Lucky Fortune Cookie Boxes

Between the tax marathon and starting physical therapy this week, I've been exhausted. I decided to brighten things up with another special blog-only sale!

I have these cute little fortune cookie boxes in stock. I have small ones, approx. 3" x 1.75" x 1.5" each, in dark red, light pink, green, and lavender; and large ones, approx. 4" x 2.5" x 2" each, in black, blue, gray, and bright pink. You can see photos of all the colors here.

They're perfect for storing a bit of jewelry or other small treasure, and also make nice place card holders at dinner parties. A light squeeze at the base opens the box.

I normally sell a set of 3 small cookies for $8.45, and a set of 3 large cookies for $11.00, plus $5.95 shipping. Get yours now, before the holiday shopping frenzy starts, and I'll give you 1 free set with each 3 sets you purchase. I'll also charge you only the actual shipping cost, so if you only want one set you won't get hit with a big postage charge.

Interested? Send an email to luckygirltrading [at] yahoo.com with the number of sets you'd like, your color choices, and mailing address. I'll confirm I have the quantities and colors you want, weigh them in a shipping box, and send you a PayPal invoice. If you feel more comfortable making a purchase through an established e-commerce site, you can get these at my eBay store--but I can't give you any discount there.

October 15 is Tax Day for Procrastinators

Lucky people tend to be on top of things. I was not on top of our taxes this year, so when April 15 rolled around we filed an extension. I really didn't want to delve into the taxes because I knew I hadn't kept up with things very well and it would mean hours and hours of checking invoices to get costs, counting inventory on hand, and reconciling sales records and shipping records and fees. Not a big job if you work at it daily, or even weekly. I made sure to keep every bit of information I might possibly need, I just didn't put it into any sort of order, spreadsheet, or database. I threw everything in a box. A really large box. UGH.

I spent several hours each day last week working on our records. And all day, every day this week. I hate to admit it, but all work and no play makes LuckyGirl cranky. I've also had to listen to Mr. LuckyGirl say, "if you had listened to me and used QuickBooks this would have been a much easier job," over and over again.

So QuickBooks people, if you're listening, Mr. LuckyGirl is usually right about this sort of thing. If you want to send me some software I promise I will blog repeatedly about how much easier it made my job. I do want to be on top of things, I know that it makes life go much smoother when I am. And often smooth means lucky!

I hit the "transmit your tax return button now" button at about 9 p.m. this evening, so I had a good three hours to spare. Anybody else wait as long as I did to file their taxes? And I'd love any tips you'd like to share. I've already got the big one down: don't put it off until the last minute.

Increase Your Creativity: Found Poetry

Lucky people tend to be creative people. I think this is mainly because they tend to seek out unusual, creative ways to go about everything from their daily routine to handling huge personal issues. Regardless of how lucky or creative you normally are, there's always room to boost your creativity.

One of my favorite ways to kick-start my creative juices is to make or create something totally different than anything I would normally create. Here's an exercise I learned at a writers' conference a few years ago that's just plain fun.

Create Found Poetry

Found poetry is made up using words and phrases you find. On the surface that sounds sort of lame, because unless you're going to make up your own language, you "find" all the words you use.

Grab a book, newspaper, magazine--anything with printed words. The dictionary or a thesaurus will work, but it may be a bigger challenge than you'd like. Open your printed word medium of choice to any page, close your eyes, and place your finger on the page. Open your eyes and copy down the phrase you were pointing to. Include any punctuation that appears with the words.

Flip through the pages, or look at different areas of the page you started with, and hunt for words or phrases that might work well with your first phrase. Copy them down, and when you've "found" enough phrases to suit yourself, arrange them in the form of a poem. If you use more than one phrase per line, leave a good-sized space between the phrases.

Very old books and the classified section of newspapers are my favorite places to "find" poetry. Here's a poem I created from classified ads:

The Creator has A Name.
Are
You The Father?
Find the solution!
We deliver!
Beautiful baby
Help us find her.
Will keep clean
For life.
Cash buyer.
Will pick up.

As you can see, I am not a poet, am basically rhythm-impaired, and will never make a cent with my poetry. That's okay, that's not why I compose poetry, and this is one of the extremely rare times I'm brave enough to share what I've composed. After channeling my creativity into an unusual outlet like this, I feel recharged and better able to create something I do want to share.

Write a poem. Share it or don't. But please let me know if you enjoyed this exercise, and how effective it was at boosting your creativity.

Some of My Favorite Giveaways

I haven't had a giveaway on this blog for a while, so I'm due to have one here very soon. I've been busy checking out the giveaways on other blogs, and want to share some of the best ones with you.


Fabulous Fun Finds is hosting over 40 giveaways this week--and there are some terrific prizes! Some of them end tomorrow evening, so click over there soon!

I always find new giveaways posted on Etsy Giveaways, and you'll find some unique and very cool things there. This blog doesn't actually give anything away, but provides brief descriptions and links to other giveaways that feature items from Etsy artists and crafters.

I am having a giveaway on The Peanut Butter Blog for a jar of PB2 powdered peanut butter and a jar of PB2 Chocolate powdered peanut butter. This stuff is amazingly delicious!

And my favorite giveaway right now is at The Dirty Shirt. She's giving away a Keurig Single Cup Coffee Brewer--I've wanted one of those for years. I love those little cups full of different flavors of coffee! Hmmm, maybe you shouldn't enter this one and give me a better chance to have a lucky day!