We have started to prepare for our third annual "Your Night, Their Future" fundraiser for the LFT Foundation. Each year we try to find interesting items to auction and raffle off. I remembered that the Prairie Land Gallery in Pontiac was having a going out of business sale. I went by the gallery and found a wonderful golf print. It is "The Seventh at Pebble Beach" by Larry Dyke. The limited print is beautifully framed and is signed.
I also bought a Steve Hanks print my wife has been admiring for a long time. It was 50% off and much cheaper than I could find anywhere online for the signed limited edition print. They have many signed prints from great artists like Thomas Kincaid, Charles White, Terry Redlin, Dave Barnhouse and many others.
Please plan on going by the Prairie Land Gallery to look at the prints, collectible plates and figurines. They are closed right now preparing for their final sale. Give them a call at (815) 844-7100 to see when they will be open again. Trust me it is worth your drive!! When you call or go to the Gallery please make sure your tell them Thanks for supporting the LFT Foundation!
The Prarie Land Gallery also donated another beautiful framed print "Frederick The Literate" by Charles Wysocki. We will have this print on one of your auctions. I will be uploading a picture of this very soon.
Following is a wonderful description of this print:
Want to know how to catnap with a smile? How to smell a rat? Everything you wanted to know about the Killer Sparrow of Ipswitch but were afraid to ask? It's all here and more in Frederick the Literate, Charles Wysocki's wonderful print for all cat and book lovers.
These are any cat's dream books, from 'Field Guide to the Garbage Can' to 'A Tale of Two Kitties.' And don't miss the authors, who include such international best-selling catty writers as Thomas Cheshire and Kitty Mewpur.
Some fine art prints really need no introduction. This is one of them. All you need to do is look, read the first book's title, and off you go. "It's a technique I used years ago to get people to look at the entire painting," Charles Wysocki explains. "I would put signs in the window of a shop or on a wagon, and the curiosity of people would come into play. Naturally they wanted to read what was on the signs. Before you know it, you've got them hooked into your painting!"
But the joys of Charles Wysocki's most witty work yet will be readily apparent to anyone who loves a great book, a beloved pet, or a good joke. "As soon as my wife, Liz, and I came up with the idea for this painting, we knew we had to do it," Wysocki says. "We're all very dedicated and serious about our artwork, but there's always time for humor. Liz and I spent breakfasts, lunches, and dinners thinking about the book titles." After all the years doing more subtle 'story' humor, as in the recent Beauty and the Beast, Wysocki says: "All my more obvious puns were piling up. They had to come out!"
It's all in homage to a very special feline. We're both cat lovers," says Wysocki. "We have sever. But the painting is dedicated to the real Frederick, who was one of our favorite cats, if not the favorit. But now he's in that 'library in the sky.' So this print is dedicated to him."
Happily, Frederick is now immortal, in that special place where cats dream of fish, field mice, and a world where the feline comes first.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Interesting Articles on living without Credit Cards
This morning when I was looking through the news I saw an article that caught my eye. Actually it was a series of stories about 5 people who decided to live without using credit cards and only using cash and debit cards. The article from CNNMoney.com had some very interesting points and some points that I did not agree with also.
Two of the 5 people in this series had either stopped paying on the debt they racked up or negotiated payment settlements with the credit card companies. I do not know their situations in depth, but I find it very hard to rationalize walking out on a debt owed.
John Wilder simply stopped paying on $12,000 in credit card debt. This is a relatively small debt in the grand scheme of things to just say, nope, I am not going to pay you back!
Dawn Tulman and her family negotiated payment settlements for their debt. They admitted hey we are in way over our head and we will do what we can to pay you back as much as we can. This is much easier to swallow, especially with a family to raise and being self employed.
Most people try to justify this action with the a statement similar to "it was the credit card companies fault, they raised rates, or they would not lower payments, or they expected to me to pay on time..." And they also held a gun to these peoples head forcing them to purchase stuff they really did not need.
I know there are situations where people do get in a ton of debt through no fault of their own and have no way out and have to ask for help or protection from creditors, but the vast majority of people have brought it on themselves. I can say this with no apprehension and without looking down on people! I know, we did this to ourselves by having no patience in waiting to purchase things and making bad financial decisions.
Some of the key things that I liked about this article was points such as 1) keeping track of all purchases 2) budgeting and planning for future expenses 3) waiting 1 week to make a decision if you really need that impulse buy 4) setting money aside in savings as a cushion and for emergencies.
We still have not our budget yet, we keep making excuses and putting it off. But we need to set a hard date of January 1st to set our budget and stick to it. Otherwise we will never get out of debt. We continue to do much better on many fronts, but still need to make the commitment of a cash based budget. And I really need to cut out the pop and junk food at work!!!!
