Tea Collection: Take an Extra 25% off sale items through 1/20

Huge savings alert! 

I'm so excited to share with you that beginning now through 1/20, Tea Collection is offering an extra 25% off already reduced sale items with promo code wow25. Now's your chance to stock up on comfortable and stylish clothes from Tea! Hurry, don't miss your chance to take advantage of this great sale from Tea Collection because this sale ends on 1/20 at 9PM PST! 

Happy Shopping!

Turn a Man's Button Down shirt into a little Girl's Dress!

I just LOVE this idea! I found this How-to for Girl's Shirt Dress on the Martha Stewart website. 

You take a man's button down shirt and sew it into a little girl's dress!

It is a great way to recycle a wardrobe item, and if you know how to sew or would like to learn, it's a frugal alternative to spending the money on a dress off the rack. 

The instructions are very easy to understand and are complete with printable pattern pieces. If you don't have a shirt on hand that would work for this project, you can always keep an eye out for one when you are out shopping at garage sales or estate sales. 

You may find a shirt that would be "out of style" in terms of a man's shirt, but when you consider the color and print, it might be perfect fit for this project and find a new life as a really cute little girl's dress!


 
  
Love crafting? Try out a Craftsy FREE mini class and learn a new crafting skill. 

For more frugal sewing projects, check out the Craftsy Project Upcycle class.


Project Upcycle: Thrifty Sewing Projects

Frugal Rainy Day Activities you can enjoy as a Family

It has been raining non-stop on my side of the world. My daughter has been stir crazy being stuck in the house and has had no outdoor recess at school lately so when she gets home this afternoon, I'm going to need to entertain her.

I have a few frugal rainy day entertainment ideas up my sleeve, and I'll share some with you.

Card Games-There are so many different card games, and each one has a set of rules, so here are some card game ideas for children and some card games you can play as a family.


 



Button Sorting (fun for the young ones)-sort by size, color, shape-anything.

My daughter even loves making button "faces" on her hand and stringing buttons. How she came up with this, I'll never know, but the first time she did it, I couldn't stop laughing. Now, it makes me smile.

Who knew buttons could be so fun?







Art Activities-make collages using whatever you have on hand, take out the watercolor paints, markers and crayons and have fun. Children love to see adults coloring with crayons, and it's secretly fun for the adults too.

Foil Art- Grab the foil from the kitchen, fold it up and make some foil art or foil origami and decorate.

Baking-Bake something together, a cake, some muffins, or a pizza. 

You can use this recipe for a quick and simple pizza crust, or if you want to let the kids have fun with it....

The kids can make a "pizza crust" out of bread slices, just roll the bread flat and cut out fun shapes with a cookie cutter.


Scavenger Hunt-Be creative. Hide something and then place little notes all over the house with clues leading to the prize.

Board Games-Everyone should have a stock of board games ready for days like this. You don't need to have a rainy day to have a family game night.

Charades-Why not? Kids love this because they get to see the adults act silly, and everyone loves guessing games.

You could always pop in a movie, but it's so much nicer to be able to visit and have meaningful interaction with one another. Quality time feels like a rarity these days with how busy everyone is and the abundance of technology.

I think it's a good night for my family and I to just sit around the dinner table and visit, play a couple of card games or Monopoly and enjoy each other's company.

Hopefully, some of these ideas will inspire you and your family to spend time together on this rainy day, even if it's not raining where you are.

What is your child's favorite rainy day activity? Do you have more suggestions for rainy day activities for the kids? Please share them by commenting below.

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Blurb Customized Planner Review

Did you resolve to get more organized this year? 

I did, so when Blurb offered me the opportunity to create a Blurb customized planner and share my experience, I immediately started making my mental list of what I would want my planner to include so it would work for me.

Besides the normal monthly calendar and daily calendar spaces for planning, I had some unique needs. Part of my planning for a frugal lifestyle is to take note of entertainment and restaurant deals as well as have my grocery list on hand, so I needed special pages for these items. Then in the beginning of the spring months and the winter months, I thought I would like to add some pages so I could sketch in my garden plans for those garden seasons.

Another must-have was a space to jot down general notes, (I get ideas all the time for things to write about), so I needed some "brainstorming" pages for that.

Once I had my ideas for my planner, it was time to start building it.

I downloaded the free BookSmart book-building tool to build my planner, and it was really easy to navigate and find the pages that would best suit my requirements.

Choosing the layout was easy, and it only took me a few minutes to get comfortable with using the BookSmart tool.  

 

Screenshot of the planner making process with BookSmart 

Just for fun I added a little background image and adjusted the transparency so that it looked like a watermark. I used this as the background for all my planner pages.
 

A more detailed look at the background I chose.

I chose only one picture and placed it on the cover, and in a couple of other places in my planner. I had the option to use more pictures, but I kept it very simple.

My beautiful planner cover, with a picture of a passion flower from my garden last spring.

 

Calendar pages. I customized them with a decorative mark in the header, and an almost transparent leaf-shaped "watermark" in the background.

A place to list deals on the left, and a page for a grocery list on the right.

A place for my "brainstorming" notes.

A close-up look at the grid pages located near the spring months so I can sketch out my garden plans.

I was very pleased with the outcome of my planner and it only took me a little over an hour and a half to design and build from start to finish. 

Now that you've seen the process and how beautifully my planner turned out, you may want to get started on creating a Blurb customized planner of your own.
 

Blurb Customized Planner Gift Code Contest!

Great News! You can win a $25 gift code towards creating your own customized Blurb planner! Here's how:

1) Leave a comment below this blog post telling us what your Blurb customized planner would be about. 

(For example, would you customize it for work, school, family...or would you customize it to meet specific needs like I did when I chose to add the grid pages to sketch my garden ideas...)

2) Come over to our page on Facebook and let me know you entered here.

3) Contest begins on Thursday, January 17, 2013 at 8PM CST and ends on Saturday, January 19, 2013 at 10AM CST so make sure you enter before the deadline.

One entry per person. Must follow complete instructions for entry to be valid. Winner chosen at random and winner will be announced on Saturday, January 19, 2013. Gift code excludes shipping and is good through 2/28/13 toward a Blurb customized planner. 

 

New Ulta Offers and coupons!

Here are the latest Ulta offers...



(1/6/13-1/19/13) Free Shipping with any $25 purchase at Ulta! Use code FREESHIP2013

$10 Off Any $50 Purchase at Ulta! Valid online only through 1/12/13. Use code 10FREE

$3.50 off any $10 purchase! Use code 75584. Valid through 1/19/13, exclusions apply.