BAKED! (Totally Legal! Haha)

Attempt #2 for earning some glaminar money down and this time it was a success!

One of the other things my pesky self-confidence will allow me to admit that I'm good at is baking. A few years ago (in college, while taking French courses), I took a trip to Paris.

See?? That's me at the Palace of Versailles

To take that trip, I used all of the money I had put back in savings, I found some sponsors, and I put together a bake sale at my Aunt's salon. I found it to be a fairly lucrative venture.

Why not do it again?

Thursday, I went to work then came home at 7:30. I ate my dinner, then napped until about 11:00PM. That's when I got up and started baking like crazy! I baked brownies. I baked banana bread. I baked strawberry, blueberry, strawberry cheesecake, and chocolate chip muffins. And I baked chocolate chip, sugar, and peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies. I would've done some cupcakes (my baking specialty), but if you've ever been outside in the south in the middle of July, you'll know it's really, really hot. Icing would melt like nobody's business. Anyway, I busted my little booty baking and baking and bagging up each sweet treat until about 3:00AM (Okay, it wasn't that bad, really. I kept it kind of small because I wasn't sure how it would go. How often do you find bake sales outside of elementary school?) Then I jumped in the shower and got myself dressed for work. Made it to work by 4:30AM Friday morning. Left there by 9:30AM, drove my 30 minutes home, whipped together a big "BAKE SALE" poster, changed into some appropriate southern summer clothes, got my things together, dropped my dog off at my mom's (I haven't mentioned my puppy. She's my baby... a sassy little black and white shih tzu. My mom has a little black and white maltipoo and they play together, so cute!), grabbed some lunch, and headed out to my bake sale location.

My step-dad's brother (my step-uncle?) runs a gas station and he let me set up there. I was set up and ready to go buy noon.

It was slow starting and miserably hot and I started thinking it had been a bad idea. About an hour and a half later, I shifted from my spot near the road to right in front of the gas tanks, near the road. I roped in a few more customers that way. About thirty minutes after that, my step-dad's sister (my step-aunt?) who works at the store came out and asked me why on earth I was out there under the sun. She helped me move my table close to the door of the store and into the shade.

I stayed there until about 5:30 yesterday afternoon (even ran into my very first boyfriend, whom I haven't seen in almost 10 years). I sold nearly everything I baked and probably would've sold all of it if I had stuck it out another hour or so. But, I was sunburned and hot and sticky from sweat.

Not to mention, when people found out why I was sitting out there and doing the sale, they'd give me some money just to help out and they wouldn't take any treats! I was suprised how often that happened. It touched my heart to see people being so generous. During the daily grind, you find so many people who are ill and unhappy and frustrated and we're all guitly of feeling that way, but it's really nice and uplifting when you find so many people who just want to help you out, even when they don't get anything in return for it. There were even three or four people who gave me $5 bills and wouldn't take anything! $5 might not sound like a lot of money to a lot of people, but it's a GIGANTIC help to me... and they add up! So nice of those people to do. I felt like saying "thank you" was not enough! I wish I could find each of those people and do something nice for them in return.

So, like I said before, the bake sale was a success! Next weekend I'm going to do another one. And I'm probably going to keep it up every weekend, switching up my locations, at least until the glaminar, and maybe even on after that to put some money towards cosmetology school.

I've already got plans for Attempt #3: YARD SALE! Planned for August 7th. There's so much to do! Organizing and pricing, and I've had some friends and family donate some things for me to sell, so I have to get that organized and find some tables and put an ad in the paper for it. AH! So much to do! Will update on it soon!

Me with my baby, Callie, and my mom's baby, Annie! These are a couple years old, but still super cute!

Clay Crazy!

My first idea for earning some money was to buy some polymer clay to make jewelry out of.

I had great hopes and intentions of making pendants and beads for necklaces. I can remember using polymer clay as a kid and there are lots of people out there who make good money using it to make jewelry.

Pfft. Let me say, it's possible to make some cool/cute stuff out of the clay... but it is a HEADACHE! I spent an entire day trying to make all of the things I had originally thought of. All of that turned out to be pretty sad attempts. Finally, much later that night, I started making these really cute, tiny cupcakes, lollipops, and ice cream cones. Super cute!

But, what can I do with tiny cupcakes, lollipops and ice cream cones?!?!

I'm probably going to end up poking holes in them and stringing them onto a necklace but I haven't completely decided what to do yet. So, right now, they are remaining unbaked and in an air tight container to keep them pliable.

Anyone out there have any ideas?

