Swag Luau Team Challenge

Put on your lei, enjoy some Slack-key guitar, and get ready to eat some Kalua Pork, because Swagbucks is holding a Luau Team Challenge to help you earn free gift cards! For those of you who don't know what Swagbucks is, it's a website where you can earn cash back on everyday tasks you do online like shopping, answering surveys, discovering deals, and watching videos. You can even earn for searching the web! 

If you've never tried Swagbucks before because you didn't know where to begin, their Team Challenges are a great way to learn the ropes! The challenge, begins Monday, August 14th at 8am PT, but you can pre-register starting on Friday, August 11th!

Here's how you can join the challenge and the site:  

1. Click here to join the challenge and be assigned to a team.

2. Starting August 14th at 8am PDT, in addition to earning SB you'll contribute points to your teams total as you complete different activities on Swagbucks.

3. Check back on the page often to see the scores and what you've contribute so far.   

All members who participate and contribute at least 600 points to their team’s total will receive a SB bonus in the form of a SB Swag Up Rebate on their next gift card! 

Not only that, but if you sign up under me this month and earn 300 SB before September 1st, you'll get a 300 SB bonus!

Members of the 1st place team will receive a 100 SB Swag Up Rebate, members of the 2nd place team will receive a 50 SB Swag Up Rebate, and members of the 3rd place team will receive a 30 SB Swag Up Rebate. Your SB Swag Up Rebate will be made available on Friday, August 18th at 2pm PT and will expire on Thursday, August 31st at 11:59pm PT.

Frugal Friday With Marsha -- Week in Review

I still plan to share printable coupons, freebies, sweepstakes etc, but I want to get back to my Frugal Friday posts being about frugal things that I am doing (or want to do).

This week I want to start out talking about re-purposing t-shirts.  Many of you already know that I use them to make rugs and then use the tops of the t-shirts to cut into re-usable rags.

I needed to deep clean in the kitchen and realized that I had no rags under the sink!  I went to my craft room and pulled out the pile of t-shirts that I had gotten at a rummage sale for $1 for the bag.    I was going to only cut up a couple of them, but then decided why not just cut the whole pile.

I have rolls to make rugs with (that I shared in my WIP Wednesday post), but I also now have this basket full in the utility room.  Should be enough to keep up going in rags for some time.

I think I've mentioned briefly that my middle daughter made us all homemade deodorant.   I sure do love using it!  She made it for us the 4th of July and as you can see in the picture, I still have a few months of use left out of the container she made for me.

I've been anxious to make some myself ever since she gave it to us, but there is no hurry since I have at least a couple more months of use of what she gave me.

You can search homemade deodorant recipes and find lots of them online.  (Be sure to use Swagbucks, MyPoints, or Inboxdollars for your searches so that you are also earning for your searches!)
Basic ingredients are corn starch, baking soda, coconut oil and essential oil of your choice.

This stuff is great, and it really works.  It does take your body a few weeks to adjust to it, and you may not like that you still seems to sweat through, but that stops!   I made the mistake of not having it with me while at my daughters and got out my other deodorant from my bag.  I felt icky and sticky in my underarms all day and didn't like it one bit!

If you have Aldi in your area, I suggest buying the coconut oil. baking soda and corn starch there.

Swagbucks Back To School Sale!

It is back to school time and Swagbucks has the deals.  Check out the offer below!

Through September 8th you'll get double cash back (in the form of SB points) or more when you shop for Back to School essentials at your favorite retailers through Swagbucks. 

They also have offers where you can earn SB points towards free gift cards for trying school-related products and services. Then you can take all the SB points you earn and use them to get gift cards and PayPal cash!

Click here to see all of the deals they're running, and if you sign up through me during this sale you'll get $10 for making your first purchase! That's in addition to the normal SB you get for your purchases.

WIP Wednesday --This is How It Goes

Of course once the retreat was over all I really wanted to do is sew and sew and keep on sewing.  Life doesn't allow that, unfortunately.

The only thing I have worked on this past week was the yo-yo's.  I thought I had the first valance done, but when I measured it, nope, I need one more row the long way!

I set out then to make more yo-yo's, but also to separate what I already had made to ensure that some of every fabric gets in to each of the 3 items.  

The only other thing that I did this past week that was sewing or craft related was to cut several t-shirts into strips.  I got the stack of shirts at a rummage sale dollar a bag sale for the purpose of cutting them to make them into rugs.

I only cut them now as I was out of rags and I use the left over tops of the t-shirts to cut into rags.  I will be writing more about that on Friday.

No plans any time soon to start another t-shirt rug as I already have one to finish on my 17 UFO's in 2017 challenge list.

Sit n' Sew this Friday, so God willing, I will finish up squaring up the half square triangles, and work more on the yo-yo's.


I link up with the following blogs:



Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/

Swago: Back to School Shopping Edition

If you still haven't done your Mother's Day shopping, here's a way you can get paid for finding a great gift for the moms in your life. 

