Freebie Roundup

Anything is better when it's free, right?  I have become obsessed with scouring all the freebie blogs to find the worthwhile ones, and here is my roundup of the best of the week.

Free SoyJoy Bar from Walmart: ok... these kind of taste like cardboard dipped in banana baby food, but, maybe it will work as a quick snack I can keep in my purse for extremely long waiting room visits or something.

Free Crest Pro-Health Mouthwash, Toothpaste and Dental Floss from Walmart: The offer says "Free Sample Coupon", so I have no idea what size sample you can expect from this, but small oral hygiene products are great to pack away for travel!

Universal Screen Cleaner and Cloth from the Smart White Cleaning Company: As I am looking at my soiled, formerly white, MacBook, I can't help but realize how badly I need this one.

Guest Hand Towel from I M International: A free towel?  Seriously?

Handmade Peach Soap from M Coiffure Salon: I can't wait to get this one.  I'll put it in my guest bathroom right next to the free towel!

NeilMed NasaFlow Neti Pot: If you haven't used a Neti Pot before, it is God's answer to a sinus infection.  Awkward and uncomfortable, but oh so effective.

Tidy Tots Disposable Potty Chair Liner: Please tell me why someone hasn't thought of this long before now?  Brilliant!

$10 Buca di Peppo Gift Certificate: Requires joining the fan club



And my all time favorite freebies, the newspaper and magazine subscriptions that are 100% free!  The Rewards Gold offers are all totally legit.  If there is a survey involved, the key is to copy and paste.  I once had to write an essay about bacon and eggs to get Martha Stewart Living Magazine, but it's totally worth it!  And, as always with freebies, be sure to use a secondary email address so you are not bombarded with spam.

Parents Magazine - 7 free issues

Ebony Magazine

Playboy - for the articles, right?

The Wall Street Journal

Forbes Magazine


If you find any good freebies, please leave them in the comments!

My favorite freebie sites:
Hey It's Free!
Free Samples Post
I Love Free Things

June Yarn Review

Ahhhh, Saturday... How nice to have a day off, right?  While I planned on spending today finishing my first knitting project, the Winter Flame Scarf, I ended up cleaning up a LOT of duck poop and trying to convince my 2 year old that standing up on the furniture is not the appropriate way to stop me from leaving a room.  A mother's work is never done!  And now, instead of finishing my scarf, I offer you my June Yarn Reviews.  All yarns this month are from Knit Picks.  This has quickly become one of my favorite places to buy yarns.  They offer lots of yummy luxury fibers for a very low cost.  They also have lots of free patterns on their site, so it's definitely worth checking out.  Now, on to the yarns!

Stroll Tonal Sock Yarn

This is actually what I am knitting the above mentioned Winter Flame Scarf out of.  I purchased this in Blue Violet.  I have to admit that I have somewhat of a love affair with sock weight yarn, because of the draping that you get, and how delicate the stitches look, and this one certainly didn't disappoint.  The color variation within the yarn is subtle enough that the lacy pattern I am using it with shows up nicely.  It's a combo of 75% superwash merino and 25% nylon, so there's some give to it.  It seems pretty forgiving and doesn't split easily, which is good because this project is my first foray outside of the world of crochet.  The feel of the yarn is super luxurious though.  Incredibly soft, and you would just want it right up against your skin for a cowl or shell.  The cost is great, too, at $9.99 for a 100 gram hank.  My plan is to stock up on this one to make matching gloves to go with my scarf.

Imagination Hand Painted Sock Yarn

Because I had such high hopes for this yarn, and because I didn't want to start a project with a hand painted yarn, only to find out my stash wasn't big enough, I purchased several skeins of this in both Pirate King and Mermaid Lagoon.  Obviously, the colors and their respective names evoke fantasy and fairy tales.  Although, the colors are saturated and beautiful, this yarn just didn't live up to my expectations.  It's 50% Merino, 25% Superfine Alpaca, and 25% Nylon.  It's nice and soft, but splits SO easily!  It sheds a lot of little fibers too, so now I've got a lot of beautifully colored yarn, with no real idea on what to use it for.  I might just end up making a little sweater for Jack... or the duck.  Either way, it will undoubtedly get covered in poo.  For $4.99 for a 50 gram hank, at least I didn't break the bank on it.  If anybody has ideas for what I should make with this yarn, leave them in the comments.  I'll pick the best and *attempt* to make it for next month's Yarn Review.

Happy crafting!

The Ant D-Day

The "D" stands for "Destruction!!" Sugar ants have invaded my home, specifically my kitchen. This is not an uncommon occurance in Indiana, especially after all of the flooding and rain that we've had lately. They seem to get flooded out of their homes, and float straight through my electrical outlets above my sink. They've also invaded the duck's cage, but she seems to take care of them pretty quickly! Luckily, we had a neighbor recommend Terro Ant Bait to us, as this has been an ongoing issue since we moved down here. For the longest time now, I've thought that these things had to be filled with the strongest brand of poison because of their efficacy at killing all the little nasty beasts, but, I had to do about 1.5 minutes worth of research to see that's not the case at all! I was paranoid of putting any poisonous substance out because of *insert one: dogs, cat, duck, toddler*, so I was THRILLED to see that it's primarily made out of Borax! Boy does it work too, I put out three traps, and 24 hours later, the ants were marching death 2 by 2 directly to their queen! This is where you'd hear my evil laugh if you were here....
So I wrote a quick line to Terro and told them how happy I was that they weren't poisoning my family, and they overnighted me a whole box of new ant traps! Now THAT'S customer service!