"Pink Friday" With Baby Bella Maya

 From November 29th to December 1st, Baby Bella Maya (www.babybellamaya.com) is offering at 20% off + free shipping on all purchases on the site.  Just use the code: pinkfriday at checkout!!

 

Baby Bella Maya is a line of cutting edge baby/toddler gear and accessories that make fashion fun!  The company was started by Marta Sala-Rothwell, who, after noticing the wear on her Baby Bjorn infant carrier, created a fashionable slip cover to prolong its life.  Everywhere she went people stopped her to ask where she got it.  As an airline pilot and mother of four, she hardly had the time to start a company, but that’s exactly what she did.  Her goal became simple.  She wanted to design cute accessories for stylish infants and toddlers.  Her innovative vision of marrying feminine frill and fashionable edge styles, coupled with the country backdrop, has become the perfect recipe for the exciting celebration of a new baby.


Here are just some of the wonderful products you will find to choose from:
Headbands
Go-Go Pouches
Leggings
Car Seat Covers
Booties
Blankets

Don't miss out on this great sale! 

Gift Cards are in High Demand for Cyber Monday

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This holiday season, GiftCard.com is jumping on Cyber Monday and offering a discount on their customized Visa gift cards— taking the awkward out of cash gifts.

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Just visit giftcard.com   on Cyber Monday, December 2nd.  Use the promo code THANKFUL at checkout and receive $5.95 off all Visa Gift Cards in your order.

 Print-on-demand technology allows customers to add family photos and custom artwork with the gift card designer to over 1300 designs, or add a recipients name.  

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Avoid searching for a specific retailer or restaurant.  These are Visa gift cards, and are accepted wherever Visa is accepted.  Each card also comes with a complimentary greeting card of your choice as well!

Don't forget--December 2nd, Cyber Monday, visit Giftcard.com .   Use the promo code THANKFUL and receive $5.95 off each gift card that you order!

Frugal Friday With Marsha--Linky Party 11/22/13

It's a cold morning here in Kansas.  Looks like we've gone from fall to winter.
One thing that I am not frugal about is the heat in my house.  I get cold so easily.  I do have my long johns on as well as a turtleneck under my sweatshirt too.
I really did try to keep the furnace at a lower than normal temp....and I know that I really should keep it lower.  I just don't want to also sit here wrapped in a blanket too.

We are blessed that we do have the choice on the warmth as some don't.  In the summer our gas bill is so low.....usually only around $20 a month.  The electric bill is what is up then when we run the central air.   Not too bad though since I do get cold easily we keep our thermostat set on 80 or 82 in the summer.
No, I don't keep it on that for the winter, just in case you were wondering.  LOL   It is on 76 though.  I'm going to put it down a degree or 2 and see if I can take it.

We've been having trouble financially because of everything that goes out for mortgage, loans, and utilities.  Again, things we've not been frugal on.   Hubby and I really need to work on paying down the debt.......and then not taking out any more loans.

We do only have one credit card with a low limit.  However, hubby is in charge of that.  It's usually almost always to that limit and he rarely pays more than the minimum payment each month.  It's been without interest, but that ends at the end of the year.   I wish he had never gotten it and that I could get him to understand.  Wish me luck there!

I recently took out my copy of The Tightwad gazette: Promoting thrift as a viable alternative lifestyle
again and started reading it from the front of the book.  I'm in hopes that if hubby sees me doing all these other things to live a simple and frugal life that he will follow suit and think before he spends.

Next week I want to talk about Christmas in my Frugal Friday post.

I hope you will link up your frugal/simple living type posts this week and motivate me as well as others.  Thanks!!

Squidoo Hopping 11/21/13

Another week has gone by and I didn't get any new lenses built.  I only updated the one lens.

I am concerned about how many people I am seeing that are saying that squidoo has locked ALL of their lenses.
Any ideas at all why someone would get all of their lenses locked?  That is a scary thought.

I show 10 locked, but they say they aren't really locked.  They are the 10 that I have left that had more than 20 amazon links.   No reason why I haven't taken the time to go in and pick and choose what amazon I want to stay.....it doesn't take that long to get that part of it done.
Sometimes it is hard deciding what products to keep and which ones to get rid of.

*****Last week there were links added to the linky that did not go directly to a squidoo lens, or a blog post about squidoo.  Please refrain from linking up anything except squidoo related.*****

I think this week I will link up a couple of my lenses that are in the middle of my list as far as lensrank.

WIP Wednesday 11/20/13

I did less sewing this past week than the week before, but still a lot more than I had been doing.
I'm happy with progress that I am making in all ways.

Each month I attend 2 stitch groups.  One is the second Wednesday of the month and is with a few of my quilt guild members.  It's from 1-3 pm.
The second one is the 3rd Wednesday of the month at the quilt shop from 1-4, but most of us do leave by 3. 
For months now I have only worked on my applique bunnies at my stitch groups.
I have completed 12 of my 20 bunnies as shown in the photo.  After I work today I am going to bring my box in the house and work on them in the evenings.

