Searching For Points

Want a fun way to nab some free stuff?  This, in my opinion, is a fun way to be frugal.  Frugal in the sense that I'm not out shopping and spending money, instead I'm sitting at home doing the searches that I was going to be doing anyway and earning points towards prizes.   I just started playing with the site Swagbucks and I'm having a blast.

First off, let me say that I am not affiliated with Swagbucks.  I do not work for them, nor do I get paid by them to tell you this.  Nor have I received anything free yet since I just joined up as well.

So what is Swagbucks?  It's a search engine.  That's it, just a search engine.  But, the fun part, and it is fun by the way, is that by doing internet searches on their site, you can be paid "Swagbucks".  And admit it, you're going to search the internet for something anyway, aren't you?  When you get a certain amount of their "swagbucks" (a fancy word for points), you can redeem them for prizes.  I'm going after the Amazon gift cards myself, or maybe the Paypal one. 

Besides doing searches, you can get your friends to sign up and for every swagbuck they get, you get one too (up to 100, but that's it.)  They also put out random swag codes that you can enter in and get more bucks for it.  There are other ways to win as well, but you'll have to go over and investigate to find out. 

This is a brilliant way for them to market their product drive people over to their site and get the word out about their business.  But more importantly, it's a fun way to earn free stuff.  I'm totally into free stuff.  "Free" is my favorite word, the next being the word "Sale" of course. 

Did I mention that it's "Free" to join?  Just tell 'em that I sent ya!  Yes, this is a gratuitous way to get you as a referrer.  Pass the word along and you can get referrals too.  ;)

Have a great weekend everybody!  I'll have some knitting for you on Monday.

Snowish

The kids had a snow day today from school.  Noooooooooooooooooo!    It's not fair!  I just got them back in school.  I could have had a quiet house to myself today.   Oh Well.

We got basically a good dusting of snow, maybe an inch, so all the schools closed down.   You folks up north and out west won't understand this, I know.  You're all laughing your behinds off at us Southerners.

Most of the buses wouldn't have started anyway, but that's not the problem here in this climate really.  The worst problem we have is the ice.  Snow melts and refreezes then melts and refreezes all over again.  We in the South are just not prepared for it.  Our cars and buses don't have skates on them like yours must have. 

Yes, you laugh, but there was a 29 car wreck caused by black ice this morning on the interstate.  Oh yes, there was.  See, if we had skates on our cars, maybe this wouldn't have happened.  Well, it probably would have been worse actually.  We Southerners don't really ice skate well either.  Where are we going to practice?  Yes, there's a few rinks around here, but not enough for most of us to practice on and certainly none that are large enough to practice with cars on.

So there you have it in a nutshell.  The answers to all your questions as to why the South shuts down when we see a few snowflakes.  :)

This was the view of our back yard taken from my kitchen window.  There's no way I was going out there to take a pic, I'm allergic to cold weather.

And check out my front steps.  Snow only stuck to the bricks.  I guess the cement was too warm for it to stick around:

 

Weird.

Mirror Followup

Yesterday I showed you my Mirror DIY project where I painted the two mirrors with some Krylon Metallic Paint in Oil Rubbed Bronze.  Today I wanted to show you the big mirror on the mantle and the mantle itself.

Every year after I take down all the Christmas decorations I get all depressed.  The house looks so bare and so does the mantle.  I usually just go with a spare look, such as just a few candlesticks on each side and maybe one thing in the middle, but not this year.  This year I wanted something busy, but it had to include many shades of brown, a few other natural colors and have lots of texture.

Here's how it's turned out so far.  Bear in mind that this is a work in progress and that I'm still tweaking it:

I've had a devil of a time photographing this mantle.  The pictures just don't do it justice and neither does my camera.  So here's a couple of other angles:

All three of these are blurry. One day I'll get a real grown up DSLR camera.

For a breakdown of what's on the mantle:

This is to the left of the mantle.  The tall wooden puppet is from Indonesia and really works.  The brown teapot was brought back by my husband from a trip to Peru and the box it's sitting on was a gift from my brother's trip to the Czech Republic.

In the center is a small collection of cut crystal.  Some were wedding gifts, some belonged to my grandparents and a couple were also brought back by my brother from the Czech Republic.

