I’m in love with JoAnn’s (un)genius coupon idea; purchase a little pattern promotional magazine for three bucks and get 4-6 reusable coupons on the back! I’ve already saved hundreds…I think. Then there is that little saying about it not being a deal if you don’t need it! I use everything I get from JoAnns though. I’ll bet the big guys are kicking themselves though! They are reusable through sometime in December. Neat.
I have a growing three year old that doesn’t want to stay in her pants. I’ve taken to getting the blue jean rolled up “capri” pants and I take the few stitches out on either side of each leg to let the good three inches down. It’s great when they go on sale at the end of the year or when you find them for a cheap price at the Goodwill.
With Christmas coming up, I went to http://www.buyhandmade.org/ and made my pledge to buy handmade or rather make my gifts this year. For the women, it’s necklaces and handbags, things a gal can never have too much of! For the guys, well it will probably be food. We are painting up shirts with my daughter for the grandpas. I’m especially excited about the handbag I made for my mother in law. She keeps a LOT of stuff and consequently still has many of her beautiful vintage clothes that were made for her in either Brazil, Philippines, Liberia or India when they were in the service. Among those vintage items she found about 4 yards of great fabric with a feather print that is reminiscent of batik. She said that she loved the print but doesn’t sew, and would very much love for me to do what I would with it. I used a portion of it to make a baby sling when Mia was born and since then the rest of it has been hanging out in my fabric box. I’m using it for the exterior of her purse, a reclaimed matching zipper and the inside pocket is made from a batik patchwork piece from a skirt she gave me. It was much too long and I ended up cutting about six inches off. The other purses are made from various pieces I have been selfishly holding onto 
For my brother and his family, I made a set of place mats out of my scraps. My SIL and niece aren’t into anything that I’m aware of but for my nephew I added train appliques and my brother’s will have vintage aircraft. I’m trying desperately to get my hands on old bike gears and chains to make a clock for my cousins, but so far no luck. One new bike chain is around $40, so really it defeats the purpose.
I ran out of laundry detergent this weekend and have found that using baking soda and vinegar actually do a decent job. It isn’t the best thing for very soiled clothes, but if it’s something like towels or clothes that just need to be freshened up it’s great.