I worked a bit more on my remaining 12 log cabin blocks to finish my wall hanging top.  I had hoped to have it done by the 25th for show and share at quilt guild but I would really need to get on it to make that goal.   I am including the 4 blocks that I had together and showed last week along with my progress on the other 12.

Last but not least I have the Penny Patch QAL that I am working on.  I am still a bit behind, but not too bad.  Click the button below my picture to see what it's all about if you would like.  Last week there was a linky included for us to show our progress.
I laid out my blocks.  Oh how I wish I had a design wall!  I messed with it over and over and finally gave up.  This is what I ended up with and then piled them by rows and numbered each pile.  Since taking this picture I did put row 12 together.

 I am linking up with the following blogs:



 

Frugal Friday With Marsha 11/15/13

Another part of my frugal life that I have let slide to the back burner is my coupon usage.
I have been working the past few days on getting binder back in order.

First thing was to take out the expired coupons.  They went back to September!
I have weeks and weeks worth of Sunday coupon inserts to cut as well as coupons I have printed, coupons that have come in the mail, and coupons from magazines.

In fact, here is a picture of my pile before I started:

Hubby and I have run into a financial situation where it's been that we've only had a little to spend at the store and had to buy what we could, when we could.
Yesterday is an example.  I had $13 to spend.
I ended up buying 4 apples, garlic bread, Cheerios, 2 bottles of Dr. Pepper, 3 Nissin Noodles, butter, eggs, and toilet paper.   I paid $12.82.
I did have a $1 coupon for the butter, a $1 coupon for the noodles, and a store coupon to get the Cheerios free.
I did have hubby pick up a gallon of milk on his way home from work.

I worked Wednesday cutting and putting coupons into my binder once I got all the expired coupons out.
Yesterday I started just looking through the coupons and cutting mostly just the ones that I think I might use.

I went to the Deal Detecting Diva blog and checked off items from the sale that I hope to buy and printed out my list.  I also printed out some more coupons.
Today I still have to finish looking through a few more inserts.
I do plan on shopping this evening.

With all of this said, I want to note how thankful we have been for my prior coupon shopping and my stocking up when I could.  So many times we've had to just buy a few things to have complete meals for the week using foods from my stockpile.
No, I've never had anything close to a stock of what you see on the Extreme Couponing show.

I do still have 10 cans or Ro-Tel in the cabinet.  This is after what we have used as well as I just donated several cans of it to the food bank.
We used a can of it in this supper:
What's for Supper? Mexican Goulash - News - Bubblews  
It was a hit!

Three things happened that have taken away my couponing motivation:
1.  Our newspaper lost it's contract with Smart Source.  This means we have to buy the Wichita paper to get that insert----and means that I can't go to our newspaper office to buy 5 Sunday papers for $6 and get lots of coupons.   I have done that once in the last 8 or 9 months when there were a few good coupons in the Red Plum that I wanted more of.

2.  My friend that was picking up 30 or 40 Sunday papers free, and sharing the inserts with me and another friend, lost her source.  Not only did I no longer have a stack of coupons, but no longer were the 3 of us meeting to cut coupons and chit chat.

3.  Our store stopped doubling coupons.  This was back in August.  I am still having a hard time with this one.  It really means no more free thanks to a double, and I still look at a .50 coupon and think $1, or a .25 coupon and think .50.


I appreciate any and all frugal/simple living posts that you will link up this week!  If you have posted about shopping trips, please do link those up and keep me motivated.  Thanks!

Squidoo Hopping 11/14/13

Happy Thursday!

Thanks so much to those of you who linked up last week.  It was fun getting back into the swing of things.

I didn't get as much done in squidoo as I would have liked to have, but I did spend quite a bit of time.  This week will be even better.
I did get to one of the 11 lenses that I hadn't dwindled down the amazon links on yet.  It's hard to pick and choose on some of those on what products you want to stay and which ones you want to get rid of.

I still haven't tried the new formats yet, but I have a plan for using all 3 of them.

Is there any new squidoo news that we need to know?

WIP Wednesday 11/13/13

I have been busy in my craft room this week with lots of sewing.  I would bet I've not done as much sewing as I've done in the past 6 days as I've done in the last 6 months total!

First off, as I went through some of the blogs shared in the linky's I ran across a QAL.
It's a Penny Patch quilt a long.  I decided, hey, I can do this!   You can find all the information at:  http://www.stitchedincolor.com/2013/10/penny-patch-beginners-quilt-along.html 

I am not caught up, but happy with my progress.  I have my 12 blocks completed that include my "pop" color of yellow.
I also have all of my 2 inch squares ready to be sewn for the rest of the penny patch blocks.

