Becoming an eBay Super Seller

Hey guys! Today I have a sponsored post for you guys. I have bought many things off of eBay, but never have I sold anything on there. I have a bunch of stuff that is sitting around that I could potentially make money on by selling on eBay and with these easy tips and tricks, you and I both could learn a few things. Thanks to The DIY Outlet for these useful tips.

______________________________________________________________________

Become an eBay Super Seller With These Easy Tips

You ever wonder, when browsing eBay, how some of those sellers can have tens of thousands of positive reviews?  Have you wanted to become one of those super sellers and watch the money pour in and give yourself that early retirement you’ve always dreamed of?  It’s a brave new world, becoming an eBay pro, but anyone can do it with the right know-how and gumption.  You may not get to 30,000 positive reviews, but if you want to be a credible super seller, you need to know how to make sure your auctions are the highest rated, and that your product always arrives safe.  Take a few of these pro tips and get on your way.

1.  Spruce up Your Ad

Some people copy and paste their ads or use different color text and all sorts of sizes.  They think that the formatting will allow their copy and pasted text to stand out because of its crazy and zany appeal.  That’s very wrong – all that formatting is a distraction and makes the ad hard to read, and also makes it seem amateurish.  Instead, use a very easy to read font like Helvetica, and use professional looking photos of your items.  Good lighting on the pictures is important, as the simplest little flaw, or rookie mistake, will make people less inclined to bid on your item.  Spruce up the ad with class, not with distraction.

2.  Buy it Now

eBay used to be all about getting deals on items that you sneakily grab on the auction block.  It’s too bad the service change to be one where it’s really just an online store most of the time, but that’s ok, it helps you.  Feel free to let buyers use a ‘buy it now’ feature.  Remember the old adage: one in the hand is worth two in the bush.  So instead of waiting seven days to hope that bid goes up higher, let someone give you the quick money now so you can turn to the next listing of a similar item.  Many sellers think that it’s essential to allow everything to go to a full term auction, but that simply is not the case.

3.  Protect and Over Protect

One way to cut costs is to skimp on the protective materials, but you shouldn’t make that mistake.  One damaged item on arrival will cost you many items’ worth of shoddier protection materials.  You can get a sealing machine at a site like theDIYoutlet.com and seal your item in protective bubble wrap.  This one time investment will yield such great results for your auctions that you’ll never risk getting that “-1” review because of a slight ding in the item that wasn’t there when you sent it.  If in doubt, over protect your item, even if you think it’s being ridiculous.  The amount of money outlay may seem like a bunch at the time, but again, saving money on protecting your product can back fire big time and cost you being a eBay super seller.  Don’t let that happen!

^Spruce up your ad

^Buy it now

^Protect and over protect

___________________________________________________________________

Hope these tips helps you out the next time you want to properly sell an item on eBay, I know they helped me for the future. If you have any questions at all about anything in this post, please feel free to contact theDIYoutlet.com, they have pretty great customer service!

Recipe: Tropical Smoothie

Hey folks! It truly feels like a long time since I posted a recipe with Emily & Kate, but today I am changing that. Of course I chose the easy way out and did another smoothie, but with the summer around the corner smoothies are my absolute go to. They don't make me feel bloated and I can replace a meal with a smoothie and feel full. 

Pineapple/Mango/Coconut Smoothie

All you need is a mix of frozen fruit (I got the Market Pantry blend from Target), almond milk, and ice if you want it chilled.

Take the frozen fruits and almond milk and throw them in the blender, in the frozen fruit blend it includes a yogurt mix so I added that into the blender. Mix that bad boy up until it's all blended together. Throw that baby in a cup, stick a straw in it and drink away. You can throw some ice in there to keep it chill. 

This was just a refreshing treat and on a warm summer day, it's the perfect way to cool off. 

In some other news, I rearranged my flight to New Orleans with A for the end of June and I am SOO excited!! I cannot wait to have a getaway with the boy and explore a new city with him. 

With that said, if there are any recommendations from you guys to go see and do while we're there please leave them in the comments below!

Also, if you didn't catch this on Twitter or Instagram, I got him to watch The Bachelorette with me and he was texting me the entire time with his predictions and comments, it was awesome. I don't think this is going to be a repeat thing, but at least he accepts that I watch this crap. Here are our predictions for the winner for Andi's season if anyone even cares lol.

Ok so now I realize this become more than just a recipe post, but who knows when a new post will be up with my scattered posting schedule. Join Emily & Kate for Tuesday's Recipe Swap with your own yummy recipe!

