What has been happening?

Well, so far I have had at least one blog a month, so that is progress! I am keeping up my Facebook pretty well, so I am doing something. I have been keeping myself pretty busy in the sewing department. I made some things for my new little niece who will be arriving in a couple of weeks. (I haven't sent them to my sister yet, so will post about them later). I have a friend at work who is due about the same time as my sister and her shower was last week. I have been trying with all my might to be creative and frugal and honestly, gift giving can be a strain on the old budget. As much as I would love to be able to spend, spend, spend- I can't, can't, can't! So, I made her a cute little diaper cake (coupons on the diapers, which resulted in extra bucks at CVS, which also resulted in $5 off $25 (in essence $10 off of $25) so I bought the little stuffers for the diaper cake there also (along with some other things that I had coupons for) so not bad. I also made her a little blanky. The very same day, I went to a post-wedding shower of a girl who was in our homeschool group- her mom was a friend of mine (she just passed away in December). The invitation stated to bring household hints, recipes, etc and if we desired to help the newlyweds have some "things of their own" that would be good too. (The couple lives in the mom's house).So, again, I had to get creative, so I made her an apron out of jean type material (Afterwards, I found out blue was her favorite color too!) along with a matching potholder. What about the household hint? Ok, this went over really well with everyone- I took an ice cream bucket, half a roll of Bounty paper towels and made her homemade cleaning wipes- attaching the recipe to the handle. Everyone thought it was clever. I use them every day- love 'em. I make them with wonderful smelling Mr. Clean. You make an X shaped cut in the top and pull them through from the middle of the roll. (I actually put mine in an old popcorn container from Disney World!). All the ladies got really creative too- recipes with the ingredients and bakeware to make it in, household tips, Catholic websites, all kinds of inspiring items. She was very grateful and it was fun to be frugally creative!