A bit of a slacker, but I enjoyed my Christmas!

I've been neck-deep in my sewing corner this past month making fun goodies for Christmas. Did I take a picture of half of them to post? No. But maybe if you're really good next year I'll post them as ideas for next years Christmas presents. :)

To hopefully make up for my slackerness, I'm giving you this: 101 Ways to Save Money Now! I found this article in Parent Map magazine, a Seattle based parenting magazine. It's wonderful and FREE itself. They have articles on anything and everything pertaining to parenthood, they host events, have a Seattle events calender, and a hardcopy can be picked up for free at most libraries and other kid-friendly stores. Check out the article and peruse their website, I'm sure you will find other goodies.

Happy New Year!

Kid's Tights 2

About a month ago I posted about an awesome idea about making/repurposing kid's tights and here is where it led me.

My youngest suffers from a lot, but one thing she really struggles with is being a little on the skinny side. She has no blubber on her body so she's constantly cold, even on warmer days. Layers of clothing is my remedy, but you can only layer so many pairs of pants. I love Baby Legs but can't really afford to buy a bunch (cost ranging from $8-$15 a pair). And I've been meaning to crochet her some wool leggings and just haven't gotten around to it.

The other day I  was about to throw away a pair of socks that had a rather large hole in them when I thought about the kid's tights. I simply cut off the foot part of the socks. That's it. I was done. You wanted more instructions? Well, there ain't none! :)

No sewing required!

Cutest Bookmarks Ever

I thought it would be nice to give my son-in-law bookplates as a stocking stuffer for Christmas. He likes to read and has a lot of books. I got online and did a search for bookplates. I checked out a few sites and then I found myself at HP’s site www.hp.com/hho/hp-create/.

Book Plates

Not only did I find some great bookplates but I found some bookmarkers that you can easily insert a picture into. I added pictures of my granddaughter and they are the cutest. This is all free (though there are some things on the site that do cost). I also found scrap booking printouts, party kits that include invitations, favors, hats, all that you need for a themed party and a bunch of other stuff. I even found “How to Train Your Dragon” bookmarks for my grandsons. All you need to do is to print it. You ought to check it out and see if there is anything you can use for Christmas gifts. All it costs is the paper and ink to print it. Can’t get much cheaper than that.

Carol

Garage Sale Bliss

I'm always happy when I find a good deal, but this one was fabulous. I stopped by a garage sale the other day (yes, there are still garage sales in November!) and was pleasantly surprised by my findings. I bought the following:

• a practically brand new file tote (I have been wanting a new one to replace a broken one for about 2 years now)
• a black boa and a pink flowered lei for my girl's dress up box
• a 2 Tlbs cookie dough scoop
• some Lego wheels and toy cars (I want the wheels from them for a Christmas present I'm making)
• and a brand new, unfinished floating corner shelf so I can get my 1-year-old out of some electronics

Can you guess how much I paid for all of that???? Come on, just guess.

Only $3!!!!!!!!!! I would have paid $3 for just the tote at a thrift store. I didn't even have to barter with the guy. He named the price.

I know, I'm amazing. :-)

A Pretty Darn Good Barter

I am pretty proud of this. I can hardly contain it! : )

It was about time for family pictures. I thought I could just ask a friend to snap a few photos on my camera but that didn't excite me to much. I wanted something better. We had some family pictures that were stunning a few years back and I wanted that again. They were a fortune so I knew we wouldn't get that, but still I wanted something in that direction. That's where Megan comes in.

My friend Megan (you'll remember her from the Frugal Wrapped Canvas Photos post) is a photographer and said that she would do them. I knew I couldn't pay her anything so asked if we could barter something and she agreed. All she wanted was some crocheted hats for use when she did baby photos. And I have a huge bin of yarn so that didn't cost me anything but my time.

Next, my husband and I badly needed haircuts. Another friend of ours gladly bartered two haircuts in exchange for a night of babysitting. No problem there, her girl is easy!

After a new haircut, I needed new clothes. No room in the budget for even a new shirt so I raided my sister-in-law's closet for some 'new to me' clothes.

Lastly, a wonderful friend of mine offered to come and babysit Megan's kid while she was taking our pictures so we didn't have to hire a babysitter. That deserves cookies at least.

Result: Close to free pictures (a little bit of gas to drive to the park) that I'm excited to share!

Just check out a few: