Far Far Away TWO Giveaway

Not here!  Sorry!  But I thought I'd do some public service and self service at the same time.  I know LOTS of you are fabric lovers, so head on over to this site: Sugar Stitches and enter to win a whole fat quarter + set of Far Far Away II! 

Oh the whimsical possibilities of that FQ set!

;) Enjoy!

Bucks

  I've been trying to find ways to supplement our changing income when I stay home with my new baby and one thing I've had success with is Swagbucks.  Swagbucks are internet currency you earn in various ways.  I've gotten a lot just using their search bar and search engine.  They also give out treasure hunt type clues on their blog, twitter, and facebook.  You can follow these clues for more swagbucks.  Why?  Because you can trade swagbucks for actual products or gift cards. What drew me to swagbucks was Amazon.

A few years ago, Amazon used to be a river, or a rain forest.  Now it's a place to get just about whatever you want! You can get a $5.00 gift card from Amazon by trading 450 swagbucks.  I've used swagbucks for a month and have gotten two gift cards and am about to get another!  Not too shabby for a little internet searching!

I've been hesitant to post about this on my blog, because I want my blog to stay crafty, sewy, and projecty - not all business and whatnot.  But I've had enough success with swagbucks to recommend it to others.  I like treasure hunts, especially when gift cards are the treasure!

If you want to try it out, you can click on the link below.  Everyone gets 30 swagbucks for joining and Fridays are megaswagbucks days where it's easier to earn higher numbers of SB!


NOTE:  If you click that link and you sign up under me, I earn more swagbucks.  If you WANT to, that's fine with me.  That's not the point of this post though.  The point of this post is that I've tried it out and found that it works and am recommending it.  So feel free to sign up on your own at swagbucks.com !

Has anyone else had success with this?
Regularly scheduled posting will resume this weekend.  I'm madly at work on some maternity tutorials I hope you will love!

Two More!

Just two more blog followers until the giveaway!  This giveaway will only be for blog followers, so if you aren't and you want to be, jump on in! 

Randoms

So much to do, so much to blog, so little time! I have a lot of random bits of things to add.

First, I'm honored to say that Mrs. Mordecai awarded me the Brialliante Weblog award. Mrs. Mordecai is an inspiring digital scrapbooker. I love her blog's look and the adventures of her "Red Chief." Thank you Mrs. Mordecai!
I nominate:

• Shannon at A Maiden's Musings for the award. I am always inspired by the ideas that Shannon dreams up. Check her archives for all the gorgeous blouses she has made - most by altering ONE pattern! Check out the little baby shoes she made recently as well - precious!
• Hillary at The Gleam of Rose Tea for the award. She always has something new and creative to say or suggest.

Secondly, I got a book called "Sew U" for my birthday. It's a great sewing source, especially if you are a sewing novice. I'm not a sewing novice, but Wendy gives great technical advice and explains how to make and alter patterns. The book comes with Simplicity patterns for a skirt, shirt, and pants. She takes you through how to alter these patterns to achieve your own look. That's something I am not good at and something I want to improve about my sewing. The book is Highly recommended by me!

Wendy has written another book called Sew U Home Stretch - all about sewing knits. I ordered it and it came in yesterday. I'll review it soon.

I still have to tell about my incredible anniversary present that my husband found for me. He is the ultimate deal finder! This present takes the traditional "Paper" 1st anniversary present to a whole new level. It deserves its own post though!

I did another Dressing Like a Girl week a while back, but didn't get the time to post pictures. I'll do that soon!

A Blessing and an Offer

Someone at my church told me that she had some ribbon and lace to give away if I came to her house that day. When we pulled up, we were floored! Not only did she have mountains of ribbon and lace, she had zippers, elastic, rick rack, bias tape, nylon webbing, pincushions, and much more! She let me take a ton of stuff for free, but she is also selling some. So crafty blog world, if you are interested in anything, email me at Boinzee@gmail.com.

She still has to let me know the prices, but if anyone wants to make an offer, I can pass it on as well. The ideal person to buy this is someone who can kind of take a 'pot luck' variety of a certain thing because she does not have the time to measure and categorize everything.

The whole lot that I got has a slight cedar/old odor to it, but nothing that can't be aired out!

It is a ridiculous amount of sewing notions. I'm still dumbfounded!

Here's some of what she gave me:

Zippers - like 50 of them! These are a variety of the colors.

