Christmas shopping

So my lovely aunt, whose stash I raided back in August? She's a FIEND for the FatQuarterShop.com. Has a ton of their quilt kits, all kinds of stuff from them. She SO generously offered to gift me something designer from them for Christmas.

I've never had designer fabric before, so of course I've been picky about what I'd consider.

And then I fell in love...with Outfoxed.

Borrowed from FQS, found here

I love the foxes. And especially the little hedgehogs. I adore all three colorways, and definitely their names - "outwitted," "outsmarted," and "outplayed." So clever! This is the same gal who gave us 1001 Peeps - also adorable, but it doesn't include these amazing hedgehogs, so...not that.

I've already got a project in mind - a lap quilt for me to use for work. Because some things have to be just me. And I picture myself embroidering it with the words "outwitted," "outsmarted," and "outplayed," because, um, those are great things to remind ourselves of while sitting at the desks we don't like dreaming about the sewing rooms that are our shelters.

Am I right??

Twitter - and persistence! - pay off!

So I love me some Old Navy - almost every item in my wardrobe (er...dresser and closet) is from there, including, um, everything I'm wearing today except underoos. I'm the girl who goes there and buys one-in-every-color, please.

And Twitter, I'm hit or miss with, I'll admit. I get into it for a while, then forget about it. One thing I've been pretty consistent about, though, is posting comments to Old Navy - and not always positive things. Their spring clothes this year were dreadful - lots of ruffles and fringe that look like they were swept up off the cutting room floor. And I told them so. I suggested they use bigger models so those of us who aren't size 4 will have an idea of how clothes might - or might not - fit.

Guess what? Those comments paid off! I got an email a couple weeks ago asking for my address because they wanted to reward me for my comments! Yesterday I got a coupon for FREE JEANS in the mail!!!

Of course I headed straight to ON and snagged these, the Sweetheart Boot-Cut jeans in the "Tipai" wash:

After finishing up that great shopping trip - who doesn't love a $0 receipt?! - I came home to more fun news! I won a giveaway from Mauby's for a Sewline mechanical pencil!

Photo from  Mauby's, here

How exciting! I'm always entering giveaways and looking forward to the day I see the "you've won!" line show up about me - and it finally has! I love sewing gadgets, and this will definitely be a welcome addition as I face the daunting task of starting on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler with my fancy vintage fabrics! Check out Mauby's for great tutorials and all other kinds of sewing inspiration :)

How has persistence - or Twitter! - paid off for you lately?

A day late for WIP Wednesday? Oops!

Okay so usually I'm pretty on time - obsessively so, really - but this time I'm a day late for a WIP Wednesday post. Oops!

Anyway, it's been a while since I updated everyone on the progress of the queen-ish sized quilt I've been working on for hubby and I. It's just been MUCH too hot to really quilt something that big, so it's been sitting there taunting me for... well, let's just say the last time I posted about it was in April, though I promise I've worked on it since then!

Well, Wednesdays hubby teaches two anatomy labs in the evening, leaving me to my own devices, so I decided to FINALLY finish quilting it.

In the process, I came up with a name for it: Purple People Pleaser. Why? Because it's got purple on it, and because I like puns, okay? ;)

Without further ado...

I just straight-line quilted, 1/4" to either side of each row.

Until I get around to binding it, it will live here, on the back of the loveseat where I sit. :)

Book #41

Book #41: A Girl Named Zippy: Growing up Small in Mooreland, Indiana, by Haven Kimmel

It was refreshing, for once, to read a memoir in which the girl didn't have any complaints about her childhood - she wasn't abused, she didn't grow up in poverty, she didn't even (not really, anyway) write about getting into fights with her siblings. Instead, Kimmel writes about growing up in a small farm town and all that entails - from antics on a friend's farm to stories about her gambling, drinking-but-not-quite-alcoholic father.

I laughed out loud at a few points - not necessarily because the stories were funny, because sometimes they really weren't, but because the way she told the stories from the perspective of a child, yet used adult vocabulary, if that makes sense.

Recommended. :)

Book #40

Book #40 for the year, Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian

I really enjoyed this book. The story of a small-town midwife accused of murder, the novel is descriptive when it needs to be and vague when it doesn't. The narration was good, told from an adult's perspective about events that happened when the narrator was a girl. An interesting look at the idea of American medical establishment vs. "how much of the world still delivers children."


I still have enough time to finish my 52 books for the year, though if you looked at my bookshelves, which are still overflowing, you'd never know that! I really have the dream that my to-be-read pile will be under control before we move in the spring of 2013 - and yes, I really will have to plan that far ahead to get caught up!

September Savings

September's Safeway savings doesn't SEEM that dramatic, but it has a good ending, hah!

For those of you who are new, I absolutely adore Safeway's "just for u" program - I load their coupons onto my regular savings card, and they give me special prices on things based on my purchases. They'll also even give me free stuff, like new products. Super cool, huh?

I'm pretty OCD when it comes to money, so a few months ago I started keeping track of how much money I save just using this simple couponing (plus whatever coupons I might find in the store or online).

This month, Jeff and I spent $232.57 on groceries, and saved $126.47, giving us a savings percentage of 35.22% for the month. Over the last six months, we've saved $868.05, an average of 39.70% per month!!! Wow!

Safeway's started an awesome new program this month, too - now, they've been giving away $0.03 off / gallon of gas at their gas stations for people with their club cards pretty much the whole time I've lived in California. Most of the time, if you make a $50 total purchase at the store, they give you a $0.10/gallon discount. Sometimes they allow you to stack them, sometimes they don't.

Their new promotion is amazing. Rather than make one $50 purchase for the discount, you have to spend $100 total - which, while it's more, works out better for us, because we seldom make large grocery purchases. The deal gets even sweeter - if you buy a $25 gift card to a store other than Safeway, you automatically get the $0.10/gal discount - quadruple points!

How do you take advantage of this? You buy enough gift cards to pay for your entire window replacement project - stacking up $1/gallon off in discounts, the maximum they allow you to use at once - and save $11+ the next time you buy gas!!! Hooray! As long as they're doing this promotion, I'm going to be doing all of my spending at Safeway first, to buy gift cards, then using those gift cards at the stores I'd normally shop at.

The only downside I've found to this so far is that gift card purchases don't seem to count towards cash back on my Discover card - but hey. $1/gal is better savings than the 1% I'd be getting back doing all the spending on my Discover!

Cat Mat #1 Complete!

 Cat Mat #1 for Butte Humane Society is complete! As I wrote about the other day, I've decided to help out the local humane society by making cat sized quilts (would they be cat lap quilts? I'm not sure) to go on the cat trees that they have in their catteries.

It took a whopping 45 minutes, start to finish, to make the one that Molly is so kindly modeling for us! They're super easy to make - scrap batting, probably a fat quarter of flannel for each side, and some leftover white flannel binding I'd made up for another project. I'm set to volunteer today, so I'll take it with and hopefully get the go-ahead to make a whole bunch.

I'm joined up with Lily's Quilt's Small Blog Meet-Up again today - welcome to everyone who's new! I love quilting, picking fabrics, saving money, reading books, and of course kittens (I have two, Molly and Wrench), and I occasionally write about home improvements, too.

Have a great weekend, everyone!