An online friend has this blog that shows you free stuff. If you follow her on Twitter, you can get updates to when she posts new offers. http://ultimatefreestuff.blogspot.com/2009/09/listering-coupon.html. Her twitter name is freestuffdeals.

So, for a long time I’ve wanted to create a dress form or at least a shirt form using duct tape and polyester batting.

I finally tried it today. I did it myself. It was probably a mistake. i bought two bags of batting. I probably should have used four.

The think is, I know I’m not that lopsided, and I don’t have such a big bump on my back. I don’t think I even have a bump on my back at all.

This is what it looks like.

Oh boy.

I tried crocheting a flower last night. Here’s how it turned out.

Well, I’ve started a Master’s program in Technology in Education, and my teacher asked for the address of my blog. How embarrassing that I haven’t blogged in months!

I would say that it is time to just off the ol’ keyboard except that I haven’t been away from my laptop. I’ve just been, shall we say, distracted?

This spring I was in a musical. It was great fun! Then, the summer has been chewed away with college classes, travel, and facebook. It is so addictive!

As far as crafting goes, this summer I have worked on an embroidered 4th of July table runner and a baby girl crocheted afghan. I have a new cell phone with a great digital camera, so I’ll have to take some pictures soon and post them here. I’ll add a photo from the Jack Dempsey Needlart Website so you can see what the table runner will look like when it is completed.

I decided to go to Safeway because I really didn’t feel up to Wal-Mart. I wonder how much more money I spent than if I had been up to facing the crowd.

I fourteen manufactures coupons from the newspaper and aisle displays and two store coupons. This new Bertolli pasta sauce was on sale for $1.50 if you bought ten (mix and match with other items throughout the store) and there was a display of $1 off coupons just sitting there for the taking. I took 7 pasta sauces and 9 coupons. I’m saving two for later. So 14 ounces of pasta sauce for 50 cents is pretty good, I think. I saved $12.25 using coupons. I also used their current special of buy ten certain items and get $5 off. This brought one kraft salad dressing down to $1.50 and I had a coupon for $1.50 off a Kraft dressing. So it was free!

Those successes had me feeling pretty good until I got to the cash register. My total purchase came to $120. I know this is a month’s worth of groceries for two people and two dogs, but it still seemed like a lot. I had made a mistake in buying the 10 correct items for one of the specials, so I was sent to customer service to sort it out. I got 3.75 back. Which, now that I think about it….oh….I guess it makes sense. Have you ever tried to read a Safeway receipt to see if you got all the deals? It is so confusing!!!! Anyway, that was the least of my mistakes. After a kind gentleman walked me out to my car and loaded up my dog food, and after I had buckled, blinkered, and left the parking lot, I realized my biggest mistake. I did not use my $10 off coupon. See, Safeway often has a $10 off coupon if you spend more than $50 in one purchase. Well, I certainly did! And I have two of those coupons that are good tomorrow and one that is good today and I didn’t pull it out at all!!!!!

I guess I just need to get organized a little bit more, and see how it all goes. Was it worth it to spend $5 and over an hour on newpapers today for a few coupons? Did I spend more because of them?

After reviewing my purchases, I saw that I didn’t get the buy one get one free deal on Lysol mix-and-match that I understood from the signage. I lost $8 there. I might go back tomorrow and complain if I have the energy.

But I don’t want to get known as the naggy penny pinching lady either. So I might not. Still, if I go back, do you think they’d give me the $10 off? Should return the cleaning products if they don’t give me the $8?

Is it all worth it? Is $18 dollars worth complaining about? Well…kind of. I mean, that could pay for gas to visit my grandma or school lunches for a week.

Adventures in coupon world…

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This is so not a crafting blog entry, but I guess it is what I’m thinking about these days as we all try to save a little money.

I’m trying to get into clipping coupons.  In the past, I’ve clipped them, but not followed through with watching the ads and actually using the coupons.  But, with the price of groceries and other things increasing daily, I feel like I should do my best to shop frugally.

So, I started a swap on swap-bot to get me started.  Feel free to join or comment on this post with your best coupon clipping ideas.

Coupon Clipper Start-Up Kit

Click Here to View Swap on Swap-Bot

Copy the code below and paste it on your site:

<a href=”http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/33731″ title=”Coupon Clipper Start-Up Kit”><img src=”http://static.swap-bot.com/images/swaps/33731/swap.jpg” alt=”Swap-bot swap: Coupon Clipper Start-Up Kit”/></a><br><a href=’http://www.swap-bot.com’>I swap with Swap-bot!</a>

It is spring break, so I have a chance to work on a baby blanket for one of my friends who is having a baby.  I’m using double crochet, and looping through the stitch below so it has a bit of  a lacy look to it.  I’m using the Bernat Baby Coordinates in the light blue and the blue.  Hopefully I’ll remember to take a picture when I’m done to post here.

I was at Rite-Aid, and I found a wallet photo album.  It said that it held 2×3 inch photos, but it really holds 2.5×3.5 inch ATCs.  Great find for $2-$3.

I found a new blog to enjoy.  Check out gomakesomething.com.  I’ve downloaded a couple of their collage pages.  There are just lots of ideas, and I like the premise of the blog.