have a night in this weekend

Ok, while reading my freebie junkie blog once again, I found something to share.  She shared a code for a free rental at Blockbuster Express.  You know, they are the big blue boxes like the Red Boxes?  Now, this code expires on Monday January 10, 2011.  So, go get you a movie, order some pizza and have a family night in or...send everyone else out and get an awesome chick flick!

The code is: SHTZFR1

my appologies

Hey my faithful bloggies ( I hope you don't mind being called that ).  I'm sorry that I've not been putting up too many in depth posts this week.  It's been SUPER busy at work, it's been some late night...well, early mornings as I work at night.  I've not gotten home until close to 2am all week and I've just been sleeping in and doing a whole lot of nothing.  I know, it's a terrible way to start off the New Year but what can I say.
However, starting today I have two days off and then work should get back to normal for me...clearing up my schedule for more creating!  I have a gift card to Michael's to spend and my coupons in hand!

Also, I've had so many of you sweet readers tell me how much you enjoy reading my blog and it just makes my heart smile.  Thank you so much for reading my ramblings so faithfully!  Y'all are the best...ever...of all time.

I also kind of wanted to ask you bloggies for some help.  I have some projects that I know I will be starting soon, and different things I want to tackle.  However, I was wondering if there was anything that you out there in cyberspace wanted to see?  Is there something that just stumps you, or something that you would like to see?  If ever there is or you do, just shoot me an email ( click here ) or leave a comment here.

Also, I have a sweet reader in South Africa named Ruth (sister of my coworker, Bethany who is pictured with me to the left on a freezing cold night, yes...it does get cold in Florida!) who would like me to start on some Valentine crafts.  Fret not little Ruthie, I have some that I've been waiting since summer to do!  I'm just still reeling with the fact that Christmas is actually over, it's quite a sad way to start off the year with putting away all the joyful decorations.  However, the season of love is almost upon us and I love it! (love, love...get it?!)

more disney movie reward points

If you read my post from the other day about Disney Movie Rewards, I have another code for you.  If you didn't read the post please go do so now by clicking here....we'll wait for you!

Now, that we all have our DMR account set up, lets enter our two codes for 25 points each.

The codes are: CHIHUAHUA and REX

Now, let's enter the code for 5 points.

The code is: FM39V03SSW

If you've entered all the other codes from the previous post that puts you up to 405 points, all for free!

cleverly disguised

You may remember the pillows I made for our couch and love seat out of place mats and napkins.  Well, I love them and we still use them however, they have fall leaves on them.  It's just a tad bit past the season for fall leaves!  I wanted to change the pillows somehow but didn't want to buy all new ones and more stuffing.
I was reading my friend Mary's blog one day and she had a tutorial for  making pillow slipcovers, the kind that overlap in the back like pillow shams.  How perfect!
I had bought some fabric at Wal-Mart not too long ago, and I decided to use it.

What you need:
Sewing machine
Fabric
Tape Measure

How to make it:
Determine the size you need to cut the fabric down to.  To calculate this measure the pillow from seam to seam (you are measuring half of the pillow) Mine was 13 inches by 18 inches.  Next, multiply the width by two, (13 x 2 = 26) add about an inch and a half to allow for seams (26 + 1.5 = 27.5) then add four inches, this will be the overlap (27.5 + 4 = 31.5).  For the length add about an inch for seams, which came out to 19 inches for me.  All righty, now that the math is over my fabric was 19 inches by 31.5 inches.
Next, you want to hem the edges that will be seen because of the flaps.  That will be the shorter of the two sides.

Lay the piece of fabric with the hem facing up (as pictured) and fold one side in and then the other on top of it.  I knew that I needed it to be 13 inches on each side.  I measured and adjusted the folds to get the right size.

I then pinned the folds down and stitched straight down the two sides.

Now, turn the pillow slipcover right side out and voile!

Stuff your pillow in your slipcover and you are done!

A simple and quick little face lift for your pillows.  I want to stencil something on the pillows but I am not sure what just yet.  I will be sure to keep you updated on what I decide to do.
Oh, and thanks Mary for the tutorial!

disney movie rewards

Ok, I subscribe to a blog called the Freebie Junkie.  She posts about free products and coupon codes and such well, she had written some posts about codes for Disney Movie Rewards.  I always ignored them because I didn't really know what it was.  Today i got curious and looked to see what it was.  Hello, it's a place where you get points for buying Disney movies and watching them in theaters.  With the points you can buy Disney merchandise.  I just started today and haven't bought one thing just found some codes online and I have 350 points!

Here's how you do it:

Sign up for a free DMR (Disney Movie Rewards) account here.

Enter these codes to redeem points:
cool - 50 points
9EKSMN38SH - 50 points
FPSNN83JX9 - 25 points
9FTMRYWEK - 50 points
D11M20R01NY - 50 points
I did a little survey they had on the site and got 100 points
I completed my profile for my account and was awarded another 25 points.

How super easy is that?  I will be sure you keep you updated on any more codes I come into contact with.  If you have any codes you would like to share, you can email them to me or just leave a comment on this post with the code.

stop in the name of warmth

I found a post on a blog a while back on how to make your own draft stopper.  I was quite intrigued seeing as how we do not live in the most updated of apartments.  Our windows are not sealed so great and it's just all together not an energy efficient apartment.  We've tried to use this to our advantage as much as we can, leaving the windows open on cool nights (we live on the second floor, so it's safe!), leaving the heater off on chilly nights and bundling up with blankets.  It really has helped out on our electric bill.  However, now that the temperature is dropping down quite drastically that just isn't going to work.

