Frugal Friday with Marsha --Gift Giving

It's that time of year--time for the birthdays of the grandchildren.  I thought it would be fun to share the gifts that I give them in my Frugal Friday posts.

First came Skyler's 13th birthday.  He's my step-grandson.  I was busy worrying about not having much for him.  All I had in my stash was a Star Wars spiral notebook that I had picked up at Walmart for 50 cents on clearance.
My daughter then suggested that I crochet him hacky sacks.  I would never have thought of that, but went right to finding a pattern online.

I used the pattern found here:  http://www.freshstitches.com/how-to-make-a-hacky-sack-crochet-easy/

I rounded up all of the materials to make them, which I had plenty of around the house.  I decided to make him 3 of them because not only does he like to hacky sack, he also likes to juggle.
He loved them.  His friend at his party thought they were cool.  And, they had a family hacky sack game after we went home.

Other than making gifts, a lot of my gifts come from items that I get in for review.  Some of those I do get in free, and some, like this game, I do pay a small amount for.   I chose to get Rooster Race because I knew Jacob would like it.  He's been playing card games with my mom most every evening.

A little review:  It's a really fun learning game. Each player gets 14 cards then one card is turned over in the center.   On your turn you guess if your card will be higher or lower than the card on top of the pile.  If you are right you get to take a cute little ear of corn from the center.  If you are wrong you have to give back an ear of corn.  The winner is the one with the most ears of corn once all 14 cards have been gone through.  He's had a lot of fun with it.

Another birthday coming up this weekend so I will have more gifts to show in next week's post.

WIP Wednesday 8/17/11

This week I did work  on some things at home.  Mostly birthday gifts for my 3 granddaughters that all have birthday's this month.  Today I made the last of the jewelry for Araya.  I still have her doll blanket to put together.
I did a post with pics of Ariel's gifts if you are interested, you can check it out here: 

Handmade Gifts for Ariel

Otherwise, it's still working for church.  I didn't take a photo this week, but I did get started on putting the gingham strips together for a jelly roll quilt.

We met for a second time this month yesterday.  We are working on a quilt that will go to Global Missions.  It's a group effort.

Here is the jelly roll top that I made and showed in a previous WIP post.  The gal on the right put on the edging and added the happy face to it.  The gal on the left and a couple of the other gals will now put the middle and backing on.

This is the quilt we are working on for Global Missions.  This is also a group effort on the cutting, ironing, sewing together of squares.  I will have another picture when we complete it.  After we got this far we decided we needed another row on the bottom.  I've brought it home along with strips.  My homework is to finish this part of the top by Sunday.

Here is Marilyn sewing on the edging of the strip quilt top that I made.  I like to do the tops and let the others do the finishing....which why it might explain why I don't do the greatest job finishing.  A couple other gals usually do the pinning and tieing.  Below that is the finished product.  The brown backing and brown ties look great with it.  It's now ready to be donated to the Domestic Violence Center.

Until next week---please click the buttons below and follow along with the blogs that I link up with.

Frugal Friday Link Up 8/12/11

Welcome to the Frugal Friday Link up. Sorry for taking the week off last week with no notice!

At the moment I am working on creating things for my granddaughters birthday's this month. All 3 of them have birthdays this month with the first one tomorrow!! I am making them each a bracelet with plarn as well as a necklace with plarn and beads. I am also using up some of my left over quilt squares and making them each a blanket for their dolls. Money to spend on gifts is not an option right now and I would rather make gifts if I can anyway. They always love what I make for them.

Here are some more tips from the 99 Cent Solutions book. We are still in the baking soda category.

#1 Make tomatoes sweeter. This is a tip for next season. It says that if you sprinkle baking soda around the base of your tomato plants that the tomatoes will taste sweeter.

#2 Save a mildewed book. If it's a mild case of mildew, you can save the book with baking soda. Sprinkle it lightly between the pages, then put the book n a paper bag and dust the outside with more baking soda. Let it sit for several days, then remove, shake out and dust off the baking soda, and let the book get a shot of bright sunlight. It won't remove the mildew marks, but if you store it in a dry place, no more mildew will grow.

#3 Take the sting out of sunburn. We had to use this tip when my daughter came home with a bad sunburn from the lake this year. Pour a cup of baking soda into a lukewarm bath. It will take the sting out and lessen the pain quickly.

Birthday Bags Completed for My Three Granddaughters

II completed the birthday bags for my 3 granddaughters yesterday.  I think they came out cute.

They are pictured below, along with the items going in to each one.  Very frugal gifts.  I got most of the items you see in the photo with my points on listia.  Some of them are won through mycoolcontests.  Some were bought at yard sales.  In total I only spent $2.10 out of pocket for it all.

To see full details, I hope you will visit my gather post  Birthday Bags Completed for My Three Granddaughters

If you aren't a member of mycoolcontests yet, please check it out.  It's free and lots of fun to do each day!!  I win often and I use the items for gifts.