And to the right, I found some old books that has been tucked away and stacked them with their edges out to display the different shades of tan and brown.  These also served to give some height to display the black pottery.  Oh, and there's a green pillow tucked into a small metal basket on the right.

To pull everything together I grabbed some strips of burlap that was leftover from the kitchen curtain project and bunched it up a little and then spread it across the mantle.  I made sure to give it some height in some places to add interest.  Next I grabbed some dried curly grape vines that were originally in my foyer in a large pottery jug and stuck it in random places.  I also have some little vine balls on the mantle that have been dyed that I purchased at Target.  I used these as filler.

Also please keep in mind that the nasty striped wall paper will also be disappearing over the next couple of months. My "MantleScape" will have so much more impact then when it doesn't have to fight the stripes to be seen.

I'm not sure what else I'll do to the mantle, but I like where it's heading so far and I"m loving my "new" mirror.

DIY 2010 project #1

I have a couple of mirrors in the house that I loathe.  They were fine when purchased, but more and more, as I found my own personal decoration style, I came to hate them with a purple passion.  The frames were brassy where the rest of my home has warm browns and autumn tones.

So I decided to do something about it.


First came the little cheap plaster of paris mirror:

Then the beveled mirror that goes over my mantle:

 

 

In the mirror is the view of our garage ceiling.  Notice the patches made there next to the light?  Yeah, while putting in our new second attic space, the hubby decided to step through the ceiling.  Not that that has anything to do with mirrors, I'm just saying.

Here's another view of the big mirror all taped up and ready for painting.  Don't ya just love cheap dollar store construction paper?  Notice the nasty brass color of the frame?  This pic is probably the truest to it's natural color:

And a corner closeup:

I used Krylon's Metallic paint in Oil Rubbed Bronze and sprayed two coats to get this:

This, obviously is not where they will end up, but it was all I could get before my camera battery died. 

Big. Difference.

I will probably put some rub 'n buff on the smaller mirror, but the larger one is done.  I'll have a finished, back on the mantle pic for you tomorrow after my camera battery is revived.

Clever Little Shawl 2.0 *Complete*

Over the holiday I finished the second "Clever Little Shawl" (my Ravelry project link)  for my mother.  I even got her to model it for me - to a point.  I had to promise to crop out her head.  Can do.  Here's how it turned out:

From the back:

And on the dress form:

I love this pattern to death! 

Why?

1.  It's simple and makes for great movie watching.
2.  It's a reproduction of a shawl from the 1800's.  The history geek in me loves that.
3.  So warm and cozy without being bulky in the least.
4.  Needs no shawl pin to keep it closed.
5.  You pair this up with some cute but simple clothes - dark jeans, black boots w/ a heel, black shirt, and you've got yourself one unique & chic outfit. 

The link to the free pattern is here:  Carol's Clever Little Shawl

My Mods: 

1. Made the ends 24 stitches wide vs 34 to make it more slender. Increased back up the the proper stitch count on the next two rows after the ribbing section and reversed the process at the end of the shawl.
2. Began the lace pattern at k2 instead of k1. This began as a mistake, but I liked it and kept going.

For more details, click on the first link above to go to my Ravelry project page.  While you're there, why not give it some "favorite love"?  :)  

My Little Fairy

Our family can be odd at times, but then, whose isn't really?  But this past holiday, they really proved it they're loons.  It all started with the pink fairy wings that my Mom bought and brought to her house. 

The Youngest loves Tinkerbell and couldn't wait to put them on.  I'm loving the phase he's in right now.  He's completely gender neutral in regard to toys.  All toys are fun to him, even fairy wings and magic wands.  I'm saving this pic for blackmail later on when he starts bringing the girlfriends home:

Then my silly nephew got in on the act:

Then my second cousin combined the fairy wings with some Hulk hands:

We got my 80 year old Uncle in on the fun (he was such a good sport):

Even the dog got in on the act:

Remember the phase I told you the Youngest was going through?  Yeah, he asked Santa for a Daisy Duck this Christmas.  Ya know what?  He got it:

More blackmail for later!

Happy New Year's Day!

Welcome 2010! 

