Ribbon Holder made from scratch

While snooping around Michael's today, I walked by the "organization aisle" at least that's what I call it... They have everything you could ever want to organize your craft room but always at a price... unfortunately too high of a price for me.  Their ribbon holder was $35!!  REALLY? I have to pay $35 just so my ribbon can be "held"?  A little ridiculous, nevertheless, my ribbon still longed to be held so I came up with this uber cheap alternative.  :-)

It's really just a "jazzed up" cardboard box  but hey, it does the trick and it sure as heck didn't cost me $35 :-)

How to Make your own Ribbon Holder Thingamajiggy:

1.  Get a box that will be large enough to house all of your ribbon spools.  (If you got in on that Urban Decay Make up deal, the box it came in is PERFECT!)

2. Cover your box to your liking with pretty paper, fabric, yarn, etc.  I used glue and tape to do this.  If you're going to mount it to the wall, don't bother covering the back part, no one but your wall will see this...

Glue it up!

Tape it up!

3. Find some sort of stick to hold all of your ribbon spools.  Mark both ends of the box and make holes to slip the stick into.  Make sure you don't make the hole too big otherwise, your stick will not be held tightly in place and it will jiggle around when you pull your ribbon later.
I used a plastic straw for my "stick" and it worked like a charm.  You can also use kabob sticks (used for grilling veggies), a long pencil, a Tunisian crochet hook, or even a stick you find in your backyard... think outside the box! (hahahhahaha)

Now slide your ribbon spools on and slide the stick you found through two of the box walls facing each other... and TADA! EZPZ.  Took a whole 15 minutes and it cost me less than 50 cents!!

Optional:  I wanted it mounted on the wall so I had the boyfriend shoot a couple screws through the back and into the wall.  I usually use thumb tacks for everything but my box was too thick and this wouldn't have worked.

 And there you have it... simple, cheap, and oh-so effective :-)

Pink Stuffed Dog from Victoria's Secret- Craft Idea

Sure, the little pink dogs you get for free when you purchase X amount of dollars worth of stuff from Victoria's Secret but after a while, the novelty wears out and they get dusty and thrown aside.  I was going to donate it thinking that a little girl somewhere will love it more than I do but then an idea was born....

PINK pin cushion! Of course, so easy, so cute, so FREE!  Now the little pink dog will always have a home on my craft desk :-)

Stock up on yarn @ Michael's TOMORROW! 11/6

I love that Joann's and Michaels always have coupons out, it definitely makes crocheting a much more affordable hobby.  However it does suck that most of the times I need to get like 2-3 different skeins of yarn and Michael's only lets me use 1 coupon per visit  BOOOO!

I've noticed that Joann's is a bit better about letting you use coupons.  They let you use (1) 40% or 50% off regular items coupon AND a % off your total purchase coupon too. Unfortunately, Joann's is like 7 miles away from me and Michael's is less than 1 mile away so I end up going to Michael's since going to Joann's usually means using my savings on yarn to pay for the extra gas to get there. 

What's AWESOME about both stores is that they both accept competitors coupons!  Around here, there's no other competition besides Joann's and Michael's.  Every once in a while, they put out 20% or 25% off your total purchase coupons that are good on BOTH sale and regular priced items.  What sucks is that they usually end the really good sales BEFORE the start date of the coupon, so it ends up cancelling out but they kinda make you FEEL like you're getting a good deal, don't they?

At the end of the day, they're a business and they sell yarn and other craft goods TO MAKE MONEY, NOT to help us get our yarn fix (I know... sad)

Once in a blue moon, the awesome SALE and the awesome COUPON overlaps from both stores :-)

Starting tomorrow, Michael's is having this great deal on many of their yarns AND Joann's has put out a "Family and Friends" coupon for 25% off all sale and regular priced items good from Nov 4-6.  So SUNDAY is the one day where they both overlap!!

