The Yerdle turtle Yerdle's on

It's been sometime since my last post, more because I've just not felt like blogging, but that doesn't mean things haven't been happening.  My goal to decultter this year by 1000 items is still going strong and thankfully I've come across a site called Yerdle, which has been a huge support and push towards my goal.  

If you've not heard of yerdle and you want to downsize I highly suggest checking it out, but don't want to just write off your items or donate them with nothing to gain in return.  Resell can be hard and long road to travel, but Yerdle takes all the hardwork out of it with their easy step-by-step posting on their free app and since people are only using real money to pay for shipping items are more easily and quickly re-homed.  

bundle system & how it works

This last month they came out with a new bundling system ready for iPhone use and beginning this month both iPhone and Android will have their new bundling system available.  This allows "getters" to  bundle up to 4 listings from one "giver" as long as they all weight under 10-lbs, this means both the box weight and box dimensions.  

 "Getters" or the shoppers browse the site and when they see an item they like they can choose to purchase that single item at the Yerdle Dollar price plus the $5 flat rate shipping, and the service fee.  If you choose to add more items from that "giver" to your cart you can add up to 3 more listings for for a flat $2 bundle fee.  Once the purchase goes through the "giver" receives an email with a link to the shipping label, so all they have to do is print and tape the label on the box.  

 

things I've learned as a Yerdler:

I don't always find multiple items from one giver and find that the item I would like isn't worth the shipping / service fee so I tend to pass on a lot of items, but sometimes it's uber worth it and I'm glad I did.   

The one thing I've learned the hard way is that if you want something you need to act quickly.  There isn't time to think about most items, especially nicer items, don't last long on Yerdle.  I've had a few things I've missed out on like Toms shoes and a copper measuring spoon set that I highly regret not buying. 

I also find that because I'm trying to downsize I don't find as much to buy with my yerdle dollars, but I'm sure as time goes by I'll find things that I can use and hopefully get some items on my ISO list that I will need extra Yerdle dollars for.  Some of the things i do keep an eye out for is clothing, mostly shirt and workout gear. 

Great Community:

 Yerdle offers 2 support groups on Facebook, one for newdlers (Jetsetters) and then once you "give" over 30 items you graduate to the pro page.  These groups, become a great support community where you can share you're finds and support each others questions and share listings.  When I first started I wasn't aware of the jetsetters page, but it wasn't long until I hit pro before I received an email to join the FB group.  This has been support and I love learning about other members and supporting out pages and questions that we have.   

I love how the community supports each other and shares listings of other members that they think others will like.  We give and get from each other items that we no longer have a use for, save these items from being toss in the land fills, and earn some points to trade for items that we can use.  Personally, I find this to be more beneficial then donating them, but I'm also used to shipping items out and I've figured out how to get my shipping supplies pretty much cheap to free.  

My gives:

I have personally given over 270+ items since joining in August and I'm pretty excited about re-homing my items to others who can use them and earning Yerdle dollars to purchase items that I can use.  Items I've been able to "get" are new gym bag, new with tags workout clothes, microwave egg cookers, computer headphones, new clothes and dresses, most of my Halloween outfit this year, a $60+ digital TV antenna, travel wallet, and some cute sunglasses.  Most items were on my list of items I wanted, and I only had to "give" items I wasn't using and pay a flat rate shipping fee to get them.  I'm also grateful that a few items that I "got" that didn't work out were easily #reyerdled quickly so it eliminates clutter building up.    I've even create larger bundle options for people so that more stuff goes out quicker.  I'm pretty sure I'll hit my goal by the end of the year, especially since I haven't added up all the items we purged during our flea market set ups this summer .

disclaimer:

If you choose to sign up, and you use my link --> https://yerdle.com/i/jessa-george, this gives you and I both Yerdle dollars when you sign up.  Yerdle will give you & myself anywhere from 20-40 Yerdle dollars when you sign up to get you started it just depends on how much they are giving during that time frame or promotion, and I also earn a chance to get free shipping credits when you give your first item.   I do not earn any real money if you choose to use my link, but it does help them to know how you found out about the site.

Thrift Score August

SimR Ware Slow Cooker

Just look at those feet, sigh.  That's what got me when I saw her on the shelf.  I know she's missing a knob and she's also rusting around the feet and the back seam, but the inside is a perfect opal.  I hopeful that she works great and that I'll be able to sell my smaller more 70s style slow cooker to pay for this one. 

4-PC Stacking Mugs & Tupperware Veggie Steamer

I'm loving all that green, especially those darling stacking mugs that I spotted on etsy a few months ago.  There is one set of 2 currently for $18.  So I'm pretty proud.  they are so me!  I'm planning on cleaning up my "measure" mug holders that I was trying to sell and use it to hang these ladies up.  

