Free jacket!? Yes!

So if you read my blog regularly you've probably noticed the referral link to Crowdtap over there in the sidebar (see it now? hehe!). Crowdtap's a great program that allows you to answer questions and get matched up with brands. The questions, called Quick Hits, allow you to earn money towards Amazon gift cards and to donate to charity - but by far the best part are the Sample Shares! All the sample shares I've gotten so far have been for my favorite clothing store - Old Navy! They advertised Crowdtap on Facebook, and that's how I got involved with the site.

The latest sample share I got was for free outerwear! What an amazing thing to get a free coupon for! It never really gets very cold here in Chico (today it's probably 75 degrees and really sunny!) but I loved the idea of being able to get a classic jacket for free. I also got a coupon to share with a friend, so I took my pal Tamera along with me.

The large fit across my shoulders, but the tummy was too much!

The first jacket I tried on was this one, the Wool Blend Toggle coat in Gray Plaid. I really wanted to like this coat, because I loved the contrasting toggles (especially on the gray one!) but unfortunately, in order to get the jacket to fit across my shoulders, it ended up huge across my belly! I joked that if I were pregnant it would've been perfect, but alas, Jeff and I aren't at the point where we can do that quite yet!




The next jacket I tried out was one of the puffy coats, the Frost Free Midi jacket. The fit was a bit more true to size, but unfortunately...

It didn't have the greatest scent. While the plasticky sort of smell would probably go away after the jacket was aired out for a while, it turned me off from wanting the jacket. I suspect that most of the puffy jackets and vests would have this problem :(

When I originally went to Old Navy I was really hoping to be able to try on the Hooded Twill Jacket. Unfortunately, my local store didn't seem to have it. They did have the Twill Sherpa-Trim Anoraks, but I didn't really like the way either the khaki or the brown color looked in person. I was bummed that they didn't have some of the happier colors (like Parading Peacock!) from the puff coats in this jacket, because that would've been a cool twist on a less-trendy look.

Tamera tried on a bunch of different jackets, including the Wool Blend Double Breasted Coat but she ended up getting the Wool Blend Toggle Coat in gray. She's a bit smaller than me, so she didn't have to go up as many sizes to make it fit across her shoulders.

She was super excited to get a new jacket - she's been working hard to get in shape since having her little girl (who is absolutely adorable!) and she didn't have a winter jacket that fit very well until last Monday! Hooray!!

I decided to go with a classic look for my jacket - I picked the Wool Blend Toggle Coat in gray, which is a longer version than Tamera's that also doesn't have the hood. While I really liked the plum color that the jacket comes in, I figured the gray would be better long-term for dressy winter parties - now if only I had some to go to! :)

I'm not a huge fan of wool, but the collar doesn't really sit on my neck, and the jacket's lined, so it's not on my arms if I wear shorter sleeves or have my hands in my pockets. I think the jacket looks pretty good with jeans, so it's definitely something I could even wear just to work on cooler days!

The best part, of course, was being able to leave the store, with over $150 in merchandise between us - with two receipts that said $0! Thank you soooooo much, Crowdtap and Old Navy!

Want the chance to get in on the great deals from Crowdtap for yourself? Don't hesitate to sign up - here's my referral link again. :)

Weekend a day early!

Happy Friday everyone :)

No, really!

Every year the dealership I work for does a physical inventory of its parts department on the last Sunday of October - or this coming Sunday. I don't have to count parts - instead, I have to do all the data entry - yuck. Since I have to work an extra weekend day, I get the preceding Friday - tomorrow! - off! Hooray! :)

I've got big plans for the day - hopefully finishing up the quilting on one of my gift quilts, making a TON of binding tape, and starting on co-worker gifts! I'm thinking I might make a bunch of zippered pouches (I've never done zippers before! - or maybe some little fabric baskets? I don't know. Gotta use up the stash, though, as it's gotten a little, um, out of control.

Then I want to make one (or 90) of these bags:

From this tutorial by Freshly Pieced. I figured out that it takes 8 fat quarters for the outside, and, um, I may or may not have a zillion of those lying around. Nothing too matchy-matchy - but perfect for the remaining few kids on the "make gifts for these people" list. Or the grownups. I dunno - would you use one?

Edited!

So I really am pretty terrible at gifts and gift-giving in general, so I just asked what kind of homemade project they'd want - the two of them who are here said place mats. Super! I can do place mats! I'm thinking I'll make them like my friend Dianna made hers, from the first Sew Liberated book. Hers turned out really well, and I'm pretty superb at this style of quilting, so place mats should be easy-peasy!

Aren't Dianna's place mats pretty? :)

Sold! One of them wants red and black, another "forest colors" - I can do that!

