping blog if she isn’t shopping? I’m in crisis. I’ve done ALL the laundry in the house. and when I say that I mean – when I got dressed this morning I put my pajamas directly into the washing machine…

I’ve got a box by the front door all the time and I keep putting things in it and every other Monday I’m taking a car load of stuff to goodwill. THERE IS STILL SO MUCH CRAP IN MY HOUSE! where the heck did I find time to acquire all this shit?

this morning I woke up, having started a new book last night, excited about justifying my laziness. I’m not great at not doing anything, I always feel like I have to justify downtime somehow. Hence the laundry I guess… annnnnyways. My thinking goes like this…

me: “I’m just going to rearrange my posh closet, but I’m not listing new things because I want to read my book.”

I check my email, there’s an email from Disney and here’s what they have to say about my plans:

Touché, Disney.

Now I’m in the bargaining stage of not shopping. because that fricking bag is coming home from Disney with me.

oh! I changed the name of my posh closet to @shopmyfeelings

also! unrelated to this I am officially incorporated in the state of Massachusetts to be a wholesaler of pipe, valves and fittings. My new company is called Local Solutions, Inc and now you know as much as I do about that. The wheels of progress are rusty. I am taking a pre-certification course with the State of Massachusetts to learn about becoming certified as a woman-owned business. So that’s cool. Still not sure what I’m selling though…

I am the queen of notebooks and lists, there are notebooks everywhere in my house just in case I need to make a list. everywhere but my bedside table – which sucks because I definitely had a great idea for a book in the middle of the night but couldn’t find anything to write it on… so that’s gone.

I do want to write a book though. I’ve been reading a lot and I feel like I’m up to the challenge. (if you’re an author I’m not discounting your craft, I know creativity is hard)  So that was going to be my goal for 2019 since I’m not doing anything else (other than starting my own business)  I always figured it would be some kind of humorous memoir about cults and body image and unhealthy relationships with food and leaving the house – and that is coming, but it might not be first. I feel like I want to write a domestic noir. That’s how it is done, right? I speak it into existence and then I’m getting a movie deal? A Simple Favor was Darcey Bell’s first book. Isn’t that incredible?! She was a preschool teacher in Chicago.

6:53pm, never read any of my book.

sigh.

xoxo

I just signed in to write this post and it offered me the option to post on any of my 3 blogs that I have through wordpress. I didn’t remember that I had 3. one of them is called ‘365 days to disney’ which is adorable. and also- how did I not keep up with a full on disneycentric blog?! I’ve got problems.

for anyone keeping track at home we got home from Disney on Monday and my next trip is in… 49 days. So maybe I should change the name of that blog to ‘spoiledass disney princess goes to disney too much’ – though I could change the name of THIS blog to that as well.

bless me father for I have sinned, it has been 15 days since my last blog post, and these are my badly thought out favorites.

 

 

Recreational marijuana is about to be legal in Massachusetts. But that’s not my favorite part. THIS article from the Boston Globe  is my favorite part.

only in Massachusetts do we need a newspaper article to help us get over our puritan anxiety about not looking like a moron when we go to buy legal weed for the first time. And I for one say – thank you Boston Globe! because it just means that I’m not the only person who wouldn’t try it because I don’t know what the heck I’m doing.

also covered in that piece : what it will cost, how to order, how to pay, where to store it, what to do if you have a bad high. not mentioned: hot chocolate or something sweet.

 

 

reading.

I’ve written about specific books once or twice I think – currently I’m reading The Party by Lisa Hall – I go through phases, and right now I’m in a Domestic Noir phase-

Oprah’s book club put me off celebrity book clubs – but then Felicia Day’s Vaginal Fantasy book club happened and restored my faith in them. So when I saw that Reece Witherspoon’s book club had recommended a book that I LOVED (The Lying Game by Ruth Ware) I thought she might have some good stuff to suggest.

 

And she does! Thanks to her book club I just finished The Other Woman by Sandie Jones. It was ridiculous, a good, fast read. I have hated going to work this week because I JUST WANT TO BE HOME READING.  Maybe wearing a toasty pair of footie sweat-pants.

