Thrift Store Score!

If you love to sew, you are well aware of how expensive fabric is! When I first got into sewing, my thought was -- thrifty and fun! Once I started shopping for fabric, I realized that unless I was very careful, there was nothing thrifty about sewing. I couldn't believe that I could easily pay over $20 just to make one garment! Since then, I keep on the lookout for thrifty fabric finds.

I still scan the sale section at my local fabric store, but today, I got an exciting call from my husband. He is a thrift store enthusiast! He loves going in and seeing what he can find for some ridiculously good price. I love a good deal, but my super organized brain cannot handle the insanity that is a thrift store. I know, sometimes they are very well organized -- even by color! -- but I am just wired for the "new store" kind of organization, and for some reason, I just need there to be six of  particular item hanging on a rack in size order to get myself excited about looking at it. I realize this is a major character flaw, but there you have it.

Anyway, he was shopping at a thrift store and discovered THREE BINS full of fabric! It was all priced at... are you ready?? ... a dollar a yard! He came home, picked me up, and we went right back. I spent about $50 (leftover from Christmas), but I have more fabric than you can shake a stick at! (I don't know what that means. I have a lot of fabric. haha) If you are a thrift store lover, keep your eyes peeled. You never know what you might find! If you have a hard time shopping at thrift stores like me, send out your significant other or best friend, and you never know what they might find for you :)

All You Magazine

Amazon has All You Magazine on sale right now for $1 an issue! This is an amazing deal for a magazine that routinely offers WAY more than that in coupons in every issue. Plus, it's just a great magazine :) get this deal before it's gone!

Disclosure: Compensated Affiliate

2/15/12 Swagbucks Update

Today, I have officially been a member of Swagbucks for two months. I can't believe how much I have earned in such a short amount of time! Here is a screenshot of all the gift cards I have redeemed since becoming a Swagbucks member:

Allow me to do the math for you: in two months, I have earned $100 in Amazon gift cards and $5 in Barnes and Noble gift cards! Let me explain why I choose the gift cards I do. The $5 Amazon gift card offers the biggest "bang for your buck" (in this case, Swagbucks). At 450 SBs, you are cashing out at 90 SBs per dollar. Since Swagbucks has a limit on the number of any one individual prize you can redeem per month, you can only take advantage of the best deal $5 Amazon gift card five times per month. Since it is the best deal, however, it is the first thing I redeem every month! Since my goal has been to earn us a "free" Christmas (free other than the time I spend on Swagbucks), Amazon is the best option for us. The Paypal gift cards would also be an option, but they cost more SBs for the dollar and pretty much everything we could ever hope to buy is on Amazon anyway.

Here is a current screenshot of my Swagbucks Ledger:

Note: This doesn't include any of my Swagging from today (except for
the automatic 1 SB I get for having the toolbar installed).

You can see, I currently have 3,598 unredeemed Swagbucks. I am saving up for the biggest Amazon giftcard I can get by the end of the month (probably the $50 one again). My lifetime Swagbucks earning is sitting at 14,728! I have earned 14,728 in 62 days as a member which roughly translates to 237 SBs a day. Using the $5 Amazon gift card as my rate of exchange (90 SBs = $1), I have earned roughly $164 or about $2.63 a day. Obviously, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme, but I will almost certainly reach my free Christmas goal!

What I love most about Swagbucks is that I can earn this extra money with very little effort. My total includes one credit card application and acceptance for a Discover Card. This netted me 3,600 SBs, but it was free and we can use it to earn rewards by buying thing we would buy anyway. I have also completed two paid offers -- one for a computer game and one for an online privacy service. The only reason I completed those offers was because the Swagbucks payout was more than I spent to purchase them, meaning I was earning more than 90 SBs for every dollar I spent. I've only done it twice because that scenario is rare, but it is worth looking out for!

How do I earn the rest of my points? I do my daily thing (see my post here). The surveys have netted me the most SBs for the least amount of time and effort, but there is an ebb and flow to the survey world -- sometimes I get offers, sometimes I don't. I don't waste my time with Swagbucks TV. Some people click their fingers off to "max out" every day (do the total number of rounds they allow), but I find this to be a major waste of my time. The payoff just doesn't outweigh the effort involved. I keep my eyes peeled for codes, search using their toolbar, and visit the Facebook group often. People regularly post about offers that worked (or didn't work) for them, so I have found out about some gems there. Mostly, it is a routine thing, but it really pays off! For a stay at home mom with a few minutes to spare here and there, I will be so thankful come November and December when we don't have to scramble for extra money from our budget. My Amazon gift card balance will be fat!

Keep a lookout for next month's Swagbucks update! In the meantime, become a member yourself using any of the links in this post :) there is still time to earn your family a free Christmas!

Disclosure: All the links to Swagbucks will sign you up through my account.

Mom Blog Monday Blog Hop

My blog might be a new one, but I can still have fun! One of my plans for this blog is to review some baby products I encounter along my journey with Baby J. Today, I'm participating in the Mom Blog Monday Blog Hop with the fabulous blogs you'll see listed below! Join in if you're also a mommy blogger and follow along with these other fine ladies :)

Sewing Project: Zippered Wristlet

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After another session of "clean the house quick before the guests come!" I finally got back into my sewing room to work on another project. I used a gift card from Christmas to get supplies for several projects, but I still hadn't had the chance to work on any of them! I had a spare hour the other day while the baby was napping and I went for it. This project came together very fast and uses less than half a yard of fabric! Easy and affordable.

