Back to School Coupons

Here are some deals that were broad casted on the Today Show.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I don't know about you but I don't have over 600 dollars to spend on each child(I would see this and even up to 1000.00 per child while I worked in retail) so this is how I save money for the back to school.

1.First go through your kids clothing. Most of the time they really don't need to much unless they had a major growth spurt.You will need at least one pair of shoes but check if they really need more than that.I usually buy 2 pairs of jeans and a couple of t-shirts. Perhaps some underwear but usually you don't need too either.
2.Haircuts-make sure you get them early.Perhaps there's a local hair stylist that has a special. My hubby cuts my kids hair but with girls you will need to check around for the those deals.
3.Backpacks-I buy mine from L.L.Bean(www.llbean.com). They last forever(I had my college pack for over 10 years)and are reasonably priced.If your looking for a younger child, the pbs store has some cute backpacks with free monogramming .(Check on side of my blog for the coupon code).You don't need to get a new one unless it is broken,ripped or torn.That will save you some big bucks there.
4.Supplies.Again, go through your kids items. My kids usually don't need a whole new set of everything and can use previous supplies.Also, check with the school's list to make sure you purchase everything you need and don't purchase items you don't.
5.School lunches. I purchase mine through the school because of my crazy work schedule but you can brown bag it with inexpensive reusable containers and cute lunch bags.

Here are some coupons for savings for pbs charcter savings on clothes and backpacks.
PBS KID Shop - 15% Off Any Size Order

PBS KID Shop - $5 Off Orders of $25+

PBS KID Shop - Free Ground Shipping On Orders of $65+

Here's a website for back to school coupons from different merchants.
http://www.savings.com/c-Back-to-School-coupons.html

I love to hear other ways of saving money for back to school.

Foo Fighters and Serj do The Dead Kennedys

and theDead Kennedys Live

DIY Circus Decor

This is a little circus corner up in my 2nd floor hallway. I repainted the walls white and I have a few more things to finish but I thought you would like to see this part now.The placemat is a animal cracker pillowcase.

What to do with Mason Jars? How about putting old fisher price toys in them to see. I have many of these little people and had them stashed away. What is the point of having them if you can't see them?

Here's another jar full of the fisher price people accessories including a tractor, a stroller and few very old fisher price wooden people.

This is a doll I had since I was a baby. It's a yo yo clown doll. Cute huh for being a clown. I used a cream soda bottle as a vase for the colorful flowers.

This is one of two wooden animals my husband had made. Poor elephant had it's trunk broken and it's ears missing.  I decided to paint it and add fabric to it's nose and ears.

This is the little pig that I painted purple and added some fabric for a circus look.

I collaged the light switch for a cool look. Want to know how to do this?Right Here

Scrappy Quilt Blocks

These are my green quilt blocks. As you can see I randomly put them together. These are scraps from  items I made in the past. I can see two of my father's shirts, skirts and just random scraps from my mil.

These are my blue blocks mixed with some green. If I ran out of a color I would try to match it with another to finish a block. I am still working on cutting the blue fabric but I finished sewing all the green blocks. I am about to work on the red fabric scraps. I'm also getting ready the yellow, orange and pink.

These are my purple blocks and these are all cut out and sewed and trimmed. I added some blue to some of the blocks that didn't have enough strips. That is how easy these are. Just sew some strips up and trim them down with rotary cutter to the size you want them to be.

How to make a scrap quilt from Pleasant Home

The X-Men Quilt

Shhh, don't tell Sean but this is his quilt for Xmas. I know I am kinda cheating but I found this hidden away when I did my massive spring cleaning. Yes, massive as in bringing 40 thirty gallon bags of stuff to Goodwill.
 I forgot I had bought this about 7 years ago. I have the pillow case, fitted sheet and the flat sheet. I was going to make a skirt or dress out of this but I'm glad I didn't. Now I'll tell you how to do this quilt which is quite simple. I had done this to a Spider man sheet too.

All you do is buy 2 3/4 yards of 200 weight fleece and sew them together. Now there are two ways of doing this.
1. First one is putting both fabrics right sides together and sewing all around. You leave a little spot open to turn the quilt inside out. Then you sew the outside of the quilt including the hole you had to turn this inside out.
2. I am about to do this on this quilt but it shouldn't be to hard. I am pinning this with safety pins from the sides, middle and everywhere else to have it even. I will sew this all around  the fabric with the wrong sides together. Then I will add binding to the whole edge and use DMC floss to bind the quilt together.
That's all it takes to make these. They are quite warm and awesome to have especially for the comic book fan.

My Crazy Scrappy Patchwork Blocks

 I am making all these blocks for Xmas quilts. Hopefully I will finish them by December but I will have to see. For one quilt I am making each row a different color.

 I have 5 blocks in each row and each square is 9x9 inches. I had all these scraps from different sewing projects and I thought it would be cool to use them up and not purchase any fabric for the quilts. Well, I will have to purchase the fleece backings.

As you can probably see the middle block is the crazy quilted block while the others are just block strips. I cut out the pieces with  scissors and just trimmed everything afterwards with a blade cutter.

 I  started taking all the scraps of fabric with me to work and cut them out whenever I had time(Waiting for the van or/and riding in the van). I used every last piece and I probably won't have anymore scrapes after this.

I've added some extra notions like buttons and lace to some of the middle crazy quilted squares but it is only for this quilt as I will be giving this one to my mom and dad. I'll show you on my next post some more of my squares. 

Sean's Vegetable Garden

Sean was very excited to pick off the first of his vegetables from his garden. As you can see his cucumbers where quite big and they tasted delicious. Very proud of him doing his own garden. He anxiously waits for the corn and squash to ripen.

Rollins Band Blues

My Little Farm

Sean's Vegetable Garden that includes corn , cucumbers, tomatoes and squash.

Roosters don't only crow in the morning but the whole day!

Just some of my Pekin Ducks.

Mama Chicky with her 8 chicks. Chickens are such good mamas.

I don't know the technical name for a mix of a Buff and a Barred Rock but my hubby gave it the name of a Buff Barred.

Peek a Boo I see you little Chicky in mama's wing.

The Garden has grown so much.

The rest of the Pekin gang.

Coming Soon Part 2

Here's some more coming to Erika's Chiquis