For many years the only option for purchasing our Sewing Machine Repair and Serger Repair books was to pay for shipping and have them sent through the mail.  With the postage rates going up every year in May, those costs have been getting higher and higher, and almost completely out of sight for those living out of the country, such as Australia, UK, Canada, etc.

For most of last year and the first part of this year we have been working night and day getting all of our books and classes in downloadable eBook format.  We have been very well aware of the fact that when a sewing machine has problems, we all want to get it fixed NOW, not wait 2-3 weeks for overseas delivery, or even 5-7 days which the Postal Service tells us it takes for Media Mail to get to destinations within the United States.

We are very happy to let you know that you can now get all of our pattern making books / classes as downloadable ebooks at PatternsThatFitYou.com,  AND our sewing machine repair, serger repair, complete guide to treadle sewing machines, as well as our complete Sewing Machine Repair as a Home Business are all in downloadable eBook format - you can see them all when you visit our sewnfit.com site. 

By purchasing the downloadable version, you not only get the latest versions of the books, you also can have them IMMEDIATELY, and save dollars by not having to pay shipping on the books.

Check out the SewnFit.com site, as well as PatternsThatFitYou.com, PlusSizeChildren.com and BigBeautifulPeople.com -- there are dozens of classes and ebooks available for instant download.

        

Saving and Giving Blogspot is sponsoring a giveaway for some wonderful Rubbermaid Organizers.  Head on over to the SavingAndGiving.Blogspot to enter.  I've always loved anything that Rubbermaid puts out, so would certainly love to win some of their great things.  The giveaway will end tonight at 9 pm, so rush on over to enter.

        

How many of you, like me, have those google ads on the sidebar of your website or blog?  You might even have a few affiliate links that seem to never pay more than a few pennies or so --- which is the way it USED to be with me!

The first of February I signed up as an affiliate for the coupon clutches, and got my first check deposited into my Pay Pal account today.  The affiliate program for the coupon clutches pays 7% of each sale, pays at the beginning of the month for the previous month, as long as you've reached a plateau of $25 (or it holds the balance until you DO reach $25).  Well, those coupon clutches have been flying off the shelf and for my first month as an affiliate I  reached $30.35 in affiliate commissions.

If you'd like a little extra cash from an affiliate program, you could do like I've done -- sign up to be an affiliate for CouponClutch.com, then get it on your sidebar, and do a post or two about it so your readers will know what's new on your sidebar. 

Here are a couple of my favorites of the coupon clutches:

       

Green Paisley     Zebra                     Burgendy/Green Bamboo

I now LOVE the affiliate programs that actually PAY!!!

        

A few weeks ago I told you about the Coupon Clutches that my daughter started making awhile back.  It seems that as each month goes by she gets more and more orders because clipping and using coupons is getting very popular.  Coupon clipping is probably the best method I've seen to help reduce the grocery and drug store bills! 

Check out this stack of mailing that we did YESTERDAY!  As you've probably guessed by now, I'm the "shipping department" for the coupon clutches and books that we sell simply because I live only a couple miles from the post office.



When you go to CouponClutch.com to check out the many different fabric designs that are available, I do need to let you know that all of them that are available are "limited editions", which means that when that certain fabric design is gone, it's gone because there's no more fabric available to buy.  The reason I'm saying this is because two of the original clutches are no longer available.  Denise just had an email yesterday asking about the "pink and chocolate" clutch which no longer is visible on the website.  Denise had to apologize to the lady and let her know that it is no longer available, which also is the case for the "blue argyle" clutch.    Denise does replace the "no longer available" ones with different colors, but if something strikes your fancy - go ahead and get it on order.

        

Much talk is being made about how to make some extra money during this down economy, but if you could SAVE money in addition to trying to earn a little extra money, the end result would be a big boost for your household and your checking account!

I've been reading so many of the coupon blogs, such as ShopperStrategy.com that tell about how they're saving between 60% to 90% on their grocery and drug store bills by using coupons and store "deals".   Now, when there is only a limited amount of income coming into the house, say you're on unemployment compensation since you've been laid off, if you could get $150 worth of groceries for $20 - $30, would you be interested in learning how??????

The coupon bloggers have great information on how to get started and what you need to do in order to get those great deals.  I truly believe that the "coupon era" has just begun!  Your local Sunday newspaper always has a bunch of coupons, and check out the grocery store, CVS and Walgreens flyers that come out in the newspaper for some great deals as well.

Once you get started clipping those coupons, you might want to head on over to CouponClutch.com to get your own designer tote coupon carrier to organize all the coupons you're getting.

Every dollar you can SAVE on grocery and drug store items is an extra dollar that can go towards the power bill, the gas bill, or even put them towards your house payment or rent.

Are you a couponer now?  Let me know how you're doing and how much you're saving.

        

Just how far DOWN will this economy go before there is really a turn-around?  I was watching a program a few days ago on CNN TV where the talk was about job losses, etc, and one of the speakers reported that it would take 150,000 NET new jobs each month for 48 months to get the unemployment rate back to 9%.  They went on to say that it would be impossible for there to be 150,000 NET new jobs (all the layoffs continuing and to have enough NEW jobs created for a net of 150,000 new ones).

It appears to me that if those who are losing their jobs left and right have any chance at all to make some extra  money, it will be by coming up with their OWN little businesses!

