I am The Barterista

I honestly don't know why more people don't use the barter system. Maybe they do and I'm just not seeing it in action. I love bartering with people for things we need or want (mostly what we want!). Lately there have been many opportunities to barter. In addition to searching for thrifty finds all over town, I also teach sewing lessons, and make custom purses. Those two things are my skills that I use for trading.

Somethings I have traded:

• purses for aprons (check out my friend at Vivapron she's under construction but her aprons are adorable)
• purses for beads
• sewing lessons for tutoring
• sewing lessons for baby sitting
• baby sitting for baby sitting (my friend and I switch every Thursday so we each get a lunch date with our hubby's at least twice a month).
• left over lumber from a shelving project for a train table for my son.

My most recent acquisition was the purses for beads, my friend Heather over at Dragonfly Lampworks has some CrAzY skills! Here's what she designed for me:

As you can tell I am not blessed with photography skills so bear with me! Seriously isn't that the cutest thing? AHHHH I love it. Thanks Heather for being willing to share you talent and barter with me.

So what can you barter? Try it, you will be surprised how much people are willing to share their talents and skills.

My attempt at being a little more organized

I don't claim to be an organized person. I'm sure my husband is sitting here snickering right now. To tell you the truth he is WAY more organized and tidy than I am. One room that gives me fits when it comes to tidiness is our master bathroom. I feel like it is a catch all for every one. My girls are always digging through my drawers for hair bows, my oldest always wants the styling products, they are constantly stealing our toothpaste, or leaving theirs in here, and don't get me started about the laundry. Why can't the clothes make it into the basket? It's all a bit overwhelming so I decided to start small.

Just to keep things real here is a picture of my "hair" drawer:

Yeah, it's bad.

So here was my solution:

SOOO much better! I whipped theses cord keepers up in a jiffy from supplies I already had here in... you guessed it... my stash!

They were so easy and here's how I did it:

First cut a piece of fabric 5"x7" (you can make it bigger if you have a bigger cord. Oh, and yeah that's my funky retro 70's orange towel that I use for an ironing board in the background. Don't you lurve it?)

Second: Fold it in half lengthwise, right sides together and sew up 2 sides.

Here's my cute machine sewing up both sides.

Clip your corners so it will lay correctly.

Flip it right side out. I top stitched mine because I'm a topstitchin' fool. Just make sure you close up the end that is open.

Cut your Velcro the size of half of your keeper. Sew one side of Velcro on one half of one side. Flip it over and sew the other side of the Velcro on the opposite side of the keeper.

Here's your finished product.

OK, I went a little crazy with these. I have them all over the house now making all my cords tidy! They are so cute and soooo easy!

I linked up over at Thrifty Decor Chick! Check her out she totally ROCKS!!

copyright 2009 HomeSpun-Threads

for Thrifty Decor Chick

Free Alert (kinda)

I came across this free offer from Canvas People, they are giving away a free 8x10 canvas of your favorite photo. You DO have to pay for shipping, it's kinda expensive mine was $14.95 but when you are getting a $50 item for free it doesn't seem soooo bad! Here's the link:

https://secured.canvaspeople.com/

This would make a great Valentine's gift, or if you are really on the ball a Mother's Day gift!

Happy Gifting.

Sometimes the Stars Align

Sometimes in life the "thrifty" stars align! If you are an avid shopper and deal searcher they align more often, but sometimes it happens when you least expect it.

I was hosting a New Year's Eve party at our home. It was a murder mystery which required a little creativity in finding costumes for me and my hubby. Of course I waited until the last minute, but in my defense I was sick the week after Christmas so really New Year's Day was my only day to shop! I was searching the thrift stores in town, which isn't a hard job since there are only 3, and I found these really cute dessert plates.

I love to use cute dessert dishes, serving pieces, and any other utensil that can make a regular meal seem "fancy", as my daughter would say. They were marked $1.99 for 8, I had to do a double take to make sure it wasn't $1.99 each, sure enough $1.99 for the whole set! So I quickly snatched them up. Once I got to the check out they were having a special that if you would make the noise like a bell you got 50% off of one of your items. Since they were my only item my daughter and I rang like a bell and got all 8 for $1...

SA-WEET!

Then the obsessive compulsive part of me kicked in and I wondered if the person I asked to bring dessert that night would bring a beautiful dessert that would accent these lovelies, or should I just make an extra one just in case. Well my friend Kim did not disappoint. She brought a delish orange cake with fresh berries and chocolate sauce, not only beautiful but YUMMY. Only problem is we devoured the whole cake before I got a picture, dang.

Anyhoo, today I linked up to Frugalicious Friday over at Finding Fabulous, check out her blog everything she does is beautiful!

Maybe your day be extra Frugalicious!

It's Official!

Well it's official, I think this is the earliest I have ever started shopping for Christmas. What's a girl to do when there are great deals to be had? I found fleece PJ sets at Wally World today for $1.50 each! Can't make them for that price.

I've also got a few projects planned for the next few months. I want to do something for my parents this year that will involve getting my brother to help me out. Hopefully it will pull together the way I think it will, we'll see.

I haven't crafted since before Christmas, I guess you can say I have a little burn out. That's ok because it will come back soon enough and this year I plan on starting the Christmas Crafting EARLY! Maybe I should have called this blog "The 12 Months of Christmas"! Sometimes I think it feels like that around here.