YouData.com

I know times are tough for many people right now. I consider myself blessed that I have been able to maintain employment. DH has been teetering on the edge of employment and being laid off...pretty scary since even though I work full-time, my income is chump change.

I work hard on the side, and I'm working on getting some side jobs and I'm doing a lot of little things on the internet to get in some extra cash. Right now, every single penny counts.

So, this is why I must tell you about YouData.com. There are no referral bonuses, you simply get paid for checking out websites that the site directs you to. And, you get paid fairly well. I don't know very much about it, other than that they pay Friday afternoons to your PayPal account. Since I was home for part of this week, I decided to try my luck. I registered my cell phone number and my e-mail, completed the questionaire, and clicked away. And...

Business Contact Information
Amount received: $4.29 USD
Fee: $0.00 USD
Total: $4.29 USD
Date: Feb. 20, 2009
Time: 23:53:12 PST
Status: Completed
Subject:
YouData, Inc. has just sent you $4.29 USD with PayPal

I already got paid!

Check it out!

Wipies!

Wal-Mart is offering a free sample pack of Huggies Gentle Care wipies - go here.

$2.00 Gift Card to Subway (CA residents only!)

Well, obviously I'm putting my new friend to good use...Subway is giving away $2.00 gift cards! Go here and register! Hope you get one!

Got a New Laptop and Have Been Updating!

I just got my new laptop - I ordered it last week while it was on sale through Office Max. Since it was such a good deal, I had to get a rain check. It came in yesterday...so DH picked it up while I was having another procedure. I have it all loaded up now, still need to get a program for my iPod, but that can wait. Thought I would post pictures of some of the cards that I have been working on.

This one was done for Christmas with the hostess stamp set that I just had to have...Window Dressing.


This one was done for the New Year (duh...). The background stamp is from Stampendous! and the sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Holidays & Wishes...another set that I had to have.

Here are a few birthday cards that I've made for co-workers and friends. I need to get my stash back up, hopefully now that I have a camera and a laptop, I will be more willing to craft and share. I used a my Cuttlebog embossing folders, my Cricut, and my nestabilities.


This is a card I made for my mom's husband, my step-dad. I've had this stamp set from Stampendous for a few months, just never had the inspiration to use it until I found the Shadow Box Card Tutorial, which was a little confusing but a lot of fun. I laugh now that I look at the picture, can you see that I took this picture at work? My keyboard, headphones, and date stamp are hiding in the background! Well, at least I got to look at something fun that day!










Also, since my Stampin' Up group is ending this month and I am really working on my debt, I've kind of lost interest, maybe crafting steam. In an attempt to keep my creative juices flowing, my mom and I have been doing monthly challenges. Last month, I challenged her to the Origami Box from Splitcoaststampers - you can go here for the instructions. You can see my box in the two top pictures. Of course, after receiving my mom's box is the obvious winner...I love the way she puts things together. I think if I would have taken more time to really think about the task, I could have done better. And of course, she shared some goodies with me, some foil confetti and brads. This month, her challenge to me was cupcakes.

I think I'm going to go and try to find some supplies to use to make mine the winner, she already sent me hers, won't post until I get mine out to her.

I'm glad I'm back, hopefully all has been well with you, you are prospering with the use of your coupons, and are making progress in life, love, and your wallets.

InBox Dollars Pays!

So, it took almost two months to come in, but I finally got my check from Inbox Dollars for $27.07! I was so excited to see it come in because two months is almost long enough to forget about it! But, it finally came!

DH is still not so interested, he saw the check and said "oooh...$27.00...big spender!!" Yeah, you know what? $27.00 is a lot now that I know how to make my money work for me. It went straight into my checking which I went home and transferred to my current "snow ball" project...now I have just $799.11 remaining on this CC and it will be knocked out!!! So excited!

While I've Been Away

Don't think that my laptop and camera being stolen have kept me too down. It's just a lot harder to get online and post my thoughts...especially with DD's computer...which is TEN YEARS OLD. Can't even install my software for the El Cheapo Camera. Horrible. We will be submitting our "package" of boxes and books and receipts to the insurance this coming week and hopefully will get something back to buy our life back into normal. It's a little difficult to not go and grab a credit card and just go buy new stuff, especially with the prices of things plummeting all around us. But, I'm sticking to my "Dave Says..." phrases and am trying to save up enough cash for what is important. And yes, I'm trying to figure out how to designate which things that were stolen as important. We will just have to wait and see.

I was going to try to post some of the cards that I made but apparently DD's computer is not ready for that. SAD FACE!!! I will definitely have to get something fixed in the computer area...

One More Day until Vacation

So, it's Friday night and I'm typing this from DD's computer, which is about ten years old and SUPER SLOW. It seems to take forever for anything to appear on the monitor...what's the point of typing if the letters take about a second each to appear? But, the point is that I do have internet access, which, at this time, is a blessing.