Vanna White's yarn is going on sale for $1.99 meaning after the coupon, each skein will only be $1.50!!  Crazy!! That's cheaper than red heart super saver and her yarn is sooo much better and has a much better selection of colors too!  It stitched up nicely too, I used it on the Tunisian Crochet Pillow and on the Piranha Plant block too.

*UPDATE* $9.99 for 15lbs of Holistic Rotations Dog Food SHIPPED!

Mine came in the mail today!! I ordered it on Tuesday and it only took 5 days to get here, not bad not bad at all.  My dogs tried it and scarfed it down right away too.  Looks like I may be buying more of this stuff after all...

Once you've selected a good quality
dog food, that's all you need, right?  

Once you have selected a quality dog food, that’s all you need to feed, right? Despite what many dog food companies tell you, we are starting to find out that may not be the case.

It seems intuitive that dogs weren’t intended to get all of their nutrients from a single food. Just like all mammals, dogs are meant to thrive on a range of different foods obtaining the unique nutritional benefits from each.

Rotating your pet’s diet provides a lot of benefits including a broader spectrum of nutrients and prevention of mealtime boredom. It can also help avoid the development of allergies.


ROTATIONS Pet Food is the first pet food that follows this philosophy. Their recipes change all the ingredients, not just the protein, and you can switch from one to the next without having to transition thanks to their patented recipes.


As always, there is currently an awesome deal going on to get this great dog food SHIPPED to your house!  Visit the Rotations Pet Food website and use code: MDFREE15 to get 15lbs of their food for FREE! All you have to do is pay standard shipping of $9.99.  That's under $10 for 15 POUNDS of food.... I feed my dogs Wellness and Organix and I usually buy the 5lb bags for around $5 at stock-up price, this price is EVEN BETTER AND it's shipped to your home!  Sweeet!!


As a reference, 15lb Wellness bags of food run for around $25-$30 and Organix for about $30-$35  


If you don't have dogs, please consider getting the free sample and donating it to your local shelter!!

Tunisian Crochet Pillow- FINALLY done!

Remember that Tunisian Crochet pillow I was working on?

Weeeellllll, I FINALLY Finished it and I'm super excited :-)

First, I crocheted a border on it...

Then, I stuffed and sewed on the fleece backing...

Finally, I added a sweet button to tie it all together...

Done!!  It wasn't even that hard of a project but for some reason, I just kept delaying and delaying to finish up the small details that were left, but it's alll DONE!

Futurama Brain Slugs!!

Brain Slug Bros

My friend and her boyfriend dressed up as Leela and Fry from Futurama and of course, needed brain slugs to complete their costume.  We stitched these little guys up the night before we went downtown and they were perfect!!  We used white and black felt for the eyes.  The white was sewed on and the black dot was just glued on with good ol' tacky glue.  The pattern basically consists of a typical round crochet pattern, increasing as you go (~5 rounds) then just crocheting stitch for stitch no inc or dec (~2 rounds), decreasing to make his little "hourglass shape" (lol) and then finally increasing again towards the bottom to get that little flare.  The little "phalanges" are simply made by counting up: sc, hdc, dc, treble, dc, hdc, sc... EZPZ :-)

Mad props goes to Katy Ellen for coming up with such a great pattern AND making it FREE for anyone to enjoy!  Go check out her pattern on Ravelry and make some slugs for yourself :-)

Bath & Body Works Online Deal

I love the holidays oh so much not just for the great family time and ridiculous amount of food ingested but it's also the time when we get the BEST deals!  Bath & Body works is having a huge sale to clear out all the halloween stuff and make room for the Christmas stuff PLUS you get 20% off with a code!  Bath & Body works handsoap is by far my favorite... even though I coupon to purchase pretty much everything else in my house, the Softsoap that goes on sale for $1 all the time just doesn't cut it for me(call me crazy!)

I got TEN handsoaps for $22.69 SHIPPED to my house :-)  That's $2.27 for each handsoap that's usually $7 a piece! Can you say awesome??

Use Code: SHOP25 to get the extra 20% off + $1 shipping for orders over $25