Cracked It!

Well, sort of... that is, I finally managed to list something for sale on Ebay.

Having lived with Rita's jewellery for about a year now, I've gotten used to having her former title as the Imelda Marcos of costume jewellery. I love having lots of dangle-y earrings and as I rarely wear a watch these days, I quite enjoy wearing some of her bracelets, particularly her charm bracelet that I remember as a child. I have not got through all the necklaces as yet, though there are about a dozen that work well for me.

However, I've found that there are some pieces I just can't wear; I'm not the right size, shape and colouring for them. There are solutions for some things: I put her baby bracelet on a gold chain and I've really enjoyed wearing that. Some of the big earrings make interesting brooches and I have a few ideas for taking some of the longer or chunkier necklaces apart and making them into something I could wear.

Other pieces have sentimental value. There is a leopard print fur bracelet that looks totally weird on me, but I remember her letting me play with it when I was a child and I will always keep it. I will also keep the pieces I remember seeing her wear and have identified in pictures of her over the years. I particularly associate Rita's rings with her and I'm thinking they probably aren't all costume. They don't suit me at all -- but I wear them anyway and enjoy looking at them and remembering how great they looked on her.

But other pieces I won't or can't wear -- some of the earrings actually hurt -- and though they look "so Rita" I don't necessarily associate them with her, well I think someone else should get the pleasure of wearing them. I know Bill is a little shocked that I could actually part with anything of Rita's and he is right, that is not like me at all! I think I'm finally able to realise that I have the best part of Rita, my Mom and Dad, my Grandparents that one can have: lots and lots of happy memories.

Also, with the remaining collection of Ella's things brought into this house, I may have finally reached my clutter saturation point. I'm used to having to move stuff to get to other stuff, but when I started tripping over things I think something clicked. When we talk about moving to Salt Lake City I start thinking about the cost of moving everything. I'm to the point where I want to only keep the things we really love. I think that's major growth, for me!

So, Ebay has been something I've been meaning to figure out for ages. I've bought stuff from there, maybe a dozen things, but never got around to the selling part, even though I bought Ebay for Dummies some time back. When I heard they'd lifted their listing fees for items under 99p I thought I really did need to get busy, so I did. If you get curious, you can find me as 'frenchbluebutterfly' (Well, they did say pick a colour and an animal...).

What I haven't figured out is how to put pictures in the description using HTML. I did manage it but then they said my listing fee was 95p, so I figured I did it wrong...or is that how they make up for ditching the listing fee? Does anyone know how this works?