Frugal Tips from My Home to Yours
Every fall my family gathers chestnuts from a nearby tree. Then, we pop them in the freezer to enjoy throughout the year. If you’ve never roasted chestnuts before, you have to give it a try. It’s easy and fun to do – and takes just a few minutes in the microwave.
Quick somebody make some biscuits. I currently have four jars of crabapple butter in my fridge, and I’m dying to crack one open. The smell. The taste. The color. It’s fall in a jar.
But don’t take my word for it. Make some, and see for yourself. Here’s my recipe. [Read more…]
When I started this website five years ago, it was just me, a desk, a computer and a 100-square-foot office. As things got busier, my husband quit his job to come work with me. So, we added another desk and another computer to that 100-square foot office.
Then, we added a lighting studio to our dining room, so I could take better photos.
Before long we decided to develop our own product line and set up a shop on our website. In came all of the tools and supplies to make those products.
Then, our first product went viral, and we had to temporarily hire 13 relatives full-time to help us keep up with the orders. For three weeks, that meant having an extra 13 bodies in our house.
Soon after, we decided to give craft shows a try and started selling our products in stores. That meant lining our dining room with shelves to hold all of our craft supplies and inventory. It didn’t take long for those supplies to creep into other parts of our house – the living room, the basement, the garage and even the upstairs hallway.
Then, this summer, we decided to hire our first intern. That meant lots of new videos for the website, but it also meant squeezing in another person and a bunch of camera equipment.
And then, we started doing workshops.
Yep, we’re insane.
But even we can see that we’ve long outgrown our little home office. And we’ve been working towards a solution.
This week we signed a contract on a little cottage, and we couldn’t be more excited. But we’re a couple thousand dollars short of our savings goal, so we decided to hold our biggest shop sale ever. So, if you haven’t checked our shop out in a while, or you’ve never checked it out, go take a peek. I just added several new products this evening.
Through Sunday, you’ll get 25% off your entire order (no exclusions) with promo code BIGDREAMS.
If we meet our goal, you can be sure I’ll add an office tour to our home tour 🙂
Making your own envelopes is really easy, and lots of fun. And when you make them yourself, you get to pick the paper and make them whatever size you want.
All of the envelopes that you see here were made from the pages of a little, free magazine that my insurance company puts out each quarter. Aren’t they pretty? Let me show you how they’re made. [Read more…]
Setting up at craft shows takes a fair amount of planning and prep, but it can be a good way to bring in some extra money, if you’re crafty. My family and I participate in several shows a year, and overtime we’ve perfected our pack list. [Read more…]