Win Some, Lose Some

I *love* it when a plan comes together. That said, we all know what sometimes happens to even the best laid plans. Let's start with the one that went awry.

I was trying to make a pattern for a Kitchenaid cover for a friendly blog reader. I measured. I re-measured. I planned. I felt confident. {First sign that a plan will inevitably go haywire.} I would have felt terrible if she would've just followed my diagrams, cut her precious fabric & then have the pattern not work out. To avoid such an inevitable awful situation, I figured I better just cut some of my own scrap fabric following the pattern right quick. Um, yeah. Here is the evidence that I tried:

:: maybe it can be saved? ::

It isn't too easy to make something fit nicely on an object that isn't very, um, nicely shaped. The front is wider than the back, leaving way too much excess fabric than I had planned. I did manage to repin the whole thing to see if I can get it to fit better. Dear Andrea, you might be better of just buying a pattern from JoAnn's when they go on sale for 99-cents. I'm sure you could tweak it to look like the one you saw at Target :>)

Now for the plan that *worked*.

:: pink damask on the outside ::

:: rainbow of colors inside ::

I had seen crayon rolls {most recently at Steph's blog} and pencil rolls, but really loved the rolls that had the fabric in each slot matching the crayon/pencil color. I think it just adds a really cool dimension to the whole project, not to mention can work as a great teaching tool for the little ones as they need to match the colors. I had this project already in the works & decided to pull it altogether just in time for my 6-year old niece's birthday gift. You could probably do velcro on a strap to hold the whole thing closed, instead of tying a ribbon. I think the ribbon makes it look prettier, not to mention being good practice for bow-tying, yes? I envision several of these as Christmas gifts, when paired with a personalized sketchpad or coloring book. The best part? Using up the scraps that I've been saving makes this a pretty & *pretty frugal* project.

A Frugal Find

In an attempt to change a certain behavior, I am giving myself some rewards along the way {kind of like a sticker chart for grown-ups}. My first reward? A hair cut {needed} and an eyebrow wax {the reward part}. Total cost: $11 {$10 for the cut + free wax with a coupon + $1 tip} . I discovered this great deal at a local beauty school. And I realized two things 1) part of your money at a salon pays for THE experience and 2) if you are willing to forego the experience, you can get yourself some great deals on beauty treatments. If you are interested, I went here. If you have never received beauty school treatments {this was my first time}, enjoy my candid information & tips based on my experience:

Make an appointment. This school accepts walk-ins, but only if they have enough students to accommodate. Otherwise, you'll be waiting.

Plan LOTS of time. It took nearly 2 hours for the cut & wax.

You are basically their practice. If you are overly fussy about your style, don't have a lot of patience, or have lots of disposable income, then this frugal find probably isn't for you. These students have been in classes for several months before they ever arrive at the cutting chair. The students have your cut approved by an instructor before they make the first snip. An instructor also double-checks the cut after the student is finished to see if any areas needed touching up. My cut did not.

This is NOT a spa. Remember: this is more like a college classroom than anything, hence sometimes the chatter & atmosphere reflects that.

Not only for cuts. The school I went to offers lots of services, basically anything you'd find at a full-service salon. So if you're too nervous to have them come at you with scissors, maybe a frugal manicure or pedicure would suit you. Highlights? Up-do for a special occasion? Take your daughter for a mommy/daughter treatment?

Will I go again? Most definitely! {My student was Mallory, in case you decide to go soon.} Ya just can't beat the price for some really great beauty treatments {unless of course you did it yourself......}

Ever received beauty school treatments? Got another frugal beauty find to share?

Talk About It: Kids on Leashes

At a recent outdoor church gathering, I was somewhat surprised to see a woman with a child on a leash. Maybe the appropriate term is "tether"? {If you're not familiar: the child wears sort of a harness, then there is a long strap that attaches to the back that the caregiver can then hold onto or can wear around their wrist.} My first thought was, "Wouldn't it just be easier to train that child not to run off?" Now maybe this wasn't the child's parent, so the caregiver just didn't want to take chances. I could see if maybe you were in a super crowded situation like a bustling airport at rush hour or wall-to-wall people at an outdoor event. But at a church picnic?

What do you think? Child leashes: Appalling or appropriate??

As always......

Rules: Play nicely. We all have our own opinion, but let's be thoughtful and respectful of one another.

Sometimes I Pickle Him

Photo by SiFu Renka

There are several books & magazines next to my bed for occasional night time reading. One of them is an anthology of food writings by the famous James Beard, an enormous icon in the food world. Wikipedia goes so far as to say that he "is recognized by many as the father of American gastronomy". {I am a foodie, in case you haven't been reading this blog for long.} I picked up the book and read an essay the other night about pickles. Fascinating stuff. I love me a good pickle. Nowadays, the word "pickle" is pretty much synonymous with a pickled cucumber, but a pickle is any food, which has had the pickling process done to it, yes? {Hang in there, I'll be getting to a point later.} Mostly the food is put into a jar with spices & a vinegar solution. Vinegar. Yum. Useful for many things. Making pickles, salad dressings, and natural cleaning are some that come to mind.

Hold that thought.

Hubster & I had been having some very....um....intense fellowship these last couple of weeks {and I don't mean the nocturnal kind}. It's like something in our communication systems went haywire & the whole husband/wife processes were affected. It wasn't pretty. (I think the virus that infiltrated our communication system was called Stress 5.0). So during system debugging one discussion {where we were talking about our marriage}, I came to realize that I tend to use snappy little {sometimes snide} remarks to try and get my points across. Usually it happens when I think something is really important to me & hubs either doesn't "get it" or I feel he isn't taking me seriously.

Hold that thought too.

