Freegifting at it's best

Just an FYI Walgreens is offering a free 8x10 photo collage today thru Saturday (May 8th).  I've made these before for gifts and they are a big hit.  I did this one for my hubby for his birthday.  Here's the link Walgreens
They come out really cute and you can pick your colors and add a title.  Stick them in an inexpensive frame and they are fabulous!

Happy Freegifting!

Mother's Day is just around the corner!!

Mother's Day will be here this weekend.  My husband always asks for a list of things that I want.  That's hard because I see so many things that I would love to have, problem is when it comes to sitting down and making the list I can't think of a single thing.  Sometimes I wish we could take our thoughts out of our heads like Dumbledore in Harry Potter, put them in the Pensive, and give them to whom ever needs them (did I use whom right?).

Anyhoo, I also always struggle with what to do for my own mother.  When we lived close it was easy we would go out to lunch with my grandma the Saturday before and have a great afternoon.  Now that I live 2000 miles away it's not so easy.  Just sending a card doesn't seem like enough, and frankly sending a gift is hard because I am THE most forgetful person on earth and don't think of it until late Mother's Day Eve!

This year I found this link to Snapfish for a free flip book.  I tried it out and made 2 books, one for my own mom and one for my mother-in-law and only paid for shipping and tax on each book.  It equaled out to about $2.15 for each one.  SWEET DEAL if you ask me.  Use coupon code ALLYOUMOM at check out and it's that easy!  You are able to do a 5x7 45 page book!

Don't know if it will be there by Mother's Day (my mom should be used to that by now), but what a great gift.  I also hope that my mom doesn't read this blog cuz I just blew the surprise!

Here are a few things on my Mother's Day List:

Chalkboard paint
Smock top fabric
Chalkboard fabric
Magnetic paint

What's on your list???

Going Green...Literally

I have to admit that I don't typically think too much about our environment. I'm not a recycler, I don't compost, I don't ride my bike to the grocery store. However being thrifty most of the time, by nature makes you environmentally friendly. I do cook a lot from scratch (not a lot of packages in my trash), I do buy at thrift stores and garage sales, I do hand down clothes to my friends (and vise versa), I do cloth diaper, and I do make my own baby food. So it's not like I'm an "earth hater" or anything I just can't keep my brain focused long enough to separate my garbage. My adult ADD is for another post all together!!

I did however manage to make a cute earth friendly craft this week. I love those toys that have the crinkly stuff inside that babies love. I've often wondered what they made them out of. I'm sure there's cellophane or some other great material in the middle of them, but I improvised. Inside my crinkly tab blanket is an empty baby wipe container.

First I cut the wipe container at the seams and squared it up. It ended up being about 9"x10".

Then I pinned the ribbon to the Minky

Then I sandwiched a piece of flannel between the Minky and the wipe bag

and sewed the whole thing together. My 7 mo old really likes it, and I have to say it's oobercute.

Not a bad project and ZeRo dollars!

linkin' to

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Earring Holder

I saw this cute earring holder on A Girl and a Glue Gun and loved it. My daughter is starting to care about wearing jewelery and has gotten a bunch of earrings for her birthday this week. So I dug through my stash, found a frame, some leftover paint, plastic mesh (free from a friend), some ribbon, and as A Girl and a Glue Gun would do plugged in my own glue gun and went to town.

This holder matches her room and she is gonna SQUEAL!

Thanks so much for the fab idea!

I LoVe Kitchen Gadgets

I know I'm a freak of nature. I'm the woman who LOVES getting kitchen gadgets for gifts, Mother's Day, Christmas, my birthday, you name it. I like to think that my hubby is the luckiest guy on earth because I'm so easy to buy for. Last year for Mother's Day he got me a set of bamboo spoons that are dishwasher safe, I smile every time I use them. So I decided my gadgets needed a cute place to live. I used to have an adorable pitcher that I used for a utensil holder for a long time but eventually it broke. I've tried other holders but they are always too small, too big, or are made of glass and I'm really rough on them. My solution was to use something that I had an abundance of...#10 cans. Every time I grind wheat I have an empty #10 can (yes I grind my own wheat, I told you FREAK OF NATURE!) and they are the perfect utensil holder size! Of course I can't just use an ugly ol' can, can I?

NOPE!!!

This is much better. Just hot glued some burlap and ribbon on, and stenciled utensils on the side. Now that is what I call a CA-UTE utensil holder.

Total cost: $0 (it all came from my stash!)

linked to The Girl Creative

Cuz who wants to share Chapstick???

There are a few things that we learned when we moved to the Midwest from California, never wait until the end of a snow storm to shovel your driveway, NEVER leave your house without your umbrella, never assume that the tornado sirens are running a test, and never run out of Chapstick! The winters here are sooooo cold, we sometimes feel like our skin is just flaking away. Chapstick is a must but the kids are always losing theirs or they can't remember who's is who's. So I came up with a simple cute way to keep it all straight.