Swagbucks is hosting another round of Shopping Swago! What is SWAGO you ask? It's a bingo-inspired promotion run by Swagbucks, a website that rewards you with points (called SB) for completing everyday online activities. You can redeem those SB for free gift cards. If you've never used Swagbucks, participating in SWAGO is a great introduction to the site and an easy way to earn a good amount of points quickly.  

Click here to get started! 

Here’s what you need to know to get your 200 SB Bonus (and don’t worry, you don’t have to make a purchase to complete a pattern):

• Shop Swago will begin on Monday, August 7th at 9am PT/12pm ET, make sure you hit “Join” otherwise you won’t get credit for completing the action items. Each square on your Swago Board will contain an action item to complete.
• Once you complete the action item in a particular square the square will change color signifying the action item is complete.
• You have a limited amount of time to mark off as many squares as possible so use your time wisely.
• Be mindful of the patterns and their corresponding bonuses located on the right of your Swago Board. The patterns will vary in difficulty and bonus value.
• Once you’ve achieved a pattern the corresponding “Submit” button will light up. You can have multiple patterns available for submission, however, you can only submit ONE pattern so choose wisely.
• The game ends Thursday, August 10th at 12pm PDT/3pm EDT. So make sure to hit “Submit” on the pattern you wish to submit. If you don’t hit “Submit” before the game ends you won’t receive your SB bonus.
  
  Also, if you sign up through me this month, you'll get a $10 rebate when you make your first purchase via Swagbucks Shopping! You can activate it in the "Swag Ups" area of "My Account"

p.s.  While playing Swago, also do your searches and collected the Back To School Collector's Bills for another SB Bonus!!

Frugal Friday with Marsha -- Back to Savings

It's hard to get back into routines after almost 2 weeks of being totally out of my routines.   This week I am sharing printable coupons, freebies, sweepstakes etc again, but I hope next week to just mix them in with frugal things that I have done throughout the week.

There are lots of great printable coupons right now.  I've chosen several, but all you need to do is click one to see all of them!


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




Deals, freebies and more:

Free Subscription to Taste of Home Magazine

Free Sample of O My! Goat Milk Soap

FREE Men's Grooming Sample Box after Amazon Credit, BACK AGAIN

Free Airheads Bites or Bars at Kroger & Affiliates

10 Free Recyclebank Points

Pinecone Reseach is OPEN for Enrollment, Earn $3 per Survey

Papa John's BOGO Pizza Deal


Here are some sweepstakes for you to enter--Good Luck!

Win a $1,000 Target Gift Card and an Overachiever Kit

Win 52 Meal Kits from Chef'd worth $1,560

Win 1 of 5 Dell Inspiron Laptops in the Rent-A-Center Dell Sweep

Win a $75 Grocery Gift Card, NutriBullet Blender & More

Win 1,000 Instant Win Prizes in the Butterfinger College Game

The August Referral Bonus!!

It may almost be the end of Summer, but you can still earn big bonuses at Swagbucks, a rewards site where you earn points (called SB) for things you're probably doing online already, like searching, watching videos, discovering deals, and taking surveys. Then you take those points and exchange them for gift cards to places like Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart, Target, or PayPal cash. 

When you sign up through me this month, you can earn a $3 bonus! Here's how: 

1. Sign up using this link 

2. Earn 300 SB total before 9/1/17. You'll get a $3 (300 SB) bonus for it! 

3. That's it. It's super easy, and Swagbucks is for real. I use it myself, and I've earned well over $2500 in PayPal, Walmart and Amazon gift cards since joining Swagbucks !!  Recently I use my Amazon earnings to keep our cats in cat food and cat litter, but I've also been able to buy things like tablets and a sewing machine as well.  PayPal earned is used for whatever needs there are at the moment.

I love Swagbucks!!  If you aren't already a member, do yourself a favor and click the sign up link  :)

WIP Wednesday -- Quilt Retreat Report

I sure do love the quilt retreats.  I love how I get more sewing done in 2 (or 3) days than what I usually get done in a month.
I always come home and just want to keep on sewing, but life just doesn't allow me that  LOL

What to start with----I worked on several things, but only finished one little thing.  I guess that's a good starting place.

I wanted to see just how easy it was to make the composition notebook cover as I want to make those my Christmas gifts this year.  It was really easy, and here is the one that I finished.

5 years ago I had my daughter buy me the Braid in a Day Pattern with template when Pat Knoechel (Eleanor Burns' sister) was at our guild.   I had won a Moda Sweet Roll pack in a blog giveaway, so put it in the project bag with the pattern.   I finally pulled that down and took it to the retreat as one lady in our guild is a certified Quilt In A Day teacher and told me she would help me if needed.

Now that I know how to do the braids, I really look forward to doing more.  These are with the 1.5 inch jelly rolls instead of the 2.5 inch, and I plan to make 2 into a baby blanket and the 3rd one into a table runner.

I didn't get around to getting out my blue scraps, but I did take along my green string blocks and finished those up.  I still need to get to the blue before I start putting these together.

