Thrifty!

I grew up in a thrifty household. We only ate out on special occasions. Never got take-out. One Car. (can you imagine?) My Dad took the train to work, and my Mom drove him to the train station, raincoat over her pj's, lipstick on in case she saw somebody she knew.

Today, it's much more challenging to be thrifty, especially in today's economy. Especially with two teenage boys, one about to get his driving permit, who is already begging for his own car. (How in the world am I going to pay for that??)

We try to be - somewhat - thrifty around here. My husband drives the car that gets the better gas mileage to and from work. I work from home, so the SUV sits in the driveway a lot.

One of the best ways to be careful with your money is at the grocery store. Plan your meals for the week, use coupons, and take advantage of your favorite store's frequent buyer card. I go up and down the aisles looking for items that are on sale, but only things that I would be buying anyway. When an item is on sale, and you're not likely to stop eating it (your favorite ceral, for example), but a few of them.

So, I am off to search for blogs that tell me more thrifty tips. If you know of any, please let me know!!

WINNER!

THE WINNER OF THE EARRING GIVEAWAY IS JANETFAYE!

THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED.

I will continue to offer great giveaways, so please check back often!

Thank again!!

In honor of 100 Posts

Today was a day of one hundreds.

In my Buster and boo shop, I have 100 feedbacks, 100% positive!

In my Buster and boo shop, I hit 100 sales!

And on my blog, I have now posted 100 posts!

Oh, and I'd also like to mention, at this very moment, it is 100 degrees here in sunny Tucson.

:0)

SO, in honor of ONE HUNDRED (may we all be so lucky as to LIVE to 100!), I am doing my own giveaway!

You can win a necklace!

The pendant is a Buster and boo unique and handmade

Scrabble Tile Pendant, made from Chiyogami paper, featuring a bunny.

It hangs from a black satin cord, and secures with a

sterling silver hook and eye clasp.

I've shown 3 of the bunny images, your prize will be one of these three.

To enter,

please visit Buster and boo

leave a comment with your favorite pendant design

MAKE SURE to leave me your EMAIL ADDRESS!

If you do not want to leave your email address here, you can contact me at my Buster and boo shop and leave it there.

Thank you so much for reading my blog, and visiting my shop!

SCRABBLE TILE PENDANTS!

Be the buyer who brings my total sales to 100, and you can win a FREE Scrabble Tile Pendant!

Only 2 sales to go!!!

Plus, I'm having a SUMMER SALE, Buy 3, get 1 Free.

well, this one isn't technically a Scrabble Tile pendant, but wanted to share it anyway.

come visit Buster and boo!

Wholesale order!

Well, since my Woolies shop seems a tad - empty - these days, I wanted to assure you all that I've been busy.

This little group represents half of a wonderful wholesale order by a lovely lady on Martha's Vineyard (a place that I yearn for).

I love this little bear in his purple overalls, and almost don't want to let him go.

They're in the mail. I wonder if they get to ride on the ferry???

Monsoon!

Our last spring and summer in Philadelphia, it rained 18 weekends in a row. We were happy to leave, and come to a land of endless blue skies and sunshine.



Blue skies and sunshine can get really OLD, after a while.



Ecstasy. The monsoon season has come to the Old Pueblo. !! I LOVE it when there are clouds in the sky. It breaks up the monotony.




But yesterday, the clouds REALLY built up. Late in the day, it started. Lightning, thunder. You can see rain shafts, off to the west. You know it's raining, over there. You wait and hope for rain where you are. The first few big drops, then it rolls in. Thunder, Lightning, RAIN. I sat outside, on my porch, and reveled in the smell of the rain. My drought stricken trees reveled in the wetness.

These pictures of the lightning over the city of Tucson, were taken by stickb0y7, you can find him on flickr. Used with permission. Amazing.

So, for now, I'll sit back and wait for the next storm. Impatiently.

Craft Kit for the Kids

I have wooden beads. I have lots of ribbons, satin cords. I have ideas.





For your child's beading pleasure - here's a little ready-made kit! Who knows if it will sell on Etsy -


but I had fun putting it together!

In case this is just the thing for your child, you can find it here, at

Woolies.

This one has bigger beads, with a larger center, easy to string ribbon or cord through. I also have lots of smaller beads that will work well with hemp, or waxed cotton cording. Stay tuned.


