Oh My Gluestick

Looking for a shop that sells hair bows, baby shower gifts, and room decor? Look no farther than Oh My Gluestick. This shop is owned by a mother of two named Tommie. Tommie began making hair bows for her daughter, which led her to sell her bows in local shops, and now she is sharing her craftiness with the world on etsy. Her shop features an array of lovely items, and she also makes custom items and gifts to fit your needs.

I was instantly drawn to the monkey stuff in her shop. She has adorable Sock Monkey Ornament/Cake Toppers, a Funky Monkey Stuffed Toy, and very cute monkey die cuts for room decor. She even has sock monkey cupcake toppers, which would be perfect for your child’s birthday or a baby shower!

She also offers adorable party favor gift bags specially customized for your party’s theme and colors, and she makes custom diaper cakes too!

And if you like wall lettering, but can’t find any that matches your child’s room, Oh My Glue Stick is the perfect place for you to look. She has lovely examples of wall lettering in her shop and will be happy to create a customized design for you.

 

And of course, you’ll find plenty of bows here, as well as pacifier clips, and baby headbands. These are uniquely designed and available in a variety of bright and beautiful colors and themes. They are so adorable, I think you’ll find it almost impossible to buy just one!

I hope you’ll all stop by Oh My Gluestick on etsy today, and also check out the Oh My Gluestick blog!

http://ohmygluestick.etsy.com/

http://ohmygluestick.blogspot.com/

-Jerri

Bridal Apron

Looking for a unique and original gift for the blushing bride you know? How about a handmade apron from Happy Find? Venus at Happy Find recently designed this lovely apron for her cousin as a wedding present, and she is now offering them in her etsy shop. Stop by today to order one for yourself or a friend, or place a custom order for another design.

Visit Venus’s blog and shop today and check out all of her lovely creations!

-Jerri

Adventures in Shopping: The Little Bamboo

For this month’s edition of Adventures in Shopping, I’m sharing my new bamboo plant. I got it at the flea market for just $4. I just love the flea market! You never know what you’re going to find.

We used to go all the time when I was a kid to shop for antiques and collectibles. And I would look forward to getting a sno-cone or some other special treat…well, actually I still look forward to getting a sno-cone or some other treat. (Something about concession stands just lure me in!)

But I love the shopping too. It’s fun seeing all the great items they have to offer, old and new! I don’t usually buy much, but this time I managed to pick up a couple of “lucky cat” figurines, which I’ll have to share at another time. (I forgot to take photos of them.)

And of course, I got the bamboo. Most flea markets I’ve been too sell these. So if you like bamboo, you should visit the local flea market. I find that the bamboo at the flea markets usually looks a lot better than those sold in regular stores. And you can usually find a great selection of all sizes, varieties, and price ranges. (Plus, you can get the seller to make a special arrangement for you if you like.)

-Jerri


Adventures in Shopping: I Love Ross! (Dress For Less, that is)

One of my favorite places to look for bargains is Ross Dress For Less. They have a vast selection of clothing of all sizes and styles, and they have a number of housewares, kitchen, and decor items. I’ve bought items from every single department in this store, but I’ve been most impressed with the deals I’ve gotten on jeans, shorts, and capris. I can usually find really cute stuff for $15 or less, which is awesome if you’re on a tight budget.

I also love their housewares stuff, and I enjoy looking through their picture frames and photo albums, and if you’re in to organizing, they have great deals on baskets and stuff.

My husband also likes this store. He loves athetic shorts and jerseys, and he especially loves Adidas and Nike stuff, and he’s found some good deals on these. Last trip he was looking for a pair of comfortable shoes to wear for work, and he was pleasantly surprised to find a very stylish and comfortable pair of Dr. Martens for $30. (They would have normally sold for over $100) Overall, I’d have to say that this is the best deal we’ve ever gotten. The cashier was even commenting on what a great deal we were getting and how great the shoes looked….but I think she thought we were a little crazy when my husband said he was going to wear the shoes for work.

Last trip I also bought something really cute for myself, which I think all my baking, homemaking, blogger friends will love! It’s this lovely Butterfly Apron:

I always have to check out the back of the store to see if they have any nice kitchen or household items, and this last trip, I was really surpised to find a stack of aprons. They’ve never had these before at any of the locations where I shop. It may be a new item that they’re going to carry regularly, or it may be a limited time thing. Whichever the case, I was really happy to find these.

