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Monday, April 30, 2012

Going Back To College- Campus Book Rentals Review



Hello to all my readers who are college students or are planning on going to college or know someone going to college.We all know that it's not cheap to go to college, and buying textbooks is also an expensive part of going to college.So instead of buying your books from the bookstore brand new, how about renting them? Campus Book Rentals has been one of the first companies to start renting textbooks,and was actually founded by a college student!



When you rent your books from campus book rentals you save 40-90% of bookstore prices, now that my friends is a bit of extra cash! And to someone going to college and on a limited budget,buying books can sure burn a hole in your pocket, but when your saving 40-90%  that’s Gold!
*Registration on there website is free, searching for your books is as easy as entering the ISBN,author, title or keyword into the search bar. CampusBookRentals.com also has a tracking dashboard and this tool will show you when your rental expires and which books you are currently renting.  This tool can help you manage your rentals so you send your books back to the company in time to avoid unnecessary charges. Your books will also arrive in great condition.You also get a 30 day money back guarantee for instance, if you drop a class  and no longer need the book  you can send it back for FREE!



* Do you like to highlight and take notes in your textbooks? When i was in school it was vital for me to be able to write and highlight in my books because it just helped me learn the material a lot faster. Most rental providers don't allow you to do that,but you can if you rent your books from Campus Book Rentals! (as long as the notes are relevant)

*They also have very flexible renting periods depending on when you go to college weather it's a semester, a Quarter or even the summer. 

*Something else that caught my eye about Campus Book Rentals is that they donate to Operation Smile, If your not familiar with operation smile they are medical professionals who provide safe, effective reconstructive surgery for children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate.They have given over 2 million patient evaluations and over 200,00  FREE surgeries for children and young adults.
If you've never checked out Operation Smile you should there are many great stories one there website!
If you'd like more info i'll leave you with this video:
How does it work?:


If you'd like to stay updated on Campus Book Rentals you can follow them on Twitter or Facebook!!



Sunday, April 29, 2012

Sloppy Joe Recipe

I don't make sloppy joes very often but when i do i always use this recipe. For me once i find something i like sometimes it hard to try new things (if you know what i mean.)


First i took ground beef and added some chopped onions and green pepper and let it cook till the meat wasn't pink anymore.

Then I added:
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1tsp yellow mustard
3/4cp ketchup
3 tsp brown sugar
and a little salt and pepper

Stir together and let it simmer 30 minutes


Enjoy.

It was delicious.


The End

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Paint Chip Calendar


Today's how to is a paint chip dry erase calendar, how amazing does it look? I know you want to make one! So here is how i made mine!

First i bought a 14"x18" frame

Poster board which i cut out a 14"x18" piece and double stick tape

Then i chose 12 of 3 different paint chip colors -believe me it was a very hard decision, there were so many colors to choose from!!

Next i cut out 35 squares 2"x2" out of my paint chips and figured out a design i liked, once i found one i liked best i started taping the squares on the piece of post board i cut placing them 1.25" from the edge of the posterboard. Can i just say I LOVE double sided tape it's the best!

With the extra paint chips i cut them 2"x 1/2"  i cut 7 one for each day of the week and taped those on. Once you finish taping everything put it back in the frame.

Then i made some spring flowers out of felt and fabric for the corner to dress it up a bit.

Ta-da!

Here you have it, i won't lie i was really happy with how it turned out and i love the colors reminds me of the beach.




You can go ahead and use your dry-erase board markers to write your month out!

Of course she had to get into the camera action going on! I'm just loving my new camera, still learning but loving it!

Now go have fun making your own paint chip calendar!

Have Fun!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Busy Box #1

Wow, I have to start off by saying Blogger has sure caught me off guard with this new setup! It's a totally new to me and I feel like I'm going to have to learn how to blog again on here! Wish they'd given me a warning!