A Step in the Right Direction

My minor in college was Theatre and I loved it. Absolutely LOVED it. The class I took that I loved the most was stage makeup. I excelled in it, earning nearly perfect scores for every project I did.

The class went a little something like this: the first few classes we talked about some color theory, shading, techniques, how to keep our tools clean, and highlighting and shodowing. After that, every single class we had to come in, wash our faces, and apply a certain type of makeup and that's what we were graded on (along with our research for the makeup we did). We did everything from how to highlight and shadow your face to make yourself look great, to middle aged makeup, old aged makeup, injuries, 3-D makeup, gender reversal, clown makeup... four months worth of something new for every single class.

I am NOT a morning person, but I looked forward to getting to that class at 8:30AM. I felt good about myself in there. There aren't many things my self-confidence will allow me to admit that I'm good at. I was great at that class.

Having said that, I developed a love for makeup. I don't always have the money to buy the products I want to play with, but I do love makeup. Then, I discovered Miss Kandee Johnson. I LOVE her! In about a month she's coming to Atlanta to do a Glaminar and I think that is my first step in the right direction towards cosmetology. This Glaminar could be a great experience for me and I'm confident it's going to be something great to have under my belt.

Atlanta is about five hours from my hometown, so in addition to the money it's going to cost me to attend the glaminar, I've got to get my hands on gas money, food money, and hotel money.

A Little Bit About Me

I think that you have to know a little bit about where I'm coming from to understand where I'm going, so to get started I want to give you my background.

I live in a small town in the south, but not too far from some interesting places. I'm 22 years old and a college graduate.

First, I just want to say that college is not all it's cracked up to be! They don't want to tell you that, but trust me, it isn't. I graduated high school with a 4.0 and I had taken a semesters-worth of classes before I graduated. I graduated from FMU with something like a 3.4 (can't recall exactly, horrible I know- but it wasn't bad at all!) I had fun in college and gained a lot of life experience, but here's the thing. My last year there, I decided that what I was going to school for was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. What was I majoring in? Psychology. I evaluated myself and what I wanted out of life, and though I enjoyed learning about psychology, it wasn't what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I wanted a job where I could be creative and be myself. Part of who I am is a lip piercing, a penchant for funky hair and a fascination with tattoos (even if I only currently have one--due to financials... those bad boys aren't cheap! haha).

That was when I decided that cosmetology was going to be what I wanted to do with myself. With much reasoning and pleading from my boyfriend and my mother, I stuck out my last year at the University. I'd already gone so far into the program and put so much money into it (I had a scholarship and a grant that paid half of my tuition, the rest was in student loans) I needed to finish and receive that slip of paper. No one can take that from me.

However, if any of you dear readers have majored in anything like psychology or something similar, there's not one dog gone thing you can do with it. You pretty much HAVE to have at least a Master's Degree to get anywhere. A Ph.D. was my original goal, but... my plans had changed. Actually, I found it much more difficult to find a job once I graduated. Any job that required a degree preferred a Master's Degree level. Any job that didn't require a degree saw me as over qualified. Yes! Over qualified. See, the thing is... someone isn't going to want to hire you if they believe you're going to find something better soon. That means they're just going to go through the frustrating hiring process all over again.

The job I currently have now I wasn't originally chosen for due to that reason. I went for my interview in December 2009 shortly after I graduated. The day after my interview, my boss called me and explained to me that I nailed the interview but they had chosen someone else for the position because I was over qualified and they were looking for someone who could fill the position for quite sometime. Mind you, this was the only interview I was able to land and I had sent out a whole lot of resumes! The economic situation does not help the job hunting process. Anyway, about a month later he called me back and  asked if I was still looking for a job since their first choice had not worked out. I still had not landed a job or even another interview so I jumped on the job and have been there ever since. It's not a bad job and my boss is great (and I make my own work schedule, which is amazing!) the problem is I don't make enough money to pay back my student loans. It's not a job suited to someone with a degree. My co-worker is a college student and it suits her fine.

Another thing I currently can't afford is cosmetology school. I have to cosmetology school options in my area. One offers financial aid (which I'm not eligable to receive for another year) but the cost of tuition is $17,000. The other does not offer any financial aid (only the option of a monthly payment plan for the duration of your time there with a $700 down payment) BUT it only costs $6,500. Either program is suitable as a learning experience. Both cover the same material.

So, I'm learning to become very resourceful!

I'm going to blog about my trials and attempts at scrounging up some money and climbing my way up that proverbial ladder and I'd like for you to join my journey. Hopefully we can swap and share stories, advice and ideas.