Summer Budget Part 1

     As you some of you may know I live in one of the most beautiful states and one of the most quietest towns. Way out in the middle of now where and on a student summer vacation, It can get boring. Living on a college summer budget finding things to do with out costing money is also  limited.

     One of the things I like to do at the beginning of every summer is do a super clean in every room. Removing all dust, garbage, and unwanted items. Lately I have been about "less is more" and use only "what you need".

When I get creative time and later as the summer nears end I can do a few fun things with out the worry of the cleaning up later. I don't know about you but I can not create and process business in a messy environment.

Here is my latest and ever going summer project on a 75 dollar budget.


Things I already had. table, chairs, umbrella. Most all pots have been collected over the years by either gifts, second hand stores or, recycled materials. AND my favorite great garage sale finds.

The main expense was the flowers, But I was able to find some good deals, and was able to get what was needed. After all the storms last year our flowers took a little beating. We did loose a few but were able to bring some back to life.

     In the photo below located in the upper left hand corner is the Before photo the happenings of a long winter here in the Northwest. This is what I call my summer office. I create mostly outside on the table and read alot on the lounge chair. I cant wait to use it this summer !!


      Next outside project is touch up painting the chairs and table red. I do at least every other year. And to sew the cushions for the chairs. Which was found for 4 bucks and a few yards of red and black thick fabric for re-covering, for 3 dollars.

Few second hand candles to help decorate and light at night. As well as some hand painted shells to decor the flower planter boxes. Cheap and fun project to do.

There are 5 light up decors located in the photos and oh my let me just say its amazing to sit out here at night. The newest addition is the brass stem and yellow-orange glass flowers. They are solar and are so beautiful lit up at night. They were 29.00 at Costco.

The rest was just a little elbow grease and a cute dog :) That's my beautiful Leerha.

Click on Photos to Enlarge....

A Personal Note

If your a follower of mine and have been please join me here on my journey. Recently with Facebook's new changes with business pages. I have found that it's just not the same as it was growing last year with some great facebook friends and followers. I still follow some of my closest business friends. But mostly threw different ways now. I find it harder with the way Facebook runs now its not as simple as it use to be.

Recently last quarter I did my final writing project on Facebook, right as the Facebook stocks were released. I hadn't paid close attention of the recent event until my writing project was due. Every quarter I pick something personal and close to me. Well this was certainly close to me. I have used Facebook for strong tool for personal out reach and growing connections with online business friends. I became more aware of the changes as I researched my project.

I received a 100 percent and a wonderful peer classmate response. As well as a wonderful instructor comments. I also have had some amazing conversations about this topic. I have come to the conclusion that it will never be the same. I had 2 pages one for each Etsy shop. I really loved growing my second page but than cell phone connection has happened. Now because my droid is hooked up to my fb I can't log into the second page with out having to do a security password each time leaving me to reconnect my fb back to my main and personal account.

Charging us to promote what we have built is another issue I have. Only til recently in the past few months before and now after stocks released I have seen why they do this. I really enjoy my facebook support and friends But after all these changes I will be using fb a little differently. I will still have my facebook page but I will be blogging much more. I will be doing collage photos to reduce clutter and reduce postings. Only focusing on my main projects.

I am still the same old me. Just needed to change in the best direction for me. My jewelry will remain in my shop as well as a few different types of art projects will be going in as well. The name of my shop will be changing at the end of the summer so that will be a big event for me. I am still focused on my main goal and have not lost track of where I am going. I do have 2 different charities in mind for the summer.

 I wanted to make sure to answer this customer question: Do you have to have paypal for etsy? You do not have to have pay pal to purchase from Etsy so if you like my work please feel free to contact me. If your a personal friend please message me on Facebook.

 I will be doing a little bit of fundraising for My aunt whom has a wonderful rescue ranch for wounded and sick animals. Currently she has some animals that need a little more love and that love requires some funds. She has just now became a legal non-profit organization and I would love to help.

As for my eBay shop, I will be having a packed store starting July 1st. For eBay is changing alot of things for sellers. Which is a great thing for me. I still am up for donations if anyone local has items for me. I will be donating 10 percent of clothing sales to the local boys and girls club.

I have seen some really horrible things happening to some of the kids in town, I have seen some awesome things the boys and girls club do to keep kids off the streets. From one of the Mom's I hear they did'nt receive enough summer funding. So I choose  this as my summer donation spot. Some items will be higher depending on the price. All books will be 15 percent.

Thank you for taking the time reading this and I look forward to growing with you. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to email me at obsidianrain146@hotmail.com Please let me know that its about this blog so I know that its a follower. I get about 100 emails per day and go threw them nightly.

Hoping everyone has an amazing summer!

Much luv,
Lornajane