Lots more to come.

WIN THESE EARRINGS!

Just a few posts ago, I was talking about my earring obsession. If I wasn't so busy putting gas in my car, I'd be spending $$ on earrings.

Check out this Etsy shop - LucyLouLou, also known as Silver River Studio. Her hand-crafted sterling silver jewelry is just stunning, each piece unique and individual. She is fairly new to Etsy, although not new to jewelry making. I know your jaw will be hanging open when you see her work.

She has offered to give away these earrings!

Description:

Genuine Rainbow Moonstone Briolettes hang from Sterling silver that has been hammered formed & oxidized to mimic my idea of a dancer! these earrings hang just a smidgen over two inches long!

Here's the rules:

1. Visit LucyLouLou's shop

2. Pick out your favorite item from her shop

3. come back to my blog and leave a comment with your favorite, and also YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!!! Please??

4. If you visit one of my shops, either Buster and boo, or Woolies, and also mention a favorite from those shops, I will enter your name twice.

5. This giveaway will end Saturday, June 28th at midnight.

Thank you!!

WE HAVE A WINNER, PLEASE DO NOT POST COMMENTS ANYMORE, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ENTERING! THE WINNER IS JANETFAYE! CONGRATULATIONS!

WINNER!

The winner of krisblues fantastic prints is

CANCAN!

Please contact me with your address, so krisblues can send you your prize!

THANKS to all who entered.
I plan to do weekly giveaways, please check my blog often.

New little dolly

I'm like a person obsessed. Flipping around in too many directions. What can I make next?

Hint: Ordered a lot of fabric.

Hint: Ordered a bunch of wooden beads.

You'll have to keep an eye on my shops!

But in the meantime, here's a new little dolly

I made. I'm calling them lacey dolls, this one is

named Becky. Pretty soon, she will have lots of little friends.

What do you think?

Her little lace dress comes off, it has a snap in the back. So you can play a game of dress-up with her.

You can find her here, in my Woolies shop. Let me know what you think??

NEW GIVEAWAY!

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you might have noticed that I love art. The front page of Etsy is a great way to find wonderful artists, that I might not have normally found.

That is how I found krisblues shop. Her work is pure and stunning. I just love it. She was kind enough to offer TWO of her prints as a giveaway on my blog.

This one is called "follow your heart, swinging quietly"

Print of an original acrylic illustration, measures 6.5"x6.5" plus room for framing.It is printed on enhanced matte paper with archival inks, dated and signed.

The next one is called "napping under marshmallow tree".

I can't possibly decide which one I love better!

So, to win BOTH of these prints:

1. visit Krisblues shop. find your favorite item.

2. come back to my blog and leave a comment with your favorite item.

3. please make sure you leave a way for me to reach you, in case you are the winner .

NOTE: MANY of you have not left a way for me to contact you. I'm worried that if you are the winner, I won't be able to reach you. So PLEASE check back on Sunday, June 22nd, to see if you were chosen.

If you don't want to leave your email here, feel free to contact me through either of my shops (links -------> to the right, Woolies and Buster and boo) and send me your email information.

4. Winner will be chosen by random drawing, on Sunday, June 22nd. I will post the name of the winner here. If the winner has not left a way for me to reach them, I will do a second random drawing after 3 days.

Enjoy looking at krisblues wonderful work!

We have a winner, please do not post anymore comments.

Sunday, 9pm, AZ time (12:00AM, EST)

thank you for entering!! Winner will be announced shortly in a new post!

Earrings!

I am a sucker for earrings. I like bracelets and necklaces, not so much rings, but I LOVE earrings. I oogle and drool over lots of them on Etsy. Here is one of my favorite shops, I highly recommend dropping by at Pampering Beki 's shop!

Here are some of hers for you to drool over (and did I mention that they are very reasonably priced??). And the shop owner is just wonderful.

I LOVE them!! (I want them all!)

It's Summer

Summer in Tucson. It's going to be 105 this weekend. Dry, Hot, Windy, Hot, Dry, did I mention Hot? I may have mentioned in previous posts, we are from Philadelphia. Where it can be hot and nasty humid, but where it's so different than here.