Come Fly With Me

Hey friends! So since I was super lazy and had absolutely no content for a post today, I'm gonna leave you with a post I wrote up for Kate @ Green Fashionista while she was away exploring Europe. I have been definitely wanting to go to Europe for as long as I could remember and just these pictures alone give me intense wanderlust.

I have never been to Europe, but definitely have plans to go one day hopefully soon. Here are a list of my must go places if/when I ever visit:

(to keep up with all my wonderlust follow my Pinterest board here)

//Madrid, Spain//

//Amsterdam, Netherlands//

//Budapest, Hungary//

//Salzburg, Austria//

//Barcelona, Spain//

//Dublin, Ireland//

//Munich, Germany//

//London, England//

//Paris, France//

//Venice, Italy//

//Santorini, Greece//

//Harrods in London, England//

If you guys have ever been to any of the above places I would love to hear about your trips there.

Peace out girl scouts!

Love Never Felt So Good...

Happy Friday y'all! I appreciate the comments I got on my horrible bridesmaid post yesterday. Unfortunately tons of crap happened and it looks like New Orleans is cancelled for her bachelorette party and I'm pretty bummed because we had a fun time planned. I am still trying to salvage the trip though. I was talking to A about how bummed I was and how I really wanted to go and obviously not waste the money on the tickets, he told me he was going to try to work something out so he could get off work (and get out of going to a wedding mind you) to come join me and explore NOLA. When he said this to me I was ecstatic, I know nothing is for sure and he may not be able to get out of going to that wedding, but just the fact that he is trying means so much to me, also shows me he is most definitely a keeper.

I of course suggested I just explore by myself if nobody was able to come and he wasn't having any of that. Isn't he the absolute sweetest?! I realize I sound kind of like a baby complaining about this, but I was pissed to be missing out on a vacation that I had been looking forward to for a long time. I'm so glad I got this guy in my life trying to figure something out and make it happen.

Anywhooo, enough of that drama I'll keep y'all posted on what transpires and if I do indeed get to go to New Orleans. I haven't backed my azz up in a while with Whit for a while so I'll do that. This song from the first time hearing it has given me chills and what better is a song with Michael Jackson & Justin Timberlake, I'll tell ya what, nothing! Nothing gets better than those two and this song just makes me wanna get up and dance around like an idiot!! Enjoy peeps!

#TotalSocial

After seeing so many bloggers post about this, I knew I couldn't be left out of the fun, so I'm joining in. Which means you guys get 2 posts today for the price of free, my fave price!

If you want to join in on this fun, hop over to Helene or Sarah's blog to get the deets or click on the banner below :).

This month is all about our "firsts" and since I'm going through crazy writers block and have been visiting a few blogs seeing what they did, I will borrow the way Emily did her post because it lists multiple firsts.
(I also found that I did a "firsts" post back in 2012 if you want to read it HERE!)

First Car
1998 Toyota Corolla in fire engine red.
This car was a beaut man, I hated when I had to be seen in it, but now I appreciate it much more. After I got a new car, my sister got this car and ended up totaling it after a few months. *tear*

First Time Shaving
7th grade (don't know how old I was).
The 7th grade formal was approaching and before then my mom always told me it was horrible shaving because it would grow back longer and thicker, don't know why our parents told us such foolish things. Well I snuck over to my neighbors house and she showed me how to properly shave my legs in her backyard hot tub. I cannot believe I had hairy legs up until that point, wowza!

First Job
Mrs. Field's Cookies.
It was my very first job as a fresh new 16 year old in the summer. I was there all day basically by myself since it was tiny so I pretty much ate cookies and drank ICEE's all the time, it was awesome. I'm sure my love handles are still paying for it. Plus since it was at the mall, my friends would come by and I would hook it up with cookies, I realize that's pretty lame now, but it was pretty cool back then. I'm sure my love handles are still paying for it.

First Car Accident
November 21st, 2012.
I managed to go 8 whole years without any accident which was pretty commendable, but my dad didn't really think that was a fun fact at the time. It was the day right before Thanksgiving Day and I was headed to the gym after dropping some friends off at the airport. It was technically my fault, but the lady I hit short braked and I had no choice but to crash into her. It was the most terrifying experience and I was shaking the ENTIRE drive home from that accident, not sure how I even made it back like that. You can read all about it in this post.

My poor baby Heidi

First Tweet
March 5th, 2009.

I was pretty lame with Twitter back in the day, but hey the POTUS and Britney Spears follow me and I will tell anyone that wants to hear it, it's exciting news!