Two of the 5 people in this series had either stopped paying on the debt they racked up or negotiated payment settlements with the credit card companies. I do not know their situations in depth, but I find it very hard to rationalize walking out on a debt owed.
John Wilder simply stopped paying on $12,000 in credit card debt. This is a relatively small debt in the grand scheme of things to just say, nope, I am not going to pay you back!
Dawn Tulman and her family negotiated payment settlements for their debt. They admitted hey we are in way over our head and we will do what we can to pay you back as much as we can. This is much easier to swallow, especially with a family to raise and being self employed.
Most people try to justify this action with the a statement similar to "it was the credit card companies fault, they raised rates, or they would not lower payments, or they expected to me to pay on time..." And they also held a gun to these peoples head forcing them to purchase stuff they really did not need.
I know there are situations where people do get in a ton of debt through no fault of their own and have no way out and have to ask for help or protection from creditors, but the vast majority of people have brought it on themselves. I can say this with no apprehension and without looking down on people! I know, we did this to ourselves by having no patience in waiting to purchase things and making bad financial decisions.
Some of the key things that I liked about this article was points such as 1) keeping track of all purchases 2) budgeting and planning for future expenses 3) waiting 1 week to make a decision if you really need that impulse buy 4) setting money aside in savings as a cushion and for emergencies.
We still have not our budget yet, we keep making excuses and putting it off. But we need to set a hard date of January 1st to set our budget and stick to it. Otherwise we will never get out of debt. We continue to do much better on many fronts, but still need to make the commitment of a cash based budget. And I really need to cut out the pop and junk food at work!!!!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Love & Respect
This weekend Sherry and I went to an excellent marriage seminar called "Love and Respect" This seminar was put on by Sarah and Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. The entire seminar and accompanying books focus on one bible verse "However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." Ephesians 5:33. I did not realize all of the truths wrapped up in this one verse.
I now feel like the devil was trying to keep us from going and then tried to sabotage are time there. I went into this weekend with a bad attitude. I was sick most of the week leading up to this and Sherry and I had been arguing about where the kids would stay. On Friday night we had a very nice and relaxing dinner with a lot of friends before the event so that cheered me up. But after we got to the event the auditorium was packed and the chairs were small with little to no leg room. The room was hot, I was feeling worse and very claustrophobic, I could not concentrate and was wishing I was back home.
I finally got up and went to the atrium area and sat at a table with plenty of room and watched from there. Sherry joined me at the break and the rest of the evening was OK, but I was just in and OK mood.
However this morning after a nice breakfast with Sherry and then sitting comfortably out in the atrium again I really got into the seminar. I felt like they were talking directly to Sherry and I and had been sitting with Sherry and I a few times and listening to our arguments, and hurtful words back and forth. Again the concepts they taught were pretty simple, however we have been like we are for years, and it takes awhile to break out of these bad habits. With this seminar and prayer we will break through this.
We would strongly recommend that every couple go through this seminar! Especially if you have or plan on having kids. It is common knowledge that our kids learn more from what we do than they do from what we tell them. We need to model our marriage to be healthy so that your children will act this way growing up and hopefully model theirs the same way.
There are two books that contain a majority of the concepts taught at this seminar:
----And ----
God Bless You,
Brian
I now feel like the devil was trying to keep us from going and then tried to sabotage are time there. I went into this weekend with a bad attitude. I was sick most of the week leading up to this and Sherry and I had been arguing about where the kids would stay. On Friday night we had a very nice and relaxing dinner with a lot of friends before the event so that cheered me up. But after we got to the event the auditorium was packed and the chairs were small with little to no leg room. The room was hot, I was feeling worse and very claustrophobic, I could not concentrate and was wishing I was back home.
I finally got up and went to the atrium area and sat at a table with plenty of room and watched from there. Sherry joined me at the break and the rest of the evening was OK, but I was just in and OK mood.
However this morning after a nice breakfast with Sherry and then sitting comfortably out in the atrium again I really got into the seminar. I felt like they were talking directly to Sherry and I and had been sitting with Sherry and I a few times and listening to our arguments, and hurtful words back and forth. Again the concepts they taught were pretty simple, however we have been like we are for years, and it takes awhile to break out of these bad habits. With this seminar and prayer we will break through this.
We would strongly recommend that every couple go through this seminar! Especially if you have or plan on having kids. It is common knowledge that our kids learn more from what we do than they do from what we tell them. We need to model our marriage to be healthy so that your children will act this way growing up and hopefully model theirs the same way.
There are two books that contain a majority of the concepts taught at this seminar:
----And ----
God Bless You,
Brian
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
A selling we will go!
OK, some things are going good others are not. We have cut back on our expenses and been selling items. However we have not cut back as much as we should and still have not finalized a budget. So far we have sold over $400 in stuff. $125 for a exercise bike/clothes hanger and another $200 plus in DVD's and some books on Amazon.