But not only has reading been my favorite but the recent freedom experienced by putting down a book that was DRAGGING MY ASS DOWN has been my favorite. I read an article in the Harvard Business Review about how to read more books – and one of the suggestions was to drop a book when it starts being a chore. Obviously that doesn’t apply if you’re reading for work, or school, but if you’re reading for fun? Put that bench down and find another!

are you on goodreads? I am. you should friend me so I can stalk your reading list. I’m always on the lookout for my next favorite book.

 

 

I can’t think of anything to make #3. which is funny because like I said in my first ever post: everything is my favorite.

so while we’re talking about reading I’ll list a couple of my favorite mental health and feminist influencers.

Like Cranky Fat Feminist.

and Jes Baker (The Militant Baker.)

oooh or Virgie Tovar. Maybe especially Virgie Tovar. She’s incredible. and she’s everywhere, like contributing to Forbes, like a boss.

or The Bloggess.  especially especially her most recent blog post about Asha Dornfest’s blog post about dusting off our blogs and writing the things, uniting people over ideas and generally screaming together into the Aether while we save America and one another.  AND and and. the comments on the Bloggess’ post are LOADED with links to other blogs. so go read, and follow, and let’s save America by rebuilding communities of ideas.

 

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so- that’s what I’ve got. I’m especially enjoying the very Friday nature of this three favorites for Thursday. have a great weekend. read all the things.

xoxo

Another week, another Thursday where the news cycle has had me in constant fight or flight. That alone is probably going to cause our entire generation to live shorter lives than our Boomer antecedents. Thanks for weakening unions, Brenda, glad you’re about to get your vested pension though. Love you, mean it.

So… things that are my favorite. (other than the basics like clean water, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, marriage equality – which just turned 3- Happy Birthday!)

We will call today’s list: Summertime Hygge. Because hibernation with the people we love, candlelight, good books and conversation over wine aren’t only for winter.

 

 

I love being cozy. Being cozy is my favorite. For this reason I own 23 pair of Lularoe leggings and they’re the thing I put on as soon as I get home. I’m sure you know a dozen people who sell those so I won’t hit you with another, but I will hit you with the most comfortable cardigans ever ever ever. I called them “kryptonite cardigans” to my Trunk Club stylist and she sent me TWO in my next box. (My fault for announcing my weakness like that). I love this style with the ruched sleeve, it keeps them looking a little more polished, and they look nice over little dresses at work, bringing the cozy feeling to the summertime air conditioned office. Nordstrom has some on sale pretty much all the time. They’re so soft it’s almost unfair to every other article of clothing you thought was comfortable before. These are true to size and wash and wear well.

 

 

Since the goal is summer coziness in the face of uncertainty and anxiety #2 has to be the weighted blanket I referenced last week. I bought the:

YnM Cooling Weighted Blanket, 100% Natural Bamboo Viscose, 15 lbs 60″x 80″, Thin Gravity 2.0 Blanket, Great Sleep Therapy for People with Anxiety, Autism, ADHD, Insomnia or Stress, Dark Grey

I know I mentioned it very briefly last week but I love it, it isn’t as heavy as is recommended for my weight but I want to be able to carry it around or fold it without pulling something, and I’m not sure it’s “cooling” but it is definitely cool and never makes me feel as if I’m over-heating. I didn’t buy a duvet cover for it so I can’t speak to those. Also it makes for an excellent nap.

10 outta 10. Would buy again.

 

Three is Thor: Ragnarok. No, I’m kidding. Though after cocktails last night I DID fall asleep watching it again. You gotta do what you gotta do to get through the next few years.

My other other favorite thing this week is art. Specifically from the Cactus Art Gallery in LA. Their exhibits are SO FUN. Their artists are diverse and interesting and the subject matter is as well.  I got this one recently- I’d been eyeing it and went back this week to discover it was still unsold – so that’s a sign, right?

I think this is my third or 4th piece from the Cactus Gallery. Their pricing is accessible and it doesn’t feel stuffy but still feels like I’m putting a nice collection together.

Their current show is called Board and Room in a Mushroom… and I want all of it.

 

Support artists (and all fellow humans) with encouragement – even when we aren’t making a sale it is still nice to hear that our work says something to you.

xoxo