A warning to all

I was scammed.  I'm pretty annoyed about it. 
In April I bought a book for a book club from DiscountBookSale.com (it was Shannon Hales "Book of a Thousand Days," which is wonderful).  It was an awesome deal.  I even got "Goose Girl" as a bonus for like 50 cents.  Having found similarly awesome deals on Amazon, I was not suspicious.
Now, 6 months later, in reviewing my list of debit charges, I notice one from Discount Book Sale.  Mike was there, so I asked him if he ordered something.  Nope.  So I look them up online and find that by buying my books at "member price" in April, I was automatically signing up for a 20$/month membership.   
To be fair, I should have noticed these charges earlier.  I assumed Mike was buying stuff online- I didn't notice that the charges were for the same amount, at the same time each month.  That's totally my bad. 
I've called, and they gave me a refund for the last 3 months, which is more than I was expecting, given what I'd read online.  I hung up with them and called Visa to see if they could get the first 3 months back.  Turns out, Visa can only dispute charges up to 3 months old.  So was it coincidence that that's how much I was refunded by the scammers?  I submit that it was not.  I read some more online- people always got the same amount refunded as they would have been able to recover through their credit card companies. 


The real message here: Don't be as inattentive as me.  And don't buy from Discount Book Sale.  I'm definitely sticking to Amazon from now on.  They've never even scammed me a little bit.  The message for me: pay attention!


(On the lighter side: my little paperback books I got from there, which I totally thought were some awesome deals, are now, taking into account my "membership fees" about 30$ a piece.  That's after I get my refund, which you can be sure I'm watching for.)

So she can have her own wallet to empty

My little stink bug loves to empty out my wallet.  And it's saved me a couple of times, for sure.  But recently, I've decided that it's high time she got her own wallet.  Especially since I gave her all my old student cards, expired bus passes, and empty gift cards.  Really, I decided to make her a wallet because I just want somewhere to put away the cards when she's done with them.  So, to start:

One of those fat quarters I bought with no purpose and some felt scraps.

Here it is all laid out.  I didn't take exact measurements because I had some cards on hand and was just comparing sizes as I went along.  The felt is about 8.5" by 4.5" and the lining bit is probably about 1.25" smaller in both dimensions.  The other pieces I just cut to fit.  I don't have any pictures of the sewing process because it was after Mim's bedtime and dark and I just didn't want to take any crappy ones.
The little card holder pieces are the same size and I sewed them along 3 sides to the lining bit first.  Then I attached little closer strap and the velcro square (I realize that's not super close- you'll see in the finished picture).  Then I did a really close zig zag all around the edge of the lining piece to attach it to the felt backing.  Then I sewed clear vinyl to the driver's license pocket and then attached that to the felt backing.  And that was it.

{Here it is, mostly empty}

{In action}

{All the cards, neatly removed}

It's simple and she loves it.  And so I love it. 

Even cheaper than the dollar store

We all know that the only thing cheaper than the dollar store is free.  I've seen a bunch of crafts out there using dollar store leaves on garlands and wreaths, which is cool- I mean, they'll last forever.  But the thing is, I can get real leaves for free, just by going for a walk around the neighborhood.  I took some of the leaves I used in this post and stuck them to a grapevine wreath.  Like so:

It's not a new idea, by any means, but it's still lovely. 
It's kind of turning out that my "thing" on this blog is to use natural materials.  I was thinking about this post and this post and this post.  Maybe it's just a fall thing.  Or maybe my decorating style is "make it look like outside if you can."  I don't think that's a thing.  Whatever.  I guess I just love leaves.  Especially free ones.

I could make pillows all day

As long as they all had envelope backs.

Also, I tried some embroidery (see above).  It was really fun, actually.  I think there will be more of it in my future.  I don't know technical terms or anything, but I think I used a backstitch.  I think.
Here it is with its other fall buddy:

I love pillows.  Maybe I'll get winter/Christmas ones done before the season is actually upon us, now that I know how awesome it is.

Scrap busting like a scrap buster

When I saw this at Cluck Cluck Sew, I knew I had to make one.  I pretty much did the exact same thing she did, but my pillow cover was a bit bigger, about 24" by 20".  I wanted to replace my embroidered IKEA (which I love love love but they're very springy/summery) covers with something more seasonal.

{Oooo, I do love them.}

 Here's my version of Cluck Cluck Sew's lovely pillow:

 My scrap drawer is not as diverse as hers (or as pretty- so many gorgeous fall fabrics), so not every leaf is unique.  I tried to make up for it by having lots of textures: quilting cottons (of course), knits, ribbed knits, corduroy, and felt. 

I love it.  Now I need to make another fall-ish cover to replace my other IKEA one.  I was thinking a big acorn, maybe.  The original plan was to make another of these beauties, but now that one's done, I kind of think it might be too much.