 At the monthly sit n' sew evening at the quilt shop I have spent the last 4 months sewing together these rectangle pieces into blocks.  I finally finished what was in the box.  I ended up with 130 blocks.  They are all squared up now and ready to be sewn into something.  I am thinking a couple of lap quilts.

 I am still working on the log cabin blocks as well.   I do have 4 done and put together.  Only 12 more to go to finish the top of my wall hanging.

I have still been working on the same quilt tops now at the monthly sewing club at church.  I did finish the first top.  Actually these blocks were to be all one top.  We give these quilts to the Domestic Violence Center and we decided to make these into 2 quilts instead of 1 huge one.
 This is what was to be the center of the quilt and now it's own top:

 These smaller blocks were to go all around the outside, but I am now making them into their own quilt top.  I am going to use the quilt as you go method.

 

 Last but not least for this week is the toothbrush rug that I am working on.

I am linking up with the following blogs:

Frugal Friday WIth Marsha--Linky Party 11/8/13

I can't believe how fast this week has gone by!

How many of you have watched the show Extreme Cheapskates on TLC?

I sat the other night and watched a few episodes.  Wow is all I have to say.  No, that's not all I have to say.

There are some great ideas to be taken from the show.  For example:
*Making good use of leftover food. 
*Saving on funeral costs.
*Tracking your uses of water, gas and electricity.
*Finding alternative ways to heat water and cook your food.
*Shopping thrift stores, pawn shops, craigslist, etc.
*"Dumpster Diving" for items you need (I once carpeted my whole house this way)
*Entering contests and giveaways.
*Being creative in finding venues for hosting parties. (We used our church basement for my daughter's 16th birthday)
*Free samples for things you use every day.
*Making homemade items--cleaners, laundry soap, jellies, etc.
 

Then there are the ideas that are even too over the top for this frugal chick:
*Sharing a toothbrush---omg, use a coupon and a sale and get them free!
*The entire family using the same bath water--I love my family, but eewwww
*Using newspaper for toilet paper---won't that leave newsprint on your bottom?
*Going to a buffet restaurant, paying for 3 and feeding 6?---what restaurant would even allow this?
*"Dumpster Diving" for food----I'm in the middle on this one.  When I worked as a lunch aide, I often took home milk from the dumpster.  For some reason the guy who delivered milk would dump the about to expire into our dumpster.  Of course we took it out as soon as he drove off and put it in the fridge.  And, if it's food in a package, unopened, I would take it too.
*Stalking weddings to pick up the rice, then go home and cook it.
*Using a lantern rather than turning on the light.----This can make sense if it's an oil lamp or something that doesn't take batteries.  On the episode I seen this, it appeared her lamp was battery powered as she turned it off with a switch.  I can't see this as any huge savings since there is the cost of the batteries (Even though, again, with coupons and sales, you can get good deals on batteries)


These really are just a few examples from the shows.  What are your thoughts?


Now it's your turn to link up any frugal type posts you have done this week too  :)

 

Thursday's Squidoo Hop is Back!

I am back!
I have let my blogging here slide for months.  In fact, I have let Squidoo slide for months as well.

It was when I hit upon the email about re-applying for Giant Squid that prompted me to get back into my lenses.  I seen that email days after it came in while attempting to catch up on my email.

I am behind on doing reviews and have a stack of books beside me to do.  Why not make them into lenses and re-apply for Giant?

Here's me story.  First of all, I was confused.  Tons of modules have just disappeared.  Most of them I wouldn't miss as I never did use them at all.  I did miss text with big picture.   With help from members of one of the squidoo facebook groups I am in, I was able to find me answers.  Thanks!

However, it wasn't until I only had one more module to fill in on my book review that a member of the group chimed in to ask me if I realized that I needed to use the review format to build the lens.  Nope....I didn't.   Looks like I still need to do 3 review lenses, but that's ok.

I also read in a bubblews post yesterday by sandyspider that to re-apply we also have the option of using the new recipe format or DIY format.   I have done some craft posts on bubblews where I did step by step how to do make something, with photos......would it be acceptable to take those and also make them into lenses?  It would be duplicate content for the most part, eve if I do some re-arranging and re-wording.      
I think I have posted all of the recipes that I can think of into lenses already.  Maybe I could take one of my recipes from my frugal lens and highlight it into a lens.
I will figure something out.

Let's get on to sharing!!!  If you have done a blog post about squidoo, please link those up.  Also link up one or two of your lenses.  Your choice on lenses to link, but if you have used any of the 3 new formats, please do link those up.  I want to see what they look like.   Thanks!!

p.s.   Nonersays (Winona) does a weekly blog with a linky for squidoo as well.  She does hers on Sunday's.  This means even more exposure for our lenses.   You can find her blog HERE!