Giveaway winner...and bargains galore!

Thank you all for the great participation in the bear giveaway, and for all the kind words! There were 30 entrants, and once again I used random.org to generate a winning number.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

30

Timestamp: 2008-10-10 19:02:21 UTC

The winner is #30, Jennypenny--proving that being the last in line can be a good thing! Congrats, Jenny! Please e-mail me at cbethblog (at) gmail (dot) com so I can send you pictures of some fabric choices. I'll post a picture of the bear before I mail it off to our lucky winner. Keep watching for more giveaways in the future!

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Now, onto business...the serious business of bargain-hunting!

Yesterday I saw a JC Penney ad that screamed, "75 % OFF" and knew I had to check it out. They are cutting an extra 50% off all clearance items. My kind of discount.

First I went to JC Penney's website and clicked "Today's Store Ad" at the top of the page. The ads may vary from area to area; I had to enter my ZIP code to get ours. Hopefully you'll be able to get the same deals I got. There were printable coupons in the ad--$10 off a purchase of $50 or more, and $15 off a purchase of $75 or more.

We headed to the mall and went a little crazy. These were our finds:

For Chickie, I bought a shirt and a cute pair of Keds. The Keds were the only thing we bought that weren't deeply discounted...but they were on sale 25% off, and they pushed us above $75, which gave us the higher coupon discount.


For Zoodle, we had great luck in the clearance section. The three little rompers I bought him were our best deals of the day--$2.50 each (plus the extra coupon discount).


I had decent luck, adding to my wardrobe, too.


And even The Engineer came home from work with gifts awaiting him. Thankfully he liked both shirts and the Nike workout shorts.


If I'd paid full price for all of these, with no coupon, with tax, I would have paid $371.18. Or, to be more accurate, I wouldn't have bought any of it! After all the discounts and the coupon, my total was a whopping $85.37. That means I saved 77%.

Head to JC Penney--they're practically paying you to shop there this week. Be sure to check the website first to see if the coupons are available in your area.

Lastly, there are a couple of great photo printing deals going on this week. Through tomorrow, you can get up to 50 prints for 1 cent each at Snapfish by using the coupon code FALLPENNY08. You'll still have to pay shipping. (Edited Saturday--this sale has been extended through Tuesday.)

Or order prints at Walgreens' website, indicating you want to pick up the prints in-store if you want to avoid shipping. Through Sunday, coupon code FALL4ALL will get you the prints for 10 cents each on orders of 50 or more. I've done online ordering with in-store pickup at Walgreens, and the pictures are ready in a matter of hours.

Happy shopping!

Chickie's New House

Be sure to check out yesterday's post to enter for an awesome giveaway. And come back tomorrow (Friday, probably in the afternoon or evening) to find out if you won!

When Zoodle went in for his six month appointment last week, I found out he'd outgrown his infant seat. By an inch and a half. That's kind of a lot. So that day I ordered a new big boy carseat for him. (Psst--I got it on Amazon and got 10% off by using the code VISABABY and my Visa card. I think you may even be able to get the discount without using your Visa card. The code is good on all baby items sold BY AMAZON [not by third parties on Amazon.])

Well, Chickie was interested in this big ol' carseat box. She climbed onto a chair, then lowered herself into the box.

And then I had a flashback to a post by my friend Megan, talking about the little doorways her husband made out of a box.

I grabbed a box cutter and created a playhouse for Chickie.

It has a door that opens and closes...


...plus a window...


...plus another window, with shutters...


...plus a skylight with shutters.


Chickie loves her little house. At first she wanted me to get inside with her...


...but then she discovered how fun it is for her to get inside while I stand outside, knocking on the door. She opens the door and I pretend to be someone (the mail carrier, Grammy, Felicia the Night-Night Fairy, etc.)

We really need to get a new refrigerator so that we can make her a skyscraper next.

Giveaway time--homemade teddy bear!

Update: This contest is closed, but I hope to have another giveaway very soon--keep checking the blog!

This giveaway ROCKS...details at the end of the post.

At naptime and bedtime, I tell Chickie a story about a fictional orange bear named Flame. These days, she often tells at least half the story for me. It's a very special routine.

So today I found an easy pattern online for a homemade bean-filled teddy bear. I saved the pattern image on my computer then resized it so that the image was 15 inches tall, and the bear about 12 inches. (The original pattern was for a small bean-filled bear, like those annoying ones that were sold everywhere several years ago. I wanted hers to be bigger.) I printed the pattern, cut and pasted the pieces (since I had to print the enlarged pattern on multiple sheets of paper), dug out some orange fabric, and got to work.

I made sure to cut 1/4" or so outside the pattern lines, for a seam allowance (as indicated on the pattern):


After an afternoon of work, I had a finished product. Isn't little Flame adorable? And I like the whole beanbag feel of him.


He's even cuter sitting up, though.


And he was a hit with Chickie.


I had so much fun making Flame that I'd like to make another bear for a lucky blog reader. Here are the rules:

Here are the rules:
1. Post a comment below. You can say whatever you want; just comment.
2. Tell your friends about this giveaway. Post it on your blog, send out e-mails, rent a billboard, whatever. When your friends enter the contest, make sure they list your name in their comment. If your friend wins, you'll get a free bear, too.
3. Friday, I'll randomly choose one winner. I'll let you choose from available fabrics (i.e., ones I happen to already have lying around), or if you have a particular fabric in mind you can send it to me. You'll also get to choose whether you want the bear filled with beans, rice, or popping corn.

If you comment multiple times (because you just love commenting or because Blogger is messing up again), only your first comment will count as an entry.

Open only to those who have a U.S. shipping address.

Good luck!