The end of 2009 really sucked for me, especially November.  Wait a minute, most of the end of 2009 sucked, not the very very end:

- December 30th, the hubby was offered a job here in Atlanta.  Yippee!
- We Don't have to move.  Yippee!
- December 30th, my Mom's re-took some medical tests and they came back with an all-clear.  Yippee!
- We were given dining room chairs for Christmas.  Now our guests won't fall through the caned chairs that were held together with electrical tape.  Yippee! (I'm not kidding.  I was using electrical tape to hold them together.  Desperation makes me do weird things.)

As far as New Year's Resolutions go:

1.  I don't do New Year's Resolutions.
2.  I'm changing that this year.

Goal 1:  I resolve to paint my living room and get rid of the hideous striped wallpaper that the previous owners left me.

Goal 2:  I resolve to finish the damned kitchen project that has taken me over one and a half years to do.  I still have to paint one counter and cover it in resin, paint around the small kitchen window and make a simple valance out of the leftover burlap for it, touch up what needs touching up, do two more joint compound stencils over the top of the cabinets, attach the last two cabinet knobs.

Goal 3:  I resolve to try and be more frugal.  I've been practicing this aspect of my life, but haven't been as frugal as I should.  I have cut my grocery bills drastically over the last year (from approx. $300 a week to $70 a week for a family of four) but need to work on other areas of my life. Christmas spending on two kids didn't help me much either.

Goal 4:  I resolve to find more ways to beautify my home that are inexpensive and creative.

Goal 5:  I resolve to simplify my life more.  This really began last year, but I'm carrying it over to this year.  I live in a very expensive "Old Money" area.  People are very caught up in keeping up with the Joneses.  We left one church because it had filled up with the old moneyed country club set of people who felt the need to out-do one another and everyone else with materialistic things.  Their children must always be dressed better than yours, their cars must be newer and nicer than yours, etc.   Getting away from them was one of the best things we've ever done.  We still have contact with those folks due to one of our kids being in the same preschool and it fills me with stress to be around them.  The Youngest wants to invite one of the kids from his class over to his birthday party and I'm totally stressed about it.  I've been in the kids' home.  It's amazingly gorgeous and could be in a pottery barn catalog.  My house?  Not so much, but it's getting there through hard work.  I want to get away from the things that stress me out completely and simplify my little piece of the world.

Goal 6:  Figure out how to accomplish Goal 5.

So there you go.  Those are my resolutions for the year.  Not difficult, not unattainable.  I already know that I am allergic to exercise, so the gym membership money can now be used on the above listed items.  :)

Not Fair!

 was wakened most cruelly this morning.

There I was, dressed in a glamorous empire waisted gown of gold, my long silky hair all wavy down my back and long cream colored gloves covered my arms to just above the elbow.  It was just him and me in this large room.  He had just walked in and stood looking breathlessly at my beauty.  He, (Tom Selleck) was just about to ask me to dance when suddenly, there was a little boy's piercingly high pitched voice yelling right outside my door that tore me right out of that wonderful dream.   Not fair, not fair, not fair...

Wouldn't you just know it?  Of course, having Tom Selleck as the leading man in the dream might just be showing my age, but who cares?  It was Tom and it was about to get good.  Darn it.

The cruel little boy and I just finished rolling out yesterday's failed nut roll dough (the second batch of the nut rolls turned out fantastic) and made cookies with it.

They're actually not bad.  Maybe my baking mojo hasn't left me completely.  I made an icing from orange juice and powdered sugar and coated the cookies.  Once they are dry, I'm going to get out the food color markers and let the kids color them, probably some time this evening.

This will be the last of the cookie baking that is to be done for this Christmas season.   Tomorrow I'll be cooking a Pork loin and making some Creamed Spinach for my part of the Christmas Eve dinner we'll be having with my In-Laws.

This is the last post until after Christmas.  I'll be out of town for about a week or so, enjoying the Holidays and spending time with family.

Have a Very Merry Christmas!

Where's my baking mojo gone?

I decided that today would be a good day for baking.  The Eldest was as school and the Youngest went off with his Grandpa.  Yes, school is still in, today is the last day though.  So, using a recipe that I got from here, I started making my nut rolls.  Well. 

Somehow, I looked at my recipe card all wrong and got my sugar quantities backwards with the bulk of it going in the dough.  Guess what?  My dough didn't rise.  All those ingredients (4 cups of flour, 1 cup milk, 1/2 pound of butter, 2.25 tsp yeast), wasted, at least on this recipe.