All I did was remove the original wrapper and Modpodged cute paper on the outside. I did use my Cricut to cut out their initials, but if you did each one in a different paper it would work the same. This way no one uses someone else's, and I find my girls are more likely to keep track of it since it's cute. I even have one for myself that says MOM! What a great gift these would be for a child or even party favors at your next birthday bash.

Feel the LoVe

I love Valentine's day. Sadly enough my hubby thinks it some made up holiday that is pretty much pointless. (and really if you think about it, it is) Thankfully he's sweet to me all year long so I don't miss Valentine's Day too much. I do however take the opportunity to do some things for the kids. They usually get some candy or a little trinket of my love. This year I came up with this really cute idea for book marks. I made some for Christmas and they were a hit, so I hearted them up and they are ready for Valentine's Day.

I am trying soooooooo hard to get better at photographing my things, this is better don't ya think? (lie to me if you have to!) Anyhoo, I used really stiff fusible interfacing. It is fusible on both sides so you can sandwich it in between two pieces of fabric. I tried to get a pic that showed how stiff it is:

Basically I just fused two pieces of fabric to the interfacing. I used Wonder Under to fuse the middle section to the book mark, and then just zig zag stitched around it all. Be sure to put your ribbon in while you are fusing the first pieces. I'm going to be making more of these for my sewing students so I'll post pictures when I do.

I had the interfacing and ribbon here already in my stash, and the fabric was leftover from my barter with Heather. She was kind enough to let me keep the excess! So all of that equals FA-REE! My girls are gonna squeal when they see these.

I heart BABIES!!

My all time favorite things to make are anything baby! There are so many cute things out there right now for baby, things I wish I had when I had my first. Where were nursing covers when I was sitting in the foyer at church on a couch in the middle of all the people trying to keep a blanket on my shoulder while nursing, then skipping it all together because my baby was freaking out because it was too hot? Where were cute chic diaper bags when I was carrying Winnie the Pooh on my arm? Where were cart covers when I was wiping down the whole cart with a baby wipe hoping we wouldn't get pink eye AGAIN?

Well, I had a baby shower to attend this weekend, it was my friend's 3rd boy so I'm sure she was set for lots of things. So I whipped up a few bibs for her because those are something that get nasty fast.

They are made of denim, and flannel. I clipped the edges so when they get washed they will fray a little and look like fringe. I had all my supplies here at home in sta-ash so they were fa-ree!

Warm up your winter

Being a California native living in the Midwest I have to admit that I am freezing my Patootie off! I think I shiver from November to May, and I'm not zageratin'!! A few years ago I discovered rice bags. If you haven't seen them or used one you are missing out. They are basically bags made from cotton fabric that are filled with rice. When it's time to use them you pop them in the microwave and they stay toasty warm for quite a while. My kids use big ones to warm their sheets before bed, my husband uses the XL ones to loosen the muscles in his back.

Well the other day it hit me... TINY RICE BAGS!! So I made these tiny rice bags for the kids to put in their jacket pockets so their hands stay warm as they are waiting for the bus in this Arctic weather. I always feel guilty sending them out in the cold every morning while I wave from the window, now I don't fee SOOO bad! (well maybe still a little bad, but at least frost bite is off the table now!)

These little squares of FiRe are made from cotton fabric cut into 4 inch squares, sewn together and filled with rice. Place them in the microwave for 30 seconds and they will stay warm in your pockets for about 30-40 minutes, just enough time to catch the bus, play in the snow, or walk from the parking lot at work to your cubicle! Best part, I got the fabric for free from a friend, and had the rice in the pantry. So for a few pennies you have a wonderful, warm, winter gift.

Linking up to:

Penny Pinching Party at The Thrifty Home and

Bizzy Bee Creations

17 Teachers and no $$$

Yes, I said 17 teachers. My son goes to preschool at our local High School. His class is taught by high school students supervised by a teacher. There are 17 "Big Kids" that teach, so when it comes to teacher Christmas gifts it can get a little overwhelming. So this year I decided I needed something quick, easy, and CHA-EEP!

Here's what I came up with:

Basically just clothes pins that I embellished. I've seen these lots on other blogs, but it never dawned on me how inexpensive they would be. I had the clothes pins, buttons, and paper at home. I added a magnet on the back for their lockers, which I had to purchase, but they only cost me $2! So for a grand total of $2 and 1 hour I had 17 teacher gifts.

You can really go all out on these and embellish the bee-geebers out of them. I went simple because really a high school locker is no place to keep really nice things... unless they are iPods, cell phones, MP3 players, etc!!