What you need:
heavy fabric (I used an old pair of sweat pants, could get a few out of these)
Fiber-fill (the stuff you stuff inside pillows)
Small Scraps of fabric (to make bags for inside, no one will see)
Beans, pebbles or anything to weigh down the draft stopper
Needle and thread or a sewing machine (this is a super simple project, I used my sewing machine but, you could easily stitch this by hand)

What to do:
 Cut a piece of fabric that is about four inches longer than the width of your door and about ten inches wide.  I used sweat pants, so I pretty much just used one leg of the pants.

Sew the long ends of the piece together, inside out.  This will make an inside out tube of the fabric strip.

Make small bags out of the small scraps of fabric leaving one side open.  Fill the bag with the beans or rocks.  I used pea gravel I got from the Dollar tree and didn't even use half...more supplies for later crafts! YAY! 

Sew the little, filled bags closed by stitching the top.  Remember, these bags can be as ugly as homemade sin (that's country for REALLY ugly) and it won't matter because no one will see, them.  The bags are just to weigh down the stopper from the inside.

With the tube still inside out, sew one bag to the end of one side of the tube.  Sew closed the end you attach the baggie to.

Turn the tube right side out and fill with the fiber-fill.  I bought the biggest pillow I could find at Goodwill for less than $3, cut it open and used that filling rather than buying all new filling.  I didn't even use half of the filling form the pillow.

Finally, attach the second bag to the inside of the not yet sewn end of the tube and sew shut that end as well.

There you have it...your very own draft stopper. 

It took me about twenty minutes to make mine.  Granted, it isn't the absolute best looking thing I have ever made but, it's only going to be on the floor.  Plus, the price is quite appealing...less than $5 with supplies left over!!  You could certainly dress up this project with some prettier fabric, maybe some stenciling, stitching something with colored thread, an applique...whatever you want.

get it together

The new year is upon us and a resolution that so many people make is to be more organized.  That is one resolution that I could probably stand to make...just ask my husband!  It's not that I don't have plans or ideas on how to be more organized, it's more that my plans involve buying things and I haven't been able to figure out a cheaper way to make them happen!
So, I decided to spend the night trying my best to sort through most of my junk and organize what I decide is most important to keep.  I am trying to come up with ways to keep the costs down and spend as little as possible.
I started with the Christmas decorations...so sad to see them come down.  Being our first year together, we had no storage solution for these goodies.  I ran to Wal-Mart and bought a standard plastic tub, I got a 58 qt one...one of the smaller ones, it was only about $5.  However, if you have oodles and oodles of things to store, you may want to get a bigger tub!  I packed away the decorations and labeled them.

To label them I used markers, index cards and packing tape.  I wrote 'Christmas Decorations' twice on one card then cut the card in half.  One label is for the side of the box and one is for the lid.  I used the packing tape to completely cover the labels, this is important, especially if you are planning to store the tubs outside.  I chose not to write directly on the tub just in case I decide to use it for something else later down the road.  I also wanted to write a list of exactly what was inside the box, this will come in handy when looking for something specific later on.  To get the bubbles out of the tape use a credit card or something like it to rub the length of the strip of tape.  I used a Dave and Busters Card...it's what was closest to me!

I then moved on to m craft supplies...my husband was quite appreciative of this!  I sorted out what I had and actually found some stuff that I had forgotten I had..score!  I had three tubs to use so I sorted my supplies into three categories: floral, fabric and craft supplies.  Whatever you are organizing first you need to decide how many tubs you have room for and what size.  Then comes the hard part...you can only keep what you have room for!  Eeeeek...I know, it's not easy in the least bit but, that's part of organizing.
I'm so excited to start the year off right, with things all in order...well, with some things all in order!  My husband appreciates that I can now see all in one place how much craft stuff I have...he's hoping maybe I won't buy much more.  He's got high hopes.

the year anew

Well, there it goes...another year.  It is completely and totally true that the older you get the faster time flies.  I'm not so much digging this!!  It's been such a wonderful year in the life of me, I have been so blessed.
I got engaged in February, graduated from college in May, celebrated my sisters engagement in May and my best friends engagement in August, got married in July, started this blog in October, watched my sister get married in October, hosted my first Thanksgiving in November and celebrated my first married Christmas in December.  Now, here we are about to start the whole year over again.  (well, not that year...it got costly with diamonds and weddings all over the place!)
The Lord has blessed me to much this past year and I can't wait to find out His plans for next year.  He has begun to reveal to us some of the plan, and it's not going to be the easiest of arrangements but, He's got it under control and we trust Him.  I hope that you too can look back and see all the blessings you've received this year and can say that overall it was a pretty good year.
Thanks so much for letting me be a part of your year through this blog, I have so much fun writing it and making all of the things I share with you.  The number of posts are adding up, so to help you navigate easier I have made some new pages.  At the top of the blog you will see a tab that says 'recipe list' and one that says 'craft list'.  The recipe list tab will take you to a complete listing of all the recipes I have shared and the craft list tab will take you to a complete list of all the crafts I have shared.  I hope this helps you to navigate my blog a little better than before.  Again, thanks so much for reading all my ramblings!!
Here's wishing you a wonderful, prosperous and fun-filled new year!