I have now started over and am waiting for the dough to rise, again.  I feel like such a dumba$$ right now. 

Hopefully, the first batch that went wrong won't be a total waste.  I'm going to roll it out and make some cookies from it.  If it goes wrong there too, at least I will have tried to save the ingredients.

On the good side, I did not royally screw up the 7 cups of pecans that I've substituted for the walnuts that the recipe called for.  At least I woke the hell up and stopped and re-read the recipe before doing that.  Thank God for small favors!

I'm planning on having these Nut Rolls on Christmas morning.  Something really easy and already made so that we don't have to deal with making breakfast that day.  Our Christmas mornings are chaotic enough all ready, what with the two boys and a bazillion toys and wrapping paper and cats and dogs everywhere. 

Wish me luck that I can actually succeed in making these, will ya?

Christmas Jewelry and Yarn Bowls!

I've got some earrings to share with you today.  The local Bead Shop, (I guess in yarny type terms that would be the LBS) had some really cute kits for Christmas earrings.  I made the Christmas trees a few weeks ago and the Snowmen today:

I think the little snowmen are absolutely adorable and I can't wait to wear them.   They were super easy to make as well.  I used sterling lever backs and t-pins.  The type of beads in the kit were way to fancy for just any cheap old findings.  Cute huh?


As far as knitting goes, the shawl is coming along.  I figure a few more movies out to do it. 

Also in the pic, (besides the little boy feet - he insisted on getting in the picture somehow - he's as bad as the cat), is my new yarn bowl!  My best buddy got me this at a Holiday market.  It's so funny, she had no idea what the bowl was until she asked the crafter and she knew I was the only person in the world (her world that is) that would figure out what it was.  Sure enough, I opened my present today and said, "Yay!  A yarn bowl!"  She was very smug about the whole thing of course.  :)  I love her.

The Slockin Mystery Has Been Solved

I have solved the mystery of the Slockin.  I feel so smart now.  really.

About a year ago, the kids and I discovered some really cool little movies.  One was about this tiny dinosaur who goes to audition for a rock band.  He ends up dueling (using electric guitars) with this really big ugly guy.  The big ugly guy is the Slockin.  Why the Youngest named him the Slockin?  That's a mystery for another day.

Another little movie that the kids have had me play over and over and over etc. is about two robots.  Everyone in my extended family knows about the robot movie now.  It's even infected my Dad. He and the Youngest now argue over who is going to be the tank "wobot" and the airplane "wobot". 

You should really take a look at both of these.  They're very short, just a couple of minutes each and were done really well.  Like Pixar well.  The movies were done by graduates of the University of Hertfordshire and are absolutely marvelous.  I hope these guys got a job working somewhere really prestigious, they deserve it.

I Don't Understand!

The Youngest came up to me a few minutes ago and graciously told me that I "could be his servant."  That's funny, I thought I already was...

Then he handed me a drum stick and told me that I could be a Slockin.  "What is a Slockin?" I asked.  I was told it's a man that says (in a bad guy voice of course) "I want my guitar!"    Well.  That explains that, doesn't it?

Christmas Photo Frame

I've been so frustrated this Christmas.  I've been trying to find a 5 x 7 Christmas photo frame and I don't know if I'm looking in all the wrong places or if there just aren't as many as there used to be.  I've looked in every store and dollar store that I can find and haven't seen one.

So I decided to take things in my own hands and make one.  Very cheap, cause I'm like that ya know.

1 Frame found at the Dollar Tree, for a dollar of course.  Add one gold leafing pen from Walmart for a couple of bucks (this one i consider to be an investment since I will use this in future projects), for a couple of dollars:

After using them together?  One almost instant Christmas photo frame for 3 bucks. 

Just what I was looking for.  Now if I only had better hand writing...

Clever Little Shawl 2.0

I'm not sure why, but I'm not enamored with the Pretty Thing Cowl that I've not been working on.  Yep, you read that correctly, I'm not working on it.    I have put it down and instead picked up a project that my Mom requested.  This one is Carol's Clever Little Shawl:

Actually this is the Clever Little Shawl 2.0 since I've already made this one once before out of my own handspun yarn:

The 2.0 is being worked up in Paton's Wool in color Jade Heather.  It's an incredibly fast knit and really is clever.  No shawl pins or buttons needed and it keeps me sooooo warm.  I use the burgundy one constantly around the house, it's one of my favorite knits.  It's also a fairly mindless knit too, great for tv watching. 

