My Cell Phone Story

This post brought to you by Straight Talk. All opinions are 100% mine.

Two years ago as I was planning a family vacation I knew I needed to get a cell phone.  Up until that point my hubby and I had not found a cell phone company that we wanted to be bound to.  Our friends and family all complained about the fees and charges that would make their cell phone bills unpredictable-something we did not find appealing.  After researching several different companies we were still confused and bewildered at the cost of having a cell phone.

As a last resort I headed to Walmart before our vacation to get a trac-phone--a non commitment cell phone that would hopefully have coverage where we needed it.  To my surprise the cashier pointed me to the Straight Talk Phones.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing:

• Unlimited Monthly service only $45, includes calls, text, picture messaging, and web.

or

• $30 for the “All You Need Plan”  with 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts and 30 MB of web data.

(Do you know how many hours 1,000 minutes is?)everything you need

No Contract, no credit checks, just a straight monthly fee, which can be paid online or purchased at Wal-Mart.

http://www.straighttalk.com/

Even the phone selection was great.  I had my choice from: LG, Motorola, Kyocera, Nokia and Samsung.

I made my selection and left with a basic LG phone.

Two years later I tell people everywhere about Straight Talk.  I can't believe the amount of money I have saved by using Straight Talk.  Knowing exactly how much my cell phone will cost each month has helped our family to budget better and save more money.

hook, line and sinker

Not only have we been able to save money for vacations, projects for crafting and sewing, and everyday entertainment we have great nationwide coverage and amazing reception wherever we go.   Seriously great coverage-more than once I have been the only one in a large group with any coverage!  All with no contract hanging over our heads.

call a friend

We feel like we can afford the cell phone "luxury" that seemed to allude us before.

What would you buy with the extra money you save?

Hair's a Donation

After Tangled came out last year did anyone's little girl refuse to get their hair cut?  I mean go into hysterics if you mentioned a trim?  Well, my little girl was that girl.  We could get her do behave well if we mentioned a haircut-it was kind of nice.  Something changed this week and she decided she wanted her hair cut-just like mommy's.  She hasn't had a good chop for almost 2 1/2 years.  And her hair grows fast.  While she was at school I researched hair donation and found a place to donate.

The problem with cutting hair short is that it needs to be styled-something I'm not an expert in and I didn't want to fork out lots of money either.  Google to the rescue...

http://www.thehairstylistblog.com/index.html

Yes, I found an awesome video and blog about cutting hair.  This video for cutting a bob is very detailed and gives good tips-at least for me.

Isn't it fun?

 We had enough to donate and style.

 Once again from this long hair to...

 It's still a little wet in this shot, but once it dried it has the funnest bounce to it.

My only issue is the straight line across the middle of the hair-this came from cutting it in a ponytail.  I'm sure in a month or two when we need to trim it up the line won't be so dramatic.

Sausage Roll Skirt

For my little girl's best friends birthday I made a fun skirt.  It is called the sausage roll skirt because of the way it is sewn-similar to a pillowcase.

For this skirt I cut three strips of fabric

14x45 (main fabric)

6x45 (bottom layer)

2x45 (trim-optional)
Click for to read the rest of the instructions

Summer Bag Tutorial

This is a fairly quick bag to make and can easily be adapted to different needs.

 Supplies

Orange (outside fabric) Cut 2
17x20 inch rectangles

Blue Paisley (inside fabric) Cut 2
17x24

Straps Cut 2
4x34 or 36 (cut longer if you like longer straps)

Pockets (optional)
6x6 squares--these can be any shape you want and are sewn in the interior of the bag

Magnetic Snap (optional)

Click to read the rest of the tutorial

Summer Bag

This summer I seem to be out and about a lot more than previous summers.  My little girl took swimming lessons, we are shopping for school clothes & have had lots of family in town.

With all the outings I wanted a bag that would hold more, look summerish, and needed to be washable.

Behold the summer bag.

Six pockets on the outside.  It is tall enough to hold a Kirkland package of baby-wipes and size 6 diapers (If only we could get my little guy potty trained)

Two pockets inside-always essential for mom stuff.

And a magnetic snap closure to keep things inside the bag.

I made one of the outside pockets shorter so my cell phone wasn't too deep, making it easily accessible.

I'll post a tutorial later this week.

Ruffle Fabric Swimsuit

I found some ruffle fabric in the clearance section at JoAnn's a few months ago.  My little girl is in swimming lessons and needed another suit.

I made wide straps and made sure that it was high in the front and back.  It is so hard to find a swimsuit that fits little girls--hello people they don't need drooping necklines or open backs just to get more sunburned or show things they shouldn't be!

Back to the swimsuit.  I found some coordinating swimsuit fabric at Hancock and made some boy-shorts for the swim bottoms. I also lined the ruffle fabric because it is too sheer for this purpose.

She loves having the option of another swimsuit.  I'm gearing up to make a full swimsuit.  Any suggestions?

Pins to Magnets

I've been going through boxes in my sewing room and found these pins I bought some time ago at Target in the dollar bins.

My kids are starting to love Dr Suess books and recognized most of the the characters on the pins.

Sharp pins and a two year old usually don't mix well.

I had some plain magnets (pulled off other things by above mentioned 2 year old)

5 minutes and 1 glue gun later I pulled off the pin back and attached the magnets.

Cute magnets!  The magnets reside on my fridge right now, I'm planning on moving them to a magnetic board at some point in time.

Patriotic Wreath

It took me some time to come up with a wreath for the 4th of July.  I love that this wreath took me half an hour and I had all the supplies on hand.

The white wrapped around the wreath is crepe paper.  My door is well covered so I don't need to worry about it getting wet.

The paper was fun to fold and cut, it was like magic when I would open it up and staple it together.

After the 4th I am planning on making more paper-bursts (I don't know what they are called), in different colors and making it my summer wreath.
This is an easy way to get a lot of color with out spending much.
Have a great weekend and a
Happy 4th of July!