We've talked before about starting your own part time business, working out of your home, in order to get the extra money you need to pay the bills and put food on the table.  We've suggested the fastest and easiest ones to start are ones you already are doing as a hobby, such as doing alterations for people, sewing for plus size children or sewing for plus size men and women who are in desperate need for clothing to wear that actually fits!   There is also the sewing machine repair business where you could be repairing those sewing machines that people are bringing out of the attic and closets in order to begin doing their own sewing again.

What hobbies do you have that could be turned into extra income?  Do some serious thinking about what you enjoy doing and what could be helpful to others that other people would pay you to do.

        

I don't believe I've ever seen a bunch of kids whose "play" is almost always centered around "work".  The boys, Jacob, Brandon and Zachary are constantly "working" with their play tool sets, building a house out of a box and using the flaps we'd cut off other boxes as boards to fill in the top for a roof, or building gates, fences, etc out of blocks.

We have a supply of roasted peanuts that we are shelling to make honey roasted peanuts, and Jacob LOVES to "crack" the peanuts.  When he's at our house we have a box set up on a little table for him with his own bowl for the peanuts, bowl for the shells and zip lock bags to put them in when the bowls get full.  It never fails, if he's here on a Friday night and the peanuts are set up, he'll wake up Saturday morning, half stumbling half asleep into the living room, and when we ask him if he'd like to lie on the couch for a few minutes he always says "no, I have to do my peanuts"!  Now THIS is the kind of worker anybody would be proud of!!

A few days ago when the quads were here we had a new "job" little Zachary came up with.  Early in the morning he gathered some sheets of paper that I'd printed extra coupons on - wanted to make them into a "book of coupons" for Mommy, so we put a spiral binder on the pages.  He then got a length of string that they all like to play with and had me tie one end to the binder so he could pull it around.  Later when they got to go outside to play, he took a hand cart and filled it with small branches where Papaw had been trimming a bush.  He informed me he was the "garbage pick up man", to which I let him know what a good job he was doing.  Later I saw him tying the hand cart filled with branches to his bicycle WITH the string from the coupon book he'd made.  He did a great job of tying it all together and spent the rest of the day pulling around the cart with his bicycle so he could find more garbage to pick up.  Check out this picture - doesn't he look like a great "workin' man" -- that's what they always say they are..... a workin man!



Boy howdy!  I hope they keep this work ethic when they grow up --- we'll certainly have aome "workin men" in this family!

        

If I said SERIOUS couponers love the Coupon Clutch, I would be misleading you, because from what I hear, serious AND part time couponers love the coupon clutch.



The Coupon Clutch website has the best looking and most functional coupon caddy or coupon holder I've ever seen!  At this website you can get the coupon clutch itself, or with a deluxe set of plastic pages that hold the coupons.  In addition, you can get the 3-pocket pages, 6-pocket pages or 9-pocket pages separately, depending on the types of coupons you like to save.

The coupon clutch holds up to 3,000 coupons --- now that's SERIOUS stuff!!  I have one of the clutches, and I'm amazed at how fast I can fill up those pockets.  I LOVE the way I can have everything organized by categories and the two pockets on the inside flap are perfect for me to stick the coupons that I'm using (when I put the items into the grocery cart, the coupons go into the pockets on the inside flap) -- when I'm finished and heading to the cashier I have all my coupons readily available in one place.

Check out CouponClutch.com and look at all the wonderful designs that are available!

        

Another GREAT giveaway has been posted at SewingBusiness.com -- this time the giveaway is for a pair of Gingher pinking shears AND a 4" Gingher thread snips.  The contest runs now through February 1st, with the drawing on February 2nd


You can get up to four entries into this fabulous giveaway - just run on over to Sewing Business and get your entries in!  I love Gingher sewing tools, but I believe the little "thread snips" are the best things they've ever made!

Which Gingher items do you like best????

        

We always joke that our little 4 year old quadruplet grandbabies (and their big 5 year old brother) are eating us out of house and home.  Well I realized a few weeks ago (or longer ago than that!) that this is no joke -- those little guys and girls eat everything in site and ask for more.  For example, the day before they come here to spend a couple of days, I always get 2 packages of strawberries, 2 packages of grape tomatoes, a cantalope, some grapes and/or bananas -- they LOVE fresh fruit and veggies!

Well this past week, we picked them up around 8 in the morning on Wednesday, brought them here, then on down to the library for story hour, then we took them to Times Grill, where kids eat free (1 child per adult).  My sister and I enjoy their blt's while we divide up 2 (free) orders of chicken strip/french fry dinners among the kids.   The minute we got home and before nap time, they always get a "snack", and they were begging for strawberries.  They ate one of the packages before nap time, and the minute they woke up they started asking for more, except this time they wanted strawberries AND tomatoes in the same little cup.  Needless to say before the day was over, both pkgs of strawberries AND tomatoes were gone -- and we hadn't even gotten to supper yet!  One of the little girls informed me that I should buy a "whole big strawberry PATCH" - and I had to agree with her!

Breakfast is always the same --- the kids eat their food then start in on Papaw's food.  Really, no matter what Papaw has to eat, it becomes their "favorite" food, so they come around to help him eat his food.   On this day, Papaw had some leftover meatloaf/gravy on a slice of bread and two "sunny side up" eggs on top.  WOW!  How delicious could that be ---- check out this picture:



This time Zachary and Sienna were helping eat his food.  Sometimes all four try to squeeze in by the food (so they can reach their own spoons onto the plate, and sometimes just two or three help him out.  Papaw always says he's thrilled to have them come eat -- he says he'd be happy if they ate every bit of it -- he could always find something else to eat!  Way to go Papaw!