This has been the busiest summer I've had in a long time!  We have grandchildren here a couple days a week, our son and family will be coming in from Korea in a week or so and will be here two weeks, plus my sewing is piling up.  Then there's the garden -- we LOVE gardening, and I'm now trying to get corn ready to freeze, squash out of the garden, tomatoes, okra, and the list goes on!  And you know the weeds keep growing, rain or shine.

I USED to have a few aprons that I loved to wear, then they got to looking pretty bad, so I started grabbing a towel for wiping hands, etc.  Well, that is no longer going to work for me because the towel is always out of reach when I need it.  Sooooo, I decided it was time to make a few aprons, then realized I simply don't have time to add one more thing to my list of "to do's", so I started a search online for cute aprons.

I found the NEATEST aprons - at FlirtyAprons.com  -- they are exactly what I was wanting.  My 4 year old granddaughters both love pink, so they helped me pick out this apron:



It looks so comfortable, I may need to order a few more!  Check out all the super designs that are available at FlirtyAprons  and pick out a few for yourself!

        

To me a sewing machine is much like a computer – an awesome piece of equipment as long as it is working right, and a total frustration when it decides to act up!

As is usually the case, my sewing machine normally gives me a fit when I’m in the middle of a MAJOR project and can’t afford even 30 minutes of downtime!

Last week was one of those times!  I was sewing 90 miles an hour trying my best to get probably the biggest project I’ve ever undertaken done – on time and perhaps even a little ahead of schedule.  Guess what happened next!  All of a sudden the machine stopped dead in its’ tracks.  I couldn’t get the needle bar to move at all.

Fortunately for me, my husband, the author of Sewing Machine Repair for the Home Sewer  was sitting in the next room reading the paper.  He came in and got the thing fixed (a mountain of thread in the bobbin area had jammed the needle).

Then, as usual, he reminded me that I REALLY need to take a little time and look over the Sewing Machine Repair Book , because it IS possible that something like this could happen to me while he’s on the golf course and I’ll be out of business 2-3 hours before he gets back.  (Indeed, if the jamming had happened an hour later he WOULD have been on the golf course and I would have been out of luck!)

For those of you who aren’t as lucky as I am to have the sewing machine repairman for a husband, I’d recommend that you check out the Sewing Machine Repair for the Home Sewer book  so you don’t have to be “down” even longer than I’d have to be – by having to take your machine into the repair shop.

And, if you are mechanically inclined, or have a husband who is, and would like to add a little extra income into your household, you might want to consider checking out the Sewing Machine Repair as a Home Business manual.

        

At this house yogurt is probably the best dessert or snack we could have.  My husband loves yogurt and my grandchildren that are here 2 or 3 days out of the week always ask for yogurt!  The grandkids like the blueberry best and my favorite is strawberry, so we can literally go through some yogurt.

Well, if you head on over to ShopperStrategy.com , you'll see a "Yoplait Greek Yogurt Nourish Your Inner Goddess" giveaway where you can enter to receive a gift pack that includes a luxurious spa towel (the kind with a Velcro closure), slippers, loofah sponge and other spa items along with two coupons for free yogurt.  WOW!  This is the kind of giveaway I like!!!!

If you love yogurt as much as our family does, AND would like to win that super duper gift pack, run on over to ShopperStrategy.com  and check out all the ways you can enter this fabulous giveaway!!!

        

A few years ago we bought a small chest type freezer to keep in the garage for all the "extras" that didn't fit into the top of our regular freezer.  The freezer worked great for about 3 years then we started hearing a beeping sound and upon opening the door a light was flashing.  We called the repair people at the place we bought it and they simply said it sounded like the freezer was about to go out and that we needed to replace it.  There was a "reset" button which we did use, but the beeping / light continued to come back on.  After a few days of this we did go ahead and replace it because the last thing we needed was for it to go out while we were out of town several days, and come back to find all of our freezer items ruined.

Well I just saw a post over at ShopperStrategy  entitled "Freezer Don't Fail Me Now"  talking about this very problem.  It appears that after much research and no thanks to the Sears repairmen, Denise discovered that there was a battery that controlled the beeping / flashing light that had gone bad.  Boy howdy!  Now I'm MAD -- and I am convinced that we should not have had to replace our freezer!  I showed my husband that post and he said he never knew that freezers had a battery to operate anything.

Hop on over to ShopperStrategy  and see for yourself how the battery works, where it is and what to check for.  Thank you Denise for the couple weeks of research and no thanks to the Sears repair people who actually got all this worked out!  You might want to pass the information along to your friends and family who might just be having similar problems with their freezer and the problem could be solved very easily and MUCH cheaper than buying a new freezer!!

        

In a previous post I mentioned how awesome "do it yourself" polynail manicure guides are.  If you don't have time (or money) for the two or three times a month visit to the fingernail shop to get your nails done, I strongly recommend the French Manicure Tip Guides from PolyNail.com.

Today I want to let you know about a super giveaway at ShopperStrategy.com  for a complete set of all 11 styles.  Here's a picture of the styles for you:




The sets come in white and black and the total number of guides in this complete set is 951 pieces.  WHOOHOO!! That should last you a little while!

There will be TWO winners in this fabulous giveaway, so head on over to ShopperStrategy , check out the entry methods, and get your comments in so you'll be in line for the drawing.

        

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.