Book #42 - Plain Language

Book #42 - Plain Language by Barbara Wright

I'm mixed on this book. The story of a Quaker woman named Virginia who marries a just-starting-out rancher, then takes in her brain-injured older brother, this book features some very descriptive scenes...but doesn't really seem to tell much of a story. The plot is fairly predictable. The only aspect of it that was interesting was the idea of it taking place during the Depression, and the main character being Quaker...but for the most part, these things don't really play much of a part in the novel.

I did like how the author attempts to convey the idea that others may know more about ourselves and our relationships than we do, though. That was food for thought.

--

It's hard to keep up with reading now that the year is winding down - My goal is to read 10 more books, but the holidays are rapidly approaching, so I have all kinds of Christmas sewing to do! I started quilting another gift quilt tonight, though, and should be able to have the quilting done by the weekend. I think what's going to end up happening is I'm going to end up with a bunch of quilts with no binding by the time Christmas Eve arrives - anyone having a binding elf??? ;)

Accomplished

 I managed to finish the quilting on one of my Christmas gift quilts. I can't show the front, but I love the way the red I used contrasts with the black flannel back (love flannel backed quilts!). Just have to bind and wash! I've edited my Fall 2011 to-do list to reflect my progress - isn't it great to cross things off big lists like that? I'll admit, though - I occasionally add things I've already done, just so I can cross something else off!

Splurged and bought my first designer fabric - a charm pack of Little Apples! Not sure what I'm going to use it for yet. Any ideas?? What was your first "designer" fabric? :)

Lucky Ducky!

Wow! I've found myself on Mr. Random's good side lately or something - first I won the Sewline Trio mechanical pencil from Mauby's and Fat Quarter Shop - then I got the free jeans from Old Navy for chatting with them on Twitter.

Today, I had another win! I scored a bunch of Christmas photo cards from Shutterfly, sponsored by Jen at Crippled Girl - whose blog I definitely recommend following, for her humorous takes on special needs living as well as the thought-provoking guest bloggers she's been featuring lately. Thanks, Jen!The hard part to that will be getting a good picture of Jeff and I - the last pics we have together are from our wedding, two and a half years ago (here's one, just because it makes me smile):

Then (Yes, really!), I hopped on to Blogger to read everyone I follow, and saw that I won again! Quilt Dad has had a series of drawings recently, and I won this book:

Scrap Republic, by Emily Cier. I love projects that use small bits of fabric - fat quarters are my favorite! - so I'm super excited to get this book. Thanks, Quilt Dad!! :D

Wow. That's quite the lucky recap! I'm gonna have to make sure to pay it forward these next few weeks to make up for all the good karma I've been using up with Mr. Random Number Generator! ;)

To Dos

More with the to-do lists - they never end, do they? Sewing, quilting, stuff around the house, presents...ack!

So here's some boring lists. Without any pictures, even. Bo.

Sewing:
-Work on the box of pant-mending Jeff has accumulated.
-Christmas presents - JP, D, L, T, Mom, M.

Quilting:
-Gift quilts: A (piece, baste, quilt, bind), K (quilt, bind), J (quilt, bind), P (baste, quilt, bind), A (baste, quilt, bind), C (um, think of an idea first?), T (piece, baste, quilt, bind)
-Kitty Quilts for humane society
-Bind our quilt - honestly, Steph? Can't even finish one for yourself? Ugh.

House:
-Finally finish painting bathroom, finish the darn thing already! (paint walls, buy - paint - install baseboards, install switch plates/outlet covers, finish painting toilet/sink, finish drywalling skylight thing / paint that, paint door, buy-paint-hang door trim on both sides)
-Clean up shed tear-down project
-Order new shed, arrange for its installation
-Just keep adding things to this list, really it could probably be 80 miles long

Blog posts:
Just write a million and keep it up to date, honestly, Steph, you like writing, is that so hard?

Read books. Just keep reading. Read while quilting, if possible? Srsly.

Tiny projects

I snagged these tiny, 1.5" squares from my aunt's stash back in August. They fall fairly neatly into rainbow colors. Some didn't, being too multicolored for easy sorting, but I went with whichever color they "felt" like.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with them - perhaps something similar to Rachel's "Bottled Rainbows" quilt-a-long, meant for scraps but I think this would work, too. Ticker tape quilts are fun, and I like the idea of setting them on point, I haven't done something like that before (I'm so new at this!). Maybe rather than try to match specific Kona solids, which I don't think I could do well with the limited number of scraps I have, I might do a from-light-to-dark sort of arrangement on a white background, framed in black. Sounds good to me.

For now, they're sitting on my desk, sorted by color...which means I can't avoid them for too long, since they're in my workspace!

Do you have any ideas for my tiny fabric swatches, other than tossing them up in the air like confetti (also a possibility, particularly if my cats come 'round!!)?