The Tupperware veggie steamer sells for $25 NIB and I recently purchased on in Like New Condition from a friend for $20 and I didn't even pay a 1/3 of that for this lovely gal.  I'm super excited and plan to resell the other one and keep this one.  Love those colors, sigh. 

Mushrooms Mug

This guy is uber awesome and he'll look great at my coffee station where my mushroom collection is growing. 

Half Cup of Coffee Mug and Floral Japan Mugs

I wasn't able to find the mugs so I'm not sure exactly who the designer is, but there were definitely a wide selection of the half cup mugs with a listing price ranging from $5-$18.  I like the mug, but not sure I would pay the higher price point for it.  All 3 of these babies are heading for resell. 

SALEM Stoneware Mugs Georgetown Floral

These are super adorable and range anywhere from $5-$12 individually to a set of 4.  I picked them up because a) I'm a sucker for anything stamped Japan and b) they are colors of my bedroom.  I know I wasn't going to use them there, but figured I could add them to my resell pile. 

Movement is happiness

Movement is happening is our Simplifying Home Goal & our outbox is filling up with items that we are letting go. It’s pretty exciting and I’ve really been getting into this more now. I’ve cleaned up the items and already taken photos of most of the outbox items and now it’s time to edit & research. This is the process I dislike the most mainly because it takes time. I could spent around an hour just on one items, because I have anywhere from 3-6 photos per item, and then I’ll adding them to frames, searching ebay and etsy to know the going rate and then adding the description and photos to at least 2 online albums. It’s pretty time consuming, but overall I love the outcome. My spirit is lighter, my anxiety is getting better knowing that things are moving out of the house. There still is A LOT of stuff everything and I’m still working on figuring out the best way to organize everything and feel like I’m living in a house and not a hoarders paradise, especially when I have people coming over to look at my larger pieces that simply won’t fit in my car to meet them nor do I have the muscle to move the items. 

This week I’ve taken another 50+ photos using my make shift low cost photo studio and a few towards the end I started adding props in with the items. I love what the color pops do and how it helps to give each item life and added dimension.

Another thing I decided to do to keep my items rolling out the door is making sure that I upload a preview item of every photo that’s currently hiding in my camera. This will remind me of the items that still need to go through the final stages and allow my items to still be seen.  

Thrift Score June

I found these lovies my last trip to drop off donations.  I'm super excited about the PYREX S/P Shakers, especially since i didn't realize they were PYREX until after I got them home and was ready to fill them.  The branding is an etched glass very small towards the bottom.  they work great, actually the only set of shakers I've brought home that I've actually used. 

The farmers tin is perfect for our flea market money box and the tulip dish goes (well mostly) with my Japan Tulip Canister set that I have in my bedroom.  They are both stamped Japan, have the same coloring, but  but the tulip pattern is different...I was so close.

I found this green Hoover beauty on a local FB Yardsale page and I'm loving how well she still works.  I need to order new bags, but outside of that I don't regret my purchase. 

This guy has an funny store as he almost didn't even make it home with me.  I walked by him twice at a local church's annual flea market my mom and I participated in.  After some debate I realized I wasn't even spending a dollar on him and if I found that he would have no purpose in my home that I would just simply resell him for what I paid so I happily paid for him and took him home.  

He was useful for about a week as a place to store extra change, but then decided to use him as part of my staging to sell my IKEA BESTA TV Stand and I've had multiple buyers interest in him.  I should seriously start a bidding war for him.  Highest bidder gets the whale! 

Happy Thrifting!! What kind of goodies have you found???

SM: Learing to Simplify

I've definitely made some progress this year when it comes to simplifying my home and feeling like my life is balanced again:

• I scaled back on my possessions by committing to work the flea market on a bi-monthly basis.
• I created a facebook page solely for posting my items for sale. 
• I've opened a separate bank account so that the extra income actually goes on bills.  
• I've caught up on 3 bills that I neglected -- though I still have 2 more before I'm completely caught up.
• I've accepted the fact and realized that it's not possible to clean the house, workout, take/edit/post photos of things for sale, declutter, spend time with my boys (aka the cats), cook a healthy dinner, work on my blog, and pay my bills all in one day.  Trust me when I say that this was not easy for me to admit.  I'm a perfectionist so my mindset say that I should be able to do all this but I came to realize that trying to do all this wasn't adding quality to my life, just more stress. 
• I admitted  that I needed a daily and weekly routine to help simplify my schedule and allow myself to work on all the areas that I listed above while staying focused and organized. 

The further I get on this new path of simplifying my life it helps me to tackle more to-dos that once made me feel so overwhelmed.  Life is definitely looking good now that I can see the light of a simple vintage life ahead of me once again. 