First Blog Post
May 8th, 2012.
Welp, that reminds me it has been a whole 2 years since I started this whole endeavor! I can't believe I missed that without realizing it. Well HERE is the first blog post I published as makeupHER.

First Instagram Pic

Why I took a picture of my stairs is beyond me, but it looks like I was doing the photo a day thing, still it's a strange first pic.

Well that's all I could think up for this post. Hope you had fun learning about some of my firsts, what are some of yours? Share your link in my comments and join Helene & Sarah!!

How To: Be A Horrible Bridesmaid

Hey folks! I really wasn't going to post today mostly because I don't have anything new or interesting to post, but in light of recent events I feel the need to post. So I've mentioned before how my friend is getting married in July and I am a bridesmaid in her wedding. This all seemed like exciting and fun news for me until the planning actually started. I was with her for most of the decisions and her planning process and all was good and ok with me until a few months ago. I'm not sure how or when I started feeling like this, but it feels like I took a huge step backwards and look into this whole thing realizing that she has turned into an epic bridezilla. Now I feel like a horrible friend talking about this issue on my blog, but I need advice. This girl was one of my best friends before this whole wedding and it sucks to know things have gotten like this in such a short period of time.

The issue I am at is me simply explaining to her that I don't know if I want to get my hair done anymore because that's $60 gone from my pocket (on top of $100's of more that's already being spent on just her and her wedding). I hate bringing up finances, but I thought as my friend I could confide in her and have her realize that I have a lot going on and I have to just watch my spending a bit. Little did I know I woke the sleeping beast because I get this long drawn out text saying how upset she is and she thought I was getting my hair done so she gave the lady a final number, blah blah. Mind you she never once asked me if I was for sure getting my hair done because I had been iffy about it. I figured I do my hair for events anyways so I could just curl it and make it look cute on my own without having to shell out $60. Had I known this was going to wake the sleeping bear I would have kept my mouth shut and spent the money.

Now to get to where I am at right now, I have basically apologized for bringing it up (and yes other issues were also brought up, text arguing will be the death of me) and agreed to just do the hair with the girl she selected. No harm no foul, just forgive and move on with it all. Well, it's not that easy. You see all of this has caused her to basically say cancel our plans in New Orleans. You see that's a lot to throw at a girl with less than a month left to go on the trip. Flights have been booked, hotels have been confirmed, decorations have been bought, shirts have been ordered, etc. I realize where she is coming from because she isn't really getting a full on bachelorette party, a lot of her friends and cousins have bailed and it turns out it will only be the bride and 2 of her bridesmaids (one of them being me). So yes, a 3 person bachelorette party isn't ideal, but I know we will still make the best out of this situation and have fun and we have plans to make sure of that. So now I am working on repairing this whole thing for the time being and just focusing on her changing her mind about New Orleans. It is a little bit selfish, I haven't been and I've wanted to go for a long time and have been seriously looking forward to this trip. I took off adequate time at work and don't want that to go to waste, along with my flight...

I don't know what to do...at this point I am just going to try to mend things between us and power through until the wedding, I keep telling myself only 6 more weeks. I do think this all has affected our friendship and I don't see her as my friend because she hasn't done anything a friend would do for months now. She doesn't ask me about work or relationships or just life in general like we used to talk about, which bums me out. I understand planning a wedding is stressful stuff and she has a lot on her plate, but I don't think shutting your friends that are there for you is the best thing to do. I am stuck with how I want our relationship as friends to go on after her wedding. I have a feeling she may try to go back with being my "friend", but being so absent from all of that for so long and just trying to pick up the pieces and trying to fit them back together isn't that easy.

I am seriously considering the fact to just cut my losses after the wedding and move on with my life. If she isn't there for me when I need her, why should I continue being there for her? She has made being in this wedding become work and I am not even excited for it anymore, I just honestly want things to be over just so I could move on. Am I a bad friend for thinking this? I feel like a horrible bridesmaid and wish I was relieved of my duties, but it's too late in the game. I will just suck it up and put on my big girl panties and get through the next 6 weeks, but what after??

Any and all advice is seriously welcome for this whole situation. I know I haven't shared all of the issues, but anything would be helpful at this point.

End rant.

Warm Weather, Bridal Showers, and Graduations Oh My...

Happy Monday folks! Man oh man, times have been getting a lot busier lately, but it makes for fun weekends. This weekend was no different. We had summer weather all weekend long which has been awesome and much needed around here. Saturday was also my best friend's bridal shower that we threw for her and in the evening it was my baby sisters college graduation! To say Saturday was busy is definitely an understatement. Since I'm exhausted, I will just let the pictures do all the talking for this post.