Here is a link to the DVD's that we have left: DVD's
I am working with Sherry to finalize the list of Pampered Chef items. My mother in law has what she wanted so we will be pricing and putting up a list of items on here shortly. Just in time to buy some gifts for Christmas!!!
I will keep you posted on our progress. By January 1st we will have a budget in place and living by it.
Here is a link to the DVD's that we have left: DVD's
I am working with Sherry to finalize the list of Pampered Chef items. My mother in law has what she wanted so we will be pricing and putting up a list of items on here shortly. Just in time to buy some gifts for Christmas!!!
I will keep you posted on our progress. By January 1st we will have a budget in place and living by it.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Sell it all!! Part 2 - DVD's
OK, I have found most of the DVD cases for our movies and have them paired up. I do not think I can attach files in here but I have lists of the movies we have in PDF format. They have pictures of what the cover looks like and some details of what they are.
Here is a link to view all the DVD's, they are in a PDF format.
View Movies
I am asking $5 each for the DVD's.
I am also bugging Sherry to finish our Pampered Chef list of items to sell. Trying to coerce to not want to keep it all. Once we get the list finalized and I send it to my mother in-law for first pickings (Have to stay in good graces!!) I will post that list also!
Thanks Guys!
Here is a link to view all the DVD's, they are in a PDF format.
View Movies
I am asking $5 each for the DVD's.
I am also bugging Sherry to finish our Pampered Chef list of items to sell. Trying to coerce to not want to keep it all. Once we get the list finalized and I send it to my mother in-law for first pickings (Have to stay in good graces!!) I will post that list also!
Thanks Guys!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The Specifics
The worksheet I used to help determine when we would be able to pay off our debts using the Snowball strategy is at: http://www.vertex42.com/Calculators/debt-reduction-calculator.html
It is a very powerful spreadsheet that runs you through different strategies for paying down your debt. You can sort them in order of amount, interest rate, or a custom order. It will also calculate how long it will take only making the minimum payments without using the snowball formula. This one gets pretty depressing showing how much you will pay in interest and how long it will take.
Using the Snowball Strategy with paying down the smallest debts first we would be out of debt completely with the mortgage paid off in May of 2019.
Using the strategy of paying highest interest first we would be done in May of 2019, however we would have paid approximatly $2,000 less in interest.
If we simply pay only the minimum payment and do not apply the debt snowball strategy we will be done paying everything off in Feb of 2034, and pay over $160,000 in additional interest!!! Now that is depressing!
If we can stick to the plan and apply additional payments to our debt reduction plan as our pay goes up and we sell items we no longer need we should hopefully have everything paid off by 2015 or so.
I have already started to sell off things we really do not need. $135 for 3 items so far. I am working on Sherry to get the list of Papmered Chef items ready to sell as well has her baby grand piano. She still needs to get it tuned and appraised. A rough appraisal over the phone has it valued at approximatly $1500. But until he comes to tune and sees what the condition of the piano is we will not know for sure.
It is a George Steck Company Piano, I believe circa 1950, so it is solid wood, not the partical wood used today. If you are interested just let us know!!
It is a very powerful spreadsheet that runs you through different strategies for paying down your debt. You can sort them in order of amount, interest rate, or a custom order. It will also calculate how long it will take only making the minimum payments without using the snowball formula. This one gets pretty depressing showing how much you will pay in interest and how long it will take.
Using the Snowball Strategy with paying down the smallest debts first we would be out of debt completely with the mortgage paid off in May of 2019.
Using the strategy of paying highest interest first we would be done in May of 2019, however we would have paid approximatly $2,000 less in interest.
If we simply pay only the minimum payment and do not apply the debt snowball strategy we will be done paying everything off in Feb of 2034, and pay over $160,000 in additional interest!!! Now that is depressing!
If we can stick to the plan and apply additional payments to our debt reduction plan as our pay goes up and we sell items we no longer need we should hopefully have everything paid off by 2015 or so.
I have already started to sell off things we really do not need. $135 for 3 items so far. I am working on Sherry to get the list of Papmered Chef items ready to sell as well has her baby grand piano. She still needs to get it tuned and appraised. A rough appraisal over the phone has it valued at approximatly $1500. But until he comes to tune and sees what the condition of the piano is we will not know for sure.
It is a George Steck Company Piano, I believe circa 1950, so it is solid wood, not the partical wood used today. If you are interested just let us know!!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Where is that battery charger?
Well I have a lot of things organized and ready to get on here, ebay, ALFI and any other place I can sell these things. But now I can not find the dang battery charger for our camera. As soon as I can find that I will have our recumbant exercise bike on here, a baby grand piano and anything else I can find.
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