Four years ago, when we first moved here (in JULY), our first house was in a really beautiful development. Lots of houses. Lots of kids. Right? I sent my kids out on their bikes - to the school playgound nearby. They were 9 and 11 at the time. They came back kind of soon. NO kids anywhere. And absurdly hot. Back home, no matter how hot and icky, you could ride your bikes around the neighborhood and meet up with tons of kids. There were kids everywhere. Not here, not outside. Know why? It's too HOT. Isn't that insane? So we were here for a month or so, that first summer, and my kids never saw another kid. Back in Philly, you could ride your bikes all over the place. Then stop at Joe's market (neighborhood market) for ice cream, or penny candy. Yep, even today. Then ride your bike to the township pool, which everybody joined for the summer. Not here, most people have their own pools. If you want to take swimming lessons, you can sign up at the township pool, but nobody goes there just to hang out.

It's weird to me. Strange. Even after four years here. I don't even know most of my neighbors. I think we all feel sort of ... isolated? Lonely. And Hot.

Featured!

YAY! Do you ever read Cuteable?

"I seem to be liking scrabble tile pendants at the moment and this one by Buster and Boo is lovely."

My shop, Buster and boo, was featured today! Thank you, Cuteable!! (and smart lady chose one of my better pictures).

:0)

And the winner is......drumroll........

yyeres !!

Number chosen randomly by one of my children - there were too many respondents (yay!) for me to write down all the names and pull one out of the hat, so I had my youngest child (age 13) choose a number between 1-133 (# of respondents).

Yyeres, please contact me with your address so your bunny can be mailed to you!

Thank you all for participating - more great giveaways to come. I'm preparing the next one to start in a few days.

Have a great day, everyone!!

Totally different and new

Once in a while, I think it is good to step outside of your comfort zone. Challenge yourself. do something totally different. No, I'm not talking about sky diving, I'd be way too terrified !!

I made earrings. I made wet-felted beads (nothing too new or different there). I bought head-pins (who knew what a head-pin was??), and sterling silver earwires. Then I picked out freshwater pearls. (OK, I knew what they were). Then I put them together. My sister in law was in town this past weekend, and she makes jewelry, so she sort of showed me how. Then had the audacity to leave it up to me! So I did it.

They are not perfect - the beads are not identical, nor are they perfectly round. The pearls are also not identical.

And THEN I had the hutzpah (is that how you spell it? Have to ask my mother in law) to LIST them in my shop. Right there with the stuffed animals.

GASP!

Creatures from the west

There's a lizard living in my little courtyard. There's lots of lizards here, it is the southwest. But it always gives me a little thrill to see these critters.

I'm not sure what kind he is, if anybody knows,

let me know! Is he a desert iguana? He's big -

over 12 inches, is my guess.

Can you see him??

Little Elf's Toyshop - Giveaway!!

When I first joined Etsy over a year ago, Little Elf's Toyshop was one of the first shops I 'discovered'. And one of the first shops that I purchased something from - an adorable polymer clay pony. Little Elf continues to astound me with her work.

Elfie has graciously offered one of her needle felted sculptures as a giveaway. If you are not familiar with needle felting, it is the art of stabbing wool roving (wool before it has been spun into yarn) with a barbed needle, thereby 'felting' the wool fibers. You have to be VERY careful to NOT stab yourself, it hurts (I know from experience). But it's very fun, and if you're very talented, you can create work like this:

So, if you would like to win this beautiful little bunny -

1. visit Little Elf's Toyshop

2. pick your favorite item for her shop

3. come back here and leave a comment with your favorite item

4. Contest will end Monday, June 9th, 2008 at midnight.

Thank you!!!

NOTE: some of you that have been wonderful enough to enter this contest have not left me a way to reach you. I will post the winner Tuesday morning, and here's hoping it's somebody that I can contact! Next time I promise to leave a reminder. Or feel free to come back and leave another comment with your contact information!!!
thanks!!

Kit!

I've been dying to make my own felt - I promise to post a tutorial on how to wet felt your own felt to use for crafts. Anyway, I finally did this past weekend.


OK< so now what? Just use it to make my own little felt creatures? Patterns, tutorials, kits - all sell really well on Etsy. So I put a kit together. Included is my hand-made 100% wool felt and everything else you need to make a little mousie.

It's available in my Woolies shop, so come on over and visit! Get Crafty!