Ebates: a holiday shopping tip

Thanksgiving is less than a week away, which means the holiday season is upon us. If you’re like me, you’ve already begun thinking about Christmas shopping. If you’re like me, you’ve also done more of your shopping online in recent years. It’s pretty easy to find some good deals through the web, but a few years ago I came across a website called Ebates that has made online shopping even more profitable. I figure a fair number of you have heard of Ebates before, and I think there are a couple of other similar websites out there. However, since gift-giving season is upon us, I thought I’d pass along the info to anyone who isn’t familiar with it and also share some of my tips and tricks for making it even more profitable.

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Furlough Friday: Fun and Fulfilling

For my second Furlough Friday, I imagined making grand plans for a spectacular activity that would really amaze and impress you. However, I didn’t actually come up with anything like that. The best I could do was to string together some moderately interesting alliterative items that still made for a fruitful furlough.

• Fancy Flowers: technically I accomplished this yesterday, but I just considered it a prelude to my FF festivities. I’ve kind of wanted an orchid since we moved here; I have seen them every single time we’ve gone to Home Depot in Rockville, and I’ve been tempted numerous times. For some reason I decided today was the day for one. So Bart helped me pick out an appropriately fabulous one, and now it’s gracing our dining table. Now to figure out how to care for it…

• Furniture Finds: today I wanted to check out ReStore, the Habitat for Humanity thrift shop up in Gaithersburg. People donate lots of junk that gets resold, and the proceeds go toward Habitat. I just knew I was going to find an awesome piece of vintage furniture just waiting for me to upcycle it into some unique statement piece for my home. It didn’t quite work out that way, though a couple of items caught my eye. One was a salt and pepper shaker set of two silver birds, very quaint and vintage. The other was a mid-century cedar chest with an interesting wood grain. I passed on both today, but who knows…I may get a notion to go back tomorrow with Bart and see if they’re still around.

• Foaming Facewash: A boring, practical need, but I successfully accomplished it while packaging it with an overall fun trip to Target.

• Funky Flats: I also hit the shoe store with great expectations, as I saw a cute pair of kelly green flats that really caught my eye on an advertising email they sent out this week. I was just sure I needed them. However, they had neither that color or my size in the store. Alas.

Very green…..very not quite going to happen I guess.

• Feathered Friend: surprisingly, my most successful accomplishment today was just playing around with yarn scraps from my recently completed mitered square blanket. Armed with my new mad crocheting skills, I’ve been thinking of trying some of those cute little amigurumi animals. However, I look at the patterns and realize I don’t actually have crochet skills; I just know how to single crochet. While it is my modus operandi to dive in way over my head with a new crafting skill by taking on a project way beyond my faculties, I decided I should take a step back this time and ease in with a simpler yet still adorable project. So I made this little guy:

He actually turned out super well! I learned how to crochet in the round with the magic circle, and I learned to increase. Plus, small projects that you can finish in two hours are quite satisfying after spending multiple years working on that dang blanket.

So, my Furlough Friday wasn’t Fabulously Flabbergasting, but it was Fun and Fulfilling. While nobody enjoys being furloughed, taking the time to do some cool things makes up for it a bit.

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