A few days ago I told you about the super cool coupon clutch (binder coupon holder that holds over 3,000 coupons) that Denise had designed and made.   She can barely keep up with orders -- I had NO idea that so many people are involved in coupon clipping (and saving big bucks by doing the coupons)!

Well, Michelle at IHeartPublix is hosting a giveaway for one of the coupon clutches.  All you have to do is go to her post at iHeartPublix and leave a comment in order to be entered into the random drawing.

I would suggest you go to CouponClutch first so you can check them out and see which one you want to drool over while waiting for the drawing to be done.  The drawing includes the coupon clutch binder AND a complete set of inserts for holding all your coupons and any rebates you're keeping track of --- this is a super giveaway, so don't miss out on your chance to enter it.

        

Most of my adult life I have been a "hit or miss" with coupons type person.  I always knew you could save money by using coupons, and I'd watch for the coupons in the newspaper for my favorite restaurants' "buy one get one free" -- and off we'd go!

When the economy went sour and several family members lost jobs - including losing an income stream of our own, I realized it was time to start doing some serious re-thinking about coupons.

Denise, my daughter and business partner, who also lost an income stream due to the economy, decided to do something drastic about couponing.  After all, she has the 4 year old quadruplet babies and older 5 year old son, who are currently eating them (and us) out of house and home, to take care of.

Denise began her own "shopper Strategy" and started working all the angles of couponing, such as cutting ALL coupons from the newspapers and inserts, then saving them for when stores would have sales on the items, at which time she'd stock up on stuff they needed at the sale prices and have coupons as well.  I now call her the queen of couponing, because she has gotten SO good at using the right coupons at the right time (when the item is "buy one get one free" then use two of the coupons for the item, etc) that she is now routinely saving between 50% - 70% on the grocery and drug store bills.  You can check out her "Couponing 101" where she says there are five keys to using coupons strategically.

When dollars coming into the home becomes more and more scarce, it is imperative to spend every penny wisely, and get the most out of every dollar that you can.

She was a great motivator for me, and I started doing the same thing.  It wasn't long before the little "check file" organizer that I was using was so full and so unorganized that I had to make a change.   I immediately went to CouponClutch.com and checked out the coupon organizers that she had made.  Remember Denise is a pattern designer, so it was no surprise to me that she'd designed a "coupon clutch" organizer that looks like a designer tote.  Knowing that I love paisley and love the color green, she made one of the first ones for me --- check this out:


This designer tote looking coupon holder will hold several thousand coupons (she also sells the coupon holder pages on the same coupon clutch site, and the prices are cheaper than I could go to Office Depot and get them individually.

Way to go Denise!  Read her information at ShopperStrategy.com and check out the designer tote style of coupon clutches - I believe you will become as motivated as I was at the thought of saving hundreds of dollars on your grocery and drug store bills.  Hey, when you can go to Publix and buy $106.07 worth of groceries and pay "out of pocket" only $33.97 or head out to Walgreens to get some Ester-C to help get through this cold/flu season -- purchase $21.98 worth and pay out of pocket 99 cents, I'd say it's time to sit up and take notice!!  The great part is that these purchases aren't "isolated" instances, but what she's doing on a regular basis.

Make yourself a resolution to start taking full advantage of the coupons and see how much YOU can save!!!

        

We have had several in our extended family that have fallen prey to the downturn of the economy and have lost their jobs.  That's pretty tough -- kids to feed, house payment to make, utilities to pay (and now the record cold temperatures thoughout many parts of the country increasing power and gas bills to the limit just to try to keep the house a little bit warm)!

If any of my readers own a sewing machine and know how to sew, a clothing alteration business would be super easy and fast to get started.  You already have all the equipment, thread, notions, etc for sewing, so you just need to get the word out that you're going to be doing alterations.   Our manual "Profitable Sewing Alterations Business" gives you step by step methods to get your business up and running quickly - tells you how to get free advertising, and covers just about everything you need to know in order to get a jumpstart on the home business.

For those with mechanical ability and like to get things working again, I would suggest our Sewing Machine Repair As A Home Business as a part time or full time home business.  From what we read and see, everyone that ever used a sewing machine is bringing them out of the attic or closets and setting them back up again.  These machines that have been setting idle for months or years need to be oiled and adjusted and ready for the owner to start back doing some sewing or repairing of clothing items.  Once again, this manual is written in step by step instruction form to get you going on sewing machine repair and gives sources for getting parts and sewing notions.

Now is the perfect time to start your own home business.  You'll be very happy with the extra income that could turn into a full time opportunity for you.

        

In my last post I mentioned the record cold temperatures we've been having here in the "sunny" South!  The "cold" problem extends to the grandchildren when they're at our house.  They BEG to "ride in the street".  (You have to understand here that we live in a subdivision of not many houses and have only one street in it).  The like to ride down our driveway, go across the street and up the driveway of the house across the street.  The driveway across the street is at enough of an incline that they think they're driving 100 Miles per hour as they come down that driveway, across the street and into our driveway.

Even when it's cold, cold, cold - they STILL beg to go out and ride the bikes.  Well, yesterday at around noon (probably the warmest part of the record cold day), they were out riding.  Zachary, the smaller of the boys, always gets cold first, so when he parked his bike and huddled on the curb beside it, I suggested that we go inside and warm up.  He said "NO! I want to ride my bicycle".   Within a minute or so he took off running for the house, and came back out with his "small" blanket and wrapped up in it right there on the curb beside his bike.  Immediately the other 3 of the quads took off for the house, and I took off to get my camera because I KNEW what was gonna happen!  By the time I got back outside, just as I figured, they were all on the curb wrapped up in their blankets.