A Gingerbread House for Preschoolers!

On Saturday the Youngest had a birthday party to go to.  That was one brave mom.  She had around fifteen 4 year olds to contend with.  That's way too many at one party for me.  When the Youngest has his in January, he might get two friends.  maybe.

I would be so panicked to have a party right before Christmas.  Can you imagine getting duplicates of the toys that you already bought and have hidden in the closet? 

The reason I'm telling you all this is that I wanted to share a really cute Christmas idea for little hands that the kids made at the party:

A Gingerbread House for Preschoolers!

Here's what you need to make it:

1 empty and washed carton of milk or half and half.  This is the 16 oz size.

Graham Crackers - 6 cracker sheets - do not separate them!

4 Old fashioned soft candy canes

13 chocolate teddy grahams

2 Reeses Peanut Butter Cups - the fatter bite size ones, not the thin large ones

1 Pack LifeSavers Candy

1 bag M & M's

1 bag tiny M & M's

Hershey Bar - fun size

Pretzel sticks

2 Large Marshmallows

Assorted other candies

Polyester Fiberfill

1 can white frosting

Craft or Popsicle stick for the kids to use to spread the frosting

1 toothpick

Plate

Instructions:

Have the kids cover the sides of the carton with frosting.  As each side is frosted place 1 sheet of the graham crackers against the frosting.  The frosting acts as your glue.  The four sides will be taller than the top of the carton and will also not go all the way to the corners of the carton.

Next frost your roof, both sides.  Take 1 sheet of graham crackers and divide it in two and place on top of the roof.  You will need to break off the top edges of both to get them the right size to make your A frame roof.  Don't worry if the edges are rough, it will be filled in.

Next fill in the four exposed corners of the carton with frosting and then press in the candy canes.  (See the above picture for details)

Then you're going to fill in your roof edges with frosting and press in your M & M's (larger sized) into it.  The Teddy grahams are used for windows.  There are four on the back and sides and there are two teddies on top and two on bottom.  You frost the back of them before applying to the house.

Chimney - frost one of the peanut butter cups and apply to the roof.

Gum drops - Apply frosting on the plate around the bottom of the house and press the gum drops into that.  You can make a walkway if you want.

Door - Take the fun size Hershey Bar and frost the back of it and apply it to the house.  4 life savers were frosted and used as decoration above the door.

You can use any other assorted candies and apply them as you want.  The kids loved putting all the candy on.

Snowman - Yes, there is a snowman in the photo, it's just difficult to see him.  He's to the right of the house and is leaning over a little.  Use a toothpick to hold the three large marshmallows together.  Frost the front of the top one and then using the tiny M & M's, make a face.  Two pretzel sticks are used for the arms.  Frost the other peanut butter cup next and use as the snowman's hat.

Finish with using some Fiberfill as snow.  It doesn't take much, a little goes a long way!

That's it!  A super cute idea for little hands at Christmas!  I wish I had thought of it.

Good Day!

Today was a good day.  I sold some of my handmade jewelry, Woohoo!  Thanks Alyson!  I would really like to set up a trunk show soon for some of my friends and would also like to start selling at some craft fairs.  I need to get moving on building more inventory first though.

Anyway, I'm exhausted now because she came to the house to view it and it was an unholy wreck.  Piles upon piles of kid toys and school papers were everywhere, and dish mountain had grown huge.  So I scrambled to make the house presentable and set out my inventory (which I am going to try and photograph tonight to get the rest up on my etsy page) before she came over. 

Speaking of etsy, anybody got any good tips on getting more traffic to my shop?  I've had the shop open for a couple of months now and haven't sold one single thing there.  I must be doing something wrong.  Any ideas? You can see some of my wares and a link to my shop if you scroll down and look on the right hand side of my blog.  Ideas and comments would be much appreciated.  Sales also of course!  :)

Exhausted or not, it was well worth it.  Considering our financial straights right now, a little extra cash goes a long way towards keeping a roof over our heads!