I have decided to take next week off work. Quite excited. DH is taking the week off as well and it is the first vacation we have taken together in YEARS. Sad, but true. Not sure what we will be doing or where we are going since we are stuck due to weather to the south of us and to the north of us. But, we will be together. And that is what is most important.

This week at work I hosted a Cookie Exchange. Not too many people participated, but it still turned out. I copied all of the recipes and will be making little books for the participants. I think those of us who did participate enjoyed it. Hopefully next year we will have a bigger turn out.

This week was also the last week of official school until the new year. DS and I made goodie bags out the larger cellophane bags from Stampin' Up. Then we stamped some images and he punched them out with the 1 3/4 inch punch and the scallop circle punch. He loves the punches. DD and I worked off of an idea from Chic'N'Scratch and made Snowman Soup for her morning class and chocolate chip cookies. Of course, I stayed up until 11:30 doing all of this but it was well worth seeing all of the kids' eyes light up when they saw their goodies.

Will post pictures later...still trying to find all of the connectors to what remains of the belongings that didn't get stolen...which is still an ordea.

Robbery!

We've been robbed!

Perfect time of year, for the bad guys, too. Christmas, holidays...bringing in the new to get rid of the old.

They tore apart the house, clothes and food all over the place. They broke down the front door, they bent the Christmas tree and they ripped up the few gifts that were there.

They stole four game systems...2 laptops, my digital camera...my daughter's wallet, a collection of state quarters, some Susan B. Anthony's and the Sacajawea gold coins. Some stuff I use for my work, a purse, just about everything we use on a daily basis to either have a good time while stuck at home or to earn income.

Insurance deductible: $2,000.00. Cost of items stolen: I haven't even tallied everything because I'm still realizing stuff is missing. But apparently they deduct for what an item is worth at the current time. Can't wait to see how much they deduct...

Time to start new. Wish I had the opportunity to purge myself...at least get some form of compensation to start over in the positive. But starting over is starting over, and I've learned something new about how homeowners can protect themselves.

Clixsense

Happiness!! Today in the mailbox was my Clixsense paycheck!! Not a million dollars but $17.02! I'm happy. Of course, I'm adding it to my snowball (no worries there!) I'm hoping to pay off another new medical bill shortly.

Ah, just had to share!

The Beginning of My Christmas Crafts

I finally got my Stampin' Up products from my hostess night, plus some stuff I ordered from few other demonstrators of various craft products who have been super helpful and challenging. It's like Christmas, opening up the boxes and playing with all of my new items! I love it.

I've been gathering ideas from demonstrators across the country...carefully reading their blogs and watching all the tutorials that they post for inspiration and instruction. Let me tell you, I am in awe of some of these women. I only hope that I get to be as good as they are.

Here are some pictures of some of the crafts DD and I worked on this weekend. DS was way too busy to help...he recently discovered that his new teddy bear from Build-A-Bear has a hole in his back and he has been extra careful to "clean" and "re-bandage" his newest associate. Love it. I wish I could capture his sweet spirit in a bottle for when his Grumpiness errupts in tantrums.

These first two pictures are of a gift card holder I saw on Creations by AR. It came out super cute! Let me tell you, Adela is a GENIOUS! She is super talented and obviously very patient. I recommend checking out her blog at least once a week.

I used Pacific Point and Riding Hood Red CS, Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, my new Snowflakes embossing folder from Provo Craft, and I embossed the sentiment from Holidays & Wishes. The bottom is stamped with snowflakes from Punch Pals.

This is a bag I cased from my demonstrator, Tina. We did this project last month with the Pampered Stampers and DD fell in love with it. I used Bashful Blue cardstock and had DD punch out the scalloped circle and she did the scalloped border on the bottom. She then picked out the stamp (the deer from the Deer Friends set) and used Chocolate Chip and Real Red. We then took some printer paper, ran it through the shredder, then ran it through the crimper and stuffed it into the bottom. We are waiting to fill up this little bag with goodies.

This is a second gift card holder...I just kind of winged it. The sentiment is from Big On Christmas and I watercolored it with Bashful Blue and embossed the snowman's hat in black. I used Pacific Point and Riding Hood Red and White grosgrain ribbon. The sentiment I had done last night. I had wanted to use it for the first card but once I put it all together, I realized that the sentiment covered up the majority of the cover on the holder and it wouldn't work quite as well as I hoped. So I made a library card pocket quickly, punched holes on the right for the ribbon, took another scrap of Riding Hood Red and used the Slit punch to hold the card in place. I then punched a hole at the right of this card, ran the ribbon through and tied it in a bow. When the recipient unties the ribbon and pulls it, they will also pull out the gift card.

As I was typing this, I realized I could quickly make this card that much better. I used my Crop-a-Dile and put silver eyelets in place of just the punched holes for the ribbon to slide through.

It does look a little bit more polished this way.

I hope you enjoy checking these few things out as much as DD and I did making them.