Anyways...lately i have been seeing a lot of "busy boxes" or "busy bag" ideas for toddlers on the Internet, they basically are just quick games and/or activities small enough to keep in a bag or box (hence the name)  so i thought I'd make a few of my own for Hailey and here is what i did for the first one.

Water Bead Fun....and believe me it is fun!


I bought a few containers of water beads

Some small toys


A container 

And let the fun begin!

She loves it!

She could play with it for hours.

Water beads are really a hit in our house right now!

What are your busy box ideas?

Have Fun!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Tutu Skirt


A few weeks ago i made my daughter this tutu skirt,I'm not going to lie, when i finished it i didn't like the way it looked and i wasn't going to post it, but it's kind of grown on me, maybe it's just because little miss Hailey wears it all the time!  I know that you can make the easier version of a tulle tutu, by just using tulle and elastic, but i wanted to have a different look than that. So here is what i came up with!




Here's what i used: 
-Fabric
-Pink tulle
-elastic
-and ribbon


Who's excited for me to make this tutu skirt? HAILEY is!!!

I cut the size i wanted for the top portion which was 5"x18" then i made a casing for the elastic up at the top and then hemmed the bottom.

I cut the tulle 9" by the length of the fabric 

I then took one layer of the tulle and sewed some ribbon a 1/4" from the bottom


I then put all the tulle layers on top of each other and sewed a basting stitch all the way across the long end, and then gathered it to be the size of the top portion of the skirt.


Then i pinned the top portion over the top of the tulle and sewed it all the way across

Here you have it!

Next i threaded my elastic which was 19" long through the casing (the one i made earlier )using a safety pin,and then sewed down both edges of the elastic once I made it all the way through. Then I turned the skirt right sides together and finished sewing it together down the side.

And wa-la! there you have it! isn't it cute? is it growing on you yet?

She absolutely LOVES this tutu 'dress up' skirt she wears it EVERY day! might need to make a couple more!

Have Fun!

My entry into Craft and Tell @ Cherished Bliss is sponsored by Appliances Online and the Bosch Washing Machines




Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Rag Quilt

Wow, it has been awhile since i've blogged, March wasn't a very good month for me i only posted 1 time! Well here's to hoping that I'll get back into the swing of things and keep up with this blog a little better than before. Today i just wanted to share the quilt i just made for my daughter, I'm not very good when it comes to making quilts, i love to make puff quilts, but besides that i don't quilt. Until...i noticed my daughter dragging around her blanket (pretending it was a "princess" dress another post on that later) it was one of the first blankets i ever sewed and now it looked so small....so knew that i needed to make her a new one.



This is what i made, my first rag quilt.


Don't those colors make you happy? 

So i chose a few different fabrics, 3 were flannel and 3 soft textured fabrics. I cut out my fabric squares 7"x7"


Also don't forget batting - i cut those 6"x6"

This fabric i used for all the backs of the top squares - white with green and pink dots,these i also cut out 7"x7"

After i cut out all the squares i wanted i played around with what design i wanted, so many different ways to chose from.

Next i started sewing, i placed one square of the fabric i chose for the back right side down, then i placed a piece of batting on top of that and then one of my top squares on top of that. Then i just sewed an X across it, but leaving a 1/2" on each side of the square, so your basically just sewing down the batting.

Then i laid out my squares again

I then placed 2 of my squares right sides together and sewed straight down,using a 1/2" seam,when you open it, it will look like the picture below.

I had all the squares layed out and then would just take them by row and sew the squares together.

After i sewed the squares into rows, i sewed the rows together once again right sides together using a 1/2" seam. Once i sewed all the rows, i sewed a straight stitch all the way around using again a 1/2" seam. After doing that, i cut all the loose threads and clipped all the seams.......it took a looooooooooong time to clip those seams but it was so worth it!

Because here is what i got in the end! 

If you want to make it more fluffy you can wash it and that will do the trick!

She sure is one lucky little lady!


Have fun!