Some things I tried....

I try things I see on the internet that are great failures and things that actually work. Here are a few of my success stories. 

I have always heard you can clean a microwave easy with lemon juice. Well, I had a spaghetti re-heat explosion. I didn't realize how bad it was because I was heading out somewhere and forgot to clean up the mess in there first. So a few days later, I realized it was all over the ceiling of the microwave. I looked up the instructions to give it a try and OH MY GOODNESS it was the easiest clean up ever and my microwave looks brand new inside. Here are the instructions from Life Hacker.

Another thing I've heard I use all the time now. It is the original blue Dawn detergent for just about anything you can imagine. I use it constantly for hard to remove stains. I have found the best way to remove most hard to remove stains (chocolate, blood, grease, etc.) from clothing is to spray with Peroxide, then squeeze in some blue Dawn and I add some spray for the Dollar Tree called Totally Awesome Stain Remover. I rub it in gently to the stain and 99% of the time it comes right out. When Allen fell and hit his ribs on the tub, the wound bled for over a week at night. This concoction got all the stain out of my tan sheets. I swear by it. 

Have you ever went to write on a dry erase board only to realize you used a Sharpie? Have you ever left something written on one so long that when you wiped it off you could still faintly read the words. Well, never fear Germ X is here. That's right, regular Germ X (or most hand sanitizers) can remove Sharpie marks or long standing marks off a dry erase board and make it like new.

Do you know what the best thing to use for immediate spills on most furniture is? Baby wipes. Yes, that's right. They are soft and gentle yet the formula in there will even remove stains on some furniture. I do advise you to test in a hidden spot first though. Some micro suedes it almost bleaches the spot, but it has worked perfectly on my couch.

And what about when you buy that beautiful new glass vase or dish and there is that horrible sticky residue after you remove the price sticker. Simply use a nail polish remover pad. Press it against the residue for a few seconds then simply rub back and forth gently till it is all gone. Wash thoroughly and rinse clean.

Well there are some of my favorite things I have tried that I can vouch will work.

Way to go Kelsey Cate!

I've shared with you many times about a young girl, Kelsey Cate, that I go to church with who is working on a musical career.

I've watched her grow up in church. Watched as she developed that beautiful voice to singing for the Lord. I watched her dedication to work hard and strive to reach her dreams, always giving God the glory. 

She is in her first year of college and has her first album being released soon. This weekend, my granddaughters, my daughter and I get to attend the launch party for her album and I can't wait. 

All of this has been exciting to watch as she has been reaching for the sky and climbing mountains to achieve her goal. 

But nothing has been as exciting as tuning into a local radio station yesterday and hearing her song, Destination, on the radio. 

And she still finds time on her weekends home from school to sing in our church choir and do an occasional solo. She is very focused and centered. And if you talk to her for long, you will find that she always gives God the glory for her blessings.

Does it sound like I'm bragging? Heck, yes I am!  Super, super proud of my young friend. Don't hesitate to call your local country station and ask them to play her single.

A Pinterest idea refined to my tastes...

I love getting ideas on Pinterest and turning it into something that fits my taste and style. I saw this and like it, but I really thought it needed a more country look. But I did like the premise.

My first thought was that I could do something with the salt and pepper shakers my daughter got me for Christmas. 

So over the past two weeks I started gathering things. I liked the idea of flowers, but I really didn't want solid pink since my kitchen is multi-colored. I found these for 1/2 off at Hobby Lobby so I got them for $4.98 for the bunch.

I have a vintage McCoy pitcher from the 1960's. My cousin Patty and I had bought it for our Mamaw. When she passed away, Patty made sure it got to me. So I try to use it in my kitchen with flowers whenever I can. 

I thought the flowers looked pretty good in the pitcher. 

On a recent trip to Hobby Lobby, I found this tray in some of their new spring products. It was 50% off so I got it for $9.99. Love how it looks weathered and old.

I did like the red and cream dishcloth idea in the Pinterest pic. I found this for $2.99 at Hobby Lobby as well.

Picked up some romantic looking material. 

Cut it into a heart shape and used hot glue to create a little pillow with some fiber fill inside. I hot glued a little button for an extra touch. 

I love the nesting chicken salt dips and had one with a little blue color splattered in it. I thought that would add a little contrast of color as well. 

 So I put together my arrangement based on the Pinterest idea and I must say for my taste, this is absolutely perfect. I keep going in the kitchen just to look at it. I am going for this country farmhouse theme and I think this fits right in.

What do you think?

Sunday Songs

 And this one will make you smile. Vestal Goodman and Johnny Cook do an old fashioned face-off on these high notes. I read somewhere that when somebody asked Johnny Cook how he learned to sing so high he replied "When I was young, my grandmother would make me practice singing by laying in the kitchen floor with a 5 pound bag of flour on my chest." 

Snow day...

I love a snow day when it is a Saturday and I'm not expected to be anywhere and I'm having to work from home for my job. Behind the Bradford pears in my yard is actually a well traveled back road in my town. As you can see, nobody has been on it yet and it is 9:00. The snow is still coming down steady.

 I was able to make it to the store last night before this all started. So I have the oven heating to make a white cake with homemade chocolate frosting. I also stopped by my mail box. I got not 1, not 2, but THREE boxes from my recent Pyrex trade frenzy. I don't know what the coffee cups are or if they are vintage. The lady thinks they are Hazel Atlas but I'm not so sure. But I didn't care. I just liked them because of the red checks.