Bias tape, elastic, eyelet, lace

Rickrack and riboon

More ribbon (lots of widths!)

Helpful websites.... and a not-so-helpful one

Confession: I really like the Internet. Maybe more than that. Maybe I'm slightly addicted. Maybe even if I'm in a place where I have no Internet connection and I know I have no Internet connection, I still repeatedly open Firefox. And when Firefox doesn't work, I double click on Internet Explorer. And when Internet Explorer doesn't work, I try Safari. Full well knowing I have NO Internet connection. Maybe I sometimes want to open Microsoft Word or Photoshop and instead I find myself staring at my igoogle page because I clicked on the Internet instead.

It's not like I don't get things done. I do. It's just that in between, there's a lot of surfing, updating, googling, etc.

So I decided I'll put the powers of the web to good use. Here are some websites that are helpful and might help you improve your life!

Bible Gateway - My preferred online Bible research site. It's simple, includes many translations and commentary, and you can listen to many passages narrated by Max McLean - my favorite audio Bible narrator. I'm open to learning what others use though!

Woot.com - A website where they only sell one product per day at reduced prices. It's mostly gadgety stuff, but if you like gadgets or you need presents for gadget lovers, it's a great website. It gets kind of fun looking at the woot of the day each day as well. Act fast - they only sell the product for one day or until they sell it out!

Internet Movie Database - I think many people know about this one, but it's invaluable for remembering things that drive you crazy. I'll see someone in a movie and say, "WHERE have I seen that person before?" (This happens a LOT in British productions because they reuse their actors frequently). You can search by actor/actress or movie/television show. I'm always the person that my mom or grandparents call when they can't remember someone's name or the name of a movie. The IMDB is invaluable.

Amazon.com - Who doesn't know this website? But I use it frequently for reviews. Even if I don't plan on ordering from amazon, it's a great place to read customer reviews which are much more valuable to me than professional reviews.

Acne.org - I'm really appreciative of this website. I had very problematic skin for a while. I tried Proactiv and other things, but it never worked consistently for me. The creator of acne.org did a lot of research and found the best combination for troubled skin. I follow his "regimen" and my skin has been much better for years. Merci beaucoup!

Audible - Audible is a great audio book website. I was a member for years, downloading two audio books a month. I will listen to audio books when I'm sewing, cleaning, doing dishes, driving long distances, etc. They have a wide selection of fiction and non-fiction books on a variety of subjects. Even the ones I've read and reread in book form I buy from Audible! You don't have to join to purchase, but the value is much better!

And....... the not so helpful one, but pretty amusing:
Guess the Sitcom Character/Dictator game - Being a child of the 80s, I unfortunately watched a lot of sitcoms (Before sitcoms got bad or I got discernment or a combination of both). Pick a sitcom character, answer the question, and be amazed! Pick a dictator if you want, but why would you want to? Try some popular ones and some obscure ones!

Feel free to add other helpful websites if you have some!

Edited: I'll add the websites others suggest!
Mrs. Mordecai suggested Librivox for free audio books!
Anna suggested rhymezone for rhyming words, definitions, homonyms, synonyms antonyms and more!

Irish Steppin' and A Public Service Announcement

I decided my Irish dancing shoes needed a new home, so I made them a bag. I'm into bags lately.... More will be coming! I've been Irish dancing for mmm.... about four years now. I absolutely love going to my class. It's fun, challenging, and a great workout.
The soft shoes are called ghillies. The hard shoes are just...hard. Be careful not to kick yourself in the shin.
The bag details: Fabric - Amy Butler
Pattern - Chic Bags
It was a really simple pattern to put together..... Recommended!

Public Service Announcement: Back up your computer! Back up your pictures, your music, your documents, everything! My laptop hard drive decided not to work this past week. I had to get a new one, but thankfully my husband's friend was able to get ALL my stuff off my old hard drive. I was so thankful.

Now that the computer is recovered, I plan on posting more often. It's a goal.

Redesign

I'm attempting to make my blog a little more "me." This has been my healing time project in the wake of an illness. I'm still tweaking it, but I'm much happier with it this way! If you have any troubles reading it, please let me know!

I'm watching Pride and Prejudice on PBS right now. It always perplexes me when I watch something on television that I own on DVD. I guess it's fun knowing that others are watching it at the same time. Lizzy is about to see the Collins' humble abode and the infamous fireplace. "Shelves in the closet! Happy thought indeed!"