Each apron is made of cotton, and is one size fits most. They all tie around the waist and around the neck, and they have a single pocket. And they had several colors and designs available at my location. (I remember seeing a couple of different flower patterns and also a polka dot one.)

I’ve looked around at aprons on the internet. The cheapest ones I have found are around $20, though many are $30, $40, or even $50. So I was very pleased to find the ones at Ross for only $7. If you’re in the market to purchase an apron, you may want to check them out.

-Jerri



————————–

I’m sharing this post for Frugal Friday over at Life As Mom.

Review for List2Shop.com

We all know that having an organized shopping list is an important key to saving time and money at the grocery store. Today I’m going to tell you about a site where you can create multiple shopping lists. It’s called List2Shop.com.

With this free site you can easily and quickly create and print your shopping lists online, and if you sign up for a free account, you can save your shopping lists to use at a later time. This is a perfect tool for someone who wants to list a few items at a time and then come back later to add a few more or for anyone who wants to create a master shopping list to print out for each trip.

Also, consider this: How many times have you been at work and thought of something that you needed to add to your grocery list? And how times have you planned a shopping trip for after work and realized that you left your list at home? With this website you can access your list from anywhere.

A free account also gives you access to the Favorites Tab, where you can create a list of your favorite stores or a list of your favorite items. With this feature, you can make a list of a few items that you buy every week, or you can create a larger list of items that you buy when your stocking up.

I just signed up for a free account and began making my shopping lists. It was very easy to set up, and the features on the shopping list tab allow you to create a detailed and organized list. I’ll explain how it works.

On the page you have 3 columns. Under the first column, there’s a list of categories such as “baked goods,” “medicine” and “spices & herbs.” When you click on the category of your choice, a list of products that belong in the category pops up in the second column. You then click on the item that you want add to your list. (There’s also a place where you can manually type in an item that may not appear on the menu.)

Then there’s an optional third column, which allows you to pick a store that you’d like for the item to be listed under. I really liked this feature, because I always make one list for Aldi and one list for Wal-mart. And this feature will allow me to easily add an item under one store or the other. (And I think you will be impressed with the vast array of categories, products, and stores that are listed.) You can also minimize your lists on the page, so that you can easily or focus on a particular list.

Now as I said, the site allows you to create a detailed list. For each item that you place on your list, you have the option to enter a quantity, the price, and even a comment. This is perfect if you’re someone like me. I often write a quantity beside each item on my list, and in the past I’ve also used my old receipts to determine the price of each item so that I can have an idea of how much my grocery bill will be. And now that I have access to this website, I can enter the prices so I’ll be able to quickly estimate my grocery bill each week.

I also like the idea of the comments section. I think this would be a great place to type in the brand name and/or the portion size you want to buy, which will really save time when you’re in the grocery store, and it would also be helpful if you ever send somebody else to do the shopping.

And once you’ve created your list, you can easily edit your items and move them up or down on the list for perfect organization.

What I love about the site is that it is very easy to understand and navigate through. Your shopping lists and the menus used to add items to your list are all located on the same page, so you don’t have to go back and forth between webpages. You can add items to your list with just a few clicks. And most of all, I enjoyed being able to organize my list and add the extra details about each item.

If you’re a busy woman looking to get organized and save time and money, you should check out List2Shop.com.


-Jerri

——————
I’m going to share this post for Frugal Friday over at Life as Mom.

Adventures In Shopping: Thrift Store Finds

Today I’m sharing with you a couple of my latest thrift store finds. When I was a kid my mom always used to take me to yard sales, and over the last several years she’s become a thrift store fanatic. So I’ve started going some too. Thrift stores are a great place to find good items for cheap. I collect a whole bunch of stuff, so I really like walking through and seeing what kind of collectibles and decor items I can find. And sometimes I find good books and toys too. Today I’m sharing a few collectibles and a desk organizer that I bought.

Bear & Snow Bear Figurine – 50 cents.
Fruit Pie Salt & Pepper Shakers – 50 cents.
Bride & Groom Bear – 75 cents.

I just loved the fruit pie salt shaker set. The crust is one shaker, and the fruit topping is the other shaker. Too cute!

