After Holiday Clearance (12 Months of Christmas Post)

I hope you all enjoyed your Valentine's Day! Tim and I don't celebrate it, but I *do* celebrate the clearance afterwards.

It's amazing how many Holiday Clearance Sales will help you take care of your Christmas needs.  Obviously after-Christmas sales are a great time to stock up on wrapping paper, bags, bows, ribbon, etc- you can even get a few gifts for next year. 

Enter Valentine's Day:  The main colors are red, pink and white.  Amazing, because red and white are great Christmas colors.  Baskets, candles, clearance yarn- if you've got your lists of what you want to give or make for Christmas this year, now is the time to start checking out clearance to see what you can score for cheap to help you!

Saint Patrick's Day: Oh, here is another great color for Christmas- GREEN!  Check out Craft Stores for the best selection of clearance.

Easter: A great time to pick up cheap baskets or maybe some of that Easter Grass to fluff up your basket a bit.  A bunny lover in your house? Check out home decor and jewelry too!   Easter Eggs can be used as molds to make your own bath bombs.

4th of July: Red, White and Blue!  Stars and stripes are everywhere, this could be a great time to score rustic home decorations, or items for gift baskets- think Picnic, napkins to round out food baskets, etc.

Halloween: This one could be a little trickier, but maybe someone in your household loves black or orange.  If you can find candy clearanced that isn't Halloween packaged, it will keep well until Christmas.

Thanksgiving: Perfect for last minute baskets, candles, etc.

And now it's Christmas! We can start full circle again :).

So don't forget to check out those clearance sales through out the year!  Especially keep your eye out for baskets, yarn (if you knit or crochet) and candles through each of the holidays.

-Kristen

Catch up on all the 12 Months of Christmas posts here.

Free Redbox Rental

I don't do Valentine's Day- but I do "do" free! 

If you're looking for a movie rental tonight, use the code "SWEET" any any redbox kiosk or "HEART" online or at a kiosk to get a free rental- valid today only!

-Kristen

Seed Starter Chart- by Temperature

A helpful chart for all of those hoping to get a jump on starting our seeds this year!  It came from the folks over at rootsnursery.com

-Kristen

Subway Footlong Frenzy Game

Subway has a "Footlong Frenzy" instant win game going on! 

"Each time you enter a code found on specially marked 30oz SUBWAY^® promotional cups and DORITOS^® Nacho Cheese and COOL RANCH^® Flavor tortilla chip bags, you'll earn another chance to win the sweepstakes grand prize – free Footlongs™ for life!"

You could win:

• 40 MyCokeRewards Points – 2,000,000 winners
• $2 Subway Card – 12,000 winners
• Free Footlong (awarded as an $8 Subway Card) – 4,000 winners
• $200 Southwest Airlines Gift Card – 250 winners
• Free Footlongs for a year (awarded as $260 in Subway Cards) – 93 winners
• Round-trip Airfare voucher for Southwest Airlines – 60 winners
• $1,000 Visa Prepaid Card – 28 winners
• Free airfare on Southwest Airlines for a year for you and a friend – 5 winners
• 2013 Jeep Compass – 2 winners

The good news is there are some free codes you can try!  You can enter 3 per day- so it's worth giving it a shot.  I won 40 MyCokeRewards points on my very first try (and if you don't want those MCR points, I'll happily take them!)

SOUTHWEST
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Good luck!

-Kristen

Lil B'ness on the Side

We came home from Israel and had sixty eggs waiting on us. 

Yeah- that's right.   Sixty.  6-0.

Needless to say, that's way more than our little two person household can handle. 

I've decided to offer some of our eggs for sale-  after all, our eggs are extremely fresh, our hens get out on the grass daily and are kept outside in the fresh air, unlike commercial egg factories.

I'm excited to say I already have orders totaling 5 dozen eggs.  While I'm only selling each dozen for $1.00, $5 will help pay for their feed and is more than I'd get if the eggs go bad because I can't use them quickly enough.

In the future I may bump up my egg prices, but this isn't something I'm considering turning in to a big business- I'm just happy the eggs won't go to waste and the chickens can help support themselves.

-Kristen

Eggshell Uses

There are tons of eggshell uses out there. 

Crushed eggshells can be sprinkled around your garden to keep certain pests (especially soft-bodied pests like slugs) out.  Or, you can mix the crushed shells with your soil or compost and add nutrients back to the soil.  The extra calcium in the soil can help prevent blossom rot in your tomatoes!

Do you keep chickens yourself?  Crushing up the eggshells and feeding them back to the chickens helps keep their calcium levels up- which means they aren't depleting themselves making eggs day after day.  You can also head off potential health hazards like soft shelled eggs that might get stuck inside the hens.

Some folks add crushed eggshells (not powdered) to their coffee before they brew it, to help remove bitterness.

My dogs love to eat eggshells and it gives them a calcium boost.  You can also grind them fine with a mortar and pestle and put the powder over your pet's food, or do as I do- just give them hard boiled eggs, slightly cracked, with the shell still on!

-Kristen

Double Hangers

Wish you had more closet space?  How is this for a cheap solution?  Make double hangers with just the tab off a soft drink can!

-Kristen