As I continue to create these printables for myself I'll make sure to share them with you just in case it may help you in your daily routines and path to a more simplified life.  Below you'll find my first printable that I made to write down my goals for the my Fitness, simplifying my home and my personal / blog for the month of June.   

Just Right Click and select “Save image As…” if you want to use my printable.  
The fonts used are: The Skinny + Orniste TFB and a Gentle Touch.

Here are a few sites that I've found helpful in creating my daily/weekly routine and learning to use a planner:

• Life According to my planner
• The Thinking Closet: The One Thing I Changed 
• From Overwhelmed to Organized:   Why Simplifying Is More Powerful than Organizing

finding my balance part 2

The Social Dancer

Another part of my life that needs balance is my social life, which for the last few years has revolved around dancing.  Before I started dancing 7 years ago, and even up until about a few years ago my social life was pretty varied; I attended church, participated in young adult groups, hiked, hosted an occasional dinner party, and  when I lived in Colorado I used to bike.  However, this last year my only social avenue has revolved around dance events and exchanges;  Lindy Hop, Blue's Balboa, West Coast Swing and Fusion.  There is nothing wrong with it per say as I really enjoy the connection time off the dance floor that I've had these past few months traveling to the Baltimore, and D.C. scenes.  I've really felt apart of the scene especially in D.C. and I am making more of an effort to make the 2-hour trip down.

However, it would be nice to have some friends locally that I connect with in that same manner, but with my social focus being around dancing it's hard to meet anyone locally and even the closest scene would be York or Lancaster, and they are still 30 minute to an hour drive.  My main thing really is to have the quality time and there are a few friends from my old church or even old hobbies that who I miss hanging out with and some one-on-one time to catch up would really be nice. 

That's me in the pink shirt under the spell of Bitter Dose Combo, a favorite band, as they perform at DCLX 2013 on Sunday afternoon. photo credit: Jerry Almonte.

------------------------ becoming a fit dancer ------------------------

It's amazing what you learn about yourself just by watching other dancers who are in their realm and it didn't take me very long to realize just how mediocre my so called "creative dance style" is and that I've got some work to do if I'm going to spice things up, so I've decided to dedicate an hour a week to practice different moves that will expand my dance move library so I can more flavor on the dance floor.

check out my vanilla moves

Here are a few of the moves I plan to work on:
* lock turn w kick ball chain
* eggbeater (in link above)
* heal stands
* helicopter
* falling off the log (6:05)
* the mess around
* hip thrust
* susy q. 

------------------------ dancing is exercise ------------------------

Lindy Hop (LH) is not only a social avenue for me, but it's also a way to keep fit since you can burn 1,000 calories in only a few hours depending on the advancement and intensity of the dancers in your scene.   My local scene is primarily East Coast Swing / Jitterbug, which doesn't compare to the original intensity from the 1920s and 1930s.   There are exceptions like on our Monthly dance in Colombia when most of my Happy Lindy dancers are present and I leave dripping sweat, which is a sanctifying feeling.  I also get a chance to catch up with some of my favorite people in my scene. 

Hooked On Swing Dancing
by BadZKarma99

I plan to start attending a weekly dance in Baltimore that gives me the intensity I desire and will be counting it in my weekly routine as an alternative cardio day.   The drive can sometimes be rough at 1-1/2 hours, but I also plan to treat myself to my favorite Starbucks coffee - soy latte and 2x shot of raspberry.  This also keeps me traveling outside of my scene where there are more advanced dancers to remind me how vanilla my moves really are.

Keep in mind that any Arial moves {seen in the video above} are reserved for the competitions and are not appropriate / respectful to be done on the social dance floor.  

part 1: Fit Life
part 3: Home Care

For the Love of Muffins & Birthdays

Tuesday April 16

It's that time of the year where I celebrate me, Remanence on the happy years before and make plans for the year to come, but the day really really seemed like any other and was over as fast as it started.  The one thing I do look forward to for my birthday is attending D.C. for their Lindy Exchange (April 19-21);  a whole weekend dedicated to swing dancing (Lindy Hop and Blue's during the late nights).  Previous years I've gone down on Friday after work and drive back Monday afternoon once I've rested, but this year I headed down a day early to attend their weekly event, Back Room Blue's that I've been wanting to attend for a while now. 

Birthday Surprise

Well, anyways back to my present, which is so fantastically gorgeous and stunning!!!  Yes, I bought a dress, well  okay I didn't buy it, but my mom did for my birthday.  This will be the 2nd dress I bought in a month, which is not normal for me as I really don't like wearing dresses. However, after trying this dress on at TJMAXX by Ralph Lauren I was a total fan and really wanted it, but the price was steep at $60 and I wasn't really sure how often I would wear it so the price just wasn't practical at all for that uncertainty of wear.  Well, after showing the photo to my mom, along with some other things I hadn't bought that same day she surprised me with it.  I was super stoked.  Don't I look amazing!  

