Thursday, December 30, 2010

After Christmas Shopping

I just love after Christmas Shopping. 1) I like saving money 2) my son's birthday is Jan 2 and daughters birthday is Feb 11) I like the challenge of bargin hunting. My dear friend and I call ourselves Marden's babies.

For out of staters-Marden's is a small chain of salvage stores where we grew up. You never knew what they would have, and most of the time there would only be one or two of an item. And their prices were a fraction of the cost of a "real store". Now they tend to buy more over stock items than true salvage; but it can still be fun.

Well, the past few days I have gone shopping (still have yet to find my son that special gift). I did, however, find great stuff to great to craft with. I found a huge roll of cork board material for $2.00! That's right TWO DOLLARS! (and the ten cents tax) Recently I saw someone who made coasters out of cork and stamp on it. Handy dandy Big Shot and the scallop square and circle dies. Whala 50 coasters made in a matter of minutes. It comes out to four cents a coaster. Of course now I need to stamp on them but hey...I can't rush these things.

I found RSVP style pens, a package of 50 for $3. that works out to $.06. I see some decorated pens and notebooks in my future.

Ghiradelli chocolates were on sale at the grocery store for $1.80 a bag.

I also found some cute Christmas serving platers that I am going to put away and use as part of my display at the craft fairs next year. So I am feeling pretty good about shopping.

My SU order for my club in two weeks is shipped and will be here at the beginning of next week. I can't wait to get the new Eat Chocolate set. I also found a coffee mug for my girlfriend's birthday. It says "Forget love, I'd rather fall into Chocolate". I want to make her a card with the Eat Chocolate set and fill the mug with chocolates for her. I will have to look for Lyndt truffles-those are her favorite. Who knows, maybe I can find those on sale too.

I see lots of crafting in my future....Not that it is a bad thing

Until next time.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Warm and Cozy

It isn't the greatest picture but you get the idea. I know coffee cozies are popping up everywhere. I have seen them made with felt with the SU basket die and felt. It didn't work trying to use regular material and batting. It looked like a skinny worm! This pattern came from here.

Does the material look familiar? It is the same material I used on rag bags I had made. This coffee cozy is a present for my son's girlfriend. She got one of the bags for a present. The cozy was suppose to be for Christmas present but I didn't get to sew before the holiday.

The cozy has two buttons on it to make it adjustable. Just in case she gets the XL drink from the coffee shop that is down the street from her apartment.

Well I am off to the fabric store to look for some more material.

Until next time,

Monday, December 27, 2010

Vacation & Cleaning

So school vacation is here once again. And I am spending it cleaning my craftroom once again. I am trying to reorganize it for being a real SU demo. I have been busy cleaning all my left overs from the craft fairs I have done this year. *Note to self-just send a large basket to work with my Mom. She sold more for me than I did at most of the craft fairs put together. She is such a great sales lady. I have organized all my craft fair items into things that can be saved for next fall, general displays, things that I want to have on clearance sale this spring.

I have separated my retired/current products. Boy do I need current paper! I have placed my first real business order. I did place an order when they had free shipping-was I smart business woman and order things like adhesives and basic supplies for my club members to use. No! I just went crazy buying myself Christmas presents "from my hubby".

Did you notice I said club members???? Already I have 6 friends/co-workers who are willing to join a monthly club! Yippee for me! I have January and February club ideas all sketched out in my notebook. And supplies for January's club all ordered.

I am really looking forward to having club with such a great group of ladies. I think they will really challenge my stamping. I have one lady who has been stamping longer than me (and I fell in love with stamping 10 years ago), and one who has never stamped at all. So I am working to make things simple enough for a new mom who doesn't have much time and have some things complex enough for the experienced stampers.

Also, in the craft fair dept., I am participating in a spring time craft fair. So I have been trying to come up with ideas that aren't Christmas/winter related. (Which isn't easy when there is a blizzard here.) And my friend/coworker is helping the young man who does our school craft fair prepare for next year.

Years ago, our school craft fair was huge! It has been slowly dwindling the past few years (no fault of the young man in charge of it now). But my friend wants to try to get it back to what it used to be. She has volunteered to help out. While we were chit-chatting at work we brained stormed several ideas-so I think I may be part of this new committee of 3. :)

As I said, we are in the middle (hopefully nearing the end) of a blizzard here. Yesterday I spent the best day ever with my daughter. We stayed, not only in our pj's, but in bed as well, crafting. We took out the little "breakfast in bed tables". She colored and made bracelets & necklaces with all her Christmas presents. I took out my big shot and cut enough squares for several rag bags and coffee cozies. I was hoping to get to sew today but with laundry and teenagers-it didn't happen. Tomorrow if it is not snowing, I plan on doing clearance shopping since I have a two children with winter birthdays.

Until next time.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

It's Here!!!

My Stampin Up starter kit has arrived. Oh so much fun!. I am off to play with my new toys.

Until next time!