Time for a Face Lift
Please excuse the dust while I work on tidying up a bit. The shop will be back soon…I promise.
8/2/08 update – The shop should be working now. If you have any problems, please PLEASE let me know.
Saving Money is a Good Thing
This has nothing to do with jewelry, crafts, art, or anything like that, but I just wanted to share. I somehow surfed my way over to Money Saving Mom and started reading about CVS-ing. I read, and re-read, and kinda-sorta got an understanding of how it works. Last week was my first week trying it. I went and bought a bunch of stuff that I needed, or would use anyway. I saved approximately $15 by buying only stuff that was on sale. Not such a big deal, but I walked away with $20 in Extra Care Bucks (ECBs), which is a form of store credit that you can use on any item in the store.
This week, however was pretty exciting, and is the whole reason for my writing this. Here’s a list of what I got:
5 boxes of cereal (Cheerios, Honey-nut Cheerios, Fruity Cheerios, Total, Fiber One)
1 box of Nature Valley Granola Bars
2 bottles of Listerine Smartrinse (pretty nasty stuff, btw…I prolly won’t buy it again)
1 twinpack of Oral-B Crossaction toothbrushes
2 boxes of CVS bandages
and I donated $1 to ALS
That brings my total to $46.89
Since all these items were on some kind of sale, it took off $7.94 from the total.
I had a CVS coupon to save $3 on a purchase of $15
I also had on to save $4 on a purchase of $20
I had $4.65 in various manufacturers coupons (sorry, I don’t remember which ones!)
That brings my new total to $27.30
I used my $20 in ECBs from last week, so I only paid $7.30 out of pocket.
PLUS…I got back $27.95 in new ECBs. So, technically, I MADE $0.65 today. Not such a big deal, but how often do you get to make money when you go shopping…lol.
I am in no way affiliated with CVS, MoneySavingMom, Coupons.com, or any other related service/store/site/etc. I’m just really impressed with how quickly I was able to make this system work, with pretty minimal work on my part.
For more information, details, and weekly examples what to buy, head over to MoneySavingMom and start with “CVS 101″. Read it a couple of times. I needed to.
Somewhat random…
I stumbled across this video and it really made me laugh. I thought some others might find it amusing. I’d especially like to know what’s happening at 1:35 
Twitter Me
Just a wee little note tonight. You can now follow me on Twitter. Point yourself over to http://twitter.com/danclarkdesigns
The End of Semester Woes and Some Random Babbling
I hate the end of Spring semester. All my ambition to do well just vanishes with the first slightly warm day of the year. I have about 4 more weeks left of classes. In those 4 weeks I have a presentation on working with homeless adolescents, a paper on Mozart, and a paper on utilizing behavior modification techniques on clients with schizophrenia. It doesn’t help that the winter here in Maine has been so ridiculously long and nasty this year either. Now, we’ve had a string of days with temps above 40 degrees, and I just don’t want to do anything but lay outside. I went a little psycho on one of the last remaining piles of snow in my backyard, and now it’s gone. That’s a good thing.
I’m even finding it hard to focus on building up my inventory. I think I’m going to hire a web designer to help get my site looking a little better.
The show that I’ve previously mentioned is going to be at Artascope next month. It’s not so much a “show” in the regular sense. I’m going to be the featured member for that month, and get to have my work in the gallery. But I’m calling it a show anyway, cause it’s still rather exciting for me. And there’s an opening. If you happen to be in or around Portland Maine, the opening is Saturday, May 10, during the Second Saturday Art Stroll. Stop on by, I’d love to see you
Actually, I’ve also started stewarding at the studio as well, so if you’re ever in the area, stop on by. I’m there Saturdays from 2-7pm, and often on Sundays as well.