And I’ve always liked bears, so I just had to get these. And there’s a special story that goes along with the bride & groom bear. When I was in the first grade, someone we went to church with had a home interiors party, and they were having drawings for prizes. My mom and dad won a bride & groom figurine just like the one pictured above. When I was a teenager my mom gave the figurine to me, and it’s been kept in my China cabinet ever since. I’ve never seen another one like it, until I was walking through the thrift store one day. I couldn’t believe my eyes, when I found it. It was so neat. I just had to purchase it.
Cute Desk Organizer with 6 compartments and a drawer. – $4

I saw this one from across the store. I love desk organizers, and this is one of the cutest I’ve seen. I keep most of my office supplies hidden in drawers and containers, but I’m using this to store some of the supplies that I’m using currently (and most often). There’s a notepad, post-it notes and flags, batteries (for the digital camera), a roll of tape, a drink coaster, an eraser, pencil lead, and a pocket calendar. And in the drawer at the bottom are some stamps, stickers for greeting cards, a checkbook, and a couple of envelopes.

—————————————
This post is being featured on WFMW at We Are THAT Family.


-Jerri


Adventures in Shopping: Menu Planning Stuff!


Welcome to my newest feature. Well, actually it’s really an old idea reimagined. In the past I’ve written some posts pertaining to shopping, such as product reviews, money saving tips, etc. And over the Christmas holidays I got this idea to combine these posts under the umbrella of “Adventures in Shopping.” In addition to the things listed above, these posts will also include deals that I find. Sometimes I may share something that I got a good deal on (at the thrift store perhaps). Other times it may be a deal at a chain retail store or online that you guys may be able to take advantage of as well. Or it could just be anything that I think might be interesting or helpful to you guys.

I’m going to try to do this once a month. I’ve got so many different ideas it’s hard to schedule everything. For instance, I’d like to do my Sweet Thursday feature once a month too, and then there are just so many other topics to cover in relation to the home plus seasonal topics. I like to get in as many “special features” as I can, but at the same time, I don’t like to have a rigid schedule….so I’m conflicted a bit on this. We’ll just see what develops.

Anway, for the first Adventures in Shopping post I wanted to share these cute menu planning items that I found a week or two ago. I was at Wal-mart taking advantage of the after Christmas sale when I found them. Perhaps you guys can find them at your local store.

The first item is a notepad, and the second is a flat marker board. Both of these items were $1 each. Great Deal! I guess if you have one, you don’t really need the other, but for a dollar, I couldn’t pass them up. I had to have both.

The notepad is very cute and colorful. And it has 3 lines for each day of the week. There’s also a magnet on the bag so that you can place it on the back of the refrigerator. In addition to using this notepad to write your menu down, I thought it would be good to have one for shopping list purposes. While planning your menu, you could use the notepad to write down extra ingredients that you need at the store. Just a thought.

Or here’s another idea. You could use the notepad to write down several menus at a time. Just have one big meal planning sesssion, and then each week, just go to the next page. Your menu will be there, and all you’ll have to do is check your inventory and go to the store.

And then there’s the board. I love—LOVE this! I thought this was just the cutest! It also has a magnet on the back so you can post your menu on the fridge. And it comes with a dry erase marker, with a little eraser on the end of it and a magnet on the back so that you can place it on the fridge next to your menu board.

All in all, I thought these were excellent deals! Maybe you guys can find them too. I did look online at walmart.com, amazon, and a couple of other places, but I didn’t see any notepad or marker boards for meal planning. I guess if all else fails you could make your own!

**Update: I forget to mention that I found these in the lawn & garden (seasonal) section. They were on a four-sided cardboard display, like you might in between two aisles, or out in the middle by itself. It’s like the kind where you might see greeting cards, shipping supplies, or calendars. Or you may find them with stationary/school supplies.**

While looking on Amazon I did manage to find this Betty Crocker Cooking Calendar. It’s got menu ideas, recipes, and stuff. It’s a reprint of an old book I believe, and it looks pretty neat and very retro. I looked at the “preview” of it, and it looks just like an old Betty Crocker cookbook that my mom gave me. I may actually buy this one myself, so itt may be worth your time.

Please tell me what you think of this feature idea. I hope you like it!

(A link to this post, along with tons of other great ideas can be found at WFMW sponsored by Rocks in my Dryer.)


-Jerri

Saving Money This Christmas


In a time of economic uncertainty, everyone is looking for ways to save. In this post you’ll find a link to another article I wrote last year, which explains various ways that you can save money on Christmas gifts this year.

Here are just few key things to remember:

  • Create a shopping list & budget ahead of time and stick to your budget!
  • Pay with cash. This will help ensure that you stick to a budget, and you won’t have to worry about paying off those credit cards next year.
  • Use gift cards & shopping cards to buy your gifts.
  • Save money by making gifts yourself. Make your own crafts, jewelry, or Christmas candy and cookies.
  • Buy throughout the year when items are sale rather than splurging on everything at one time.