I had a little yellow bowl with fake eggs in it. I don't know if there is a set of all yellows in Pyrex or not, but I put my two yellows together and am very happy with the display.

I have this set of Colonial Mist mixing bowls (Colonial Mist and Town and Country are my two favorite patterns). Most of the mixing bowls sets come with 4 bowls (I only have 3 so far). They alternate, color with white and white with color. However, the Colonial Mist pattern is one of the very few if not the only one who actually had TWO sets. This mixture set and one where all four bowls were the blue with the white flowers. I have been looking for over four years for that middle blue bowl because I just fell in love with that set when I discovered it existed.

I was thrilled to get this trade. Isn't this gorgeous! Now to just find the big 404 size in this blue with white and the set will be complete.

I have my kitchen table covered this morning with my notebooks, calendars, catalogs and planners for my Thirty-One business. Spring catalog kicks off on the 1st of February and I want this to be my best season ever. I got my Add on Kit Thursday to jump start February. I am in love with the new bold spring & summer colors. Can't wait to get the season rolling.

Well, if you got snow today wherever you are, stay in...stay safe...and stay warm. 

Friday Foto Friends

I'm hooking up today with Breathing in Grace for some Friday Foto Friends. 

You all know my love of Pyrex. One of the oldest and favorite sets I own is the Primary Colors. They are old with scratches and fading and have lost some of their shine. But I didn't collect them because of the beauty, I collected this set because of the memories. 

Growing up, Mom purchased this set when it came out in the 50's. There are so many memories attached to each one. My sister has the same set and she too remembers each ones use. Now I am sure Mom used them all the time and that she used them for more things that what we remember. But our fondest is memory of the big yellow bowl was the fact that she used this every time she made homemade peanut butter cookies. She would mix the dough and let it refrigerate for 3 hours. Then we would help roll it into balls and squish it down with forks. When I married Allen, he came with a yellow Pyrex bowl and that is the one I still have. We had it for 30 years before I even started collecting Pyrex. And yes, many times it has been used for Mom's peanut butter cookie recipe.

The next one was the green bowl. It is funny, but neither of us can really remember much about the green bowl other than she would serve food in it on the table for Sunday dinners. Probably mashed potatoes or corn or green beans. I had a hard time finding this piece when I started collecting and it was the last one to my set. I was so excited that I don't remember where it came from. Of the remaining pieces of my set, my niece Amy found one for me. A friend from West Virginia found one for me. And I found the other one at an antique store for $8.00. I think I found the green, Amy the red and my friend the blue. But I'm not sure. The important thing is that I cherish each one because of the memories of my childhood.

Mom's red bowl was my favorite. It's primary function was a very important part of my life....to make chocolate icing for cakes. I still use my red one for that to this day. And it is Mom's recipe, which belonged to my grandmother. So there are a lot of memories tied up in the old red bowl. The best part was getting to lick the beaters and the bowl when the icing was finished. I have to admit that I still lick the beaters and bowls. Somethings are hard to outgrow. This one gets a lot of use and you can tell by the loss of color that the previous owner used it a lot as well.

And the last one brings back memories of Daddy as well as Mommy. This was the cornbread bowl. My daddy loved his cornbread. He loved to break it up in buttermilk for a nighttime snack...which to me was totally gross. I don't eat cornbread OR buttermilk. But Mom always used this blue bowl to make him homemade cornbread and she always made it in her medium size iron skillet.

So even though my set is not pristine or in mint condition, I think you will understand why it is among one of the favorites I own. 

Ms. Debbie at Breathing in Grace actually shared a set of these with me on Facebook last night and that is what inspired me to show my beauties off on Friday Foto Friends. Jump over to Breathing in Grace and share some of your photos today. 

A quick little craft project....

We were snowed in in my county yesterday. I was able to work from home, but once quitting time hit I needed a computer break. So I decided to experiment with a craft that was simple and easy. I went through the closet and found an old dusty picture frame. Gathered some various sheets of scrapbook paper, a knife to open up the brads on the frame and some scissors to trim the paper.

I didn't really have any sheets I liked for my particular purpose so I experimented. You simply put your paper in your frame and have an instant, pretty dry erase board. I had some knotty pine which would look good in a log home.

 I decided to use a sheet of Christmas paper to see how it would do. Then I realized I had grabbed a Sharpie instead of a dry-erase.

But I remembered an old trick. If you use Sharpie on dry-erase boards this works so I figured it should work on glass. Simply squirt on some Germ X and wipe it off. Comes clean and you can still use your dry erase on the board or in this case, glass.

This would be cute paper for a kid's room that you could write their chores on for the day. Excuse the pink heart, apparently I need to go buy new dry erase markers. Only had two and one was almost dried out.

Cute teacher's gift with this chalkboard like scrapbook paper.

These little hearts were cute for Valentine's day decor. You could even change your board out every season with different scrapbook backgrounds. They say you can use fabric as well, but I didn't have anything good for this project so I stuck with scrapbook.

I finally ended up leaving this sheet in to put my Thirty-One parties on in my home office. Still not what I wanted but short of going out to the craft store, this was the best I could do. I want to do one for my kitchen that I can write my grocery list on when I think of something I need. 

And yes, I just noticed my frame is coming lose on the corner. I will have to glue that. As soon as I can get out, I am heading to Hobby Lobby for more scrapbook paper and Dollar Tree to check out a better frame. I want to find one with a wider frame so I can add some buttons or bows to glitz it up some. Hope you have a great day. Stay safe and warm if you got any of the snow.