Those who know me would be proud that I have worn it already for an event.  I took it down to DC with me my birthday weekend and Wore it Thursday night for Back Room Blue's.  I had lots of people compliment me on how great I looked in it and one specific guy who made me blush by saying to me just before we began our dance that "You look amazing in that dress." Sigh.

Birthday Muffins

I came into work this morning w a platter of yummy looking blueberry & poppyseed muffins on my desk and secretly hoped they were for me & Indeed they were. Shortly after settling in my wonderful coworkers Ron, Sharon & Renee came over,lit a birthday candle on the center muffin & sang me happy birthday. It was pretty exciting and very thoughtful, especially since muffins are healthier then cake. I love that! And I especially love blueberry muffins

Closet Reorganize

I've also been pretty steady and proud that I've been adding more items to my postmark closet. Some things have sold, but not to many these last few weeks.  With that I also cleared out my closet on my birthday, on 04/16, clearing out quite a bit more items and then separated my apparel so it's easier to find the right outfit.  All my dancing and dressier tops are all located now on the top rod and all my work shirts are on the bottom rod.  It's been much easier this last week to find the right top to go with the specific outing. 

For the Love of San Diego

I just felt like reminiscing on a happy a time in my life and adding a few photos to remember being with my best friend in San Diego and dreaming of when I'll be able to go back. 
 
September 12 to 26, 2012 Trip to San Diego to visit my best friend.

My best friend and I getting ready for an evening out.

Her quaint apartment complex

Week 1:

Breakfast, egg scramble with sundried tomatoes, crushed red peppers, and cumin.

* 13th Beach Day + 4 mile run along the beach
* 13th Walk to Sprouts
* 14-16 SFLX - San Francisco Lindy Exchange

pre-dance primping

* 15th Castro Coffee Company {delicious coffee & good humored service}
* 16th Shopping day in San Francisco

We saw this shirt at a consignment shop and both tried it on as you can see I ended up with up and am so thankful, I LOVE this shirt!  Its become my most favorite shirt and I wish I had a few more like it for dancing.

A art print that I was interested in at a local shop.  

A Ferris Wheel at a shopping mall in LA.

* 16th Dinner with Angela at a Thai Restaurant
* 17th Brunch and Coffee with Michelle's Uncle
* 17th Danced at the Madonna Inn in S.L.O.
* 18th Alma Rosa Vineyard - Winery

These were my two of my preferred wines at Alma Rosa.

* 18th Solvang town & Brewing Company

The whole town looked just like these buildings.  Very quaint and very touristy.

I very much wanted to take this purse home, but even at 50% off it was still a $60 purse in a touristy town, which meant I knew it was overpriced anyways.  Though i still think about this purse and the beautiful Kelly green.

Their sampling mat.  We each chose 3 samples; my first choice, Seasonal Fruit Harvest, was a favorite among the group.

Week 2:

Old Fashioned Organic Oatmeal w strawberries, cinnamon, brown sugar, & apples.

* 19th Danced at the Firehouse, San Diego
* 19th Walked to Sprouts
* 20th Carl took me out dancing at 2 venues
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* 21 - 23rd Ultimate Blues Dance Weekend - Festival
* 21st 4 mile run downtown Hillcrest
* 21st dinner at Fig Tree Cafe
* 21st dinner after the dance {Japanese Restaurant}
* 22nd PB Farmers market & Blue's Festival

Really delicious avocado honey at Pacific Beach Farmers Market

* 23rd Yoga on the Beach + movie night
* 24th 4 mile run downtown Hillcrest
* 24th Movie {Lucky One} & Dinner with Telly & Turquoise
* 24th CD release party
* 25th Lunch with Michelle & Telly. Walk to Balboa park with Telly

Dinner at Philly Cheese Steak restaurant.
* Danced at Henry's Pub to the Stilettos

Green Chevron Love & Christmas Wrap Up

I've been needing to take down our Christmas Tree and what few decorations we had up and I'm finally glad to have it clear out, especially since it sparked a makeover in my Living and Dining Room. 

Here is what I started with to take down.

I started out taking down the ornaments from the tree, then the beads/garland and then tucked the faux tree back in it's neat little box and it's now put away in our still needs to be organized  basement and then I began to vacuum the living space before making a move for the sectional.  The original thought was just to move it away from the wall a few more inches, but then decided to make a whole new layout for the living room, which I'm quite delighted with.

Merry Christmas to Me
Also, here is the beautiful Chevron Wool Jacket my best friend ordered for me from Poshmark.  I love it!  Though the hip area is a bit snug, but still very much wearable.