I brought along my flannel pieces and cut what I could from them as well as sewed some of them together---together as the 2 together, ready to start sewing rows.  I still don't have enough of either for a full blanket of either size so I will be on the lookout for more flannel when I am out and about.

I worked on adding yo-yo's to the first valance.  I have just 3 more rows to put on to finish the first one.  I'm back to making the yo-yo's for now, and dividing them into bags to ensure that I have some of every fabric in all 3 items.  I really need to work daily on these if I expect to have them done in time.

I feel very blessed to have won so many things at the retreat.  In the silent auction I won 4 rolls of wrapping paper, and the 4 charm packs that were in the basket.  The other small things were in a basket for everyone to take something free.  I was sent home with everything that was left in the basket.   I never won a single game of Left Center Right that we played with the 2.5 inch strips, but I was sent home with all of the strips that were left after we were done playing the game. (oops!  The strips aren't in my picture either, but there is a very large stack of those that I plan to use most of making more braids)

I also won another door prize on Sunday that I forgot to take a picture of.  It's a roll of 100% cotton batting and a bag of supplies that include quilt pins, pencils, chalk lines and a chalk marker.  I'm super excited about the batting because it means I can get back to making the microwave hotpads again.

The next retreat I get to go to is at the end of October, and I can't wait!


I link up with the following blogs:


Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/

Get Creative with Cut & Create Paper Mosaics

I've been really enjoying doing other crafts than sewing with some wonderful books that I've gotten.

Cut & Create Paper Mosaics is one of those books.  I like to call the mosaics paper-by-number.

The book, or kit, comes with 9 projects.  There are 3 beginner, 3 intermediate, and 3 advanced.

The book tells you how to get started, then a picture of each project with the instructions on the opposite page.  Then you will see each of the pages with the numbers.  This is for reference that I will talk about later.

The pack includes cardboards of the mosaics that you actually work on, as well as all of the colored papers that you need to complete each project.  On the back of the papers are the shapes that you need to cut for each project.  They are also numbered.

Of course I started with the first project, which is called Frog in Summer.  I'm not quite done with it, but getting pretty close.

I found this to be a nice break away from my devices, and very relaxing to work on.  As I said at the start of my post, it's so nice to have other craft mediums to work on too.  It's a welcome change!

I wondered why there were the pictures of the project also in the book.  It didn't take me long to figure that out though.  As you put the paper tiles on to your project, you end up covering up some of the numbers.  You need those pictures from the book to refer to to know where all the numbers are once you have covered some up.
You might notice in my picture below that I chose to mark off the number as I pasted the tile on.  I found this made it much easier to find my next number.

I can't wait not to get this project finished and move on to the next one in the book.

These are the tools you will need to work the Cut & Paste Paper Mosaics:

Scissors and or an X-Acto Knife and a self healing cutting mat.
This is a good time of year to buy those small school scissors at a good price.  I find them to be sharp enough even for my cutting fabrics.  You may want the mat and x-acto knife for the smaller pieces.

Glue sticks.  Again, it's a great time of year to stock up on glue sticks!

Standard hole punch.  I've not gotten to that part of my Frog in Summer, but many of the projects have you cutting circles.

Tweezers.  These are handy for placing the smaller paper tiles on to your project.

Envelopes.   I chose to cut each tile as I used it, but many choose to cut them all at once.  You will want an envelope for each color and number set in this case.










Disclosure:  I rec'd a copy of this book for  review.  I was not compensated in any other way and any opinions are my own.  Post does contain affiliate links.

WIP Wednesday -- Vacation Was Nice

aahhhhh  home from vacation and it was so nice.  The camper we rented was old (had a built in 8 track player), but it sure was nice.  I couldn't believe the storage it had!
I took pictures from every angle, but here is the kitchen area and the hallway.  The hallway started with a large pantry door then had 3 closet sections with 3 drawers under each.
That's just a start on the amount of storage this camper had.

Yes, I found myself thinking of living there.  You know, one closet just for my sewing machines and drawers for fabrics etc.  Yes, I would have to cut way back on my stash though!! LOL

I got in some sewing time while relaxing on our camping vacation.

I started by finishing the selvage toothbrush rug except sewing down the last stitch.   I'm ready to start on another one now except that I have other rugs that I also want to make.

I also make quite a few more yo-yo's.  I plan to save out time each day of the quilt retreat this weekend to putting them together.

I wanted to take a picture of my projects that I am taking to the quilt retreat then didn't.  Everything so far is packed in the trunk of my car and ready to go.  I so look forward to the retreat!!
What I put in is the Charming Stars quilt to finish, the yo-yo's to sew together, and the Arkansas Crossroads quilt to work on.
I may add something else, but I'm really thinking those 3 projects will keep me busy enough---it's just my problem of getting tired of working on just ONE.  IF I get my blue scraps sorted out then MAYBE I will stick to my original plan of also working on my string blocks.

I look forward to posting next week to show you what I do get done at the retreat.

In the meantime, I link up with the following blogs:


Jo's Country Junction:  http://www.joscountryjunction.com/