I was so so happy with how my plan for the dessert table turned out. Her bridal shower theme was Parisian and I think we did a really great job about bringing that out with the decor. I made all the chocolate covered strawberries, Oreo truffles, apple slice bars, and cupcakes. The cake was made by a local bakery and it turned out way better than I could have ever imagined. I was thrilled with how it all came together, also the chalkboard idea for the dessert table was a Pinterest find which worked out well. 

From the bridal shower I had my sister's college graduation to go to. I am so incredibly proud of her for accomplishing something so great and challenging. 

Overall I had such a blast this weekend, but I am exhausted and need a week to recover! Hope you all had an equally fun weekend!

Linking up with Lisa & Bella for weekend recap and Rachael & Lisa for weekly wrap up.

Red Balloons...

Confession: I am mourning for a family I've never met or heard of before yesterday.

I'm sure most of you by now have heard about the tragedy that so deeply affected a fellow blogger, Jacqui and her family. The blogging community really is special and stands out to me tremendously during times of not only happiness, but sadness as well. Yesterday my Instagram and Twitter feeds were flooded with images and remembrances of this sweet boy Ryan, his family, and red balloons. At first I wasn't sure what was going on, but doing some research and reading what happened to this precious soul just broke my heart. I could not contain my tears and sadness for this seemingly wonderful family. When I think about how much sadness this brings to such a young family, it truly breaks my heart. I have no children so I can't exactly imagine how this would feel, but I do love my nephews and nieces and would lose it if something happened to them. This tragedy really brings you back to reality and shows you never to take life for granted because you really never know when it will end. If you wanted to read some more or get the whole story, you can read this blogger talk about it here. (Her site has crashed because of the outpour in visitors, so just check back later if it doesn't work right away.)

A beautiful angel was taken away from Earth and his family far too soon that Friday. Today I just wanted to dedicate my blog and my post to Ryan and his family. They are all in my thoughts and prayers and I'm definitely counting my blessings. No parent should ever have to go through burying their child, especially at 3 1/2 years old. Please keep this family and their new angel in your thoughts and prayers, hug your family extra when thinking about him.

#RedBalloonsForRyan

Linking with Bella for confessions & Kat for humpday confessions.

Recapping the Weekend

I am begrudgingly typing this up on this late Monday afternoon. I'm not sure why, but all I want to do today is just lay around and watch hours of Love It or List It on HGTV, pathetic I know. Well I figured since I did have a pretty productive weekend, it wouldn't be right if I didn't blog about it right?!

Well let's see, my best friend who got engaged a couple weeks ago decided they wanted to get court married so all of us joined them to watch them get married (legally). Her actual wedding ceremony won't be until next year, but legally they are married. It called for a fun day trip down to the city to city hall and lunch afterwards. It was awesome that I was able to be there to watch my friends say their I do's since we all know I'm a sucker for love. Afterwards we headed over to chef Rick Bayless' restaurant Xoco, a mexican restaurant with a twist. The food was really good and I recommend anyone going there if you get a chance.

After heading back home, I was excited that my package from Stella & Dot was finally here!!! I didn't mention this on the blog, but I was the lucky winner of Bella's $200 Stella & Dot giveaway and I went right to shopping as soon as I could. I was able to get some incredible pieces that I adore!!

I never thought out of 2500+ entries, mine would be the lucky one, but I'm loving that I won and was able to get some stunning jewelry and a gorgeous scarf!! If you want to pick up any of these pieces or tons of others, head over to Bella's blog for more info!!

Friday evening a bunch of us friends went out to celebrate our friends' new wedding at the place where they had their first date, Stir Crazy! The food and company was awesome and I had a blast during dinner, but definitely called it a night afterwards.

I also loved my fortune from that night, I think it's pretty fitting since I'm in a "new relationship".

Saturday I woke up early and wanted to take advantage of the sun shining outside. I cleaned up the deck and set out some of our patio furniture to lounge, that is until a critter was bugging me far too much. I think I soaked up a little bit of sunshine though.

The rest of the day was spent shopping for all the groceries and last minute things I needed for my friends bridal shower the following weekend.

Sunday morning I went to brunch with some friends and then picked up some baking supplies and spent the rest of the day baking, drinking wine, and watching Bridget Jones' Diary. It was the perfect girls day and wonderful way to end the weekend.

I also slacked on another aspect, the winner of my giveaway is Kate!!! Congrats girly, I'll be sending you an email shortly!!

How was everyone's weekend? Linking up with Lisa & Bella for weekend recap and Rachael & Lisa for weekly wrap up.