Ya know that saying "You'll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar." Whelp, sometimes I like to use the vinegar. I pour out those vinegary comments on him, hoping that'll get his attention.

Ok. Now take that saying & put them there two thoughts together.....

Yep.

I pickle him. A husband pickle, folks.

I told him that, which served for a great & much needed laugh. And now that I'm more self-aware, I'll be trying my darndest to be that quiet, gentle spirit I know I can be. A crown to my husband, instead of a constant dripping. I'll be using that honey {and maybe a little butter too} to try and get my points across. Out with the pickles!

Anyone else out there making husband pickles? Let's pour the honey on our hubbies together. I'd love to hear from you. You're so close to the comment button already, ya might as well click it.

Pretty Little Things

Um, yeah. So this is not deja vu or anything, but yet another post on pretty little things. I think I have been experiencing a resurgency in my creative juices because a) my baby is getting older & not so needy-as-a-newborn and b) necessity indicates that we be "creative" with our finances. That second one is important because making/finding/admiring pretty little things gives me a sense of satisfaction & feeling-goodness in the same way that retail therapy does {but of course you have no clue about retail therapy, right}? Plus, learning to see beauty, even in the smallest thing, is just plain enjoyable.

First up....Not quite a pretty little thing, but more of a nifty thing. I finally figured out how to use a feed reader, which is totally revolutionizing my computer time. A glance at one page tells me who's posted something new for me to read. Totally sweet! Along with some of my blogging friends, I am keeping track of Today's Creative Blog and How About Orange {Money Saving Mom, Simple Mom & Sew, Mama, Sew are givens}! If you don't use a feed reader, you should. Seriously.

Here's a pretty little thing I made recently:


Tatiana collected the rock on a birthday adventure at Lake Michigan. The only supplies you need are a BIG rock that has a large semi-flat surface & rub-ons {a scrapbooking product}. I was going to do the words "Pure Joy" or "Faith", but somehow this verse came to me. If you look it up, you'll see why {I know, I know, I have a corny sense of humor}. Best part = FREE!

Did you know that every month I download a free creatively designed desktop from the Shabby Princess blog? You need some sort of photo-editing program to add your pics, but it only takes a couple of minutes for a pretty little desktop that lasts all month. Here's the one I made for this month:


The nice thing about it is that, besides being totally cute & free, there is always a space for the desktop icons on the left-hand side, so it's not like you have to move them around every month.

Have you discovered Wordle yet? You just enter in the addy of your blog & pick your design/colors & then it will make this creative little wordle picture for you. Here is mine:



If you click on it, you can see it much bigger. It takes all the words from whatever URL you enter & makes a fun wordie image. You can play around with the layout, fonts, colors, etc. Looks like I should rename this blog: Just One Detergent Party.

Enjoying any pretty little things lately? If you decide to wordle, please leave me a comment so I can come check it out!

And the Winner is....

You guys have such great ideas! I'm totally diggin' the ice cream sundae bar. Since I'm the Queen of Trying-to-Do-Too-Much Over-the-Top, I would probably have about 10 15 20 different toppings to choose from. I do have to agree that Chuck E. Cheese parties are really super. I've done one there & it's so little work. If I had *unlimited* funds, I'd do lots of my parties at different venues. {Royal Caribbean birthday, anyone?} And even though I know that making my own cake is cheaper, I usually have so many other things to do & food to make, that it's just plain easier to purchase one. I'm trying to simplify, really, I am. Enough about me, let's announce the winner, shall we? I would've taken a picture of the winning name, but hubby took the camera to work today. I do have a newly-7-year-old witness who chose the name.......

.....Alicia!

Congrats my dear friend! I will get you your prize asap. {Probably hand-delivered, if you don't mind!}

**Edited to Add: I think we can see what happens when I have too many balls in the air, yes? If any more comments are received with best frugal party tips on the previous giveaway post, then I will draw a second winner tomorrow morning. Otherwise, we'll just keep things as is. My apologies!!**

Party Notes + Giveaway

I survived our first ever kids-only party, thanks to the help of my uber wonderful hubby & my dear neighbor, the mom of one of our guests. She helped me hold down the fort for about half the time. I think that was about as much girly-energy as this house has ever seen. There was screaming, there was dancing, there was water-fun, there was one really happy birthday girl.

My personal pizza idea didn't go over as well as I expected. The girls *loved* making them, but they didn't get gobbled up like I thought they would. Maybe other girls don't love pizza {or homemade ones?} as much as my kids do. Or maybe the pizzas were just so big that they were scary. I don't know. The cupcakes on the other hand, I think are just beeeaauutiful. They look {at least to me} like they came from some NYC bakery. I think I will be making these often. I think they're pretty enough to bring to a gathering. Maybe with different pastel shades of frosting. The delicate sprinkles are just the right touch, yes?


They tasted as good as they looked, although one girl was just a frosting-eater & one girl told me that her & her other little friend "didn't really like them". {My ego was only slightly bruised.} The low-cost goodie bags came together nicely, thanks to my little creation, the Target dollar spot {pencils}, as well as a great CVS deal I happened to come upon right before the party. {I spent 1 penny on seven gargantuan Hershey's bars, a package of eight mini-Reese's and a 3-pack of Trident gum. Willy Wonka would be proud.} Total cost per goodie bag: about 50 cents, including the bag!

:: all dressed up & waiting to go ::

And in honor of all this party fun & frugal creativity, and since I'm sure you are tired of reading about the hair clips I thought I'd share some of the goodness here. I am giving away this pretty little thing:


Simply leave a comment with your favorite low cost party tip by midnight on Wednesday, August 6th & a random winner will be drawn and announced on Thursday.

Good luck, ya'll.

P.S. I've been playing with Photoshop to enhance the photos. Likey?