Have a great weekend everybody!

Doesn't Everyone Sleep With Their Knitting?

Doesn't Everyone Sleep With Their Knitting?

Tahki Yarns Classic Pullover Complete!

As promised, I have a pic of the completed sweater:

Project:  Tahki Yarns Cotton Classic Pullover
 Size: Small
Needles:  Size 6
Yarn:  worsted weight, Hobby Lobby  I Love This Wool!  Solids - Seal Brown


Mods:

1. Did the body of the sweater in the round, but the sleeves flat. Keeping the sleeves flat helped immensely when it came time to piece it together. It turned out looking very well finished.
2. At the neckline, Idid an additional round of decreases to keep the sweater from sliding off my shoulders and then 6 rows of st. st. so that the curl at the top matched that of the bottom.
3. Used wool instead of cotton.

I was really worried that this sweater had serious problems.  Before blocking I tried it on and both the sleeves and bottom of the sweater were too short and that the waist shaping looked horrible.  The sleeves were about an inch too short, which was odd since according to the specs in the pattern, I had made them an inch longer than I was supposed to.

But with the magic of blocking, the sweater fits me perfectly.  I love the details of the cables on the shoulders matching the cables at the bottom of the sweater and also the curl matching at both the top and the bottom.   I also a love boat neck top, it's so flattering on.

My Frugal Deal Of The Day

The Youngest has this "little" hangup about Super Hero shirts.  We have had the worst knock down drag out fights and temper tantrums over them.  Mainly the fights occur when the shirts are dirty and he can't wear them.  He would wear them dirty daily if he could get away with it.  Which he can't.  Thus the huge, very loud fights.

So I went out today with the goal of finishing up all my shopping for the boys.  One of those gifts was going to be a super hero shirt.  This is a must-have gift that will hopefully save my sanity when another superhero shirt is dirty.  Well, I found one that is perfect.  It has Spiderman, Ironman, Wolverine and some other hero that I can't remember now.  I wrapped it already so I can't go and check.  Darn.  Senility comes earlier and earlier I tell ya.

Anyway, on to the frugality!  I had a JCPenny's coupon good for $10 off of a $10 or more purchase.  The shirt was normally $24.99, but was on sale for $11.99.  It came with a toy car too.  I spent a total of $2.11 for that shirt and toy!  How cool is that?   Two items for $2.11.  You can't get much better than that.

Pretty Thing

I finished my sweater project this past weekend.  It's heading to be blocked now, so I'll have to show you a pic later.  However, I did have one problem with the sweater.  The sleeves.  Too short.  I'm not sure if the designer has short arms or if mine are abnormally long, but they're about an inch too short.  What's funny, is that each sleeve was an inch longer than the pattern specs called for before being set in.  I can assure you that there are not two inches bunched up in the seams.  I have no clue what happened.  I'm going to block it first and then see if I need to pick up stitches on the cuff and add more length.  We'll see what happens.

After finishing the sweater, I picked up a small lace project:

This is the Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing Cowl, or at least what I've gotten done so far.

For full disclosure, let me state that this is the third cast on of the cowl and it is not the yarn that I originally began it with.

1.  First Cast On:  The first time I cast on for this project, I royally screwed up.  I read the charts like the project was flat and to be turned.  Big Note To Self:  When working with a lace chart in the round, always read the chart from right to left exclusively.  There.  Maybe I won't forget next time.  So I frogged what I had created.

2.  Second Cast On:  The first yarn was some gorgeous silk that I spun into laceweight singles.  However, the yarn wasn't quite bulky enough and just didn't look right.    I could have gone down a needle size (I'm using a US4) and continued to use the silk, but I decided that the silk would be put away and used in a future project.

3. Third Cast On:  This time, my reading of the chart was dead on, my counting of all stitches was correct and the yarn is working up beautifully.  Whew!

The yarn is some recycled yarn from an old sweater of mine that a moth got hold of.  There were only two small holes, but the sweater was out of style anyway so I frogged it.  The yarn is a lovely dove gray and is so incredibly soft.  Let me read you what's in it:  30% cotton, 22% nylon, 20% rayon, 13% lambswool, 10% angora rabbit and 5% cashmere.  What a mix!