1. Determine how big you would like to make your bag. I based mine off the size zipper I had, but you could easily adapt that to whatever you think you'd use the bag for. If you are making it to fit specific items, measure the contents and add an inch on each side to allow for seams.

2. Cut your pieces. You will need two exterior pieces and two lining pieces. You have the option of adding a strap and an embellishment. Here are the dimensions I used:

• Exterior: 5" x 10"
• Lining: 5" x 10"
• Strap: 2" x 14"
• Embellishment: 3" x 10"

3. Optional: Add embellishment. Press under the long sides of the embellishment piece 1/4" or 1/2" and edgestitch the strip to the right side of one of the exterior pieces, about 1" from what will be the bottom edge.

4. Lay one piece of exterior fabric right side up and place the zipper, face down, on top of it, lining up the edges. Next, lay a pieces of lining fabric on top of the zipper, wrong side up. Pin and stitch the pieces together along the zipper edge. Turn the two fabric pieces down and away from the zipper so the wrong sides are together. Press both edges away from the zipper.

My exterior and lining fabric were the same so it made these steps a little confusing. In the picture above, you can see the exterior piece with my embellishment placed face up, the zipper on top, and the lining on top of that, pulled back to expose the zipper.

Sewn, pressed down away from zipper

5. Lay the second exterior piece right side up and place the stitched piece (pictured above) on top with the zipper and exterior panel facing down. This means the exterior pieces will be right sides together and the first lining piece (the one already sewed to the zipper) will be on top. Line up the edge of the zipper tape at the top. Place the second pieces of lining on top wrong side up with the edge lined up to the zipper edge. Pin and stitch the pieces together. Open the zipper a bit to help with turning it inside out later.

From bottom to top: second exterior piece,
stitched piece with zipper lined up, second lining piece

6. Optional: Create a strap. Press under your 2" x 14" piece 1/2" on each of the long sides and then fold the whole piece in half and press again. Edgestitch along the length of both sides to create a strong strap.

7. You now have four pieces stitched to your zipper, the two exterior pieces and the two lining pieces. Open out the pieces with the zipper in the center. The exterior pieces should be right sides together on one side of the zipper and the lining pieces should be right sides together on the other side. Make sure the zipper tape is inside the seam on your lining side so that it will open up right once you turn everything the right way. If you opt to add a strap, place the strap in between the two exterior pieces, lining up the end with the side of the bag where the zipper pull will be when the pouch is closed. Pin the strap in place. Pin and stitch along three sides, leaving the bottom of the lining open.

Lining sides on the left, zipper in the middle,
exterior sides on the right with strap

View from above with second exterior piece pulled back

8. Reach inside and unzip the zipper all the way. It will be upside down but you can push the zipper slider along. Turn the lining right side out by folding it back over the exterior pieces. Turn under the bottom edge of the lining by 1/4". Stitch along the folded edges, making sure not to stitch through the exterior pieces. I just pulled the exterior pieces out to keep the out of my way. Turn the pouch right side out through the zipper opening and tuck the lining inside.

Once you tuck the lining in, you are done!

I love having this little bag to just throw in my cash/debit card, cell phone, and chapstick for a quick run to the store.

Winter Blast of Cash Giveaway sign-ups are open at Giveaway Promote. I’ve signed up and will be participating! JOIN ME! The event will be held from February 20th-March 4th. There is an increasing cash prize, currently at $525. When you sign up, tell them that I sent you!

Granola Yogurt Yum

I would not consider myself to be a particularly health-conscious eater. I pretty much just eat whatever I want whenever I want. I know one day, my 40-year-old self will look back at my 25-year-old self and say, "Why didn't you eat better and exercise more?!" And my 25-year-old self will say, "Why, when eating Sour Patch Kids and lounging on the couch is so much fun?!"

Anyway, I am aware that for women, calcium intake is particularly important. There is all kinds of research about the best ways to get said calcium (through dairy, vitamin supplements, other sources), but the underlying theme seems to be, get it -- as much as you can, however you can. So, when I came across this granola recipe, I decided this could be a way to up my yogurt intake.

I left several things out of the recipe and just used what I had on hand. Here's what I did:

5 cups rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 big squirt honey

Preheat oven to 300°. In a saucepot combine salt, cinnamon, brown sugar, water, oil, vanilla, and honey. Heat until well blended. Pour over oats in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Spread on large greased cookie sheet. Bake for 40-45 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes. Cool.

I didn't have any powdered milk, so I eliminated that. I wanted the granola to be pretty plain so that it could go with whatever yogurt I wanted so I left out the nuts and fruit. I'm a big honey fan, so I just squeezed some in there to add a little flavor. About half way through the baking process, I was seriously doubting that this stuff would end up as granola, but I waited -- not patiently -- and by the time 45 minutes rolled around, I had granola! It made so much that I've been eating away at it for the past few weeks. I dish out some yogurt, cover with granola, add in some frozen blueberries and enjoy my delicious, calcium-rich snack. YUM!