Check out this picture and see if it isn't a picture of kids "addicted to bike riding"!



Or, would it be just "LOVE the outdoors"?   At any rate, the minute I got the picture I said OK, time to go inside and warm up before snack time and nap time.   Then, they were ready to come inside.

        

We are having nearly record cold temperatures here in the "sunny" south, but I'm anxious to get some seeds started for my garden.  Every year I order a few varieties from RainSeed.com and have had great luck growing them, so I've been checking through their website for things to try this year.

I usually try for at least one fruit type and something that smells good and looks like a real rain forest plant.  This year I believe I'm going to go for either the Apricot tomato or baby papaya -

   

The first picture is the apricot tomato - the information says it has a tomato shape but tastes like a ripe apricot.  I LOVE apricots - that was one of the staples in our orchard as I was growing up in Nebraska, so that may be my first choice this year.

For my pretty and good smelling one, think I might try the Ylang Ylang Perfume plant.  The information says it's extremely fragrant and that sounds like it would be perfect.  Wouldn't it be great to spend a lazy summer afternoon sitting beside a perfume plant?  Here's a picture of the perfume plant - doesn't that look nice?



Of course I'll be starting my usual tomato plants and getting ready for the regular garden as well, but I just can't resist the "unusual" type of plants that always get a lot of comments from neighbors and friends.

If you're looking for something different to grow, try the rain forest type plants from the RainSeed site -- you'll be glad you did!!

        

I told you that I'm going to be passing along information about my New Year's resolutions -- and hoping it might add a little information and motivation for you as well.

The first thing on my list is to do some "revamping" of my blog.  My daughter recently redid the top bar which I think just wonderful -- "a perfect day" -- that describes many of my days!  Days with my grandchildren are perfect days -- busy but perfect because I know they're growing up so fast.  Days that I don't have filled to the max with things to do are perfect days because I can slip in a little sewing and crafting.  Days that ARE filled to the max with things to do are also perfect because I'm thankful that I have good health and energy to get things accomplished that are on those lists.  Wow!  Every day can just about be a perfect day.

Back to the resolution -- I REALLY need to get my blog onto a Wordpress format -- our SewingBusiness.com blog is set up using Wordpress and I really like all the little "widgets" that can do everything for the blogs.

There is a new book out entitled "Digging Into Wordpress" and it appears to be the "bible" of wordpress blogging -- covering every detail in laymans language (that perhaps even I can understand!) --- plus giving out lots of tips on improving ways to get additional traffic, etc.  Denise has written a post about this book at the SewingBusiness blog, as a "must have for Wordpress bloggers" and I'm passing it along to you.  Before she even wrote the post she was telling me about it and giving me links to where it was available (wonder if that was a hint!) and saying how great she thought the book would be because of all the information it contained.  OK, I figured I should take the hint, if that was intended, so I went ahead and bought it for her as a late Christmas gift.  Wait! Her birthday is in March -- how about an early birthday gift???

The book cost only $27 which I think was a steal because now maybe I can talk HER into helping me revamp my blog!!

If upgrading your blog is on your list of things to do this year, run on over to the post at SewingBusiness.com and read all about it.  It's not too early to start implementing the ways you can increase traffic and improve your blog.

        

We want to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR!  May your year be heathy, happy and prosperous!  And may our country somehow work its way out of this drab economy that we're in now.

Good luck on your New Years' Resolutions -- I'll be talking about some of my resolutions in the next few posts.  I have some good ones!!

        

For years I've been telling you to check flea markets, yard sales and Good Will for fabrics, childrens jeans to make jeans purses, etc.  Well today my husband (Papaw) found the greatest thing ever - a small bicycle with training wheels for our 4 year old quadruplet grandbabies and their  5 year old big brother.

They've been at our house the last couple of days, so when he came home with the bicycle, they were thrilled!  Of course Good Will always lets the air out of the tires "to prevent theft", so that was the first order of business when he took it off the truck.  Look at this picture and guess how many people it takes to air up bicycle tires!!!



Sometimes it's better to have too much help than not enough! 

Now here are the two bikes we have - the "new" one that Papaw got from Good Will for $9.95, and one my sister got for the kids a couple weeks ago --- also from Good Will for about $12.00.



Now, just because we only have two BICYCLES, doesn't mean that the other kids don't have racing vehicles!  These guys can give anybody a run for their money between the big wheels and the bicycles!



Aren't these just the cutest kids you've ever seen!!!!!  So I'm a little prejudiced - that's what Mamaw's are for!

        

Have you seen all the fabric sales???  Looks like the last week of the year might be the BEST time of the year for buying fabrics.  JoAnns and Fabric.com have some of the best sales I've seen lately.

You can save up to 60% on a wide range of fabrics from Fabric.com, and up to 70% on  fabrics from JoAnn's online stores, AND with a $35 order you can get free shipping from both places.  I've already made a list of some items I'm wanting to make for late winter for the grandkids and you just can't beat the sale prices from these two online fabric stores.

I figure Christmas is over and it's time to get back to some sewing.  It looks like I'm going to be ordering some fabric from both stores as they both have excellent deals on some really great fabrics that I'm looking forward to getting.

Head on over and see what all you can find that's on sale!

        

We just want to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!