Economic Stimulus Package

Tracey stopped by my little Blogland "home" to visit and expressed a bit of concern that perhaps I was no longer doing my part to stimulate the economy, thereby causing the world-wide financial crisis. Never fear, Tracey! I've been soldiering on! And since it's apparently the patriotic thing to do (rather than something you smuggle into the house in the dark of night so the Hubby doesn't find out!), I'll share my latest shopping purchases with all of you and consider it a badge of honor to do so!

I'd been trying to rein in my spending habits a bit, but then those darn chickens came along! Well, of course, the chickens were so much fun, I needed--NEEDED!!!--a couple more Buggy Barn books. Completely understandable, right?

And then, also quite understandably, I needed (yes, "needed!") backing fabric for the chickens. This was before I decided to hold off on quilting them until after the holidays. So I popped on over to Thousands of Bolts . . . Only One Nut and browsed his black and white selections. The fabric on the left is chicken backing. The fabric on the right is just because a girl needs polka dots . . .

. . . and the fabric above is because it's cute Halloween fabric, it's inexpensive, and darn it, I'm worth it! Which reminds me--

Have you heard of 401(F) plans? This is something new I just recently learned about from my friend Cynthia. They're a little like 401(K) plans where you put money away for retirement, but with a 401(F), you put FABRIC ("F") away for retirement! So, as my 401(K) is dwindling, at least my 401(F) is healthy!

Anyway, back to helping the economy. Then I got an email from Connecting Threads telling me all their books are 40% off. Can I resist that? At least I should look, right?! Well, I couldn't resist buying either. (Sigh!)

The book My Autumn has a couple patterns in it that I was looking at when I was at Cabin Fever with Hubby while on vacation, and the Dressed to Chill--well, it has some cute snowmen. Cute books, both of them!

And do you know that shipping's free at Connecting Threads if your order is $50 or more? So, in order to save money, I also got this:

What a smart shopper I am! It's almost like they're paying ME! Well, almost. Except different. But I needed thread. Maybe just not quite that much.

And then remember those chickens again and how much fun I had making them? I wanted to check the Pieces From My Heart website because I have a couple patterns that use their technique that's similar to Buggy Barn's. And while I was there, I found these: Peppermints, hats, and pumpkins.

And the patterns I already had? Here are three I'd like to make--soon! And these I didn't buy (recently)--they were already in my 401(P) ("P" for Pattern) fund:

I guess I'd better check my stash to see if I have the fabric I'll need. Because if I don't, I'll need to do a little shopping. But, you know--it's the patriotic thing to do! Besides, it's not my fault. I'm telling you, it's those darn CHICKENS!