To read the entire, detailed article, follow the link below:
Tips to Avoid Spending Too Much This Holiday Season

Also, while I’m posting about saving money, here are few more points, which are not in the article, but are important to remember this holiday season.

  • Remember that it’s not the quantity of gifts or the amount of money spent that counts, but the thought behind the gift.
  • Sometimes good things do come in small packages.
  • Sometimes less is more.
  • No amount of money you can spend will ever replace or mean as much as the time that you spend with family and friends.
  • And don’t forget the reason for the season.


-Jerri

Works for Me Wednesday: Making Your List & Checking It Twice

Christmas can very stressful to a lot of people, especially the Christmas shopping part. One thing you can do to alleviate the stress and save time is to make yourself a detailed list for your shopping, budgeting, and planning purposes. Here are some suggestions & tips that work for me.

Making a List – Before begining your Christmas shopping, make a list of all your gift recipients. I like to organize them in to groups: Parents, nieces/nephews, brothers/sisters, coworkers, gift exchange, etc. This will ensure that you don’t leave anyone out and it can save you from going out at the last second to buy another gift. (The strategy is also helpful when making Christmas card lists.)

Beside each name, I write in a dollar amount that I plan to spend on each person. This helps me to maintain a budget and make sure that I don’t spend significantly more on one parent/sibling/kid than I do the others. (If I didn’t do this I’d be forced to either leave one person shortchanged, or else go out and buy another gift for someone, both of which I’d rather not do.) Also, beside each name, I write down gift ideas for that person, so that when I go out shopping I’ll know right where to go, which saves a lot of time. Once I’ve purchased a gift for someone, I mark them off the list.

Saving Your List – If you worry about accidentally giving the same gift year after year to the same person or if you like to base your Christmas budget on the one from the year before, you may want to save your list for next year. File it away or enter it on the computer.

I recommend putting your list on a spreadsheet. And after you’ve bought your gifts, you can easily enter in everything that you bought. Perhaps you bought Sue a pair of earrings rather than the sweater you had planned on. You can save this information on the sheet. Then next year at this time, all you have to do is pull up the spreadsheet. You’ll already have all your names and dollar amounts listed, which can easily be altered without making an entire new list and you’ll have a list of everything you bought the year before, which will keep you from duplicating gifts. This is a great time saver too!


-Jerri

Planning & Organizing for Black Friday and other Shopping Trips

For the first of week of our little festival, I’ll be focused on planning & preparation. We begin with Christmas shopping. As you all know, Black Friday is this week. There’s a big debate over the merits of Black Friday. It is really worth the trip? Can you really save that much? I’d say the answer is yes and no.

I think there was definitely a time when Black Friday was a little more worth your while. Somehow I think the further commercialization of Christmas, the availability of more & more items to choose from, and the fact that the Christmas shopping season has been expanding to where it no longer starts on Black Friday, but instead starts in October, has deminished the appeal and the excitement of Black Friday.

But you can find good deals on Black Friday. If you do your research, get there early, and are willing to stand in line for that door buster deal, you can definitely save money. Unfortunately some of the great deals you see in the paper are for items of which they only have a limited quantity. Other items you find in the sales aren’t actually on sale at all; someone just paid to have that item advertised. And some items that are “on sale” you will find, aren’t really much cheaper than they would be on any given day.

However, you can find deals. People find them every year. For example, we picked up a vacuum last year, and few years ago I got a great deal on a printer. There are definitely some great deals to be had, you just have to know where to look, and you have to have a plan.

I wrote an article last year on making the most of your Black Friday trip. I published this article on Helium, and it has been ranked number one in the category for the past year. It was even featured on the front page of their website a year ago. The article focuses on strategies that you can use to plan and organize your shopping trip. It lays out a step-by-step process and explains how to look at and sort through the mountain of Black Friday advertisements, how to organize your shopping list and trip, and it also gives you some tips on prioritizing your trip and maneuvering through the chaos at your local stores.

And even if you don’t plan on going shopping for Black Friday, the article is worth checking out because the process and strategies can be applied for any shopping day. And since they’ll be having Christmas sales throughout the month of December, it should come in handy. Here’s the link to the article:

Next up, I’ll have an article on tips to avoid overspending this holiday season, tips for making your shopping list, and other ideas for Christmas planning.

-Jerri